#Lance and Hunk are more than comedy relief
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tbh it makes no sense but i get lowkey anxious every time new info comes out about season 2 of Voltron and they talk about getting into character backstories because... On the one hand I really want to see Hunk and Lance’s background, but on the other I want them to leave it the fuck alone.
Not only because I’m personally so subscribed to my own headcanon versions of them that I write, but mostly because I’m so afraid they’ll be the only characters without Deep Backstories. Because, no, you absolutely don’t need some sort of angsty backstory to be a good, well-rounded character, but at this point they could be the outliers on that front and given the way canon treats them I’m worried.
Shiro’s got ptsd and has been through Hell and wants his memories back, Keith’s probably an alien (and at the very least definitely an orphan who’s only emotional tie is probably Shiro?), Pidge has lost her family and went through a nightmare to hide her identity to find info, and Coran and Allura are the last of their species.
All of them have clear and established reasons for being part of Voltron due to what they’ve been through in their pasts (Ok yeah Keith’s is a little murky but we’ve at least got some clue)-- And so far all we know about Lance and Hunk’s motivations are that they’re good, selfless people. Which is fine? But I’m going to be so offended if we get their backstories and it’s basically “Lance and Hunk have never had anything go wrong in their lives, ever, and are just here out of sheer dumb luck”, because it’s too much like the mindset that they’re just the comedy relief. It’s treating them as the dumb, nice, friendly characters who don’t matter in the long scheme of things because they don’t have some Deep Personal Reason for doing this. The problem wouldn’t be them being a part of Voltron because it’s the right thing to do, the problem is that they’d be the outliers.
So yes. Give me Lance and Hunk that want to help others because they’re selfless (because they are fuck you), but also give me Lance and Hunk that have come from something. Give me Lance and Hunk that had shitty childhoods and/or had to work their asses off to get into the Garrison. They don’t have to have ties to the Galra like the others for their motivations to be important. Do not treat them as comedy relief, do not treat them as Nice Guys there by luck to fill up the rest of the team and “learn about themselves!!”. Give me Lance and Hunk that have worked for what they have, know what they want, and choose to sacrifice that because they are needed.
Either that or just leave me to speculate. If Dreamworks won’t give me this version of Lance and Hunk I’ll fucking do it myself.
#Also yeah. This is why I started writing SLAOS#because i wanted a Lance and Hunk who had complex lives and motivations for doing what they do#like everyone else does#do not screw me over on this Dreamworks i swear i will hunt you down and jam my fanfics down the writer's throats#Lance and Hunk are more than comedy relief#they are more than Legs#they are People#...i need to calm down ugh#Voltron#the Clarkster speaks#SLAOS talk#vaguely
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Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt.76
Nursing his right arm, Lance was still slightly shocked he’d been shot by Krolia. He couldn’t say he didn’t have it coming, following her voice calling his name like he had, but Krolia... Jesus. What’d he got himself into. Keith was furious. Krolia seemed to take it all in good humour. Lance was trying his hardest to keep the peace between mother and son... but she just might be the weirdest person who’d come into his life lately.
Being strong for Keith, he’d pulled his shirt back on, letting Keith do the buttons for him because he knew how much his boyfriend was worrying. Maybe if he’d stopped to think, he would have realised it was all a prank... yet, when that gun had come out, all he’d thought about was Keith not getting shot on his watch. Following the sound of Coran’s voice, the whole group was waiting with him as he tried to calm down a raging Pidge who demanded to see him. Krolia was standing towards the back of the group looking rather amused. Wrapping his good arm around his gremlin, Pidge went straight for his nuts, before realising it was him and throwing herself into his hold
“You fucking scared me!”
Scared him? He was a hair away from being hit in the balls!
“I’m fine. A little bruise and good as new”
“You’re being a lying little shit, aren’t you?”
Lance kissed Pidge on the top of the head. She was just the right height for him to abuse his older brother rights
“Totally. Nah. I’m okay. Are you guys okay?”
“We were until Shiro started shaking and said you’d been shot! What the fuck man!”
Pidge pulled out of his grip, Lance yelping as she punched his bad arm. Staggering into Keith as he clutched his arm tighter, glasses falling off his face thanks to his lack of coordination, his foot landing on them where they were crunched as Keith cried
“Lance!”
Keith wrapped his arms around him as he caught him, hand firm against his now extra sore arm, Lance groaned
“Not that arm...”
Keith swearing
“Shit!”
They were ridiculous. They’d make an amazing comedy act. The vampire who kept getting himself hurt and his boyfriend who kept finding the spots by accident.
Coran patted his shoulder... his sore shoulder. Lance wondering if this was how he died?
“I think maybe we should all sit down for a pot of tea. Krolia, will you be joining us?”
God. Yes. Yes, Coran! You beautiful fae bastard! Anything so he wouldn’t get hit or nearly hit or hugged to hard again! Krolia’s reply held traces of a giggle at their antics. It wasn’t Lance’s fault he was clumsy. That’s what happened when you wore a prescription that wasn’t right for them suddenly got attacked by a wild gremlin
“I wouldn’t miss it for anything”
Coran fetched a tray of tea as the rest of them sat around a conference table that was thankfully not the one they’d be at when Kolivan visited. Krolia sat across from Keith, smile on her lips as Lance tried not to look at her. She was beautiful. Black hair streaked with purple. Features so much like Keith’s. Keith was a good foot taller than his mother, but Lance knew Krolia could easily whoop his boyfriend’s arse. Hunk looked nervous again. Pidge was sitting between him and Lance. And the silence was awkward as hell. He may as well have died in the alley for how awkward things were. What was a little shooting between friends? Mentally he’d placed a bet on Shiro talking first... He’d have won $10 if he’d taken his own bet... but he wasn’t exactly sure how to pay himself.
“Krolia. We had the suspicion you’d arrive soon. How are you finding Platt?”
Lance wasn’t moody... not jealous that Shiro was being the cool mature one
“Fine. It’s nice to see you, Curtis and Keith again. Let’s be honest here, I’m more pleased to find Keith safe and well, and even more interested on how he came to be dating a vampire”
Lance flushed, sliding down in his chair, aggravating his shoulder as he did
“Are you saying there’s something wrong with my brother?!”
Bless Pidge! Krolia had no idea how mad Pidge could get
“Not at all. He seems to be quite apt. Passed the boyfriend test with flying colours”
“Good, because he’s been through enough shit. It doesn’t matter if this is his first relationship. He’s about as good at it as Keith”
Aaaaaaand he was sliding further down in his chair.
Across the table Krolia laughed
“If he was as good as Keith, an inability to converse and they’d never have gotten past awkward friendship”
Now Lance was annoyed. Sitting up to fast, his poor arm was wracked with shooting pains
“Keith talks to me about all kinds of things. He’s a good man. He’s funny, and he’s weird, and his haircut is fresh out of the ‘80’s and I like that about him”
Krolia raised an eyebrow. She was wearing an expression he’d seen so many times on his boyfriend’s face
“Keith is like, he’s a good guy. He makes Lance happy, and we’re friends, right, man”
Hunk’s awkwardness made Lance’s heart swell. Not only was the big guy ignoring his nerves, but he saw Keith as Keith, despite having so much to wrap his head around.
Shiro laughed
“I’m afraid Keith’s gone and made some pretty good friends here, Krolia. He’s really come out of his shell since meeting Lance. It’s been good for him. And I’m pretty sure you’re going to be in trouble if you tease him”
Krolia shrugged
“I’m happy for him. I really am. As long as he’s continuing to be careful, we can cover the fact he’s fallen for a vampire”
Keith slammed his hands on the table. Lance wincing. His boyfriend was still an anger loaf at heart
“I don’t want to cover the fact I’m dating Lance. He’s... he’s my boyfriend and probably my best friend. You don’t get to act like a mother when it suits you. Seriously, why did you even come?”
“To see you. I know you may find it hard to believe it, but I do care for you”
“Right. Like you cared when you dropped off the face of the fucking planet and abandoned me after dad died!”
Sadness washed over Krolia’s face
“I didn’t know he’d died and by the time I did, it was safer for you to stay in the system”
Oh, Lord. Krolia was another Keith. Keith was so angry he was blurting out things he’d never usually say in front of Pidge and Hunk
“Yeah. Bounce your kid from house to house. You’re too late, Mum. I feel more for Miriam than I do for you”
That wasn’t true. That wasn’t true and Lance knew it. Part of Keith desperately wanted to reconnect with his mother. This was only serving to drive a wedge further between them
“Look, Keith. You know the life. I couldn’t raise you at the Blades. It wouldn’t have been safe for you there”
“So you wait until I’m nearly dead? Wait, no, it was Shiro who saved me. He’s my brother, and my family. Not you”
Lance groaned. Getting Keith and Krolia on the same page was going to be one hell of a fight
“I sent money to every single family you were at. I followed you until you decided you had to run away. I never stopped caring about you. Leaving you and your father broke my heart, but I couldn’t bring a war down on both of you”
See! Lance was right. Krolia did love Keith in her own way. She just really sucked at telling him and Keith wasn’t... Keith didn’t know how to hear her or see past the pain
“That wasn’t your call to make”
Awkward silence descended again. Lance kind of wished Pidge and Hunk weren’t there... nor Shiro and Curtis. If he could just get them talking then... it’d be a start. Keith said a lot in what he didn’t say, and right now he was screaming for someone to reach out and reassure him... but despite everything he was feeling, Lance knew that Krolia was the one he needed. Moving his sore arm, he rested his hand on Keith’s thigh to silently remind him he was there for him.
They all breathed a sigh of relief when Coran came in with a tray of tea. Setting each up in front of them, Keith glared at the liquid as if it’d offended him, Coran either oblivious or ignoring the atmosphere
“Lactose free for number two... Now let’s all sit enjoy a nice cup of tea as we talk. Krolia, perhaps you can tell us more about your companions? Don’t worry, Pidge and Hunk here both signed a non-disclosure, they’re practically family”
Pidge and Hunk now had an uncle to add to their weird little family. Coran knew all about them, and had always enjoyed hearing about them
“Perhaps we should save that for a more formal briefing. I am interested in my son’s progress here”
Coran’s voice filled with pride
“He’s excellent. Very diligent and task orientated. His skills may be wasted in a small city like Platt, but we are certainly happy to have him, and Shiro, naturally”
“I’m glad to hear that. Originally we sent him here to be safe, with a nice easy target. I wasn’t able to meet with him before he left. We didn’t expect the escalation of things quite so quickly, but being here means I’ll be able to spend more time with him, and Lance”
Keith snorted, Krolia picking up her cup of tea, looking over the rim
“Something funny?”
“This act you’re putting on for everyone. I’ve finally found a place I’m happy, and you walk in like you’re just going to be part of my life”
“Keith, you know...”
“No, mum. I don’t know. You’ve made it clear I’m a disappointment of a hunter... Sitting over there, laughing at the fact I couldn’t kill one vampire...”
Keith went to move Lance’s hand off his thigh, forgetting to be careful as he did. Hissing, Lance moved to move his right arm with his left, Keith’s whole face falling as he’d realised he’d hurt him
“I can’t do this”
Keith went to push back his chair, Lance on his feet before he could, clutching his arm against as him as he spoke
“Wait! Okay. Time out. Keith, I don’t know Krolia, but I can tell she does care. She just doesn’t know how to talk to you properly. Krolia, you keep antagonising him. Things like wanting to know how Keith is, is different from prying into his skills, or his work here. Keith, she’s your mum. I’ve barely met her and I can see so much of you in her. I know it’s hard to talk about what you need to with all of us here, but neither of you hate each other. There’s no need to set each other off because you can’t quite figure out how to start a conversation. Keith is mad at you, Krolia. You shouldn’t have pulled a prank like you did today, expecting he’d understand why or be okay with it. Babe, your mum’s a Blade member and as far as I can tell, they’re all a bit weird. I’m not exactly happy over what happened, but it did, and we don’t have a magical time machine to undo it. Before you ask, Pidge, time travel isn’t a real thing, I’m sorry to break your heart like that. Krolia, I’m serious about Keith. I care a lot about him, and deciding to date wasn’t easy for either of us. I’m the enemy. You guys are supposed to kill people like me and move on without a second thought. Now, my arm really fucking hurts and my ego is probably showing because I’m a bit too protective of Keith, but enough’s enough....”
Lance flushed as he realised he’d kind of let lose on both Krolia and Keith and probably embarrassed his boyfriend as well as hurt his feelings by acting like Keith couldn’t talk for himsel. Feeling like he had to explain even more and knowing he really needed to shut up, he finished rather lamely
“Ummm. Well, yeah. Basically, stop being mad at each other because you’re both angry little loafs that don’t know how to socialise”
Keith stared at him long enough to know he’d walked all over his boyfriend’s feelings. It took all of ten seconds for Keith to be pushing his chair back
“I’m sorry, Coran. I don’t think I’ll be very good company”
At least Keith paused long enough to apologise, before leaving the room... Not inviting Lance to go with him. Yeah. That wasn’t missed. Keith was getting so good at coming to him to talk, that Lance expected it
“I’ll talk to him. But Lance is right. Keith doesn’t know how to talk to you about anything that’s not work. You and I need to have a conversation, Krolia”
Oh damn. He didn’t want to be Krolia. A mad Shiro was a scary thing in its own way. As Shiro left to find Keith, Pidge leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms as she did
“Damn. And I thought my family was dysfunctional. Is it like this all the time?”
Lance sighed, wriggling his chair closer to his gremlin for comfort
“Keith? Keith’s family? Or being here?”
Pidge huffed
“I’m not prying into Keith’s past until he wants to tell us. Look what happened last time someone’s dark secret came out? I found out one brother’s a werewolf and the others a vampire. Nope. No more prying there. I mean here in general. How do you guys get any work done?”
“Normally they do the work and I just stay in my room”
“So you’re a slacker?”
“I prefer to think of it as much loved relative visiting. But yeah. Kind of a slacker. All I can really do is support Keith and Shiro, around working from home”
Coran was staring at the conference room door, as if he thought Shiro and Keith would be back by now
“Lance does help us quite a lot. He’s always been a very charming and helpful person. Very smart too”
Pidge snorted
“Coran, are you sure you’ve got my brother? He can’t even work his phone properly”
“That’s because it has so much unnecessary stuff on it. Huuuunk, help me out. Please tell Pidge it’s okay to be technology illiterate”
“From what I hear, vampires don’t forget things. Sorry, bro. You’ve got no excuse”
Lance pouted, betrayed by his cinnamon roll and ridiculed by his anger muffin
“And here I was loving the pair of you. Coran, I take back all the nice things I said about them. Curtis, you and me. Us against the world?”
Curtis wore an expression so Shiro like that Shiro would have been proud
“Sorry, Lance. You are good friend and you’ve helped me immensely, despite my constant queries over your body and your heat. I’m happy to have met you, but yours isn’t the dick I want. You have Keith for that, though I do wish you’d accepted his physical help through your heats sooner. It would have made the changes you are going through quite a lot less painful. Though you two are quite loud mid coitus. I think I much prefer you two watching television than to think of you engaging anything sexual. No offence”
Lance choked on air. Curtis was the one who kept gifting him condoms and sex toys. He had a whole case of them waiting at home, never to be used without Keith. Pidge cackled
“Damn, dude. You got rejected without even aiming for it. For what it’s worth, Keith helped me understand that super senses aren’t that great when you can hear Matt having sex”
Lance groaned all the way to the depths of his soul
“Can we pleeeeeease stop talking about sex in front of Keith’s mother? Coran, help?”
