#FREEVLDS8

[vldunchartedregions]

Omg hi! Hello! I'd noticed recent traffic to my old metas and was wondering where it was linked from! You don't know how happy I am to discover your blog! I wanted to reach out/connect and let you know we're still around/have our own discord server. We're happy to provide any of our materials/research that might be of help, and and and omg just wow. I am so incredibly excited to discover there are more people who CARE about this still!!

OMG HI, HELLO!? Firstly, WOW. I was a big fan of your metas and analysis' back in the heyday with Team Purple Lion! I would love to (if you're willing) to share your sources and materials as well.

Secondly, I can't wait to share what we've found too!! It's been a profound rewatch, that's for sure.

Thank you so much!!

[leakinghate]

Hi! I’m falling back down the vld rabbit hole and am once again consoling myself with how the series could/should/was meant to wrap up its various character and plot arcs and come to a satisfying and well written ending with all of tpl’s metas that i found really enlightening back in the day. So first of all, thanks for all the time and energy you guys put into everything you’ve collected/organized/posted!

Second, do you know if any of felixazrael’s metas are still available anywhere? With the blog deactivated, tumblr has kicked all the links on the old posts.

Third, do you have any thoughts on how unavailable vld seems to be now? Amazon doesn’t even have s7 and 8 available for purchase.

Thanks and have a fantastic day! 🌼

Hello hello! :D Welcome back to the VLD rabbit hole! You are so sweet! I shared your lovely compliments with my teammates, and we are so pleased to hear from you! I also occasionally re-read the old metas; there are a few things I'd change about them if I was to revisit them today, but on the whole I think they stand the test of time pretty well, and I'm proud of all the hard work and love we put into them. I keep meaning to write a retrospective of sorts to reflect on the things that have and have not changed since then, but I can never quite seem to find the words for articulating all the feelings that'd be necessarily wrapped up in all that. Felix is a difficult topic. They voluntarily withdrew from the community and asked that all copies of their work be pulled down and disposed of. Out of respect for them and our friendship we complied with their request, even as we as a whole are staunchly against deleting fandom history. It's a complicated and frustrating situation, but they have the right to decide what happens with their work. I'm sorry, I believe all of Felix's metas are lost now. As for your third question... OH BOY do I have thoughts! :D I have many thoughts about the availability (or lack thereof) of VLD. So, as of this writing, the first two DVDs (covering Season 1-2 [production season 1], and 3-6 [production season 2], respectively) are out of print and difficult to come by. Seasons 7 and 8 [production season 3] were never released at all for purchase. I believe there are still several places you can purchase digital copies of the first 6 seasons, but again, seasons 7 and 8 were never released. There could be several reasons for some of this - the DVDs were of low-quality and never sold particularly well (why would you buy a low-res version of a show you could watch on Netflix in HD?) so it's not too implausible to imagine that 7 and 8 were simply never printed because the expense of printing was more than the expected profit. That's plausible, that's reasonable. What's much less so is the unavailability of the episodes for digital download. Making something available for purchase digitally is so inexpensive, by comparison to DVDs, that it's basically free. And with the size of VLD's fandom (even today), you'd surely get enough sales to cover the already negligible costs. So it's not a money issue. And it's not a demand issue. What have we got left? The way I see it, there's two main options here, and they both boil down to: something regarding seasons 7 and 8 being edited is interfering with making those seasons available for purchase.

Option 1: It's something legal.

The rights for Voltron have always been a tricky thing. It's owned by the private company WEP (World Events Productions) which leases out different pieces of the rights to other companies so that they can make the shows and the merchandise based on the brand. I, and my team, fully believe that Bob Koplar, the CEO of WEP, is the man responsible for ordering the edits to Seasons 7 and Season 8. The "why" of the matter is still speculative, but it's pretty clear that he's responsible. (I can get into the details if asked, but we'll be here all day if I do it now, lol) So Koplar holds the rights to the brand, but DreamWorks, which made VLD, holds the rights to the individual show. If there's a legal conflict between the companies, say, over which version of the show can be released... then that could be why we're not seeing those episodes. Option 2: It's spite. Following on the last option, with Bob Koplar having levered his control over the Voltron Trademarks to force DreamWorks to make edits to their show, it's very possible one or the other is preventing the release of the episodes in an effort to screw with the other.

From Koplar's side of things, he's small and petty enough to rip an entire completed show - millions of dollars in investment in animation alone - to pieces for reasons that seem to amount to him disliking the story direction. He'd absolutely hold up the release of the episodes if there was something about them he still didn't like - and there's plenty still there for him to hate! (*cough* like the caricature literally named after him in the Season 7 episode "The Feud" *cough)

From DreamWorks' perspective, they had an entire completed show - millions of dollars in animation, remember! - ripped to pieces by a power-tripping, petty, little man. Which they then had to shell out additional funds to pay to reconstruct. The resulting product, which they were contractually obligated to release to Netflix, was then rejected wholesale by the fanbase, completely destroying any possibility of a franchise for one of the biggest hit shows they'd seen in years. We're looking at tens of millions of dollars down the drain. Would a company like DreamWorks turn around and screw over Koplar in turn for what he did? Yeah, I think they might. All in all, I can't say why they're not available... but I do know that back, immediately after Season 8 aired, WEP's storefront (Voltron Store) and social media accounts were claiming that the final DVD would be out by "the fall", which, given the timeframe, was presumably fall 2019. So at some point there was a plan to make those episodes available, at least on WEP's part. This, however, was likely before it was revealed to Bob that the episode "The Feud" was mocking him specifically. I can't say whether those episodes will ever get an official release, but I can say that if they do, it's going to dig up this whole entire mess all over again. And I'm pretty sure that neither party involved wants that. WEP has their new movie in production, and DW probably see the entire show as something they'd like to forget. Releasing those episodes will bring them both nothing but bad PR.

