THIS MAN LIKES BOYS

HE IS NOT A HETEROSEXUAL

I cannot believe this fucking show is doing this to me. 7 fucking seasons for this bullshit??? Someone kill me now I will NOT be making it through season 8

Oh boy it's delulu o'clock

Gotta love that every time I hear someone talking about queer baiting I'm like "They're gonna mention Voltron." and then they go "A prime example of this is Voltron." and I'm just slowly nodding in agreement like a dad watching a trivia show

Ship of the Day: Adashi and Shurtis

Names: Takashi Shirogane (AKA Shiro) and Adam W., and Shiro and Curtis, respectively.

Ship Name(s): Adashi and Shurtis

Original Content: Voltron: Legendary Defender (2016-2018), adapted from the original Voltron series (1984)

Ship info:

Voltron is a show on Netflix following the Paladins of Voltron- the ‘Defender of the Universe’. Fighting a losing battle against the Galra Empire (a volatile alien group who had plagued the universe for millennia, destroying planets and enslaving the races on them), 5 paladins stumble upon one of the sentient lion mecha ships. These 5 ships ‘choose’ their paladin and combine to become the giant robot warrior Voltron as a team- with Shiro (Takashi Shirogane), the paladin of the black lion as the head, the leader. The series follows this group as they try to save the world and defeat the Galran Empire, with varying successes throughout the series.

Now, there were multiple queer ships within this fandom at the time such as Klance (paladins Keith and Lance of the red and blue lions), though the two canon ones were greatly controversial- Shiro and Adam and then Shiro and Curtis. Voltron ran across 7 seasons, with no mention of Shiro’s sexuality until the final season. It is in this season that Adam is briefly mentioned as his dead fiancé who had died in a battle against the Galran’s prior to the formation of Voltron. There is a lack of exploration into this, with a severe lack of character building for him- just getting introduced and killed off in a flashback and a visit to a memorial. Curtis was also introduced this season, as a background character,,, with about 2 lines total. His relationship to Shiro within this time is shown as purely ship captain/crew, with them being shown getting married within a postcard shown within the outro of the epilogue.

Type of Ship: Queer bait/ bury the gays trope

As previously mentioned, this was a very controversial move for Voltron, with fans being outraged, claiming they were queer baiting and feeding into the trope of ‘bury the gays’ and i am inclined to agree (yes, i was once one of these Voltron fans, no, i dont want to talk about that stain on my fandom history/j). By giving Adam no character development and instantly killing him off,  they bought into the bury the gays trope- wherein studios add gay characters to appease calls for representation and LGBTQ+ fans and then dont bother to flesh out the characters, making them one dimensional before killing them off so they dont have to actually display a queer relationship at all. Similarly, there was outrage over Shiro and Curtis, whose relationship was non existent and then just jumped to a singular image of their wedding day, yet again failing to actually explore any semblance of queer relationship within the show. I for one agree with the fans on this subject, feeling as though it was just included to tick boxes and to try to score points with the large amount of LGBTQ+  people within the fandom- which was clear based on their reactions to Pidge (Paladin of the green lion) and their exploration of gender.

Admin🦇

Anyone who says that their comfort show is Voltron legendary defenders is lying. Voltron is not a comfort show, it is a hurt no comfort show. It’s is giving you characters that you love and care about and then dropping their character arcs half way through. It is queer baiting. It is unsatisfying endings. It is pain. 

Me: Wants to be happy because The Hollow season 2 trailer features a literal gay pride flag in one of the main characters rooms

Also me: Watched Voltron and knows how shitty television creators can be with their queer baiting and now I have no trust for the industry

So...

Watching the end of Voltron and rewatching season 6 (part 1 + 2) of Teen Wolf lead me to notice some things:

1. The show starts off much more lighthearted than the later seasons are. -Teen Wolf starts out kind of Twilight-esque. -Voltron was intended to be a kids show -The amount of violence and horror in Teen Wolf in the later seasons is not something found in dumb teen movies -Voltron in the later seasons attempts to address (I’m not saying they do a good job) the mature themes of loss, the horrors of war, mental illness (Keith is maybe suicidal, Lance is dealing with low self esteem, Shiro has PTSD) and sacrifice (Allura obviously but also almost Keith)

2. The plot gets convoluted and there’s too many villains. -Alpha Pack, Theo and the Dread Doctors, Evil Stiles, The Wild Hunt -Who is the main bad guy after Zarkon dies? -While watching Teen Wolf I feel like I should have a list of who leaves and where they go. Did they die or did they just fuck off to Europe I don’t remember

3. QUEER BAITING -I have nothing to say...Jeremy I trusted you!! We had a bonding moment my ass -Honestly Tyler and Dylan were literally on a ship. They were literally cuddling on a ship. Are you telling me that’s not queer baiting? I’m so angry NEXT