“I guess we could discuss how hesitant you were to accept Keith as your boyfriend initially and that nasty...”
Lance was sure Coran was going to blab about the mercury incident
“Nope! No! You all suck! Everyone but Hunk is off my Christmas card list”
“Thanks, bro”
Lance couldn’t reach to fist bump Hunk, but he would have if he could have. The vampire was taking it slowly, Hunk not like Pidge and her weirdly easy acceptance. That’s why they’d played with Kosmo without talking all that much, trying to show Hunk he wasn’t any different than a human
“I’ve got you, fam. I’ll be sending one to Shay too. Oh, have you guys been to my house lately? I’m worried about the roses”
“If you’re that worried, you should just come back home already”
Lance couldn’t hide his surprise
“You want me back there?”
Okay. So they’d taken it well, but he was kind of like an inmate here. At the end of the night, they knew the big bad vampire was all tucked up safe and sound below ground. Plus, Pidge had gotten the scare of her life the last time they’d been at the house. His poor gremlin had had so much to process. She was still processing, despite how brave she was being. Plus, there was this whole “her parents knew” thing that needed to be worked out. What he needed was a double who could be there with Pidge and Hunk, helping them work things out, while he was also with Keith... who was currently mad at him. Super mad if Lance had to hazard a guess. He hoped Shiro would get through to his boyfriend...
“No. I just thought I’d mention it. Actually, I did think of burning it down, but you weren’t home”
Lance sighed. She would have done it... and Keith would have lost his boyfriend the same way he’d lost his father
“Pidge, I know you’re serious, but please don’t ever say that in front of Keith. His father died in a house fire and he’s still really hurt by it. Don’t like bring it up”
“Oh, fuck! Krolia, I am so sorry!”
Krolia sipped her tea, looking uncomfortable as she did. Two very long moments before Pidge “whispered” for support
“Laaaance...”
Pidge didn’t know how to “Krolia”. Lance didn’t either. He didn’t get a bad vibe from her... but... she’d held the gun knowing they didn’t know it was loaded with rubber bullets
“You didn’t know. Keith and I have talked more than you guys have talked, so i guess I have inside knowledge”
Pidge nodded, her voice definitely quieter than her normal perky tone
“I’m glad he didn’t hear me. He still likes us right? I mean, he was talking to us, so we’re still friends?”
“He missed you guys. Honestly, he’s the one who thought one day you might talk to me again... I just thought... we’d never be friends again. I get it. If this is all like too weird. You can walk away... I’m like... really fucking weird”
Friends like family... but his siblings hadn’t handled him well at all
“You’re also proof vampires exist... and I’m still getting used to it. Maybe no sleep overs just yet?”
Because they didn’t trust be alone near him. Ugh. That hurt worse than his shoulder. He was getting teary now. This own feelings of abandonment deciding to be stupid
“That’s fine. I do get it. As long as you guys are safe, that’s all I care about. I feel super rude, but I might head down to my room and nap off the pain. Will you guys be alright getting home?”
“Yeah. You’re totally rude, but you’re going to message us later so it’s fine. We did... we did miss you. I just... it’s still a lot”
“Pidgeon, I promise I get it. Hunk, sunshine of my life, I’ll be talking to you later. Uh... nice to meet you Krolia, and I’ll see you later Coran. Curtis... don’t think I won’t forget to forget you dumping me”
Lance felt less than adult like as he left the conference room. He was pulling a Keith, feeling too emotionally compromised so removing himself from the situation. He could tell himself he wasn’t like this, but that’d be lying. He was always like this, always destined to feel on the outside.
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ok but you can’t have a tv show with poc being the majority and be mad when bad things happen to the majority. literally most of the MAIN characters of vld are poc. and the only poc that got a bad ending was allura. so this whole “racist vld creators” thing is so wack and just plain dumb
it’s precisely the amount of characters of color that makes it the easier to identify how the writers favour white characters.
hunk, a samoan kid, being a fat joke for most of the 8 seasons, dumbed down so pidge could shine, even tho it was established early on that he was a brilliant engineer?
lance, an ambitious and determined brown cuban boy, being reduced to a love interest slash comic relief, mocked and belittled by the other characters time after time for the sake of comedy because the cretors were annoyed he got so popular, and ending up as a depressed farmer (common latino stereotype) when it was clear his passion was being a pilot and living an adventurous life?
shiro, a japanese gay man, being used for torture porn each season and as a plot device constantly? who was planned to be killed off early on, but later was just used for brownie points? and his boyfriend adam, a brown man, getting violently killed with only a total of about two minutes on screen?
allura, a black woman, only main woman of color, and arguably the protagonist, who lost literally everything, being demonized and set up as the bad guy multiple times in the show, set up in a romance with the main antagonist at the time, and evenutally getting killed without the opportunity to live a happy peaceful life?
in opposition to keith, who also got tortured and hurt constantly but never to the same extent as, say, shiro, and got more than one arc and a lot of focus, and pidge, who never had to face the consequences of what she did, had lance and hunk be dumbed down to make her seem smarter, got the happiest ending with all her family safe and together, and was favoured by writers and lauren montgomery herself?
i’m just saying favoritism to white characters sometimes showed in the show and in the overall narrative. it’s not just that ‘bad things happened’ to the characters of color. bad things happened to all characters. that’s the point of a story. but the characters of color were always the butt of jokes, mocked, demonized, or downright ignored.
#Anonymous#im just saying#if you don't care about those things#good#but you can't say they're total wack
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I just saw you were taking prompts. I don't know the themes for the week, but how about a bit of comedy up in here. Kallura (side of plance), where Acxa is actually their daughter from the future. This crack headcanon has been in my head for days now.
A/N: I decided to make this a continuation of this other drabble where Allura is jealous of Acxa and Keith. It’ll make more sense if you read the other drabble first. Thank you @kentaruhinaka for waiting patiently!
“What happened? Is everything ok?” Hunk asked.
“Who knows, maybe? Yes? Remind me to never fall for someoneif it makes you crazy like that.” Pidge shook her head as she took a seat nextto Lance.
“Oh please, you’re gonna crush on someone someday and it’sgoing to totally wreck you before you even realize it’s happening.” Lanceteased as he mussed her hair playfully.
Pidge looked up at him, at his irritatingly cute smile, andhuffed before turning to the fire, hoping it was the flames making her cheeksburn. She snatched up a stick and stoked the fire.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about” she grumbled.
“Are they ok?” Acxa blurted out suddenly.
She’d stayed quiet during the entire ordeal starting withAllura snipping at Keith around the campfire to them excusing themselves totalk privately. While everyone else was chatting or pretending to absolutelynot be eavesdropping on the argument, she was staring at the spot where’d they’dsnuck off to rather intently and the louder they seemed to get the morefrequently her eyes would dart to her hand on her knee which unbeknownst toanyone else, was subtly fading in and out.
“Hmm?” Pidge looked up from the fire.
“Are they ok?” Acxa asked again a bit more persistently.
“Yeah,” she shrugged, not sure why the ex-general seemed tocare so much, “they were saying some mushy stuff before I walked away.”
“Oh thank god” she sighed with relief.
Everyone turned and looked at her strangely.
“I just mean…it’s good that everyone is getting along.” Sheshifted uncomfortably.
“Well since all’s well that ends well I’m ready to hit thehay.” Lance yawned.
“Same!” Hunk followed with an even bigger yawn.
“Yeah I’m beat, let’s call it a night guys.” Shiro chimedin.
“Should we tell them we’re going to bed?” Romelle askedpointing to where Keith and Allura had gone off to.
“Better not, they could be doing lord knows what now that it’sgotten quiet back there.”
“Like what?” Romelle asked with naïve curiosity, eyesblinking.
“He’s probably givin’ her the ol’ razzle dazzle!” Lanceperked his eyebrows before snatching Pidge in his arms.
“Oh princess kiss me before I get extra emo!” Lance deepenedhis voice as he mocked Keith, dipping Pidge and frantically nuzzling his facein her cheek while making exaggerated kissing noises.
Pidge’s face went red, redder than the red lion red, codered red, atomic red. His face had moved to her neck which sent a sharp tingledown her spine.
“G-g-g-get off me you dork!” She tried to push him away.
“Oh Keith!” His voice suddenly jumped to a higher octivewith a fake British accent. “The Marmora can go on without you but my loins, myheaving bosom, they cannot! Make love to me you mulleted fool!”
“Lance!” Pidge screeched as he picked her up and spun heraround.
“This is so exciting what happens next?!” Romelle clappedwith wide bright eyes.
“What happens next is we all go to bed before you scar usall for life.” Shiro rubbed his temples.
“I don’t know if I’m happy or worried that my son has youall as friends” Krolia’s forehead creased with concern.
“You know your acting has improved, perhaps I should havehad you play the princess during The Voltron Show” Coran said thoughtfully.
Lance winked while popping a signature finger gun.
“I’m a man of many talents.”
“Including making me sick.” Hunk joked.
“Ouch!” Lance retorted which clutching his heart.
They continued to tease each other as they walked towardtheir lions. Pidge was left standing there, still a flustered blushing mess.She patted her cheeks, trying to calm herself when she noticed Acxa was stillstanding there staring at her.
“What?” Pidge blurted out a tad accusingly.
“Nothing.” Acxa smiled knowingly.
“That isn’t what you think it is” she stated adamantly.
“And what do I think it is?” the Galra woman asked.
“He just caught me off guard that’s all! I don’t actually…Imean I would never…with him…like that.”
“Mhm.”
“I wouldn’t!”
“Of course.” Acxa nodded as she rose to her feet. “Wellgoodnight then.”
“Goodnight.” Pidge was still a little on edge and quicklystomped off to her lion.
Axca waited until Pidge was out of sight to look at her handagain. Everything seemed to be back to normal and she took a deep breath as sheclenched it into a fist to confirm its solidity. She thought maybe she shouldcheck on Keith and Allura but thought the better of it and went back to hertent.
She plopped down on her makeshift cot and looked around thetiny space decorated with what little belongings she had. She lifted up therolled up fabrics she’d made into a pillow and pulled out the worn, slightlycrumpled photo underneath. There was just enough light seeping in from thedwindling fire outside to make out each person, although she’d looked at thispicture a million times and could have described it in her sleep.
An air strip. Garrison in the background. A large Alteanship. A group in the foreground. A very old Iverson. Pidge and Lance inuniform, their two twin toddlers in regular civilian clothes. Keith looked important, like a knight…or perhaps a king. His physical appearance was a bit different, moreGalran. His arm was around Allura. She looked elegant.
And in her arms a baby…
Tiny…beautiful…violet skin with a small tuft of dark hair,eyes the perfect mix of blue and purple.
She’ll grow up hearing how pretty her ears are from her mamawhile she pinches said ears while placing raspberry like kisses on her cheeks.
She’ll get her first dagger from her papa when she’s far tooyoung to even have one, to her mama’s aggravation.
War will prove nothing is certain and a very irritating caterpillar-likealien will put it in her mind that there are a million possibilities and she’llhave to go back to make sure the two people she loves the most don’t screw itall up.
“I wish you two would just admit you love each other alreadyso I don’t have to keep worrying about ceasing to exist” Acxa muttered toherself with a smile as she ran her fingers over their faces.
“Idiots” she added with a chuckle.
Meanwhile Keith and Allura finally took themselves to bed,Allura’s bed in the blue lion specifically. He rubbed her bare back as he heldher, using his fingers to trace the additional Altean markings on her skin asthey faintly glowed in the dark. She rested her head on his chest listening tothe sounds of his beating heart, the way he breathed. Their clothes were in apile on the floor.
“Are you sure it’s…y’know, ok that we…?”
“Yes, fertility cycles, alien stuff, you’re fine.”
“Whew.”
“Not ready to be a father yet?” Allura giggled.
“I can barely get you guys to listen to me let alone a kid.”
“Well I think you’d be a wonderful father, someday of course.”
“Someday.”
There’s a long pause.
“Keith Jr. is a good strong name though” he joked.
Allura laughed.
“And what about you, do you want kids someday?” Keith asked.
“I think so, when the time is right, once we’ve been able tobring peace to the universe.”
“That sounds like a tall order.”
“It is but I believe we can do it. I want my daughter toexist in a time of harmony.”
“Daughter huh?”
“Yes, I’d love a girl,” Allura smiled to herself, “beautiful,strong, smart, independent with a name that reflects her strength and grace. Perhapsa name that starts with an ‘A’.” There was a playful arrogance in her voice.
“Hmm,” Keith sighed contentedly as he held her closer, “thatcould be nice…”
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I have issues
First of all, queerbaiting is never fucking okay
If you’re going to have LGBT rep, make it fucking LGBT rep and don’t announce it and then give it zero screen time during the actual season
They never even acknowledge it
The only reason we know Shiro is gay is because they told us
Adam was probably supposed to be a friend originally, but then they went ‘oh fuck we forgot LGBT rep oops :)’
And most of all, don’t fucking announce LGBT rep and then kill half the ship before they can even get closure over everything that happened
While we’re on the topic of LGBT rep, could you fucking not build up a beautiful arc between two rivals as they slowly become friends and teammates, and then throw the entire arc away before it really ends
And while you’re at it, don’t fucking just add them in at random places to make it look like you’re trying
Also, could you not treat Lance as a romantic side plot and instead like the amazing paladin that he is, because he is talented and good at what he does and smarter than you portray him as, and spending an entire episode calling him the dumbest one on the team is Not Good
He can have his romantic moments, but to use him as a plot device and almost like a side character solely for a love story is toxic
Lance is a person, not a romantic to use when the plot gets slow, and he’s not comedy relief to introduce when it’s getting too dark
In addition, treating Allura like that is just as bad
Because you can’t pair her up in a manipulative relationship with the universe’s greasiest warthog because she’s a naive damsel in distress
Also, she showed no romantic interest in anyone for the first six and a half seasons. Having her suddenly be like that around Lance is unrealistic, unhealthy for viewers, and painful to watch
Because they’ve had next to no arc together. Lance may have loved her from the beginning, but at this point his flirting has stopped and all interest in her that he shows feels forced and like last second planning. Allura herself never liked Lance romantically until APPARENTLY this season!
Also, don’t you dare toss the POC characters aside like that. We got massive screen time from the Holts, Garrison, and Keith, and even much more attention went to Coran this season.
Fuck, James, the white fuckboy, had more character development this season that Lance or Hunk ever did
And yeah we got to see Hunk stepping up
But he never saved his family like he wanted to, was cast aside for much of the last few episodes, and Lance was treated like shit as usual
And Kinkade? Didn’t even fucking talk once?
