i have this headcanon that when adam met keith, they argued so much that shiro thought it was genuinely concerning

also, whenever shiro would try to get both of them to stop arguing they’d tell him to “STAY OUT OF THIS, SHIRO” in the exact same voice

I know I did NOT just get compared to a Voltron character in the year of our lord 2023 D:

new chapter of run all through the night is up!

Keith gets arrested and joins a rebellion, in that order. Shiro is tired of his shit (affectionate.)

or read from the very beginning:

In a universe where his father never died, Keith grew up knowing his own heritage. After getting locked into his Galra form after getting spat out of the corrupted wormhole, he knows he can't return to Voltron. But he can't tolerate the idea of doing nothing. So he comes up with a plan to find the Blade of Marmora... ...but well. You know what they say about best laid plans.

Today’s Daily Honey is brought to you by ‘I was just trying to do my Goretober prompt how did this happen’ and Zarkon finally not getting cropped out of the WIP preview.

The prompt was ritual and this was not supposed to get so out of control.  Whoops.  I would absolutely try to punch through and finish it tonight but A) I have work to do and B) if I’m gonna spend this much time on a ship picture it REALLY ought to be the one I have due for a zine by the end of the month.  :x

Im rereading antidote for about the millionth time. Its such a perfect fic. I know it was a long time ago but do u have any plans of finishing the antidote switch fic?

So sorry for taking so long to answer! ;_; I'm so, so happy you enjoy Antidote! It was definitely a labor of love. Unfortunately, I've run out of virtually all vld steam and all my wips for it are on indefinite hiatus. I would like to finish Switch someday just to have completed it, but writing it has become a chore and I don't feel like later chapters of Switch would serve the main fic well. So I don't want to get your hopes up about it :( Thank you so much for reading what I have ❤️

Oh god! I don't care what anyone says! I loved Allurance and it was a treat seeing their relationship bloom into such a powerful romance!

But oh my god! Did Lance and Allura deserve better than what they got!

Lance just becomes a farmer and Allura needs to sacrifice herself?

Imagine if Avatar the Last Airbender had to end with Aang sacrificing himself! Allura's death wasn't needed!

Lance and Allura deserved better and I will say that till my dying day!

Voltron Legendary Defender tried so hard to be the next Avatar the Last Airbender and it failed!

i really want to like wendall and wild but theres trans propaganda so i cant even bring myself to pirate it </3

Darrell is no longer allowed to drive after this one. Anyway! Coming across this on Pinterest, I had to draw it. But with Pidges. V3D Pidge up on the roof, VF driving, DotU in the back, and VLD holding on for dear life. And a perfect reference for @breadstickcat, Moo Moo on front. #savemoomoo

Anyway, this was so much fun to work on. I sadly don't know where to link for the original, but the signature says "scribbled-Death", but I don't know if that's here, insta, twitter, where. But. Here's what I used from pinterest.

Ah, pure joy.

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy this one! Until next time!

Black Paladin Keith (detailed analysis)

Okay, so I did promise you guys an analysis. I did not expect to get this done so quickly but this moron who wanted validation on the mini-meta did made me angry enough to put this out there because *shrilly Angelica from Rugrats voice* Omg Keith and Black were such dicks to Shiro, aren’t they just horrible beings? Yeah, you guys just saw my petty side which I normally only show to close friends but to the sane VLD fans out there, I feel sorry for us having a fandom like this, we deserve better. So whether you agree with all this analysis or not, don’t be a toxic jerk. You can hate Keith all you want - I’m not a huge fan of Lance and don’t support LGBT stuff (unless canon and there are some exceptions too) but I’m not going to turn into Angelica from Rugrats on anyone who disagrees with me. 

So, the first screenshot is from Season 2 episode 1. Shiro is being attacked by giant lizards and Red is out of commission. Keith is not the Black Lion’s Paladin but the way he respects her is shown in the two screenshots below.

The way Keith speaks to Black despite his tone is so respectful. He’s not sure if Black will accept him because at this point, she’s not his lion but he talks to her and he waits for her. Also, some people may not consider this a huge deal but this is season 2 Keith. The Keith who literally blows up at everything - not calling him out, he is my favourite but unlike certain character fangirls, I won’t deny he has flaws because it makes him even more awesome.