4. Kinda representation but not really. UGH you thought I was done? I’m not done.

-I will concede that Teen Wolf does a better job of this but to be fair Teen Wolf is supposed to exist in a world without homophobia. SO! What is Jackson’s sexuality? How the fuck did Jackson and Ethan become a couple? What was up with Liam and Theo in the elevator (also in the last season in general)? Is Stiles Bi? He never answered that woman’s (Katlin’s?) question. Does Derek have to shove Stiles up against walls? -I don’t even have questions to ask because there’s basically no representation. Adam could have been Shiro’s roommate. You wouldn’t even have to change anything. We literally know nothing about the man Shiro ends up marrying and everything we do get is in the last 30 seconds like they slapped it on to keep us from rioting

And the most frustrating part is we know at least some of the animators and directors and creators aren’t afraid of LGBT representation because these are the people who worked on legend of Korra and these are the people that said the show exists in a world without homophobia UGH ANYWAY!

5. For very different shows they have very similar endings. You kinda know where the characters are going in life but there’s still questions unanswered. -What is Theo doing in the tunnels? Scott’s voiceover says he’s an ally but last we saw we didn’t trust him also he was homeless so where is he living? Is he going to stay in Beacon Hills? I’m probably the only one who cares what Theo is doing so let’s move on. Alec. He’s joining the pack so? Is he moving to Beacon Hills? Where’s he gonna live? Are we just trusting Liam with strange werewolves that we adopt? Did Malia ever go to Paris? Did Scott go to college? And is Stiles in the FBI? Or is Monroe more important? Are Lydia and Stiles dating? Is Derek going to move back to Beacon Hills? Is Derek ever going to have a permanent residence? What happened to Danny? That’s not even really about the ending he just disappeared and I have questions! -We never get reunion hugs and I’m mad about it. Lance’s homesickness is a major topic and we never get to see him run slow-mo into his mother’s arms. Ridiculous. Lance just mourns his girlfriend forever? Are you kidding me they were dating for like 5 minutes. What is Coran doing? What about Romelle? And Keith is...alone? Forever? Idk I’ll be honest it was hard to read the postcards through ALL OF MY TEARS ABOUT KLANCE NOT BEING CANON

let’s talk about that

If you haven’t already, put those shipper goggles on because we’re going to talk about Sterek and Klance!

So...Derek and Keith are kinda the same person...and Stiles and Lance are kinda the same person...They got us twice! With the same ship! In all seriousness though I know that Derek and Keith, and Stiles and Lance are not the same people but they’re pretty similar and we’re here to talk about similarities.

D/K: brooding, good in a fight, does not talk about emotions

S/L: will not stop talking, probs bi with a crush on D/K and relentlessly flirts with the girl of their dreams that they have no chance with

And if you look at the course of their relationships they’re basically identical:

Starts off good. S/L knows D/K. (Stiles tells Scott Dereks whole background and Lance can recognize Keith by the back of his head at night with 100% confidence and accuracy) S/L almost immediately accuses D/K of something (Derek of murder and Keith of always trying to one up Lance) Definitely some sexual tension.

A brief interlude for some moments: Bonding Moment™️. We did it. We are a good team. Hey Lance I got your lion back. Leave the math to Pidge. Hey man we all miss Shiro. Pool Scene. (I meant pool scene in reference to Sterek but klance has one too. You see what I mean??) I think you two make a pretty good pair (everyone say thanks Matt). Start the car or I’m going to rip your throat out with my teeth. Sourwolf (yeah we’re gonna take that and run)

Literally save each other’s lives. Would probably die for the other.

Then one of them fucks off (and I scream “WHERE IS D/K I LOVE HIM” for the next 20 episodes)

S/L gets the girl that they’ve been pining over for forever who previously showed literally no interest in him

And then they have a reunion and you think maybe cause the keep having meaningful interactions but NO

Stiles does a spit take when he sees shirtless Derek running through the woods and then he says he got a little excited. Lance checks the hell out of Keith when he comes back 2 years older. Idk what’s real about the FBI op scene (I assume something in between probably closer to Derek’s version) but Stiles went on a dangerous op to save Derek’s ass and then I assume they drove back to Beacon Hills together in Stiles’ shitty Jeep (someone please give me a road trip fic). Keith and Lance have that rooftop scene. They literally watch the sunset together.

So yeah...I don’t know what to do with this information I have found. But it’s interesting.

Im a little upset about the new season...

KLANCE REFERNCE

O man

Voltron fandom I am so sorry you did NOT deserve that

just trying to get some good food fU CK O F F

Voltron legendary defenders writing staff: There, Shiro is married! He even kisses his new husband! Now you cant tell us we are queer baiting!

Fans waiting for more queer representation: YOU LITERALLY STUCK THAT AT THE LAST FUCKING SCENE AND FOCUSED ALL ATTENTION ON LANCE X ALLURA, AND NEVER EVEN ONCE SHOW SHIROS RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS FUTURE FIANCE GROW, OUTSIDE OF JUST HIM GIVING ORDERS. JFC.

imagine thinking that vld would do anything but disappoint me. lmfao.

our expectations for s8 were low but Voltron thought we were playing limbo