Thank you so much for your message! I enjoyed receiving it, and I had great fun writing out this answer! I'm always happy to talk Voltron, Voltron theories, Voltron related media. Have a lovely day!

[lokimilf]

DID HE. DID HE JUST CONFIRM THAT LOTOR WAS TRACED OVER.

[violethowler]

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 hope 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. 

[fire-of-the-sun]

Okay, so I was watching this panel again for fun and when Kimberly is asked if Allura has the power to bring people back to life at 40:00, AJ makes a face and immediately looks to Kimberly who pauses for a moment and shares a long, pondering look with him across the table to which he smiles and replies with a laugh: “Don’t look at me. We are but puppets.”

Maybe I’m just reading into it or maybe this has already been discussed years ago, but why would they have this exchange if the question had nothing to do with Lotor/AJ? Could this be hinting at the theorized original storyline in S8 where Allura essentially brings Lotor back from being trapped eternally as a robeast? Or is this interaction merely a coincidence?

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

So I made this...like 2 years ago now (whoa that’s a weird thought) and it is my first foray into digital art, I never thought I’d share it but the lovely @praetyger saw it and persuaded me to post it so here it is! It’s meant to be a silhouette of Princess Allura from Voltron: Legendary Defender, the pink and blue symbolising her status as Pink Paladin, pilot of the Blue Lion, and the tree is the same one that Allura heals in s8ep1 Launch Date. (Please don’t repost or tag as A/llurance)

[dragonofyang]

[ID: A screencap of Lotor facing away from the viewer at the lighting of the Kral Zera, pink light shooting out on either side of him at shoulder level before a purple-tinged night sky. Superimposed on the top-left corner of the image is the text “On 10.23.2019...” and on the bottom-right corner is the text “Rise and Atone”. End ID.]

While it’s all well and good to write meta analyzing what was done to VLD seasons 7 and 8, and another thing to talk about what was originally present, it’s completely different from seeing it yourself. We’ve already successfully reinserted where S8E2 “Shadows” belongs in season 7 of VLD. Now join us on October 23 as we present Episode 1 of our educational reconstruction of VLD Season 8: Rise and Atone, “Launch Date”.

With the help of an amazing team of artists and voice actors, Team Purple Lion is eager to show the fandom what once was to the best of our ability, using  literary elements and devices preserved within VLD S8. We have found some truly amazing scenes, and found closure for arcs that not even we anticipated, but uncovered through our research.

Will you rise with us?

@felixazrael @crystal-rebellion @voltronisruiningmylife @leakinghate

#RiseAndAtone #HonorYourChildren #TeamPurpleLion

[littleaipom]

I can’t believe they actually animated a plot for Lotor as a paladin in Season 8 but we never got to see it T^T wanted to draw a purple paladin for myself

Yes, someone forcibly re-edited the last season post-production to remove Lotor from it, among other things. Read all About It Here (LONG post, but the most undeniable evidence is presented toward the mid-end)

[freevlds8]

Was Season 8 of Voltron changed?

This masterpost gathers all the evidence indicating the technical weird aspects of Season 8, disregarding possible animation errors. It is not a post about theories of what happened or what’s the truth. By the end of this post, the goal is for you to form your own opinion.

The information gathered here was a collective work of many fans. If you know or found something relevant to this topic, please feel free to message us. We promise to respect the anonymity of those who give us more information. If by the end of this post, you believe something is wrong with Season 8, please consider signing this petition. Disclaimer: This blog condemns any hate towards the staff and creators of the show. Please channel your frustration to Dreamworks or Netflix.

Weird cuts and inconsistencies

Scenes from Episode 1 “Launch Date”

> First scene you have Keith, Lance, Allura. > Second scene you have Keith, Allura, Lance.

Scenes from Episode 5 “The Grudge”

> Audio description saying Zethrid points the gun at Shiro. (click to see the video)

> Audio description not acknowledging Ezor’s character. (click to see the video)

> Ezor is never acknowledged by other characters in these scenes.

> Ezor in season is voiced by Kimberly

Ezor’s voice from season 8 compared to Allura’s voice pitched up (click to see the video)

Ezor’s voice pitched down video (click to see the video)

> Zethrid’s “Trust Me” recycled from season 7 (click to see the video)

Scenes from Episode 8 “Clear Day”

> First scene you see the MFEs, Acxa, Veronica and “Curtis” in the background. > Immediately after, the next scene you have “Curtis” cheering for Shiro.

Scene from Episode 13 “The End is the Beginning”

> An important part of Shiro’s body seems to be missing.

"Curtis”

> Curtis’ name is only mentioned in subtitles

> “Man”

> "A brown hair guy” (click to see the video)

Audio description of Curtis being called Adam (click to see the video)

> “Atlas Crewmember”

The NYCC 2018 Poster

Curtis is the only character in a stock image pose.

The Wedding(s)

> First post related to the wedding is made by Ryu on September 13th.