On top of all of that, the plot was boring, repetitive, and not worth my time
So thank you, Voltron, for wasting five hours of my life with toxic relationships and views on POC and LGBT people. Thanks for making a kids show so unbearably dark and unhealthy. Thanks for effectively taking away two years of my life!
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So Season 7 of Voltron Legendary Defender... Oh Boy...
I had so much spoiled before watching it. Thanks email alerts. So after seeing so much spoiled already, I started lurking in Tumblr again. By the time I’d actually got round to watching the season I felt like I’d already watched most of it and was primed with all the various thoughts and opinions people were sharing online. In the days beforehand I was up and down like a yoyo on a rollercoaster. Hopeful one day, thinking it’s not even worth watching the next. Hovering my finger over “delete” on both this blog and my fics at points... Even contemplating that right now if I’m honest. Maybe I should have been Bushy Bearded Drama-Llama?
In any case, having finally sat down with rock bottom, possibly even sub zero expectations and watched, here are my thoughts now season seven is over... Well... In short, I think it suffers a lot from being so rushed. And before you say it, no, going in with low expectations wasn’t a self fulfilling prophecy. Psychologically speaking the opposite is true. If we go into something with low expectations, we tend to have a better opinion overall than we would have if we went in with sky high expectations. And whilst it may seem like I hated it so far...? Well, no. I didn’t hate it. There were some parts that didn’t gel with me, but to say I hated it would be an insult to everyone involved. But that doesn’t make it free from criticism.
If you care what this bear’s about to growl about, strap in, it’s not a short one. Not kidding. This is long. But I guess I needed to get my feelings down and hopefully have someone patient enough to read it and see that I’m not completely insane. And, thought I shouldn’t have to say this... None of this comes from a place of hate. No, I don’t think regardless of how you feel about this season that hatred to the creators is ever acceptable. If you feel you must, then voice your grievances calmly, rationally, but the second you resort to hate you have already lost. Though what I would suggest is to just accept this season as it is and move on.
Moving on is partly why I’m compelled to write this post. Maybe if you are going to read this monster, bring some caramel to counteract the salt...
The Season Itself
So within the first episode, I’m already full of mixed emotions. Yes, the Plance moment was great. Yes, the dynamic between Hunk and Romelle was cool. Coran was great, supportive Crolia, the none too subtle dig at Prometheus as Lance and Pidge ran from the grass... (Don’t think we didn’t spot that you writer rascals! Run at an angle!) I remain in Sheith Limbo trying to reconcile they met when Keith was literally a child and relationships can grow and develop with a worried dash of will people misinterpret this as grooming if they got together...? But a lot of it was by the by. Honey I Shrunk The Paladins was a great fun start to the series interspersed with great emotional character building for Shiro and Keith. It fleshed them both out in ways I wish we’d seen sooner and as others have pointed out drastically reframes a lot of the protective over Shiro moments in the context of his degenerative disease. And yet, it doesn’t make Shiro a victim, nor Keith a white knight, it keeps them both flawed yet strong heroes.
Tiny cute paladins, Lance’s cargo pilot reference. As always the design of the planets is gorgeous. Lance sharpshooting. The attention to detail with little things like in scale surface tension! I can’t overstate how much time, effort and thought has gone into this! The narrative parallels of the speeder bikes. Honestly, there is SO much to unpack in just one episode that could easily be overlooked as silly and/or filler. But it’s so much. Keith’s growth is such fun to watch, confirmation of certain fan theories is great yet so sad at the same time...
It allowed Romelle to actually have a character that wasn’t just “Lotor Plot Delivery Service” and her interactions with Hunk were pretty adorable. “Are all ancient Alteans like this?” Was a great subtle piece of world building as well. And yeah, pretty sure I saw @hailqiqi mention this already, but Hunk and Romelle are so the audience surrogates. The one and only thing that bugged me, given the fact that so much of Voltron has had to be rushed or cut for time... Did we really need the flashbacks in this episode shown twice back in the quantum abyss episode...? Couldn’t that time in the QA been used for something else...? But that’s a very minor gripe. Overall, I massively enjoyed this episode but I’m still nervous given the priming from the fandom going forward... But that last hug? Saving Shiro with his voice / quintessence maybe?
The Road home starts off well, though the idea that still nobody knows or comments on Katie’s name being such did disappoint me a little... The space road trip starting up was so cute, even if Lance’s logic of passengers is lost on me...aside from maybe cutting Pidge some slack. Let me Headcanon that little touch of unconscious favouritism, yeah? Though his taking charge in the battle here, being the right hand man, was really nice to see here. From the audience perspective, he may be stating the obvious, but in canon, that’s what we call battlefield awareness. Imagine season 1 Lance doing this? Nah. Buthe’s had no growth, so people say... “It’s super dangerous, it’s perfect!” Wonderful! And Keith’s leadership! Great stuff.
(Almost) Everyone getting a chance to shine in the cave combat was also awesome. Full on frenetic energy, a little flourish of comedy from time to time, great characterisation, calm before the storm leading to a sudden yet satisfying cliffhanger? Full on Voltron to a T.
"I will help you look for that passage.” Is a cute Plance moment that others are overlooking I feel. Coran’s memoirs are something I would personally read the hell out of. I don’t know about the rest of you. But seeing the entire saga retold through Coran’s eyes...? I’d love to see it. I’m also kinda happy to know how “Acxa” is pronounced! The slow reveal of the time skip up until the reveal at the end is nice, though honestly not as mysterious as the show seemed to think it was. Maybe it was just that I got spoiled? Evil power couple were great as well and it was nice to see the ice pop mystery solved.
A return of Altean shapeshifting was nice to see. “Sweet on that one with the flippity hair” and “your favourite paladin” “never wanted to kill him” “true love”? Seems a little out of left field. Unexpected? Maybe not, just rushed? Axca and Keith seemed a little sudden. To me felt like they just needed to pair a spare and keep Kieth and Allura apart. Which, I get into later. Keith being able to transport his bayard seems...fine...? Why are people complaining about this? Paladins summon their bayarads all the time. He just did it from a few extra feet...?
I do wish Coran had a chance to play to his strengths though. Aside from his courage. He has brains and feels like he needs to use them more or be written in scenarios where he can use them. The three year time skip, when revealed, seems like it was just a convenient way to avoid the immediate aftermath of Lotor losing the throne. It works in that regard I suppose. But by the end of this episode I wasn’t really sold on it.
Nice new haircut though Axca. Really sells the redeemed rebel former baddie archetype. And thank goodness for your exposition. Tell don’t show, am I right? One of the ways we can see the show was rushed I feel. Though again, maybe just being picky...
The Game Show Episode.
I was expecting this later in the season honestly. It was good for comic relief I guess, so it served it’s purpose. Seeing the first family of the Galra along for some comedy was great if only for Neil Kaplan having such fun. But it felt like it was missing something. I can’t quite put my finger on what. It was nice to get insight into how the Paladins feel about each other but again, it felt like a way to get those ideas and characterisations out into the open without having to, y’know, show them in natural narrative progression. It’s probably the weakest of the comedy episodes so far and it felt a little like it was all just happening until it eventually stopped. It didn’t feel like the little hints of “tv flickering” implying something artificial were necessary. In fact, as soon as I saw the concept I thought “so, all powerful being captures them for reasons?” and that’s pretty much what we got. It was...ok. Just ok.
And y’know what...? After seven seasons, maybe we do need to drop the “Lance is the dumb one” joke? I mean, yes, he’s not as smart as the rest of the team. No doubt. But if he’d been given a chance to shine on his own terms, with his own abilities, if they’d subverted the goofball archetype rather than doubling down on it I think this would have made for a more interesting episode. Just because it’s comedy doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be compelling. The Voltron Show for instance literally dealt with Coran pushing himself so hard to help the Paladins that he was willing to resort to what was essentially a mind altering drug and forcing himself to kick the habit. Where was the actual plot in this episode? Funny moments need a framework and this kinda lacked a framework in my opinion.
Really episode 5?
A Kobayashi Maru scenario...? Indeed, running a simulation when the lions are running on fumes...? Ok, you do you I guess... Little self referential humour from Coran was nice, but a little on the nose. And honestly, I think these episodes are starting to feel like, I dunno, filler material? Like, nothing is really being furthered in terms of the massive plots they still need to deal with. Did the journey back to Earth really need to take so many episodes, or could these have been more efficiently used to deal with countless plot threads that remain unresolved...? It’s a strange thing to be feeling at this stage, but maybe there’s more to come...?
And...it felt like another clip show filling out the backstory of the three years of Voltron being missing... Maybe it’s just me, but if you have written yourself into a scenario where the only way out is repeated massive exposition dumps... Maybe you need to rethink your story just a touch...? The fact it was also told from an unreliable narrator also means it wasn’t just exposition...it was literally pointless exposition that was likely mostly a combination of lies and half truths. And I’m sorry but, were people really clamouring for a rematch between Keith and “That One Nameless Druid...?” Really? You won’t hear me denying it was cool fight scene, yes indeed, but the set up wasn’t exactly great in my opinion.
As for how Keith managed to win? Ok, sure, I guess summoning the Bayard from a few feet was a build up to something else, something even more special that may or may not get resolved this season. I’m writing these as I go. Or will it be one more plot point that will need to be resolved in the next season with limited time and episodes to do so? Keith and Krolia’s goodbye was sad. I do hope for a reunion, but honestly don’t expect it. I imagine she’ll die off screen for shock value. Sadly, I already know the fate of Altean colony and why Haggar has forsaken her druids, so, no real hook for me there.
So the halfish way point. Lost in space, desperately trying to force plance out of every interaction... And ultimately, just getting bored. I mean, yes, I get that they need to reconnect with each other... But there are countless ways it could have been resolved other than this. It didn’t really feel like there was need for this particular journey into the darkest cave. It also feels a little forced that after saving countless realities by working together, they now all get forced apart...? Hunk saving the day, saving the team, great. Really wonderful stuff. He’s been overlooked for so long. But the idea that they needed to become friends again...? To reconnect...again...? I don’t know that it felt necessary. If after all these years, literal years together there isn’t already a profound connection...? I just can’t really buy that. And again, it felt like a filler episode. And Hunk Priming the audience for the concept of passing the torch? Yeah, that didn’t go unseen.
Maybe it’s just me, but after six episodes where it was already established that they can travel at crazy speeds to be told “yeah no, it’s not that the lions were drained, it’s just these people who’ve literally saved the universe together aren’t quite best friends enough...”? That just feels silly.
And yes, I know “silly” is relative when we’re talking about a powerful group of robot magical cat things that are powered by love and freindship. BUT what I feel was silly was the idea that their friendship was strained at all. It felt as though the season wanted there to be this divide between them but...the comedy episode just a little while ago established they’re all willing to sacrifice themselves for each other....
That’s just....fundamentally contradictory. Are you guys barely even connected as friends or are you willing to die for each other? You can’t be both... It makes the whole “struggle” of getting back to Earth feel false because it’s predicated on the assumption that they’re a fractured team this episode yet there’s been literally no sign of that until now...
Still, as always, the visuals were cool. The Space Angler Fish is a great concept. The music was great. The voice acting was on point. Everything was so SO good except...the writing... The writing in this particular episode in the context of everything preceding it just felt... Bad. Rushed. Forced. Contradictory. Drama for the sake of drama. Artificial... What’s going on guys...?
So a multiparter? Let’s see. Ok. Seeing how awesome Sam Holt is, fine. Seeing him reunite with Colleen. Also fine and dandy and cool. And it tugged at the heart strings... But do we really need him to literally tell us everything we already know in a power point presentation...? The audience doesn’t need to be caught up on the events.We don’t need a massive chunk of the episode’s run time devoted to playing catch up. We have the time for this, but apparently - according to the spoilers - we don’t have time to establish that Allura is getting over Lotor and Falling for Lance...? Not even a throw away line, or a glance, or a suggestion of that fact that needs establishing after her season six reaction to the mice... But we do have time for the events of the show to be repeated to us...? What!? I am literally bewildered at this choice. Flabbergasted. Gobsmacked.
The worst thing about this so far, is that under all the EXPOSITION there’s a great story that wants too be told. I think we’re only seeing fragments of that story. Sam and Coleen struggling to find their children again and fighting against political nonsense. But real talk... This was all stuff that could have done just fine implied. The Paladins arrive on Earth, they see the new ships piloted by their inevitable replacements in the new series they seem to want to make, Lance asks, “What are those?” Sam responds, “A fusion of Galra, Altean and Olkari tech. The culmination of months of Earth’s greatest minds working together. It was a struggle, but we got them made in the end...” BOOM. Done. Efficient use of what is obviously painfully limited time. Did we NEED the power point, the montages, the backdoor pilot for the new team...? Did we - good as they were - even need the Holt Family suffering...? Couldn’t Coleen’s transmission to everyone on Earth have been enough to get the point across that they’re awesome...? In my opinion, we didn’t need this. Not like this at least. It could have been done so much more efficiently, so much less padding. But we did get to see snippets of the messages back home. That was nice. But it doesn’t change the fact that the majority of the first episode felt really... Unnecessary. But that’s just how I feel after part one...
So, the first half of the second episode? Superb. Can’t fault it, good heroic stuff, Sam stepping up. A realistic invasion of Earth, ie, we lose that’s rare to see in most media. Can’t fault it. Then the second half kicks in. The four archetypes we’ve been barely introduced to, go on a mission that narratively speaking is utterly unnecessary. I know that the Atlas gets built thanks to spoilers. But even if I didn’t, what function does this part serve? We may not be able to build a thing. Later on, that thing will be built. Do we need to into the minutiae of how the supplies were gathered...? Well, I suppose we do. But not because of how it serves the overall plot of Voltron Legendary Defender, but how it sells these new kids to us for the new series they obviously assume they’re making. But if it wasn’t for that?
Then it defaults to more exposition... More information that could have been relayed to the audience in much more engaging ways.
This could have been, rather than a messy and kinda redundant two part episode with occasional brilliance, it could have been trimmed down to a truly brilliant single part. I’m not invested in these new characters. Let me get there or not when I see them in their own show. And if they’re literally just there as homage to the sequel series from the 80′s...then they don’t need this much focus. The actual paladins and their interpersonal dynamics do. Rift creatures do. Lotor’s fate does. Why are we wasting the limited time that remains on this unless it’s a back door pilot? Why should the current series suffer just to promote the next one...? It’s just exhausting and disappointing. By the end I was agreeing with Keith. What are we waiting for...? The continuation of the series we came here for. What kept us waiting was either an advert for the next series or a massive misstep in pacing.
And now, finally back to the real story and after two episodes establishing that Earth is screwed over, Earth can barely contact other parts of itself, Earth is on the brink of collapse, Earth is holding on by a thread... In the first scene we have Earth, somehow, triangulating a jamming signal into the outer edges of the solar system and remaining undetected as they do so...? Even assuming they are “just” sending commands to satellites and installations elsewhere in the solar system, The Galra would detect that command signal. And given how much we’ve had it stated, overstated, hammered home that Earth is in such bad shape...that feels like a real ass pull.