Now, we’re going to jump onto s3. I know what some people are going to think. Keith was impatient with Black when he became her Paladin at first but like, give the kid a break. He’s just lost Shiro and been forced into a position he never asked for. Not to mention, Black isn’t as fast as Red is and that takes some getting used to.

So I’m going to go onto another episode after clone Shiro returns because this to me, highlights how quickly they bonded. Angelica from Rugrats also mentioned that Black Lion knew the clone wasn’t the real Shiro because she was in communication with the real Shiro. She knew it was not the real Shiro but saying she was in communication with him, I don’t know were we really ever given proof that lions retaining the essence of their Paladin was a voluntary thing?

Not to mention, how do we know Haggar didn’t give clone Shiro some ability to trick Black? Alfor made the lions from Altean alchemy but Haggar is also Altean. However, those are theories for another time. I would like to bring your thoughts to this conversation in season 3 episode 6 of Tailing the Comet.

Okay, so the reason I am giving these screenshots one by one is so I can explain myself a bit better. I may have to split this meta into a few parts too. Okay, so basically in this scene, clone Shiro who we believe to be Shiro at this time is trying to remember what happened. Keith tells him the last thing that happened was he had unlocked Black’s ability to teleport and the first thing he thinks is that Black was trying to protect Shiro. It’s the first suggestion he offers. This is the lion he didn’t even want to bond with because he was replacing Shiro but it took what? 4 episodes and he’s bonded with her and thinks so positively of her. And the scene isn’t over yet but I will mention a potential trigger warning here that there is victim blaming and victim shaming in the continuation of this scene. So please take care of yourself and do not hurt yourself to read this meta if you are triggered by that.

Clone Shiro in this scene tries to put all the blame onto the Black Lion. Angelica back there may argue that Keith was being a dick here though because this fandom sadly is toxic enough to be okay with victim blaming if Shiro is the one doing the victim blaming, clone or not. Sorry guys! I don’t hate Shiro, he’s actually one of my favourite characters believe it or not. But I hate what fans have turned such a wonderful character into and you can tell I’m still mad at this moron.

Ok, but look Keith is defending her. Keith is defending his lion from who he thinks is his brother - still think they’re not the perfect partners? Not to worry, I have one more evidence and this time, it’s not from Keith’s end either. It’s from the Black Lion’s because it’s at but the good news? I won’t have to do a second part because I should be able to fit this all into one meta. Ok, so this next scene is still from Tailing the Comet. 

Keith did not like the the slight competition between himself and Shiro. It put him in a position of choosing between Shiro and Black and although he ultimately chooses Shiro, it is a mistake and he acknowledges this in a later episode. But you saw earlier that Keith defended Black but the relationship is not one-sided. Black takes a stand for him too in that ‘no, I want Keith’ to the point that Keith basically has to remove himself completely, not just stepping aside for a singular battle because he doesn’t want conflict with Shiro and at this stage, he’s weak and honestly, a little codependent. It makes sense given his childhood that he would be but I never realised he was before. 

Now, we could argue that Keith and Red had a very mutual relationship too. I do not deny this - Keith has a beautiful relationship with both his lions as Keith is a character that loves very deeply. Red responded to that by being loudly protective while Black is more a quiet protective where you will not see her coming. I think I will do a two-parter to this. S6-8 do not have too much for them so it’ll be a shorter part than this but there are moments showing their bond.

I have given my screenshots as evidence for you but Keith and Black are healers for each other. Black was abused by Zarkon and Shiro was abused by Haggar, so the two had this in common but that was the only thing they had in common. Keith, once he gains confidence in himself is exactly like the kind of leader Black is. He’s emotional but he also thinks. I know a lot of Shiro fans are like: are you calling Shiro a bad leader? No, I’m just saying Keith is a better leader of Voltron. Shiro is a great leader - he helped them build alliances but Keith being the leader of Voltron and Shiro being the leader of the Atlas was a very smart choice. When Shiro was the leader of Voltron, he always was stressed and wanted to be the protector, making some bad decisions because he took much onto himself. There are a few examples of this too such as him taking all of Voltron to save Allura - they could have come with a better plan. Or continuing to shoot at cube monster despite Pidge trying to warn him and it nearly getting them all killed for not listening to her. Pidge is always right, Shiro. Have you learnt nothing? But compare this to how Shiro is when being the commander of the Atlas. He’s still a leader and he’s the one who gives orders but he doesn’t have a responsibility to protect them because they’re younger. 