> First leak of the wedding happens 22nd October

> Here’s a comparison of both weddings side by side: (Logos have been censored to prevent being taken down)

Barlee aka Carli Squitieri, a storyboard revisionist

10th August

> Ezor is dead

Credits of Episode 5 “The Grudge” (when Ezor shows up alive) with Barlee’s name on it

> Shiro being confirmed gay

11th August

> “They did what they could to patch it up”

Taekwonsonen’s tweets, a key animator from Studio Mir who worked on Voltron

> Twitter thread can be found here

Translation:

“After talking with a fan who honestly liked the show to the end, I thought about whether VLD was really that terrible enough to be spat on, with cool head.

I’m an animator. Not every animator likes what they’re working on. Some don’t even recognize what they worked on. If an animation is like a house, then animator is the one who does bricklaying. You can be proud of having made this house, but this house belongs to the designer.

Still, as a brick layer who built a house called Voltron, I am so proud and thankful of the series. Maybe if I hadn’t known anyone who cried and laughed along with the series, I wouldn’t be, but I’ve met people who thanked me personally, for laying the bricks. So I love this “house”, even though it isn’t mine.

So, if you ask me, if this house’s finishing touch is feeble, weird, and ‘the worst thing that ever happened’, especially compared to the magnificent, beautiful start, then yes. I agree completely.

But that ‘finishing touch’ is not a little thing. To me, every single brick of the last season is very upsetting. Everything else is good. No, everything else is wonderfully compatible and done very well.

But one small brick has such a different color with everything else, it’s disrupting the whole thing. It’s pulling out every little errors, even the ones I hadn’t noticed before, out in the open. Once again, this is only my opinion.

TBH, if I start rewatching the series from s1 and pick out little bits I don’t like, of course there will be. It’s only that they were so well made, even the errors looked compatible. Actually, I enjoyed watching season 8 to the end. Everyone tried their best and I sent lots of loves and thankyous to the creators. I want to make something like that. I wanted to make something like this, not only as a brick layer but as a designer too. I love this series so much.

The last brick shocked me so much, but still, at that point, I was like ‘that’s disappointing... but without it, it’s ok. They should’ve left it with open ending.’

Then I started talking with other fans, the people who loved and adored Voltron, the one who had high expectation of it. And I started agreeing with the. Yes. They are right. And I still think they are right. Passionate fans didn’t anything that isn’t true.

But on the other hand, is it okay to spit so much like this on the designer who didn’t know this last piece was going to fit so wrongly with the whole series? Maybe. You do you.”

Season Release Date Delayed? Why?

> Information linked to this Voltron shirt

> Text from this article

Lauren Montgomery

> Hours before season 8 premiered, Lauren requests fans to stay through the credits after the final episode, which shown the lions flying to Allura in the sky

> Lauren’s art for season 8

> Lauren’s quote from a video posted on youtube The video was originally deleted, but here’s a record

Quote from the video

“We knew where we wanted to head kind of early on, but then as things happened, and as shows progressed we started to realize that our visions were not the only visions going into this show. And where we thought we would end up was not always exactly how we were going to end up.

End of Voltron without the epilogue cards

We are stronger as a team.

Share this post and the petition through fandom and other fandoms!

[mistiqartsillustration]

I love love LOVE PALADIN LOTOR! I have no idea where are all these defensive interviews coming from @voltronofficial ? Either fix the last season or just keep being quiet. #justiceforlotor #lotura #lotor #allura #teampurplelion #FREEVLDS8

[leakinghate]

Oh what a lovely day to awaken to these tags! Thank you for them. It warms my heart to know this post and all the hard work we did is still reaching people who care about this show. It's a rare day that I do not think about this show, and wish we could see the original versions. In retrospect, this post has a lot of issues with it, but many I think are forgivable, given that the main thrust of the post is still true: Season 8 of Voltron Legendary Defender was severely edited post production and one of the main casualties of these edits was Lotor and his associated story.

Do you know, friends, that today, December 7th 2024, is the first day that there is no legal way to experience Seasons 7 and 8 of VLD? it's true. It came down off of Netflix last night, and since it was never released on DVD or available for digital download all copies currently available are those that were illegally downloaded. The only way you can watch VLD S7&8 today is piracy.

You may ask, well, why is that? It should be a simple and relatively inexpensive task to release those seasons for digital download. Why, in the years since their original airing has this never happened?

Well shit, I wish I could tell you, but I don't have any official answers. At this point, all I can do is speculate.

Fortunately, speculation is my forte!

It should come as no surprise that I believe the lack of official copies of S7 and S8 of VLD are a direct result of the edits to both seasons. Yes. Both. When I originally wrote this post, we hadn't connected the dots and realized that Season 7 was edited as well (I covered some of this in my followup post "Seek Truth in Darkness", since a portion of the content cut from Season 7 makes an appearance in Season 8). Whether it's a legal mess behind the scenes holding it up, or a matter of principle (ha!) of DreamWorks not wanting to publish something they were forced to butcher...

Hmm. I don't think I ever came out and publicly said what I believed happened and who was responsible, did I? We alluded to it in a few articles, but never directly stated it. The man in question is notably litigious after all.

*Ahem* Seasons 7 and 8 of Voltron Legendary Defender were edited, post production, on the orders of Bob Koplar, the CEO of WEP (formerly World Events Productions) the company who owns Voltron, the brand, and who leased the adaptation rights to DreamWorks in order for them to make VLD.