I am being nitpicky, yes, but this is the second time this has happened on such a large and frankly contradictory scale. So I’m calling it out again. First The Paladins are willing to die for each other, or at least be trapped for eternity, then they are barely friends. Then, Earth can barely contact it’s own countries, but sending an undetectable command signal to at least three satellites in the solar system is fine...? Why not just have Voltron get the signal sooner!? Why not have Pidge send a jamming signal...?
And in terms of introductions to the new team? What we got after the drone attack? Perfect. It didn’t need to be an entire episode of establishing them because it isn’t their story. But the Paladins meeting their families? The reconciliation with Iverson? Shiro grieving for Adam. Where was all this before now? Why hasn’t our focus been where it belongs. On the Paladins?
Now, I don’t really want to get into the whole debate about unfair representation of LGBT characters. I can see both sides of the argument as being valid. Shiro remains a strong canonically gay character even if the man he once loved is gone. Adam, though dead, is not immune to tragedy just for being gay. What we did see though was a man openly crying for his lost love. There’s plenty to be critical of the series for. But personally, I don’t feel the treatment of Adam and Shiro is “queerbaiting” so much as it is a couple unfairly separated by the horrors of war. A canonically and unambiguously gay couple. That’s representation. Just it may not be precisely what everyone wanted. But don’t let me stop you writing out impassioned critiques, don’t let me stop you airing and venting your grievances. I’m doing that right now, aren’t I? Just please please please don’t send any more hatred at the creators...
Now, this whole section of the Altean enhanced tech...? Why is this being reiterated again? This could stand on it’s own as an introduction to the concept of Earth meets Alien tech. Why are we being shown the same things twice, first in the two parter in depth and again now...? Why do this when there is so much else that needs addressing in ever dwindling episodes...?
Though aside from that, Hunk and Keith connecting is great. Hunk finally having a dedicated arc to save his family also great. Hunk being the outsider to the Garrison Trio dynamic and spending time with Keith again? Also great, wonderful even. So where was all this previously...? But even this, even this has to be if not overshadowed then frankly hijacked by the new characters they want to sell to us. It’s getting tiresome. I don’t want Hunk’s moments overshadowed, his spotlight taken... But damn, if he doesn’t still stand proud regardless. This is the Voltron I’ve been missing for most of the season.
I was going to post the image of him crying, but couldn’t do it... So here, Happier Hunk.
Don’t know how I feel about Hover Hand. I get they’re setting it up for the final conflict with Sendak, so that Shiro will be his literal and visual antithesis...but...hover hand looks kinda goofy. And being the counterpoint to your nemesis doesn’t need to be so literal all the time. And again, the new characters forcing their way into the story with a half baked excuse to sell you them. I think from now on I’m just going to comment when Team Replacements don’t force themselves in...Even the fact one of them was Veronica felt a little frustrating, because Lance’s family dynamic with her is overshadowed in my opinion by her being part of the new forced team of replacements. Allura giving up her crystal tiara for Shiro was a nice moment.
Okay, now imagine the whole infiltration section without Team Replacements. Just the Paladins, doing their thing. Let’s assume their resident tech genius has a way to stop the sentry drones sending out distress calls.
What did they contribute other than a few quips?
Are we really expected to believe our paladins, the protagonists of the story need these people...? No. It was just written that way to force the new guys in. What we need to wonder is why and the answer is most likely... Back Door Pilot. Over multiple episodes. That undermined the series I was already watching.
And finally, despite it being the supposed new canon ship in town, we see our first indication that Lance and Allura might be interested. Or do we? No, we just see Lance checking her out and being teased. Then immediately afterwards we see Pidge implementing Lance style silliness and even a Lance style distraction with her own spin on it. But no, let’s focus on the blushing and the eyeballing. I’m not salty. I’m dead sea levels of salty. But I’ll put that aside for now... And roll my eyes at the Wilhelm scream... Ok, so I was all ready to be excited about the plan, but then the super forced Allurance twin blush happened. Was it...was it really supposed to hit home when there was no build up to it this season...? Or was checking her out through the sniper sights enough to replace any hint of them coming closer or Allura setting aside Lotor...? Sure, she’s bound to do it in time, but all I’d want is something to suggest as much on screen. Just a throw away line or two... Is that so much? Cut a scene or two with the Replacements and give us more Paladins.
As the paladins all fly to their thematically and elementally appropriate battlegrounds, I want to agree with some posts I’ve seen arguing that Pidge doesn’t just look concerned, or in the zone as the other paladins do. For at least one shot she looks sad. Troubled. Maybe I’m reaching. Probably reaching. Almost certainly reaching given the almost immediate Allura calling to Lance moment... The sequence of connecting with the lions though? And Lance protecting Veronica? Pretty much resigned to die before being saved by red...? Yeah, heavy and cool stuff.
But Admiral Asshole somehow getting in touch with Sendak? Betraying the entire planet? No. Just no. She can be a thorn in their side and an antagonist without being so utterly stupid. At this point she’s gone from concerned alternative view but essentially a good person trying to save the planet in her own way, to being pantomime levels of stupid. What a daft choice. What a needless choice. You know what would have worked better...? Sendak baiting the Paladins. It would play into his military genius archetype. He didn’t need intel from Admiral Asshole if the entire purpose of the planet killers was just bait for the paladins... We didn’t need admiral asshole to make a faustian pact with the people responsible for planetary genocide. Some of the choices this season just bewilder me.
Well, at least no combining sequence before the Big Zapper Cannons hit. That’s something. I guess they can occasionally cut unnecessary scenes for time.
The Paladins are asleep and it’s time for the replacement team to take centre stage again. Even with their own repeated launch sequence animation. Guess they can waste time after all. Admiral Asshole...
...yeah. Who would have thought that the mass murdering alien wasn’t to be trusted...? Except anyone written with an ounce of sense.
I won’t deny, I completely and utterly lost interest during the Team Replacements moments. If you like them? Great. They were kinda written to be made valid off the back of the existing series so, I guess it worked for some, just not for me. I might even have been more keen on them myself ha they been secondary characters. But this season, they have so far felt like the focus. Yet also, they felt so undeveloped that they were like filler. They took up far too much focus that should have been on the Paladins. The characters I’ve been watching for six previous seasons. The characters I’m invested in. Even the launch of the Atlas - is it supposed to be a reference to The Gotengo in ship mode? - being powered by the Castle Crystal felt like a passing of the torch moment. There’s still a season left guys, can we wait until after this series ends maybe...?
Can we do The Paladins justice in their own series and make them the focus in their own series?
Can we do the replacement team justice by making them the focus of their own series...?
No? We’re going to try to do both at once and ultimately make both the worse off for it? Great, ok. Seems like a plan... SIGH
Soul-riding the lions? Now that’s a cool extension of the lore. That’s a cool new addition. That’s building more upon and actually watching Voltron again. Have I mentioned that it sometimes feels like I’m not watching Voltron any longer this season? Because, yeah, that.
But during the parts where I was watching Voltron, it was great. Shame I couldn’t care more about Admiral Asshole’s sacrifice. They went beyond the pale with her outright betraying Earth. Noble sacrifice for an act of stupidity was just...meh. Didn’t feel like she’d be any additional motivation for the Paladins that earth already was.
But damn does Shiro look good as the captain of a starship. Kudos where it’s due. The artists did a damn good job.
So, the final episodes...
Great set up for a final confrontation. Yet within the first half of the first episode. Oh no. Voltron has been pinned. Oh no. The Atlas can’t do stuff. What will we do? Oh gosh I hope the new team of plucky do-gooders can save the day. Whatever would we do without them? I hope we can buy their toys soon. Stop it. Why won’t they just stop it...? Stop making them such a major focus. This isn’t their show...or yeah, maybe it is now. Maybe the Paladins are the side characters now? Sometimes it feels that way. They spent a lot of time out of commission, damaged, pinned or otherwise unable to act except in montages.
“Lance, I’m coming to help!”
Yes, because Allura is just there to support and look shyly away from lion glances. Sigh. Can we have Allura who didn’t need to be defined by a love interest back please?
Then again, Shiro had some time to shine which was really appreciated. The Sendak/Shiro fight was...ok? I mean, it had a lot to live up to after the Kuron / Keith fight. And it just fell short in my opinion. And much as Keith saving Shiro is kinda the default... Given how they were building Shiro up to be the anti-Sendak, it felt like the final blow was robbed from Shiro just a little.
Then of course, we get The New Robeast. More powerful than anything they’ve dealt with before and utterly unannounced. Ok. Well at least they didn’t just go to sleep for a bit and let the new guys do everything. But they still found a way to force them in even now. Wouldn’t have shocked me at this point though if the new group had just beaten the robeast.
The twin swords are cool, but sadly a Plance moment it wasn’t. Maybe it would have been in old Voltron. Formed by a stronger bond between the two. But not so much now. Just a thing that happens. Like Pidge’s new gun thing. Thing that happens. No build to it really, just happens. No lesson, no moment of clarity, no greater connection, just, happens.
How does the Atlas have back up generators that can make it functional when it’s already been established the only thing that can power it is the castle crystal? It was a pretty big plot point. Until it was just forgotten about. The Atlas mech formed by Altean magic was pretty cool. Shiro has a lot of moments with Allura leading to it as well. More than she had with Lance even. I’ll come back to that. Fake out Pala-deaths was cheap. And if they only reason they put the focus on the new guys was for that fake out...? Screw that. What a waste.
Seeing Hunk and Shay reunited was nice but too brief. Nice to be wrong about Krolia, but I’m not expecting she’ll last the next season. Shock factor you see. Watching Earth change and develop in flash forwards and montage now makes me wonder why that couldn’t have happened earlier. And my answer is, probably to sell the new team. And that sucks. I’m not really looking forward to another season of the Paladins taking the back seat. I do kind of expect it though. In fact, I expect it will only get worse.
And of course, now in a mere 13 episodes we have to wrap up Lotor, Haggar, the rift creatures, any and all ships, don’t forget set up the new team, because I think there were a few subtle hints there’s a new team they want us to care about. How about that new team guys? New team! And do all that without it feeling like a giant rushed mess. Heh. Won’t hold my breath.
Overall?
Season Seven as others have said for many reasons, is Voltron Legendary Disappointment. Now to be fair, the art, the music, the animation, the voice acting - even given some guff lines, kudos to Josh Keaton for making “Their very home” not sound stupid... All of that was great. All of those staff members involved? A plus, amazing. But the writing...? Oh my good gravy the writing is all over the damn place. Yes, I just write silly fanfics and they’re professionals so what do I know? Their paycheck invalidates my opinion, right? But to be frank some of the mistakes and I do mean mistakes are elementary continuity gaffs. Redundancy. Repetition. Over reliance on exposition. I mean, if this is considered professional then standards have dropped...
That’s not to say there weren’t moments of great writing. Moments where it felt like I was actually watching Voltron again rather than an advert for the new guys. But for the most part...? It was odd choice after odd choice. Daft move after daft move. Mess after mess. Forced and contrived plot point after forced and contrived plot point and if I was judging the series solely on the writing... I’d ask why nobody proofread the first draft.
But to literally everyone else involved in the show from the voice actors to the background artists to the intern fetching coffee...? You all did an amazing job with the mess you were given.
The Obligatory Over Long Shipping Bit
It’s not all about the ships, but... To some extent, it kinda is a little. Maybe even a very BIG little... At it’s most basic, a story, any narrative, has three parts.
The Beginning:
The Status Quo, the ordinary world.
The Middle:
A Challenge To The Status Quo, conflict, introduction of the special world.
The End:
A New Status Quo, conflict resolved, special and ordinary world merge or become aligned to create a new standard.
And ships? Well, they’re an aspect of both the conflict in the middle and the New Status Quo at the end. Ships matter. The connection we feel to two or more characters and the connections they gain with each other? They matter. They are the story. So when I bang on about ships beneath, keep that in mind. Keep in mind that watching characters grow and grow closer is an integral part of narrative, romantic, platonic, whatever. Watching dynamics develop and shift between characters matters. That includes ships.
And, I’m not calling the show bad because ships. The show itself is flawed, but overall still good. still very good in fact. All I want to do here is share my disappointment and frankly my confusion at the way that all the ships seem to be playing out right now.
But to start... Allurance.
Let me say, emphatically state, that if you enjoy this ship I have no beef with you. I am not against you enjoying it. I am not trying to tell you you’re wrong. If you and I having different opinions on this is enough for you to unfollow me, then fair enough, goodbye and have fun elsewhere, no hard feelings. However, my opinion remains as it has done from the start. Whilst this could have been a solid canonical ship if things had been written differently, as it stands... I can’t support it and feel it’s the worst outcome for these two characters.
Now, I’ve seen the argument that “maybe it all happens off screen” and that I addressed in a post here. The long and the short of it, I want to see characters develop on screen rather than off screen. That is literally what I watch for. The On Screen Developments. Not off screen assumptions. On screen this season, Allura had more bonding moments with Shiro than with her supposed new love interest. Does that make sense to you? Because it doesn’t to me. Then there’s the argument that Lance’s feelings have grown and matured and changed. But honestly, on some level, if Allurance becomes canon, it feels like they haven’t. Let’s go through it on a very basic level.
Allura and Lance meet, he hits on her. - Lance wants to be with her.
They work together. He continues to hit on her. - Lance wants to be with her.
They keep working together. He hits on her and is jealous and possessive of anyone who even comes near her. - Lance wants to be with her.
Lance tones it down a little. Starts to be supportive. You’re the heart of Voltron etc. - Lance wants to be with her.
Enter Lotor. Lance remains jealous and possessive, but plays it off to Allura as a joke. “You need a third wheel?” But to everyone else, including the mice, he makes it very very clear this makes him unhappy. - Lance wants to be with her.
He makes that speech to the mice about wanting to be a better person, how he’s unworthy etc. etc. etc. - Lance wants to be with her.
Allura finds out about this, seems less than pleased. - Lance wants to be with her.
Allura breaks up with Lotor after finding out the man who changed her life is a genocidal space vampire. - Lance wants to be with her.
Lance does the supportive hug scene. - Lance wants to be with her.
Some stuff off screen presumably and Allura is suddenly over it. - Lance wants to be with her.
Dual blushing scene, soft gazes lion scene etc. - Lance wants to be with her and suddenly Allura wants the same thing.
Now, to me at least, I never felt like Lance’s feelings for Allura changed. What changed were his tactics in pursuing that desire. The ultimate ulterior motive of wanting to be with her at no point altered. To me, that severely undermines his and Allura’s growth together. It re-frames the supportive friend hug in season six into the only possible on screen moment that she fell for him and to me that makes Allura seem weak willed, flighty and frankly weak as a character to be rushed into needing a new man so soon after Lotor. It makes Allura into the opposite of what she has been all along. It reframes Lance as being a creep who’s not being entirely honest and is just hanging on to get some Altean Action. It’s unwittingly supportive of the concept in toxic masculinity of No Doesn’t Mean No and I think that’s a dangerous message to be sending these days. We should know better. No means No, it does not and should not mean pursue them like an object you want to possess. In reality, that attitude being normalised can lead to obvious and dangerous extremes. In a story, the pursued partner loses their dramatic agency and is reduced to a prize or else wants to be possessed and is thus framed as less capable. I think the idea of Lance and Allura shifting their dynamic to “genuine romance” between seasons and off screen is cheap. Overall, I feel it devalues both of them rather than enriching them as a ship and an end to two character arcs should.