But just to wrap by what I mean by Keith thinks. As most of you know I’m a Kallura fan, so Keith saying they shouldn’t go to save Allura in s1 did break the heart of this Kallura fan. But Keith had no idea how to people then - if he did, he was basically saying let’s not form Voltron and go save her head-on but he worded that very poorly.

This is just one example, of course from early on. Has he made hot-headed decisions as the leader of Voltron? Of course, he’s a flawed character but he grows to be the kind of leader Black is. Quiet and commanding but never overtaking anyone else. I think I’m going to ask you guys - do you want meta of Keith and Black from s6-8 or is this enough to make you think? 

Also, if you are toxic or a jerk, I will not reply to your comment. You are entitled to your opinion - I firmly believe you can express that opinion in a civil and humane manner. If you can’t, I will block you.

Happy 10th anniversary to my beloved Free! fandom. When I was struck down by a fever in late 2017 and decided to watch the anime, I had no idea the ways the fandom would influence me. So since @rinharumemories is a memory event, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to finally write a love letter to the fandom! 💙❤️ 

(Adapted from this twitter thread!)

After my fever-inspired crash-course, Free! fell out of my head for a while, but Rin never did. The following year, I watched a cosplay tutorial for him on YouTube and decided to watch Take Your Marks. I saw The Bench Scene. Suddenly I had an OTP!

My first-ever rinharu friend, Rubi, encouraged me to write fic and kindly beta read for me! I was neck-deep in anxiety at the time because of another fandom and Free! was refreshing. My anxiety was so bad that she actually screened the comments on that first fic to make sure I could read them without spiraling.

I found more shippers & joined the Sakura Pool discord, where I would meet my dear SweetHeaven! Su & the other friends I made there helped shape @ficwip's early days as a hashtag game, and (along w/friends from SPN & VLD) were some of our discord's initial members.

When I was designing the ficwip discord, Aenya was kind enough to share tips for role-based channel permissions & let me pick her brain about modding a year-round space! Her advice was invaluable, an absolute lifesaver. 🙏🙏🙏 

Around this time, through the original #ficwip game on Twitter, I met fellow writer @matsuoka-lin and we got to be friends. (During the pandemic, Lin would join the ficwip server and we would recognize our Aquarius bond ♒)

Late into 2018, I was still writing rinharu fic, and I also participated in Inktober, with a good number of the images being rinharu themed. It had been years since I’d drawn, but those two brought it out of me. Sadly, that December, the VLD finale hit during my very first @rinharuweek and launched me back into the VLD fandom for a couple of years. I never finished my RHW '18 entry. But I never forgot Free! or rinharu, and definitely not Rin, who was my profile pic more often than not. 

Flash forward to 2021. Su won a fic giveaway & prompted me to write a rinharu amnesia fic. I worked on it across 11 months. That awoke my muses, and I ended up writing rinharu hanahaki for @ficwip's 5k!

Last August, I was days away from announcing a fandom-wide SPN event when I recalled my dream of a rinharu bang and mentioned it in passing to Lin. We talked for eight hours straight. By the end of the conversation, @thenightpool had been born. 

We started TNP with the humble goal of five participants in our first event, a mermaid-themed fic & art fest. We had months to prepare! Then something happened with FS2 and we scrambled to launch a Halloween fest that we pulled off thanks to incredible contributors. They formed the foundation of the TNP discord, which is set up a lot like ficwip’s to be a year-round little creative community. We’ll actually be launching our own version of fw’s writing retreat weekends later this month! 

The merfest, which got renamed Unleashed Blue, blew past our expectations — as did Sakurathon, a dormant event that we revived for a weekend in April. UB ended up with 52 entries; we’d hoped for maybe 15. Sakurathon was such a success that we rescheduled it immediately. Right now, we have a prompt meme running, and have events scheduled through 2024! 😅 

In addition to @thenightpool, we’ve formed @iwatobievents to promote events across the Free! fandom. And we’re running events there too, for Nagisa and Soumako. Because what is sleep!! 

So the TL;DR is that the rinharu fandom helped give @ficwip life, has inspired me as a writer and artist, led me to my best and dearest friends, and will make a big dream come true later this year: I’ll finally be running a rinharu bang! 💙❤️

And I still have a Rin Matsuoka icon.