Presumably, what happened was that Bob was screened the final cut of the seasons for his stamp of approval (he was not heavily involved in the production despite being named a "Producer" of the show in the credits) whereupon he threw a tantrum and demanded they be changed. His being the CEO of WEP (who, remember, still held the Voltron trademarks) meant that DreamWorks was forced to capitulate to his demands and make the changes. Season 7 was sent back to Mir for the changes to be done professionally, and they're very difficult to pinpoint by animation analysis alone. Season 8, however, was up against a tight deadline and there wasn't time or budget left for proper changes to be made. So they were done with the skeleton team that remained at DreamWorks, and it shows very clearly in both the story and animation. Which is why I could see it, and why the original post could exist at all.

I don't think it's debatable that Season 8 was edited. It's blatantly obvious for anyone who bothers to look and is not under an NDA. The main questions are going to be, what was removed, and why this happened at all.

The answers to these questions are heavily intertwined, as the content removed reveals what was objectionable. As far as I can tell, the two apparently verboten topics were anything involving Lotor's redemption and anything that would potentially cast Voltron-the-robot in a negative light. These topics themselves are intertwined, because it is Lotor's redemption that proves that Team Voltron made a mistake in "defeating" him. As Lotor's VA himself said, "Lotor was framed." Revealing the truth of this would mean that Team Voltron has the potential to be NOT a unilateral force for good, and introduce a grey morality to a previously black and white situation.

In essence: redeeming Lotor would tarnish Voltron's "brand". And this was what was so offensive to Bob Koplar, who is on record saying his favourite character is "the robot".

Bob Koplar does not want it known what he did. Especially as, at this very moment, he is involved with the casting and filming of his long-awaited live-action Voltron adaptation. For sure, he did nothing illegal. In fact it's the very legality of what he did that made it possible - he owned the trademarks, and no one could do something with his property that he did not approve of. But he did something disgusting. He used and abused the creative team of VLD, forced them to butcher their own work, that they had poured their hearts and souls into. He forced them, through non-disclosure agreements, to take the fall for his terrible decisions, and is still refusing to tell the truth about it; he'd rather bury VLD and forget it exists at all.

So thank you, for remembering. For still caring about this show and these characters so many years after we saw it's "end". Maybe some day we'll see the real one.

Chasing the Ghosts of Season 8

Let’s skip the flowery intros and get to the point, because this is important.

Lotor’s vindication and reunion with Allura were originally part of VLD s8 and I can prove it. Most animation relating to this plot was excised, while other clips were re-purposed to make it look like he was dead all along: but some are still in there.

The removal of this plot line was one of the major factors in completely messing up season 8, and it was a change that was made very recently; no earlier than August in fact. There is a significant, non-zero chance that an unedited version of Season 8 exists in its entirety; completely finished.

The evidence is below the cut.

Trigger Warnings: Gore - that image and discussion of it, body horror, sexism, and major character death.

Keep reading

[91939art]

As always, we’re kinda late, but thanks to @ FreeVoltronS8 on Twitter we were able to send an open letter to WEP.

Before writing it down, we didn’t even recognise how much, in addition to all widely stated problems with S8, we hated that woman of science was turned 180 and made into an “obsessed mother”.

Guys from VK, take original from here, and translation from here

[naomimakesart]

I am so heartbroken that we didn’t get closure for these two, so angry that Lotor didn’t get the vindication he deserved, and I really hope that someday we will be able to see the unedited version of season 8.

Listened to this song the entire time I was drawing this and it broke my frigging heart. 

Available as a print in my shop! 

[violethowler]

False Perception: An Analysis of Lance’s Character Arc

When I first started watching Voltron: Legendary Defender in the Fall of 2016, the fact that it was made by some of the same people who worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender was one of the main things that appealed to me. All I knew about the franchise consisted of a throwaway line from Ready Player One and a one-off gag in Deadpool. While I quickly came to love the show for what it was, that familiar blend of drama, action, and comedy that I loved from Avatar played a big part in drawing me into the story. 

But while there are some clear similarities and references, it definitely feels like some people have gotten so caught up in the Avatar comparisons that only a few ever acknowledge Voltron as its own thing anymore. Because so much of the criticism I see with Voltron can be distilled to “it didn’t do [blank] the exact same way that Avatar did.” 

Yes, a large portion of the production staff worked on Avatar and Legend of Korra. That’s going to have some influence on character design and writing. But still, those influences are just that. Influences. They did not just copy the same plotlines, themes, and characters from Avatar and put them in space. Even without taking into account that it’s a reboot of a decades-old franchise, Voltron: Legendary Defender is still its own show. 

It is not the same story as Avatar. It does not tackle the same themes. And any themes it does have in common are not handled in the exact same way that Avatar handled them. Most importantly, the characters of Voltron do not follow the same character arcs as the Avatar characters fans compare them to, nor should they be expected to. 

Yes, this is about the “Lance is Space!Sokka” comparisons I’ve been seeing on tumblr for the last four years. I won’t deny that there aren’t similarities between them, but I’m sick and tired of seeing people use the VLD writers not copying and pasting Sokka’s arc into Voltron as an example of “bad writing.” 

I get it. Both of them are wisecracking teenage boys who serve as the resident goofball of their team yet will also buckle down and get serious when the situation calls for it. And both of them start out with sexist attitudes that they grow out of over time. 

But just because Lance and Sokka are written in similar traits does not mean that Lance’s arc was ever intended to be a beat for beat retread of Sokka’s, and it’s time the fandom as a whole acknowledged this. 

I could go on for ages about how many different criticisms of Voltron I’ve seen that ultimately boil down to “it’s not an exact recreation of Avatar.” But for today, I’m going to focus on breaking down the specific trajectory and themes of Lance’s character arc across the entire series.  