Maybe, like resurrecting Shiro / Kuron early being down to executive meddling, the same is true here? Maybe the plan was for Lance to break the mould of the stereotypical nice guy waiting in the wings? Maybe Lotor being bad was also executive meddling? Or maybe that’s just the scapegoat for the roads we missed out on? The potential lost...
Now, the weird thing is, I’ve seen the argument made that you wouldn’t say that about allurance if allura was a guy. Well...yeah I would. Because if nothing changed except Allura’s sex and/or gender but the events were otherwise identical then it would have exactly the same narrative issues. It would still be undermining both character’s growth and arcs. Chasing someone who isn’t interested is still toxic behaviour regardless of who does it to whom. But if you want to assume that I’m just saying this “because Allura’s a woman” then I guess I can’t stop you, but I hope you take my honest statement that it’s not the case as far as I’m concerned.
On the other side of this argument of well if x was y you wouldn’t z, well, that’s just you creating and answering a hypothetical question. Let’s say someone shipped, I dunno Keith and Cosmo. And the defence was “well you wouldn’t call it bestiality if cosmo was human.” And yeah, I suppose if something was changed so drastically there wouldn’t be a problem. But Cosmo is a wolf in Canon. And Allura is a woman in Canon. Maybe nobody would be saying Allurance has problematic elements if Allura was male or maybe the would. I feel that I certainly would see the issue regardless. But that argument is purely hypothetical and anyone who makes it has no way of proving it or supporting it.
There is however another issue in Canon that nobody seems willing to address. Alteans live for centuries. Centuries versus decades of lifespan. That kind of relationship will have the functionally immortal one watching the person they love ROT before their eyes. It will have them mourning their true love for CENTURIES or else callously moving on. It will, if they have or adopt kids, leave the functionally immortal one, watching their own descendants die. The functionally immortal partner will see their love reflected in their descendants eyes and faces. Forced to relive their loss generation after generation. I don’t want to contemplate that end for characters I care about. But that’s what would happen between Lance and Allura. I don’t want to think of Allura watching generations of hers and Lance’s kids and great grand kids dying like flies and thinking of her reliving that loss every hundred years or so as their next batch of descendants die in front of her. Maybe you see it as romantic? I see it as horrifying. And if the issue of Human vs. Altean ages is never dealt with on screen, I’ll assume the creators either didn’t think about it or assumed the audience wouldn’t care. Well I’m sorry, but you made characters that we love, they are part of a lore that we paid attention to. We do care and it does matter.
What I will admit is that maybe, just maybe the way I’m interpreting things isn’t what the creators intended. As much as I am a proponent of Death of the Author, I won’t disregard authorial intent. To those of you who don’t know, Death of the Author essentially states that; all media is a collaborative experience between audience and creators. That no one interpretation of a text is more valid than another. That interpretations can shift and change based on the time and context through which the text is viewed. That interpretations the author never intended are valid. Now, a lot of people seem to have this idea that “Death of The Author” means audience interpretation matters more than that of the author and completely overlook the idea of shared meaning and no one true interpretation. I’m coming at this from the point of view not that the audience owns the text but that we all, audience and author, equally share it and it’s infinite valid interpretations.
So that said, the authorial intent may well be that Lance and Allura’s relationship isn’t and was never meant to be a creepy guy being persistent. That it wasn’t meant to suggest that despite being rebuffed, he should carry on chasing. Maybe it wasn’t meant to seem like he was dishonest, swooping in after a break up to pick up the pieces. Maybe we’re supposed to ignore the ulterior motive to get into her pants that never changed from season one episode one? It may well be their intent was to show a relationship developing healthily and organically but they were rushed and it ended up feeling incomplete? But, that less positive interpretation is just not how it comes across to me and many others. Intent or not, we can only interpret what we see. We don’t hate the idea of these two characters being happy, we just feel like the way it’s portrayed so far doesn’t seem strong enough or doesn’t make it explicit enough that there has been sufficient growth and change on screen to really make us buy it. You may disagree. That’s perfectly valid. The authors may disagree. That’s perfectly valid. I disagree with those opinions and that too is perfectly valid. I don’t hate any of you for feeling the way you do or for reading the text the way you do. Everyone interprets media differently. Please do me the same courtesy and don’t hate me for my interpretation. We can both make valid points yet still disagree. There is not one true and absolute interpretation.
I suppose that leads me here. At this point, given the way that almost every ship possible has been hinted, teased, alluded to or given time onscreen... I wouldn’t be shocked if there aren’t any canonical ships by the end. Just hints. Forever hints. Because if nothing else, the Allurance shippers don’t deserve to be baited and switched. Even if I disagree with the way it’s been portrayed, even if I feel it was rushed and needed time on screen to develop, those shippers deserve a decent payoff if the show is going to tease it so damn hard and so damn obviously. The Sheith shippers have had plenty of hints as well. Kallura looks on the cards half the time. Hunay, Hunelle, Hidge/Punk all got hints at the possibility this season. Keith and Acxa, I was thinking they’d pull that as soon as Keith found her in the weblum. Plance, I may or may not have strong feelings about. Who can say?
But given that the series so far has given so many contradictory hints, even assuming the caveat of multiple interpretations, how could anyone be happy by the end? I mean, if Plance happens and I still believe it makes the most sense for Lance and Pidge’s journeys and character arcs... Well what about the Allura / Lance dual blush moment...? The Allurance fans will ask that and rightly so. Why even include that if it isn’t going to go anywhere...? Chekov’s Gun. I can’t even deny myself that if the plan really was for Lance to move on, this would have been the season to explore that to make it feel organic. If Lance ends up moving on in the next season, then that will suddenly feel forced as well. The amount of ship baiting going on is a little frustrating. I can’t see how it could end in a satisfying way for every baited ship. So, maybe they’re just going to have nobody end up with anybody canonically?
At this stage, part of me would rather have that than have my OTP confirmed in canon. Because if what has happened so far is anything to go by... I’m just going to be disappointed at it feeling rushed and artificial. Unearned and pulled out of left field at the last second. With all the build up to Allurance, whether I think it hit the mark or not, it feel like it would be cheap and rushed to have him suddenly move on in the next and last season. Plance might end up feeling not organically developed, just, info dumped into existence for time constraints. I’ve been seeing hints between Lance and Pidge since episode one. Waiting for them to change their dynamic for all that time and seeing hint after subtle hint, seeing how perfectly their two stories align. They literally and narratively complete one another. And yet, if it comes down to it that one line or one half baked scene or even one future still image in a montage at the end of the series, is the confirmation of them hooking up...? Then even I won’t feel like my ship was worth coming true in canon. I’d rather have it never come true than have it come true as badly, as forced, as potentially interpreted as toxic, as contrary to the narrative and as ultimately unsatisfying as Allurance seems to be right now. I have no issue with Allurance being the end game. I would just have wanted to see it done justice and right now... It just isn’t. Don’t agree? Ok, well...
Compare and contrast...
One person in this series, Allura creates - using Alchemy - a means to be whole again. A weapon capable of overcoming a nemesis in visual dramatic parallel. Having learned Alchemy through tainted means from her Evil Ex, she’s now able to put it to physical tangible use for a new person. Not only that but she sacrifices her crown, her symbol of office, one of her last remnants of her dead home world in order to make that creation whole. She has shown this person nothing but respect and kindness otherwise.
Another person she barely interacted with aside from telling him to shut up then in the space of one episode they’re all blushy because reasons.
I’m being a little facetious, but let’s be honest.... What this shows is that Allura literally has a more meaningful and narratively significant set of interactions with SHIRO than she does with Lance this Season.
Shiro’s arm represents her turning the bad experience with Lotor to good. Her giving up her symbol of Altean Royalty shows she’s willing to sacrifice anything for him. And through that bond, she grants him the power to turn the Atlas into a giant robot. Where she created the Sincline out of a dishonest partnership, the Altas-Mecha is formed by honest...well, it looks like LOVE to me.
Now I’m not saying I ship them. But if you showed me this season out of context with any of the rest of Voltron, I would be shipping Shiro with Allura even though he’s Gay. Because frankly, in the story told on screen this season that actually makes way more sense than shipping her with Lance. Even out of context, even assuming no Lotor, no previous issues, Lance and Allura being hinted just seems...out of nowhere this season.
Maybe I should just wait for the sequel series where everyone ends up with total randoms off screen that nobody is happy with? Maybe the ships that make the most sense and have been hinted at the most will be forgotten or end up with off screen unhappy marriages as some vague and irksome attempt at being “mature”. Yes, I’m still salty about Toph/Sokka as well as Kataang, what of it? Sometimes you just want the characters you have grown to love and adore to have a happy ending together. Is that too much to ask...?
So, season 8 predictions...?
After a heartwarming episode that teases Coranecker, Lotor will finally get his redemption arc. And by arc I mean, episode. There will be an entire episode devoted to info dumping how he wasn’t really a space vampire the whole time and Romelle got the wrong end of the stick. This episode will tease Lotura again as well as hinting at Hungar, Huntor, Hunlia and Huray, the Polyship of Hunk Coran and Shay. Haggar, having now established herself as the dark queen of the Quantum Abyss will send wave after wave of Altean-Robeasts at Voltron, before the series finally ends in, you guessed it, another big battle with another new big robot. There will be a “we won” montage, Sendak will somehow be resurrected or a void creature will emerge from Daibazol to set up the Big Bad for the sequel series. Maybe both. Nobody will end up with anyone and the next series and/or movie will be hinted at. We might end up with a cliffhanger to tease the sequel series. And we’ll all go away a little disappointed and a little happy all at once. Oh and Black Paladin Kaltenecker of course.
Salty semi-joking aside, at this point given how rushed the series has obviously become, I really would not be shocked if Lotor DID get a redemption plot that was dealt with in a single episode. Or a single sentence. Just like the way he was turned into a Genocidal Space Vampire in a single episode, I’m sure they can turn him into the Space Pope in a single episode. Maybe blame it all on a rift creature? Or maybe save that plot thread for the next series, given that in 13 episodes there’s no way they can cover everything they want to AND cover it as well as they want to. Or just never mention them again. It’s not like they were set up to be majorly important or anything.
Also, if the whole of Voltron Legendary Defender is now going to be a backdoor pilot for Voltron The Garrison Guys or whatever, that seems disappointing more than exciting. Voltron Legendary Defender should be it’s own show first and a sequel should organically follow based on success or failure. If there was always a plan to have more seasons as a sequel series then...
USE THOSE EXTRA SEASONS TO GIVE THIS STORY THE ROOM IT NEEDED!!!
Make VLD the best it can be before assuming we need a sequel series at all. We wouldn’t have half the problems we have now of story lines feeling rushed if, get this the story lines had more episodes to not be rushed! We could have had more Past-Paladins. Keith’s backstory could have been explored as a full episode or two not spoon fed to us by time flashbacks. Allurance could feel less forced and artificial. Lotor’s betrayal could have been given more than a single episode info-dump. We could have actually explored Allura’s feelings and hr process of getting over one of the most important relationships in her life turning to shit. Give this story the time and space it needs to breathe and grow. Let THIS story be told in a well paced way rather than being forced to rush to hit the deadlines for the sequel series. If VLD ends up being less well received owing to bad or rushed writing, we may just end up with zero interest in the sequel series anyway. It’s self defeating!
Don’t have entire episodes devoted to characters who show up, info dump and then are mute for the rest of the season. Don’t have entire plot threads be rushed and resolved in time less than they deserve! And if you can’t do that...
THEN TRIM THE FAT!!!
We can probably all point to a bit that felt “rushed” or “forced” or “out of left field” and that all comes down to a single fact. So far, there has been far too much story to tell in far too few episodes. So certain plot threads end up suffering as a result. Not being fully realised. Not being given anything more than flashbacks and montages rather than full episodes examining in greater emotional depth and deeper narrative exploration.
I would rather see a simple story well told than a complex story rushed for time. What we seem to get in seasons 6+ of Voltron are attempts to tell the entire story they wanted but being forced to cut it short for time. Sadly, what would have been better than telling the full story badly would be telling as much of it as you can save well and discarding the rest. Maybe that’s already happened? Wouldn’t shock me.
Lotor deserved better. Allurance if it becomes canon, deserved to have been built upon to make it seem more deserved, less creepy nice guy. Allura deserved to have on screen time to adapt, grieve and move on from Lotor. Matt could have had time to develop his relationship on screen. Plance if it becomes canon deserves time to shine, because for many fans out there if it does becomes canon in season 8 then for them it will seem rushed, sudden, forced. Or worse, Pidge will always seem like Lance’s backup girl... As Said before, even me as a hardcore Plance Shipper feels like it can’t possibly be given the time it deserves to feel earned when we have just one season left to tie it all together....
So again, maybe all they can do at this stage is shrug and only ever give hints as to whom ends up with whom in this massive cast...? And then just spew out the sequel series. Because we gotta sell those new toys.
I cared and invested in the VLD characters. I wanted their story to be their story and not just a vehicle to sell the next series that, to be honest, I’m probably not going to be remotely interested in.
The Salt Floweth To An End
There is SO much potential in VLD that was squandered by things being rushed, compacted, cut and yet also being massively bloated despite this. Then there’s the obvious executive meddling that can’t have helped for a second... It just ends up making everything messy and unfocused. This season was a mess. Entertaining, yes, compelling, yes and damn good overall but with so many moments that just hit shy of the mark the creators obviously were aiming for. Almost all of it down to the writing. Because the animators, musicians, actors and all the other cast and crew did an amazing job. But the writing was...just a totally confused mess.
Overall, it ends up being Great rather than Exceptional which breaks my heart. Because the first 5 seasons? Exceptional. Every aspect. Especially the writing. But from Six onward? Everything seems to just crack and fray around the edges, the polish wears thin and the whole thing feels just slightly less like everyone involved gave 100%. Maybe a solid 90%, and some still went above and beyond... But things, in my opinion, shifted. Sometimes in service of “surprises” and sometimes just because they needed to rush. Whatever the case, it feels like somewhere along the line the writers stopped caring as much. If at all.
Will I watch season 8? Sure.
But I’ll always know it could have been so much more if they’d been given more time and more room to let the story flourish.
At this point I doubt it’s possible given the already obvious lack of focus in the writing, that we’ll see every plot thread tied up to satisfaction. I’m not even going to kid myself that they’ll do it all well because that’s just not going to happen. I’ll be shocked if they manage it at all. Frankly I’ll be shocked if the last season doesn’t focus more on the new team again... I am not looking forward. It feels like a chore now.
Will I watch the sequel series if there is one.
No. Probably not.
I wanted Voltron Legendary Defender to be given all the time it needed to be exceptional. I didn’t want to watch an advert for the next series and the next group of characters and toys. Especially if we’ll just end up seeing them all wasted, rushed and never allowed to live up to their potential as well. I was invested in VLD and it sucks that my investment is used as a marketing ploy for a potential new show before being discarded.
Ah well. There’s always fanfics I guess...