(eta: I did, up until the day I posted this. It may temporarily be changed to another favorite character!)

y’all. there’s this one klance (in 2023? shocker ik) fic that’s like a dbh au and a choose your own ending story on ao3 and i thought i should share it because it is SO GOOD. here’s the link!

I know this 100% will never happen but what if the finale pulls a vld where it cuts to the future in the last couple minutes of the episode and in the last 5-10 seconds it closes out with Ash & Gou’s wedding. That would be incredible. It’s impossible sadly but it would be incredible

Nine People You Would Like t Know Better

My thanks to @ladynightlark for the tag!

Three Ships: Uh... where to start, I guess? *dives headfirst into Google Drive to remember what ships I write, while also going through my AO3 bookmarks I have that I actually picked for the ships)

Tanjirou x Kanao from Demon Slayer

Ballister x Ambrosius from Nimona(the movie, haven't read the comic)

Raine Whispers x Eda Clawthorne from The Owl House

I picked randomly. If you ask me this again, the answers will be different!

First Ship Ever: ... Oh, god, I can't remember. I feel like it was something that was from Voltron, while I was still watching VLD.

Last Song: Telephone by Lady Gaga, I was listening to my liked videos(which are mostly music) on YouTube while waking up.

Last Movie: I cannot remember the name, but it was a movie about a recent divorcee going on a hike with a bunch of other people, including her brother's best friend. It was very sweet, I teared up by the end! It's on Netflix, if anyone wants to try and find it.

Currently Reading: The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani. I'm on a reread after seeing the movie, and have become even more disappointed in the film adaptation that I(sadly) already was. I could go on a whole rant, but here is not the time or place. I'm also reading the Demon Slayer manga post-Swordsmith Village. Mostly to properly write the coming arcs in my fanfics, but I also just really love Demon Slayer.

Currently Watching: Nothing in particular. Should probably watch BNHA season 6, definitely wanna watch Spy X Family. Other than that, eagerly awaiting season 4.

Currently Consuming: Lime yogurt. I also had some leftover pumpkin pie with whipped cream earlier.

Currently Craving: Nothing at the moment. Which is different, usually I crave food the second I brush my teeth. I also have a weird tendency that, when I go out of the house for prolonged periods of time, to crave Coca-Cola, of all things.

I... I don't think I have 9 people I wouldn't feel really awkward tagging. Is this social anxiety, but digital? Is that possible?

A2 and D7 for the fanfic reader ask 💕

hi sweetness! thank you for the ask!

A2. How did you find your first fic?

so HP isn't my OG fandom. i started in Voltron, and i came to my first fic from Klance art posted (sadly) on Pinterest for a fic called Call Me, Beep Me (orphaned account). if y'all know anything about VLD, this fic is THE fic. it has its own entry on fanlore and lots of author/fan drama that led to the author orphaning the fic in 2017, because, well...fandom amiright?

2017 is also the year I dove into Drarry, lured from, again, brilliant art on tumblr (mainly from @faevorite-main-blog and this piece in particular...GAH), which then naturally led me to HP fanfiction. My first Drarry fic that i still adore and hold near and dear in my heart is dirtynumbangelboy, by @magpiefngrl.

D7. Why did you leave your most recent comment? Will you share it with us?

so i'm trying to catch up on 2023 LCDrarry...a lovely fest (in which i also participated) that just wrapped and revealed! This morning i finished a softly bittersweet fic by @chamomileteafuel

The Dying of the Light [M, 20k]

based on the show, Dead Like Me. it's light angst with a happy ending - the only kind i can enjoy these days; i'm a peach that bruises easily. this fic has grim reapers, and heartstring-tugging moments, both happy and sad. it's got a brilliant ensemble cast - so creative and unique - which i absolutely love to read in fics. it's got a perfect balance of lightheartedness to counter the sadness. and i cried...not an ugly cry, this isn't that kind of fic, but that kind of throat burning well of emotion that leaked out of my eyes. so yeah, i was moved, and so...i typed the author a comment.

yeah ok *wipes tears* this was softly gorgeous and bittersweet…really nicely done and a gentle reminder that the little things, little nudges of memories are small crossovers from loved ones passed. i truly believe that and you’ve captured it so beautifully. love love the owl thread and how you incorporated scorp. infinite kudos. big love. every follicle. xo

thanks again for the ask! xoxo peach 🍑

Something occurred to me...