The first episode establishes that Lance considers himself rivals with Keith, who Iverson specifically said was the best pilot in their class. When Allura explains the traits associated with the lions, he interrupts to suggest that the Blue Lion “takes the most handsome-slash-best pilot of the bunch?” Then in S1E10 Collection and Extraction, he suggests challenging Zarkon to a fight after learning the Galra Emperor’s weaknesses depicts, saying “winner gets the universe.” This is accompanied by an image of Lance standing triumphantly on top of Zarkon’s dead body in front of a flag with Lance’s face and the word “winner” on it. The image includes Allura looking adoringly up at Lance while the rest of the Paladins all give him thumbs up. 

Right from the start, Season 1 does a fantastic job setting up Lance’s ego. He’s constantly trying to hype himself up as The Best. The CoolTM one. When Keith criticizes his offscreen kicking of broken ship parts after the team has practiced forming Voltron at the beginning of S1E03 Return of the Gladiator, Lance responds “I did something cool and you can’t handle it.” When Keith points out that Lance’s kick ruined Voltron’s balance and caused the robot to fall over, Lance deflects the blame to Hunk. When he tries to kick Myzax’s orb, he tells Keith to “stop living in the past'' when the Red Paladin reminds him of the earlier fall. His kick misses the orb entirely and results in Voltron getting bashed in the face.

The failed kick during the fight with Myzax serves to set up a pattern that continues over the first two seasons: Lance attempts to make himself look good by performing something he does not have successful experience with, only for his self-aggrandising to screw things up for the team. In S2E04 Greening the Cube, he pushes Hunk out of the way and starts randomly pushing buttons in the middle of the Paladins doing maintenance on the exterior of the Castle of Lions, causing critical problems that Pidge has to quickly fix. 

S2E10 Escape from Beta Traz and onward give audiences a peek behind the mask to show that Lance’s bragging and glory seeking is driven by deep-seated feelings of inadequacy. He wants so badly to be SpecialTM and make himself stand out as someone unique and important because he doesn’t believe he’s enough on his own. When the Blue Lion shuts him out in S3E02 Red Paladin he quickly concludes that he must not be meant to be a Paladin at all. When he confesses to the mice in S6E02 Razor’s Edge that he’s in love with Allura he says he can’t compete with Lotor because he’s “just a boy from Cuba” and that he doesn’t have anything to offer in a relationship.

The personas that Lance tries so hard to present himself as - the peerless Special One who single-handedly saves the day and the suave ladies man - are common tropes associated with the protagonists of many science fiction stories. Particularly those with teen and young adult protagonists. Considering that S4E03 Black Site shows Lance as a video game fan and the Paladins were all attending a school for space exploration, it makes sense that he would consciously or not emulate the protagonists of his favorite stories in order to gain acceptance. 

But his attempts to seize the limelight end up having the opposite effect. After moments like his attempts to fix the castle in S2E04, the team is understandably skeptical whenever Lance tries to offer a solution to a problem. They’re doubtful when he refers to himself as a sharpshooter in S2E10 Escape from Beta Traz because while the mice and Allura know that Lance has been practicing with his bayard alone - which we see in S5E03 Postmortem - the rest of the team has just seen Lance’s glory chasing. So they’re surprised when he’s able to keep track of their position relative to the lions while being chased by Zethrid in S8E05 The Grudge. 

Prior to WEP’s meddling in the final season, Lance’s arc was set up for him to learn the lesson that he does not have to be a genius or a prodigy in order to be valued as a person. That he doesn’t have to be the Super Special Awesome ProtagonistTM in order to be a hero. The reason his arc was so heavily affected by the executive meddling of Season 8 was because his romantic relationships were heavily intertwined with the themes of that arc, and since the edits were heavily focused around Allura and Lotor, Lance’s love life suffered as a consequence. 

Over the course of Seasons 1-7, Lance is shown constantly hitting on every beautiful woman he meets. But his romantic pursuits are ultimately shallow. This is best demonstrated in S2E02 The Depths when he recoils after Plaxum kisses him while wearing a bloated jellyfish and ragged cloak, but does a 180 and starts drooling in awe when she takes those off to reveal that her true appearance is much closer to 21st Century American human beauty standards. Even after pouring out his feelings for Allura to the mice in S6E02 Razor’s Edge, he displays no reluctance or inner conflict when he organizes the travel arrangements for the clear purpose of getting to spend time alone with Romelle.

This serves to demonstrate that while he says he loves Allura, his actions show he’s more in love with the fantasy of her and what she represents than he is with her as a person. His flirting with every conventionally attractive female character and his desire to find “the future Mrs. Blue Lion” as he puts it in S2E02 The Depths ties back to his desire for acceptance by emulating your standard sci-fi protagonists because when you look at all the ladies he’s expressed interest in, they all have one thing in common. Each of them fits into common archetypes for female characters in male-centric sci-fi stories.

Nyma is the dark and mysterious femme fatale. 

Plaxum is the leader of the rebellion on her planet. 

Allura is the alien princess with magical powers. 

Romelle is the (assumed) naive newcomer to the war. 

Since Lance is emulating traditional character archetypes, it makes sense that he would apply that same emulation to his love life as well, since most of the sci-fi stories which use the tropes Lance’s trying to live up to involve the hero getting the Special Girl. So it makes sense for his character arc to have his endgame love interest be someone other than any of the extra-terrestrial ladies he’s pursued over the course of the series. It has to be someone from Earth, since his desire to return to his home planet was a recurring point throughout the series. 