Though even that tastes a little bitter now... Like I'm just another part of the Voltron Hype Machine and not even getting paid to do it... Sucks and it taints what I plan to do and what I already have done...
I do want to continue supporting the show and the ship I love along with all the fans out there in The Garden, but right now... I’m left feeling so conflicted. In two minds about how much I enjoy this show and yet despite that, how often and how glaring some of the errors, missteps and plain crazy choices they seem to be making along the way... It’s hard to feel 100% positive, but I did make this post and I stand by it. If the Voltron writers won’t give us the reality that makes the most sense? We make it ourselves. I did make these three posts and I stand by all of them as well. Even now as it seems like the writer’s minds are falling apart like chunks of wet cake, I still maintain that Plance makes the most sense in the story for those two characters I loved. Will it still make sense at the end of the series? Honestly, yeah. I’m sure it will still make more sense than whatever the writers eventually decide to churn out.
Here’s hoping Season 8 is...something...
#vld season 7#voltron spoilers#voltron season seven#voltron season 7 spoilers#spoilers#salt#bear writes a dissertation on a cartoon#voltron legendary disappointment
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For wump bingo, what about "needing to pause and close their eyes because they're light headed, exhausted, or have a bad headache" with Krolia and Lance?
This one went very long for some reason. Hope you like it!
Whump Bingo! Here’s the post. Here’s my progress.
Krolia knew what propaganda was. She knew how it worked. So when she’d seen a broadcast of The Voltron Show, as most of the universe did, she assumed that it was almost entirely nonsense. Once she got to know the paladins herself, she found that that was mainly true.
There were glimmers of the stage personalities here and there, certainly. The Green Paladin was very smart, and the Black Paladin was very heroic and brave, the perfect image of a leader. The Yellow Paladin was probably the farthest from the stage persona. Hunk made jokes on occasion, certainly, but Krolia wasn’t surprised to learn that he was also very smart, very kind, and very brave as well, even when he didn’t believe it of himself. The propaganda, in this case, had done a grave disservice, though Krolia understood the need for archetypes in show business. The real Hunk was much more appealing and personable than the show Hunk. It was a shame that the entire universe wouldn’t get a chance to know his true self.
The one who probably lived up the closest to his counterpart in The Voltron Show was the Blue Paladin. As Krolia got to know this crew of young people from a backwater planet, it seemed to her that Lance was always performing. Always flirting, always joking, always showing off. He got serious on occasion, too, but even in the middle of strategy sessions and intergalactic conferences, he had a tendency to make side comments to lighten the mood or take the pressure off someone who was struggling. It was a skill in itself, one that Krolia by no means despised. But she did wonder if Lance ever stopped performing.
“Is he always like this?” she asked her son, aside, the first time she was introduced to the entire crew and Lance went off on a rant admiring her beauty, then comparing her to Allura, then demanding that Matt Holt back him up, which Matt Holt did with apparent pleasure. It was almost a comedy routine, one that seemed polished and practiced. Krolia found herself charmed and annoyed in almost equal measure.
Keith just nodded wearily. “Yes, he’s always like this.”
Krolia hummed, eyebrows lowering, and he looked at her face in something like alarm. “Lance is a good guy, though, I promise. Very loyal once he considers you part of his team. Or family. We didn’t get along so well at first, but after Shiro disappeared for a while… Let’s just say he stepped up to the plate. Better than I did. He’s an asset to the team, and a very good friend.”
Krolia gave him a smile. “I don’t doubt that. I just find this showboating…a bit offputting.”
Keith huffed and folded his arms over his chest. “Yeah, you’re not the only one. Hang in there. It gets better.”
And it did get better. As Krolia spent time with Lance, especially when they went on a goodwill tour of planets that had just joined the Voltron Coalition, she wondered why Lance bothered to hide behind the flirty, loverboy facade at all. His normal personality was plenty sweet and sincere enough. It was a twist of irony that he was more charming when he wasn’t trying to charm.
But there were definitely some folks who fell for Lance’s stage persona, who even loved it, came close to demanding it. In public appearances, there was always a crowd of young citizens, many female, cheering for the loverboy Lance and asking for his autograph, his smile, a moment of his time. Sometimes private meetings with politicians and planetary leaders carried the same expectations. People wanted Lance to put on a show, to win their support with his wit and his personality.
For the most part, Lance soaked up the attention. He enjoyed being fawned over, though sometimes the strain of it would show at the end of a long day. He enjoyed the feasts and the parades, the galas and the ceremonies.
And Lance truly, honestly tried to use his power for good. While he enjoyed personal accolades, he was quick to turn it away after a moment of enjoyment. “It was my team who saved you,” he would say. “All of Voltron. We all want to defend you and help your planet.” He would talk up the individual merits of all of his team members, praising them in the most effusive language imaginable.
He turned it to Krolia, too. “Hey, don’t forget our allies in the Blade of Marmora,” he would say, clapping her on the shoulder and pushing her forwad. “This is Krolia. She was with us on that last mission, and it never would have succeeded without her. We’re all part of the Coalition together.”
This did not always go over well. In fact, it rarely did. Most beings looked at Krolia and saw only the color of her fur, the truth of her heritage. They saw a Galra, not a Blade, and to far too many people in the universe, “Galra” meant tyranny and cruelty and subjugation, not a force for justice and freedom. Lance got grumbles and looks askance, sometimes outright hostility when he tried to turn the praise to Krolia and her organization.
Still, Lance did not stop doing it. He never stopped trying. He honored and respected Krolia and her comrades for what they did, not who they were. This, more than anything else, endeared him to Krolia.
Lance was a good boy. And he was young, barely more than a cub. As she got to know him, Krolia was eventually able to see when the pressure started getting to him.
His smiles would become a shade less broad, his eyes a bit less bright. He hesitated in his speech, fumbled momentarily for words. It was never a big difference, not enough that most people noticed. But Krolia was not most people. She was a Blade, and she had been spying on those who did not want to be seen for a long, long time.
At this particular event, Lance seemed to be struggling more than usual. He kept pausing to close his eyes for a moment. He narrowed his eyes against the bright lights shining in his face, sometimes even shading his face with one slender hand. After Krolia saw his shoulders trembling, she’d had enough.
She stepped closer to the podium where Lance was speaking and leaned over into the microphone. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I just received an urgent message from Voltron. Paladin Lance and I will need to retire and confer. Excuse us, please?”
The politicans and citizenry who had gathered to the meet the representatives of the Voltron Coalition nodded instantly, waving their hands and telling them to take their time. Krolia put her arm around Lance’s shoulders and pulled him into a back room, though he eyed her curiously the whole time. He let her manhandle him, though he was obviously confused.
As soon as the door shut behind them, Krolia reached for the light controls and dimmed them considerably. Lance sighed in relief, his knees shaking, and leaned back against the wall. His eyes closed for only a few ticks before he opened them to look at Krolia again. “What’s this about? I didn’t hear anything coming over my helmet. Do you have a special communicator or something? I want a special communicator.” He muttered the last sentence, sounding strangely childish and petulant over being excluded.
Krolia smiled fondly and patted his shoulder. “No, nothing like that. I just noticed that you were having trouble, and the light seemed to be bothering you. Is it better in here?”
Lance blinked several times. “Yes, much better. Thank you.”
Krolia nodded and stepped back. “Then we’ll stay in here for as long as it takes for you to recover. Do you know what’s wrong? Are you sick? Overtired?”
Lance shook his head slowly. “Nah, nothing like that. It’s just a headache.”
“Do you experience this often? This is not the first time I’ve seen you squinting or closing your eyes in bright light.”
“It comes and goes. I admit it’s a little worse this time. Something about the spectrum of light on this planet might be harsh on my human eyes, I guess.” He looked worried. “I was trying really hard not to show it. I don’t want to insult our hosts. Do you think anyone else noticed?”
“I don’t think so.” Krolia stepped over and hand a careful hand over his head, and Lance closed his eyes with a soft sigh. “I just noticed because I’ve been watching you for so long, cub.”
Lance opened his eyes to look at her, a soft smile appearing on his face. “Cub? You think of me as a cub?”
Krolia shrugged and pulled back, abashed. “You’re my son’s age. You’re all cubs to me. I know you’re a warrior, but…”
Lance released a light chuckle. “It’s okay. You didn’t offend me.” He reached out for her hand again and placed it on his own forehead, sighing as the cool pads of her fingers touched his warm skin. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”
Krolia shuffled a step closer at the encouragement, pressing her hand more fully over his forehead. “Let me know when your headache is better. We’ll go out when you’re ready, and not a moment sooner.”
Lance hummed his appreciation, and they stood there in the dim room, shoulders pressed together, for a good long while.
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season 3 reactions: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7
1. I hate to keep going back to this, but seeing Lance want so badly to lead Voltron and still managing to say the exact words Keith needed to hear to take that role ... the boy doesn't need the black lion to be a leader, he already is - even if nobody's willing to admit it.
2. My ship so far in Season 3 is definitely Lance x Self-Esteem because fuck, he deserves so badly to understand just how important he is to the team. He's shown so much maturity and empathy in these two episodes and it wrecked me seeing him think his lion was rejecting him, and knowing that despite everything he is to the team, he still feels unworthy to be next to them.
3. That said, his attempts to flirt with Blue were flat-out amazing and I'm almost glad it happened if only for that.
4. I loved his conversation with Allura too - you tell can how much his bond with Blue is worth to him, and how much he means it when he passes the torch to her. I've heard word on the grapevine that the two of them have a lot of broments this season, and let me tell you I am stoked to see them.
5. I know he ends up getting overeager, but i wonder if the reason Lance takes so easily to the red lion is that he readily accepts his role as the right-hand man, in contrast to Keith's reluctance to lead the team and his struggles to control the black.
6. Keith's new role obviously isn't coming easily to him, especially when it comes to reconciling his lone wolf disposition with being responsible for the team - deciding to speed off after Lotor without so much as informing anybody else seems to be such a huge lurch towards the former that I half wonder if he's actively trying to make them regret putting him in charge.
7. Sorry, I feel like this ended up being such a Lance lovefest that dogging on Keith's leadership seems like an excessive attempt to make Lance look good - maybe a more neutral observer argues that Lance briefly losing control of Red is more analogous to Keith struggling at Black's helm than his initially slicing through all those Galra fighters is a contrast. It's just as fair an interpretation - heck, maybe everybody who's already finished the season knows it's flagrantly true and Lance has actually been bottling up his envy the entire time and has to deal with that himself.
8. All I can say’s that I can only work with what I've been given. Right now, Keith is at a nadir in his arc - he's just had a load of pressure placed on his shoulders that will force him to grow as a leader and paladin. Lance may falter soon himself - the special attention the writers have paid him so far would imply that he'll see his own share of conflict and deconstruction - but the focus hasn't been there yet.
9. Meanwhile, Pidge and Hunk seem firmly relegated to the comedy relief backseat so far. All I'm going to say about that is I hope Keith ended up making Hunk that sandwich.
#voltron#voltron legendary defender#lance mcclain#lance#voltron lance#voltron s3 spoilers#season 3 reactions
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I will be 100% honest. I do not like Klance. I tend to shy away from popular ships, especially in fandoms as big and rabid as the Voltron one but what I see in Klance is what I see in every fandom that has two conventionally attractive boys with a fanbase that’s made up mostly of women in their teenage years to late 20s.
I really hate to say it but the fact is, Klance just satisfies the “hot rival yaoi” trope that has existed for years. You can overanalyze the snot out of any scene that has Lance and Keith in it and say there’s romance there, you can do that between any two characters. Now yes, Lance and Keith are more focused on, they seem to be more primary characters (and I do hope Hunk and Pidge get more screentime because they are my favorites) and therefore share more scenes together.
Their dynamic is also important to the show and to the plot. I never wanted to be the one saying “well look at the reasons why you don’t ship this character over that character” but... look at the reasons why you don’t ship this character over that character. Hunk is not conventionally attractive, he’s heavier set, darker, and fits the trope of comedy relief.
I understand why no one ships Pidge, she’s obviously very young (only recently confirmed to be 15) but why does no one focus more on her character? Why do people gravitate towards Lance angst, or Klance angst. Heck, Keith doesn’t get nearly as much individual attention as Lance.
Pidge thinks she’s lost her father and brother yet won’t stop looking for them, had to cut away pieces of her identity to sneak back into the school, and had to leave her mom all at the tender age of 14 and 15.
Shiro suffers from intense PTSD from his time as a Galran prisoner, has had non consensual body modifications done to him, keeps getting pulled back to the very place that hurt him, and may or may not be the catalyst that gets his team severely hurt not that it’s his fault, but damn straight Shiro is the kind of guy who’ll shoulder that.
Keith is an orphan, dropped out of a prestigious school for unknown(?) reasons, has an partially Galran mother, is obviously reeling from the loss of Shiro whom he respected deeply.
And Hunk? Hunk hasn’t even been given enough screentime to know what’s going on in that dude’s life.
Allura and Coran lost their entire civilization and had to wake up, no time to deal with it! They’ve lost their families! Allura had to kill the only thing she had left of her father!
Don’t get me wrong, I identify with Lance heavily and I’m not trying to diminish his pain (well, since he’s a fictional character devoid of any emotion, I’m not trying to diminish anyone who identifies with him’s pain) but I always hate it when I see when fandoms go down this path of glorifying a character or a ship or both over other characters. It gets frustrating.
I’m sorry this shifted from Klance (which I don’t hate, btw, and can ship on a good day) to my quarrels with the whole fandom. I do have more to say on Klance but I direct you to this post that talks about the disservice done to Keith in the role of Klance.
For the record, I am fine with Sheith now that Keith is confirmed 18. I am fine with Klance, Heith, Hance, Kallura, Allurance, and Hallura. I do like Shallura but am antsy about it atm due to the unspecified age, I see her as around 18 or 19 like Keith but I also age her up a couple years just in case. I am not fine with Pidge being shipped unless she has been aged-up appropriately. I’m fine with aging up. I do not ship Pidge and Shiro even with Pidge aged-up because age gaps of more than 10 years make me uncomfortable for personal reasons.
#anti klance#in case you want to blacklist#I'm not tagging this with anything#because like it's just a silly rant#please tell me if you want me to put this under a readmore#for the record I'm one of those females in their teenage years#so I understand where it's coming from#I really hate getting serious but I didn't want to put this on my normal blog
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Why VLD makes it hard for Lance stans to like Keith sometimes (and how it taints s3 for me a bit)
I love my floofy red son to death, but sometimes I get salty and judgemental with his perfect portrayal by the (wonderful, just not flawless) creators, and I have some Feelings about black paladin Keith. So I thought I’d write a little meta and maybe some of you Lance stans can relate ^_^
Meta under the cut
I love Voltron to death, and don’t get me wrong my moody fire son is very close to my heart. But as an unashamed Lance stan I often find myself frustrated with the show’s treatment of Lance (a common issue the fandom runs into) and the particular way the show mishandles his treatment makes it very easy to get frustrated with Keith himself. All of these things could be fine on their own, but collectively they have left me with a bad taste in my mouth and are genuinely impeding my enjoyment of some parts of season 3.