Let me be hypothetical here:

If series like “She-Ra” and “Steven Universe” were made by groups of cis-het white men, there would be little to no backlash from fellow leftists; almost no “SU critical” or “SPOP critical” discourse.

If series like “She-Ra” and “Steven Universe” were made with ATLA-styled animation, there would be no animation snobs constantly lambasting their own unique, pastel-coloured animation for being “too lifeless”, “too off-model”, “too stiff” and so on. 

If series like “She-Ra” and “Steven Universe” were made by the same team of white guys behind ATLA-same story beats included-then their LGTBQ+ representation would be universally applauded rather then constantly condemned as “queerbaiting” and “not good enough.”

Let me be clear by saying “She-Ra”, “Steven Universe” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender” are three animated series I adore immensely. Yet sadly, ever since ATLA’s release, it has set new standard of animation snobbery where any cartoon that doesn’t perfectly emulate its writing, animation or general feel is seen as “disposable garbage”, even if that cartoon is good. Yet there is another thing here:

Animation made by people from marginalised groups-such as Rebecca Sugar and Nate Stevenson-are held to super unreachable, unrealistic standards. Even worse is how those impossible standards are held by marginalized groups and progressive thinkers. (and I speak as a radical-left queer socialist myself.) No matter how hard creators like Sugar and Stevenson try for LGTBQ+ representation, for many they are never “good enough.”

No matter how much flak shows like VLD and “The Dragon Prince” (both shows I enjoy) get for killing-off prominent gay characters, their backlash pales in comparison to the utter pitchforks-and-torches vitriol thrown the way of “Steven Universe” and “She-Ra”, along with constant accusations of “queerbaiting” and “rainbow blackface” despite being two of the most openly LGTBQ+ positive animated series of all time, both of which also-get this-do not even kill-off any gay characters.

Morty, speak my feellings:

Just a little something to think about.

Wait. What happened with Bob Koplar and Voltron? There were reasons as to why it was so bad?!

There absolutely are. 

And before I go any further, I have no clue if you already know who Bob Koplar is, but if you do, then this little explanation will just be for anyone reading this who doesn’t: Bob Koplar is the current head of WEP (World Events Productions), the company that made the original show in the 80s and owns the Voltron brand. Dreamworks at the time of the Netflix Voltron series’ production only had the rights to adapt the existing Voltron material and did not own the brand outright. All scripts/episodes for VLD had to go through Bob for approval (by his own admission, although the video where he acknowledges this has sadly been deleted from Youtube). 

So with that explanation out of the way, the reason the final season of Voltron is so bad was because the showrunners and writers at Dreamworks had a very specific story they were trying to tell, while based on comments made by cast, crew, and Koplar himself over the years, Bob wanted 1) a glorified toy commercial to sell toys to 6 year old boys, and 2) a successor to the previous Voltron series, Voltron Force. 

Based on all the evidence found in and around Seasons 7 and 8, the crew’s plans for the final seasons would have involved revealing that Lotor was still alive in the Rift, that he was innocent of the crimes he had been condemned for, and that he would reconcile with Allura and Team Voltron before joining them in the final battle against Honerva. 

Bob found out about this while the crew was making Season 7 and ordered them to change it. Based on interview comments and the history of the Voltron brand, the most likely reason was because he wanted Lotor to remain a villain so he could be reused as the antagonist of a sequel series. The crew complied and removed much of the content surrounding this plotline from Season 7, but then reworked it into Season 8 and tried to push for their planned ending anyway, banking on the fact that by the time Bob found out they’d defied him it would be too late for him to do anything. Instead, the showrunners were forced to cut out multiple episodes’ worth of footage and then rearrange what was left in order to have the number of episodes their contract with Netflix obligated them to release. (A summary of the most notable evidence of changes within the season itself, along with a rough outline of what the final season should’ve looked like based on what was removed, can be found here)

And this all happened after production was already completed, as even the animators and most of the voice actors were surprised by the version of the final season we got. 

Bob has also been implicated by multiple interviews with cast and crew as pushing back against the crew’s desire to include queer characters and relationships in the show, and prevented them from including any same-gender romance between the paladins. 

If you’re interested, the group of fans behind much of the research into the Bob-mandated editing of Voltron Season 8 has put together a few reconstruction videos depicting an approximation of what the unedited versions of certain episodes would have looked like.