And looking at the series as a whole leaves only one candidate: 

[Image description: Pidge sitting in the Green Lion playing video games during S7E02 The Road Home] 

S8E01 Launch Date establishes that Pidge is weirded out by the idea of Lance and Allura going on a date together, but gives up a video game she really wanted in order to barter for an outfit for Allura to make sure the data goes well. During the actual date, Beezer - the robot who had been accompanying Pidge at the beginning of the episode - follows Lance and Allura to the site of their evening walk and takes a photo of them. And though she tries to deny it, in S7E01 A Little Adventure Pidge indirectly admits that she does think Lance is cute. 

When Pidge says she thinks the Yalmore is cute in S7E01, her eyes are big in a way that she usually only gets around advanced technology. Her expression when she hastily adds “in a creepy, hideous sort of way, like you Lance,” quickly is frantic and conveys the feeling of awkwardness implying that she hadn’t meant to say it out loud. This brings to mind her words during the mind meld exercise in S1E02 Some Assembly Required when she objects to the Paladins rooting around in her head. Pidge doesn’t like letting other people know what she's thinking and feeling. In that context, her dismissive response to Lance’s navigation skill in S8E05 The Grudge, saying “let’s not get ahead of ourselves” has the same “I’m impressed but can’t bring myself to admit it” energy as Rayla saying that Calumn’s realistically-detailed drawing of the Banther Lodge game room is “okay” in the fourth episode of The Dragon Prince. 

Meanwhile in Avatar, Sokka’s arc is focused on dealing with having to grow up fast as a result of his father going off to war and being left to fill the role of the patriarch and protector of his tribe as the oldest boy in the Southern Water Tribe. His insecurities and self-doubts come from a place of wanting to feel like he’s doing a good job at fulfilling the responsibilities that had been forced upon him because of the war. 

Lance’s character arc, by contrast, is focused on learning to let go of ego and maturing into someone who recognizes that being able to work as part of a team is more important than individual glory or acclaim. The war with the Fire Nation was a foundational part of Sokka’s life in a way that the fight against the Galra Empire never was for Lance, who doesn’t truly begin to understand what he’s gotten into until S1E05 Fall of the Castle of Lions when he realizes that he may not see his home or his family again for a very long time. As a result, it takes awhile for him to really take the war seriously. 

Lance and Sokka do have some traits in common, and it’s valid to point out those similarities. But people need to remember that just because they’re similar doesn’t mean that they’re exactly the same in terms of their character arcs and roles in the overall story of their respective series. The comparisons between Avatar and Voltron were fun at the beginning. I found a few of the posts comparing characters from the two franchises amusing and fun. But since then a lot of fans have felt like they’ve taken those comparisons literally to the point where they expected Voltron to be a rerun of Avatar with a fresh coat of paint. 

The Voltron staff may have borrowed or referenced elements from their prior work on Avatar and Korra, but that does not mean that every future project that someone from Avatar makes has to copy the things fans liked about it.

[nyan4you]

Drake? What? Who’s kissing Shiro? That’s uh... hmmm...

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

In Defence of Team Purple Lion

Voltron: Legendary Defender and its final season remains as one of the most poorly received children’s shows in the past decade. The show was a reboot from DreamWorks of the popular Voltron franchise owned by WEP LLC (World Event Productions) who were responsible for the first version of the show Voltron: Defender Of The Universe (1984), an adaptation of the anime show GoLion by Toei Animation. It initially started strong when released in 2016, with a premise that of a typical mech-centric kids’ show; 5 pilots of 5 robot lions coming together to form one big robot (Voltron) to fight against a big bad alien villain in space, however despite the formulaic appearance it proved to be a captivating watch with detailed and beautiful animation as well as surprisingly deep subject matter. The themes and messages of the show touched on darker topics such as racism and genocide with the backdrop of a complex portayal of war while still balancing it with the light-hearted and goofy dynamics of the diverse main characters, played by a diverse cast. Produced by Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos, both of whom had worked on the acclaimed Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend Of Korra, the story set up promised an equally deep and intricate story for VLD as had been the case for ATLA and LoK, as a result the show attracted a large and varied fan base beyond just children, many fans adults eager to see how the story and darker themes would be resolved as well as how the minority representations would be treated.

The final season released on Dec 14th 2018 came as a great shock to fans, not only were they intensely dissatisfied with the ending, virtually no one from any area or sub fandom was happy with the season as a whole and at the time of this article’s writing it has lower than a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The show and its producers faced massive criticism over insensitive representations of minorities, an unsympathetic and condemning end for an abuse victim despite redemption for their abusers and a disempowering arc for the main woman of colour character in which she was sidelined and dismissed by her male counterparts up until her sacrifice. The core themes and messages of love, forgiveness and acceptance regardless of race were completely subverted, instead conveying to an impressionable Y-7 and above audience the opposite; heritage and race define a person rather than their own actions. As well as fans, many parents of kids who watched the show expressed unhappiness with the final season due to the toxic and regressive messages it sent. Soon after the season dropped a petition emerged to “free the original season 8 of Voltron” due to the belief that the final season was in fact an edited product of what the creators originally planned. This belief was sparked by visual inconsistencies in the season itself, the audio description not lining up with the action on screen (now fixed), one character not being played by her voice actor but her voice actually another character’s with the pitch turned up as well as comments from the cast and animators, now deleted. The strongest claims of edits were made by Tumblr user Leaking Hate in her initial meta Chasing The Ghosts Of Season 8 and the follow up, a more detailed breakdown, Seek Truth In Darkness in which she presented an alternative story that had been edited and cut down for reasons then unknown, with narrative and visual evidence from the season itself to support her argument. She and a few other fans officially came together in February 2019 to form Team Purple Lion, a team of analysts dedicated to finding the truth behind the disaster of the final season. However, since the fandom had had a poor history of harassing the show’s creators over ships (romantic relationships between characters) most attributed the poor story and resolve to an attempt to keep things neutral romantically between characters in a poor bid to please everyone. As a result the petition and campaign were merely linked to lack of shipping satisfaction for the fandom and dismissed as more toxic fandom behaviour that had been displayed previously by many fans.