The short version is that the show consistently portrays Keith as more worthy of the audience’s respect than Lance, and rubs salt in the wound at every opportunity. After 2 seasons of this treatment--of watching Lance be implied to be lesser--I cannot find it in myself to enjoy the lion swap: putting Keith at the head, in the Black Lion, and Lance at his right hand in the Red? That isn’t partners, space ranger or otherwise. That is a subordinate and his commanding officer. And maybe that would be okay if they show treated them like equals anyway, but it doesn’t.
Let me show you some facts:
Keith is presented as cool and mysterious: He motorcycles onto the scene with the audience knowing nothing about him other than the fact that he once made an impression about Lance and he somehow knows the Takashi Shirogane.
Lance is a comedic character from Frame One: There’s nothing wrong with comedic characters, and they can have huge potential, but compared with the pilot’s handling of Keith’s character it end’s up reading as a lack of respect for Lance--as it erodes the viewer’s respect for him.
Keith is repeatedly said and shown to be talented and admirable: This a big one to tackle but I’ll mention just a few examples. Keith’s introduction is him pulling off a heist against a military base on his own (the others basically just tagged along). He is the best pilot at the garrison, the only one who can handle Red, gets a cool weapon and lots of badass shots of him using it. He trains all the time, pilots though and asteroid field, fights gladiators. I could go on and on, honestly it’s really more the little things with this, like him hitting Lance with that squishy asteroid despite Lance being the “sharpshooter”. Think of how many scenes you’ve scenes of Keith fucking killing it in battle vs Lance. And, yes, Lance’s bayard is less dynamic to animate, but half of Keith’s fight scenes are hand to hand.
Lance is repeatedly shown to be bad a things: Sure, he gets his moments, as do they all, but he is at heart a comedic character and it shows. We know, logically, that he must be a good fighter, but he doesn’t get a lot of scenes showing it (the same can be said of Hunk but that’s a meta for another day). What we DO get plenty of is Lance making silly faces, getting told off by Shiro or Allura, his friends rolling their eyes at him, him crashing the simulator or tripping Voltron or zapping himself on the wall over and over. And sure for that last one you could argue it wasn’t his fault, as you can with many, but the end result is the same: Lance looking foolish onscreen.
Keith’s always portrayed according to what our society considers “cool”: He leans up against stuff with his arms crossed in like, EVERY FRAME. He’s serious and doesn’t have a goofy comedic underpinning like most of the others. Beyond responding to being riled up by Lance, that is, which isn’t particularly goofy. His comedy potential comes from smirks and making Lance look bad. Even his fatal flaw is cool: he’s too brave (i mean, i know it’s impulsivity in actuality, but it reads as “too willing to jump into battle like a badass” so the effect is the same).
Lance is 90% comedic relief and Keith is 90% protagonist: This is a hard concept to articulate but it’s something i’ve always been struck by, even during the pilot episode where Lance was ostensibly the protagonist. Maybe protag isn’t the best word, but I can’t help but think that Keith is treated a bit more like a main character than the others. He’s the one that kids (especially amab kids) want to be. Wow that’s a big generalisation, but do you see what I’m getting at? He tames the hardest lion, has a sword, is the fastest, wears red. Lance, on the other hand, might be fun to laugh at but not so good for strapping on your cape and pretending to be. And that’s not a coincidence, that’s a result of they are portrayed. The viewer is encouraged to laugh at Lance (and often with Keith).
There’s a significant screen time disparity: It’s hard not to get a little salty went my boy is pushed to the side so often. This isn’t news to anyone, but it’s another nail in Keith’s coffin: how am I supposed to root for him with that little voice in my head being like “wow another Keith scene, huh?”
Shiro, an undeniably perfect character, has a bias: After a while I find myself yelling along with Lance “Yeah! Fuck Keith! He is a hothead!”
Keith is going to be the Black Paladin for no reason: After 2 seasons of special treatment Keith is now getting the most special treatment of all--a chance to Form The Head. He hasn’t shown any natural aptitude to the job--in fact, I think he’d make a pretty bad leader. As would any of them! They’re all just kids! But even if he fucks it up he’ll still have been Shiro’s Choice, Black’s Choice. Special. And if he actually becomes a good leader, learns and grows from this? That’s even worse. Because any of those bright little kids could have potentially blossomed in that role given the chance. But they weren’t given the chance. And that, ultimately, reflects the attitude of the whole show.
So after all this, when Keith is given a higher position, officially above Lance, it really grates on me. If the show treated them as equals I’d be totally fine with Black Paladin Keith. But as it is it feels like dumping mud on Lance’s head while he’s down, the final straw. And sure, Lance is going to get more screen time and character development this season and that’s great. But in the wake of the above, it feels like “okay, now that the important characters are sorted we can spend some time on the side characters.” It almost feels more insulting than if they’d left things as they were. Sure, Lance comes into his own. But that just means his best? Not as good as Keith’s best. He blossoms, sure, but his ceiling is ‘Keith’s underling’.
At this point in my opinion only Lance becoming Black Paladin or something of magnitude would get him on equal footing with Keith (in the eyes of the show) and since the reverse is what’s happening... I wonder if they’ll ever be equals.
I look forward to seeing Lance’s arcs. Maybe (HOPEFULLY) I’m wrong and he and his presentation will develop enough that he truly reads as Keith’s equal.
But until then I’m going to grit my teeth as much through Keith’s highs as I have through Lance’s lows. Which isn’t what I wanted at all.
Anyway, there’s my two cents, ultimately meaningless but fun to explore! Please be respectful, I’m a true fan and I’d hate to have such a wonderful thing in my life tainted by my anxiety over discourse :/ ^_^ Now back to your regularly scheduled Season 3 Hype!!!!!!!!!
#I don't have a ton of followers so this is basically screaming into the void#but i guess that makes it less likely someone'll tell me to kms#oh well it was fun :)#black paladin keith#Keith#voltron meta#voltron season 3#vld s3#lance#vld#voltron#voltron legendary defender#meta#long post#discourse
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I’m only writing this down here because I have shit to do and cant sit pondering on things for the time being, but:
I’m currently trying to figure out why certain things bother me in Steven Universe and Voltron that are also present in Teen Titans, but I find endearing in Teen Titans.
I’ll start with Voltron because I actually have an answer to that one. Voltron’s tendency to switch between comedy and seriousness at the drop of a dime always bothered me a lot. It’s not as present in the 3rd season because that season is just straight drama (ironic considering Shiro was missing for most of it, and ill get to why thats ironic in a minute) but it is in the other seasons. The best (and by that I mean clearest and also funniest in the contrast) example of this is the Space Mall episode. While everyone else minus Allura and Shiro are fooling around in a mall and doing mostly comedic shit, Shiro is nearly killed by the big bad of the series in a beautiful but pretty dark scene. (And Allura is also off doing something funny and cute, its worth mentioning). This perfectly highlights the tonal differences and what causes these differences - its whether Shiro is in a scene or not. Like I love Shiro, I love Shiro a lot, but...giving all your serious scenes to one character, or worse killing the mood of a scene just by his meer presence, is...bad writing. The only three other characters that have really had any serious backstory or serious moments are Keith, Pidge, and Allura. But I can basically never take a scene with Lance, Hunk, or god forbid Coran seriously. Coran is okay because no show ever develops the Old Crazy Uncle comedy relief character (but i will love this show forever if they do that honestly) but Lance and Hunk? It’s appalling how little development they’ve been given. To be fair it looks like theyre building up to /something/ with Lance, but honestly? That should’ve bubbled over two seasons ago. You establish your characters’ problems and struggles in the first season, not season 4 or later. Sorry not sorry.
But comparing that to Teen Titans, okay. So Voltron’s problem is that instead of its serious moments vs its comedic moments being situational, they’re character driven. They dont treat all their characters equally; they act like they have a cast of comedic characters and then a cast of serious characters. Teen Titans, meanwhile, relies on all of its main characters as a source of humor. Robin gives bad puns, Starfire is the quirky alien, Beast Boy is the Typical Teenage Boy(tm), Cyborg is his slightly chiller and cooler sidekick, and Raven is the emo kid that cant stand the Typical Teenage Boy(tm). And all of its main characters also have a darker side that fits into these comedic topes that they fall into, that makes them overall well-developed characters and fitting for the tone of the show as a whole.
Now onto Teen Titans and Steven Universe. I’m starting to absolutely despite Steven Universe’s filler episodes. Like, sincerely, there are so many episodes in Steven Universe that bore me, the “stupid” episodes especially. So why do I hate SU’s filler episodes but not Teen Titans’? Well first off, I said Teen Titans’ make me laugh, not that I like them. There are a lot of episodes that I didnt even find that funny, I just found myself laughing as a reflex because my brain was stuck in a loop of “what?? what the fuck??? this is borderline kinky” Secondly, the reason I can laugh at Teen Titans’ is 1. because they purposely dont take themselves seriously in those episodes, and 2. because they dont take away from screentime that should have gone to the shit pacing of the serialized story. Control Freak is my favorite (irONICALLY) but I’d prefer to see Slade terrorizing the Teen Titans with his latest plan over another Control Freak episode any day (except yesterday because i watched a lot of depression shit yesterday). Having said that, I dont mind watching Control Freak because (USUALLY) by the time they get to a filler episode, the main plot has hit a stopping point where a filler episode is okay (IE the titans cant do anything about it), or the “filler” episode actually is the plot. Because the Titans stopping Control Freak from robbing a bank IS their job, so it IS the plot, regardless of where Slade is at. But yknow how I mentioned usually? Yeah well, as much as I love Terra herself, I had a LOT of problems with her arc because the writers gave her five (5) episodes and four of those were inherently linked despite there being two filler episodes sandwiched between them. Winner Take All was the one I had the biggest problem with, because she was around for ONE (1) episode before her betrayal and she wasnt even a focus in it? Like really?? You gave yourself a new character to work with and you didnt even explore the possibility of “filler” episodes with her??? And Fractured is a bit more understandable (well, plot progression wise - the episode itself is basically a drug trip) but even then, I feel like...that wasnt really a good place for that episode. I feel like taking out those two filler episodes, and maybe taking out another one or two earlier on and moving her first episode as a Titan up further, and dedicating those episodes to filler episodes involving her would be much better for her overall arc. But I digress, it does it right MOST of the time, where as Steven Universe basically hasn’t done it right since the second season. The problem is that the filler episodes are interrupting the plot, instead of the plot stalling and leaving room for filler episodes. And the moral thing - there’s no fucking moral to Fractured or even Winner Take All, but Steven Universe acts like there’s some kind of moral to episodes like Onion Friend. I dont know, I just feel like the show tries to say “be nice to people who are different!” about a character that really is the embodiment of being MEAN to others who are different. And I dont mean he’s mean to others (he is, but he doesnt discriminate), I mean that he himself is the embodiment of the “weird kids are weird and nobody should like them” kind of trope. Onion isn’t just some quirky child, he feels like a creepy autistic stereotype - and this is coming from someone who isn’t good at picking up on these kinds of things and really hasnt heard much about Onion from anyone else other than “hes annoying”. He puts me very, very off and I know the writers had good intentions, but Onion was very much the wrong character to do with this - or he needs to be more redeemable and less psychopathic. Like you cant say “oh he’s just different and does strange things [implied because hes autistic]!! uwu” and then show him robbing an arcade a few episodes later. You need to commit to how you’re portraying a character. But I feel like Onion could be comparable to like Starfire, since Starfire’s status as an alien is treated both seriously and is generally the source of her jokes, but this already got too long and i dont have time to pinpoint the exact difference right now - but I guess for the time being you could say that “starfire saying weird things because shes a cultural minority, both on earth and in space” is a lot less harmful than “mentally ill people like to rob arcades”
I’m gonna write a more articulated version of this some time but rn I’m not satisfied about how I’ve highlighted the differences between SU and teen titans and like i said i dont have time right now so
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Valentine's Day HC
This is my Valentine’s Day present for @sleepingupsidedown blame them for the suffering
-Lance has everyone’s back
-Even if no one ever really talks to him but Hunk
-Keith goes to Allura or Shiro because god forbid he talks to anyone else
-Allura goes to Coran and Coran goes to Allura
-Shiro only goes to Keith
-Pidge goes to Hunk or Shiro
-Hunk can talk to Pidge, Keith, Lance , and Shay
-Lance well, when it comes to the real important stuff, the homesickness, feeling inferior, a burden, a seventh wheel, Lance has no one
-Lance tries to form close bonds with the others but they never give him the chance, and those that do he doesn’t want to hurt by telling them of how unhappy he is
-Or he feels the horrible tension that seems to constantly be around them so he takes it upon himself to be the comedy relief
-The reason he flirts is because it makes him feel closer to his brother who taught him all those awful pick up lines
-He’s used to being overlooked it happens when you have a big family, it can’t be helped
-So when they finally have a moment to stop and relax Lance isn’t all that bothered that everyone naturally paired off only leaving him alone
-Lance then decides to simply go to his room, have some me time
-When he finally has his mask on he finds that he has tracks down his face mask(HIS VERY EXPENSIVE AND RARE FACEMASK MIND YOU)
- Cursing he realized it was wet with his tears
- He rushed to fix the mask and try to stop his crying but he finds that he can’t
-He can’t stop crying
-He can’t breathe
-He can’t hear the music he put on earlier
-He’s on the floor
-He doesn’t know what’s wrong and yet he remains quiet, rides it out by himself because who can he tell
-So he waits for what feels like forever to be able to breathe again
-Then he just waits for the panic and blind terror to subside
-And when it’s all over he gets up, the timer went off, it’s time to take off the face mask
-He doesn’t want to be alone anymore
-He doesn’t want to be there
-He wants to be in his mama’s arms
-He wants to listens to his siblings trying to make him laugh
-He wants his dad to be making him chocolate caliente
-Hell he just wants someone to talk to
-He just wants someone in the spaceship to have his back for once
-Someone who is genuinely interested to see him or just listen to everything be it good or bad
-He wants too many things that will never come to pass
-So instead he lays back in bed until the next battle because what else is there to do?
-What Lance doesn’t know is that it’s his birthday
-Everyone went and paired up to go prepare the surprise party for Lance the flirt who just happened to be born on Valentine’s Day
-Hunk went to go make the cake with Coran
-Pidge went to find some dank memes
-Allura,Shiro, and Keith went on to decorate the common space
-What Lance doesn’t know is that they all love him and appreciate him
-What Lance doesn’t know is that Keith planned all of this after Hunk let it slip that Lance’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day
-What Lance doesn’t know is that Keith plans to tell him how he feels about him
-WHAT LANCE DOESN’T KNOW is that the reason no one has had time is because they have been busy trying to hunt down the beauty products the know Lance loves or anything that brings him happiness to be honest
-You see Hunk isn’t making an Altean cake, oh no, he managed to find more than half of the ingredients to make Lance’s favorite cake, a tres leches
-Pidge found at least 3 new face mask made by humans for humans
-Allura is giving Lance a book she’s been writing with all the pick up lines Lance has ever directed toward her because she doesn’t know when but at some point it stopped being annoying and it started to be endearing
-Shiro is giving Lance the chance to give himself a nickname that Shiro will use from then on but it must be appropriate
-And Keith….. he has a whole letter were he wrote down all the feelings he knows he won’t be able to ever say to him
-Just hundreds of words stating how much he loves him and how sorry he is for ever forgetting him
-Asking Lance if he will take him, God please allow him to have a special place in his heart
-So Lance doesn’t know that when he is finally feeling as if he can actually maybe function that the others have Hunk going to his door to coax him out of his room
-But when Lance learns about all of it, learns that he’s not alone and the others have his back
-Now his tears are from happiness and a spark of hope that not everything is impossible
-And yes he does have enough space for Keith, why wouldn’t he?