Petitions and campaigns like these are not uncommon after a show or film’s ending, similar situations might be the HIMYM backlash in which fans were so unhappy with the ending of the show that there was a petition for an alternative ending, as well as the petition to Warner Bros regarding the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Both of these have actually succeeded with the Snyder cut of Justice League set to release in 2021 and the HIMYM DVD box sets containing the alternative ending, however what makes the Free VLD s8 campaign now led by Team Purple Lion unique is its claim that there’s an original finished product that the creators intended for release but was edited after completion to produce the poor final season that was released on Netflix. Often corporate meddling in creative works is common but it has not been documented before as a post production occurrence changing the finished work, it’s always taken place pre-production as was the case with Disney and Colin Trevorrow’s original script for ep. IX or during production, in the case of Justice League and Zak Snyder.

Since the start of the campaign in Dec 2018 there’s been continuous investigation and action taken by TPL to provide proof for their claims and the movement has evolved into a fight for creators’ rights, still active now a year and a half on. Their investigation early on resulted in discovering the IP holder (those who own the trademark) WEP as the ones with control over the show and therefore responsible for the released edited season 8. They’ve since defended DreamWorks and the showrunners from criticism in favour of requesting WEP and specifically President Robert Koplar, self proclaimed “steward of the property” for the original season 8 by the showrunners that was not released. There’s also been strong advocation from TPL to keep the protest against WEP’s interference with the creative team’s work peaceful to avoid dismissal and belittlement due to prior instances of the VLD fandom’s toxic behaviour that often included harassment of showrunners and toxic fan behaviour ranging from abusive remarks online to death threats, after the final season rumours were flying and the EPs faced abuse from upset fans so there was an active effort to stay civil on TPL’s part. 

TPL and the #FreeVLDS8 movement has continuously faced criticism and backlash since its start regardless, the response from fellow fans ranging from supportive to downright disbelief and even the showrunners stating publicly [March 28th 2019 Let’s Voltron podcast] that there’s no “alternate cut of Voltron” branding the idea as a “conspiracy theory”. Claims of harassment have been attributed to TPL and the legitimacy of their allegations questioned, one fan questioning the possibility of the edits’ execution as well as others categorizing them as fans creating a theory based on shipping fulfillment. The controversy and consistent campaign a year and a half on interested me greatly, therefore after being led back to the movement by the very comments discrediting them I approached Team Purple Lion for comment on the aforementioned claims as well as conducting my own research and investigation into them. 3 members of the team, Crystal Rebellion, Dragon Of Yang and Leaking Hate spoke to me openly about their campaign and my own research produced some interesting results as well. 

The basis of their argument is set on the show’s final season being an edited product, when I asked about what pushed her to this conclusion and writing her initial meta Leaking Hate explained that a mutual friend of Crystal and her’s drew their attention to it through the story saying: 

“It’s interesting, nearly ALL of the episodes had a moment or two in them where Lotor [male villain] COULD have reappeared, and didn’t. Do you think he was written in to be the savior all along, and it was the higher ups that said no, good boy Lance [one of the main characters]? It seems like, given the narrative, and even given this season, it should have been Lotura [Lotor and Allura ship name], and all that wasn’t just feels… off. And not as a Lotura stan, I mean in general.” 

“And YES I had. There was a narrative gap where Lotor should have fit, but for some reason wasn’t.” Hate said, “The initial conclusion we jumped to was that Lotor had been removed in the writing stage.” 

It wasn’t until another friend mentioned a key scene out of place in the story and she went back to view it that she started to suspect the season had been changed from its original state. The scene in question was one in which Lotor says “Follow me!” at the end of Allura’s dream sequence in s8 ep8 Clear Day, despite his death being established before and after this point in the story. “There was no reason for that Follow Me shot to be there,” Hate explained, “unless the action of the viewer following Lotor had been removed.” Having studied a Fine Art degree and therefore well versed in animation and visual art she was able to recognise scenes that had been edited unusually throughout the season once she actively searched for other visual evidence. The Follow Me scene as well as others she found are displayed in her Ghosts meta, all indicating a different story from the one told in the show, along with the evidence Leaking Hate presented some initial ideas on what the story was (a redemption arc for Lotor and several sub arcs for the main characters that resolved their stories and previously set up story beats).

[Image Description: A close up of Prince Lotor’s face from season 8 on Netflix, staring directly out of the picture at the viewer. There are subtitles showing his speech at the bottom of the image, saying “Follow me!” End ID]

After Team Purple Lion’s formation Leaking Hate went on to publish a part two to her initial Ghosts meta, a 21k word meta entitled Seek Truth In Darkness which contained all visual evidence of edits found in the season as well as an extrapolation of the initial story indicated by said edits. The original story appeared to resolve unfinished narratives and arcs that the released s8 dismissed and the treatment of the representations in the show better, from respect towards minorities to an empowering arc for Allura, the main female character. Despite the original season having a more positive story, negative feedback from fans has been more common than positive. When I questioned the team members on it Leaking Hate mentioned “most people who believe we’re wrong tend to think we’re wrong in our premise” Dragon of Yang confirming that “it’s usually the premise of “VLD was edited after completion” that people disagree with”. However the screenshots they present as visual evidence hint at some truth in their argument, the first screen cap shown below indicative of some poor edits made to the animation since 3 characters are essentially cropped out of the picture.