#voltron#voltron-headcanons#klance#langst#insecure Lance#loving Keith#loving Paladins#team is synonymous with family#panic attack#may be triggering#Valentine's day#if lance's birthday were on Valentine's Day#I promised insecure Lance and I like to think I delivered#Allura#Pidge#Keith#Shiro#Coran#Hunk#my son#I'm sorry#fluff#angst to fluff#surprise birthday party#surprise birthday party trope#Valentine's day hc
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Galaxy Garrison Analysis
So I have a lot of feelings as to the kind of institution the Galaxy Garrison is. Here are some thoughts I’ve accumulated over the course of time that I’ve been a fan. (A month? :’V Uber noob here.) I kept it in a list just to keep things simpler. Also, I’ve decided to put it under a readmore because IT’S A LOT!!
1.) The Galaxy Garrison is a POST SECONDARY SCHOOL which means that in order to attend, you will need to have completed high school before entering.
2.) The Galaxy Garrison is a program in which it trains its students into becoming astronauts and/or space engineers. However, in order to even be qualified as an astronaut and FLY, you need to successfully pass a basic requirement in order to even be chosen. The requirements are a rather military style standard on top of having a BACHELORS DEGREE. (You need to have 20/20 correctable vision, be physically able to perform duties in outer space, etc. -- you can look at the US requirements HERE for being an astronaut.)
3.) With that in mind, the students in the Galaxy Garrison will be working hard to attain these requirements, including their bachelors degree.
4.) Which brings to mind that there aren’t really any other post secondary schools in the ENTIRE WORLD that offer anything quite like this. (And if there is, there are probably only a few!) So what I’m getting at here is that this school is PRETTY PRESTIGIOUS, and with so many applicants trying to get into the program, that means the ones who do get accepted are, quite literally, the best-of-the-best. You need to be physically capable AND smart to compete with the rest of the applicants.
5.) There are no age restrictions in being an astronaut, but with its requirements, nobody under the age of 26 has flown into outer space to date.
(edited: added #6)
6.) To be eligible for a private pilot certificate, you must be at least 17 years old. To have a commercial pilot certificate (which I think pertains more to the Galaxy Garrison), you can be no younger than 18 years old! Why is this important? Because it’s one of the requirements of becoming an astronaut! You need at least 1,000 hours pilot-in-command time in a jet aircraft.
NOTES ON VOLTRON CHARACTERS
-Even though Lance acts like an idiot and Hunk is the show’s comedy relief, they’re both smart enough to beat the other applicants and get admitted into the school! (Hunk also has demonstrated plenty his intelligence.)
-Pidge hacked herself into the system but is so smart, no one has picked up on her trail.
-This one is a headcanon, but I feel like Keith got introduced to the Galaxy Garrison through a summer program (that assists in opening opportunities for underprivileged students). There, he probably met Shiro (one of the student mentors). After the end of the program, Shiro kept in contact with Keith, assisting and guiding Keith through the process of being admitted into the school. Thus, when Shiro got abducted by the Galra, Keith lost his support and guidance and, evidently, dropped out because of it.
-Shiro and Matt would have attained a bachelors degree prior to being chosen for the Kerberos mission.
-With such a standard for the school, this also explains how the lions never questioned their capabilities as paladins. They had to be on top of other applicants to even attend the Galaxy Garrison.
#i am in this too deep guys omg#i literally wrote this between work shifts because it's just been BEGGING TO BE WRITTEN OUT...........#im sry for how rough it is too tho fffffffff#voltron analysis#headcanon
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not to talk about the v slur but that show had so much goddamn potential and they really just threw it away huh
#I DONT CARE ILL SAY IT! KL*NCE SHOULDVE BEEN ENDGAME!#SHIRO SHOULDVE BEEN TREATED BETTER#NO ONE FUCKING CARED ABOUT PIDGE#KEITH GOT TOO MUCH SCREENTIME#ALLURA WAS DONE DIRTY#HUNK WAS NOTHING MORE THAN COMEDY RELIEF#LANCE......HOO BOY DONT GET ME STARTED#DONE THE DIRTIEST#V/LD U LET US DOWN......US AND TIM HENDRICK
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Post VLD Season 2 thoughts
(Spoiler warning and length warning for mobile users)
I finished binge-watching VLD’s season 2 and I have to say the whole experience was bittersweet for me. I still enjoyed watching it and I laughed a lot, but overall, the season left me wanting for more.
Pros:
- Keith’s backstory
- Pidge being bamf as fuck
- Shiro’s awakening as a Leader™
- CORAN JUST CORAN
- The ever sweet Hunk being Hunk
- THAT SKIN ON SKIN KLANCE MOMENT THOOOOOOOOOOO
- Shiro and Keith being hella sibs
Cons:
- Where the fuck was Lance
- So Hunk is just the Fat Comedian™ i guess?
- Allura's slow character progression, but at least it’s better than Lance’s.
My biggest gripe with season 2 would have to be the complete lack of character development for Lance. I mean, I’m not surprised. Lance is the comedy relief of the show; a lot of stupid and unnecessary situations are going to happen to him just for the laughs, but ugh. I just assumed, after reading about how the creators adore Lance and appreciate him that he would have a much bigger role this season. Don’t get me wrong, the only great thing I appreciate they did was toning down his nonsensical flirting with every femme type character he came across. I only noticed him flirting with femme aliens like twice in the whole 13 episodes so kudos for that. But they barely scratched the surface of this kid’s character!
They finally had him admit that he does have some insecurity issues about where he stands as a paladin of voltron, but to brush it aside in favor of the plot and then to ignore it for the rest of the season just makes me feel a little cheated. I feel like that’s definitely a thought that comes into Lance’s mind way more often than he lets on.
On the other hand, I really like the way they handled Keith’s heritage. It wasn’t surprising, I expected that reveal to happen at some point but kudos to them for making his mother the Galra and not his father.
His dad though???? That accent??? I always headcanon Keith to be korean because it seemed to fit his looks better but UMMMM apparently he’s not judging by how hella white his dad looked. (I think that was more shocking to me than his Galra heritage lmfao) That entire sequence had me dying. I wonder how many headcanons were destroyed just from that one scene alone.
Another pro, but I guess could be considered a con depending on what pairing one supports: lack of shipping fuel.
There was some. I definitely miss the klance moments but I guess the writers can only do so much with 23 minutes on the clock and a whole bunch of material they gotta get through in 13 episodes.
My hopes for season 3 is that it’ll be more Lance and Hunk centric. Season 1 felt like it was mostly devoted to Allura and Pidge. With season 2, it was definitely Keith and Shiro.
VLD Writers: I love what you do, but don’t leave the Lance and Hunk fans out to dry like that D:
#janriel rambles#vld spoilers#voltron#they seriously did lance dirty this season though#BUT CORAN WAS THE STAR LMFAO
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New VLD S2 Trailer (Released January 5th) Thoughts
Found here. Season One spoilers natch
0:00-0:25 is reused footage with a new Allura voiceover.
0:25-0:44
Zarkon: There is no place in the universe beyond my visions reach. Set a course for Voltron.
Shiro: Zarkon keeps finding us. It's like he knows how to track us down.
Pidge: I don't know how he found us, but it wasn't with normal instruments.
Allura: It is nothing on the ship.
So apparently it's not some sort of tracking device in Shiro's arm or in Red like I had initially thought, but Zarkon's ability to... astrally project (?) himself and locate them, possibly via his connection to the Black Lion.
There was some debate over the season 1 finale re: whether Black rejected Shiro because of her former alliance with Zarkon or if it was done to save her new paladin. I'm thinking it's both, but perhaps Zarkon hasn't even needed to be in such close quarters with her to (ab)use that connection.
0:45-0:52
Shiro: Everyone, stay alert!
[there was a splice between this line and the next because when Shiro's looking back at the Garrison Trio on the bridge Hunk's awake and without an apron]
Hunk: *wakes up from sleeping on the bridge because he's stuck in the comedy relief role half the time but given how heavy the last trailer was some levity is nice* What'reyougysdoingwhat'reyouguyslookin'at?!?
Keith: *wearing nothing but a towel and... boxers? Swim trunks after a swim date with Lance in the pool they found one day while randomly exploring the castle* You woke yourself up snoring.
Hunk: My bad. orz
The syncing on Keith's line is kind of wonky so I think that clip was switched around for fanservice purposes.
0:54 You can see the back of what I'm assuming is a rebel Galra soldier (who is not Thace, alas)
But right before that you see Zarkon moving hIS CENTRAL FUCKING COMMAND SHIP THROUGH A HYPER JUMP BEHIND THE CASTLE OF LIONS
FUCK
0:55-0:56
Lance: They found us again?! How is that possible?! That doesn't seem possible!!
idk lance but i'm scared too
0:58-1:02
Zarkon: Attack that castle with everything we've got! CAPTURE VOLTRON!
Zarkon emoting the most he's ever emoted in the series so far. Sounds pretty pissed; the only other time that sticks out in my mind is right before he about to finish off Keith and Red in the season 1 finale and Shiro and Black swoop in to save them he lets out an audible gasp of surprise. The blast ended up doing nothing to him but he was (seemingly) actually caught off guard there.
1:03-1:05
Shiro: Everyone to your stations: This could be the fight of our lives!
Right in the middle of that statement we see four of the five lions launching into action with the next five seconds being dedicated to showing them in combat. Red is mysteriously absent.
The the SDCC trailer was framed as if Keith was taking up the mantle of leader and Shiro was either dying or going MIA for some reason (e.g., Captured by Galra, kidnapped by some sort of mystical godlike being based on that last shot, etc.) The former is highly unlikely; his encounter with Haggar was meant to mirror the one in the original GoLion! series where his character was murdered, but he survived it here ala the original Voltron, albeit with quiet a nasty-looking wound. In addition to showrunner comments about wanting to make a show where character death would not be a common occurrence (can't find the quote atm), I'd say all of the core cast is going to make it to the end of the series.
Tangent time: I've seen a lot of comments about Shiro dying so that the team ends up reflecting the original GoLion!/Voltron line-up of Keith being the leader and piloting Black, Lance switching from Blue to Red, and then Allura piloting Blue. The difference being, from what I've seen and heard about the original series, the lions were interchangeable. They were merely vehicles for the human characters to do their own thing without any personality.
In the reboot, the lions are still mechanical, but also magical and alive. They have a magical/spiritual connection to beings whose quintessence matches up with their own and mirrors their core qualities. Keith had tracked down Blue in the desert, but he couldn't get close to her because his quintessence and her quintessence did not sync. It's Lance who triggers the cave to open and for Blue to let down her shield. Now while it's possible for people to change over time, such as Keith becoming more friendly and embodying that aspect of the Blue Lion, I highly doubt there's going to be any major shift occurring in the line-up. It goes against the theme presented in Shiro's statement in "Taking Flight" upon Pidge revealing her (not-really-a-)secret to the cast.
Shiro: Pidge, owning who you are is going to make you a better Paladin.
...and by extension, a better, more-rounded individual.
That and it just isn't practical for Allura to pilot a lion. Ignoring the skewed gender ratio of the Paladins, which I can understand why people would want to switch up (dear god give us more named female characters please), Allura pilots the entire castleship. Coran can take over for her when necessary and has done so multiple times already, but only she is able to really connect with it and the lions, personally set up by King Alfor (which I sort of question but whatever it is what it is). Her energy is integral in producing wormholes. Coran states in the season 1 finale that the ship can make those jumps by storing enough of her residual energy, but we don't know how it's acquired and stored exactly, and it doesn't seem like a feasible method to rely upon in combat, which the castle regularly participates in along with the lions. Again, Coran has piloted the ship by himself when the need has arisen, but it really is at least a two-person job (really like a 100+ person job but they're working with an extremely stretched crew.)
That still leaves us with the question of why Red is absent here. Around the 0:53 mark of the SDCC trailer, we see another shot of these four lions heading into combat, and based on the scenery we can assume they're part of the same scene. It's clear that the team reunites relatively easily (in that they won't spend the majority of the season forcibly split up) and that it's not Keith piloting Black (unless Shiro's voice wasn't actually meant to be paired up with those clips of Black) leading the team on a mission to rescue Shiro and Red, but Shiro and the Garrison Trio (most likely) going to rescue Keith and Red.
1:10-1:13
Allura [voiceover]: We are always stronger together.
Whooooa this looks like a very metaphysical scene here. Again, the SDCC trailer made it look as though Shiro was absent (leading @akaashiaesthetics to try and nobly fix the situation), but he's seen in a from-behind group shot of the Paladins.
1:14-1:16 -NEW WORLDS-
Followed up by a shot of Hunk and Lance in Space!Atlantis, a shot of what I'm assuming is one of the aliens helping out Pidge not initially when she falls out of the corrupted wormhole into the trash nebula but later on when she's on some sort of foresty planet (seen around the 0:20 mark in the SDCC trailer; whether that's in the same episode after a failed attempt to leave the nebula or if it's after another separation from the team, I’m not sure), and finally a shot of Shiro being attacked by a Space!Dinosaur in what I'm assuming is the first episode of the season where he and Keith are stuck on some sort of rocky planet but who knows.
1:17-1:20 -NEW ALLIES-
Keith is shown helping a (most likely) Galra soldier out of a smashed ship and then fighting alongside them against a... giant mass of speedy organic material? Dunno about that part but I'm 99% sure it's a Galra soldier. It could be another species we haven't met yet, but it's looking like the same person at 0:54, who hopefully is a Galra resistance fighter/rebel alliance member/something because jesus do these kids need allies with connections
1:21-1:27 -NEW VILLAINS-
Not sure if that means there's another force strong enough to oppose the Galra Empire who also has less-than-noble-interests in Voltron or if they're sub-bosses of a sort, but Voltron punches one tf out and then another one has Lance?!
1:28 They're fighting Cthulu? In a box??
1:29-1:31 Astral projection of Zarkon versus... ASTRAL PROJECTION OF SHIRO HOLY FUCKING SHIT
SHIRO OBVIOUSLY ISN'T GOING TO DO ANY MAJOR DAMAGE BUT THAT LOOKS LIKE IT'S GOING TO BE AN INTENSE AND AMAZING FIGHT (love the animation there)
1:32-1:59/End is just letting people know when the new season will be released and links to clips from season 1.
I’m excite
#Voltron#VLD S2#VLD S2 Spoilers#Voltron Season 2#Voltron Season 2 Spoilers#Long Post#KM Komments#VLD S2 Trailer
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