[Image description: A split-screen from season 8 on Netflix, featuring from left to right: an Altean pilot, Merla, Keith, Hunk’s shoulder, Pidge, the top half of Allura’s face, and the top half of Lance’s face. End ID]

Likewise this screen cap shows a split screen visually unbalanced with 2 characters at the bottom partially cropped out as well as the character on the left side with a much larger screen space than the other characters.

[Image description: A split screen from season 8 on Netflix, featuring from left to right: top left Shiro, below him is Keith in a larger section and Allura in a small triangular section below and to the right of Keith’s section. In the middle is a section showing Honerva’s mech stabbing the Voltron-Atlas mech with purple lightning shooting out. On the top right is Hunk, below him is Pidge, and below her the top half of Lance’s face. End ID]

Seasons prior to the final had always had visually balanced split screens with each character centred in their frames appropriately, indicating these and other s8 shots like them as an anomaly.

Hate reconstructed both screencaps based on what she believed they were originally:

[Image description: A split-screen from season 8 on Netflix, featuring from left to right: an Altean pilot, Merla, Keith, Hunk’s shoulder, Pidge, the top half of Allura’s face, and the top half of Lance’s face. On the top, right, and bottom of this screencap is dark pink background with the black lines of the split-screen extending to the edges of the colors, marking out where the rest of Hunk, Allura, and Lance should be visible if the view had not been cropped. With the lines extending out, Keith’s portion of the screen is also extended, leaving a completely removed section of the split-screen remaining, which is highlighted purple in this image. End ID]

[Image description: A split-screen from season 8 on Netflix, featuring from left to right: top left Shiro, below him is Keith, below and to the right of Keith is Allura in a small triangle section, the bottom of her face slightly cut off. In the middle is a section showing Honerva’s mech stabbing the Voltron-Atlas mech with purple lightning shooting out. On the top right is Hunk, below him is Pidge, and below her the top half of Lance’s face. On the left, right and bottom of the screencap is a dark pink background with the black lines of the split-screen extending to the edge of the colours, marking out where the rest of Lance and Allura should be visible if the view had not been cropped. Keith’s portion of the screen is smaller and a small dark pink section to the right separates his portion from the middle. Below him where his portion originally extended to is a section coloured dark purple that extends a little further to the left of Allura’s portion. End ID]

Other noticeable examples include scenes with the female lead Allura where her proportions do not match with any prior drawings of herself indicating that she was another character redrawn, Leaking Hate suggested Lotor as his proportions fit each instance. 

[Image description: 2 pictures of Allura in the Blue Lion from a front and centre angle side by side. On the left Allura has her eyes closed and her arms stretched out holding onto the controls, the entire cockpit is glowing blue. On the right Allura’s eyes are open with a determined look on her face, she’s slightly hunched with her arms gripping the controls, the cockpit is coloured normally. End ID]

The image on the left is of Allura from s8 ep13 and the one on the right from the same episode a few minutes later, scaled so the interiors (which are unchanging 3D models) are the same size. She is notably taller in the one on the right with her head reaching above the seat and her frame bigger, with wider shoulders and thighs.

These are just a few out of the many examples of edits made that Leaking Hate presents in her metas along with her reconstruction of the original season based on what each edit indicates. While the reconstruction is to some point subjective, the visual inconsistencies are clear and can be easily checked by watching the show at each point said to be edited.

The timeframe and possibility for the edits’ execution, called into question by a fan on a twitter thread (now deleted) stating “it’s not physically possible to make that many edits in 2 months and with leftover budget”, was also addressed by the team and their work. Leaking Hate clarified that “it wasn’t 2 months” that they took place in, “it was 6. The edits began in mid July”, a fact determined by voice actor Jeremy Shada mentioning in an interview released on July 23rd that he had gone in to record new lines at the time. Hate also said, “It’s less of a question of would they have time than it is, well. They did do it. It was nearly impossible. But the fact that it is done shows that they did.” She went on, “I think people misunderstand when we claim it was ‘edited’. They hear “it was reanimated”, but it wasn’t reanimated. There is NO new animation in the edited s8 at all. As far as I can tell, 99% of the edits are composed of tracing, clever cuts and sleight of hand.” This is backed up by all the visual evidence they present as well as their work, claiming absence of animation (making the story disjointed and incoherent in places) rather than new, additional animation changing it. 

Crystal Rebellion added, “One thing that strikes us (I feel pretty confident speaking for everyone in this case) is that Studio Mir [responsible for animating the show] is impeccably flawless with their work. Their previous work before Voltron: Legendary Defender, and even Seasons 1-6 and most of 7 are beautifully animated. Stunning. Season 8... is not. Studio Mir also had a viewing party for VLD: S8 - and they reported that they loved the final product; so the animators saw Season 8 after it was completed. The season, however, that aired, was really shoddy animation, rough transitions, music mistakes, and what appear to be alterations to still images - it isn't their usual quality of work, and moreover, the animators have stated that they don't recognize what aired. Often we've been asked something like 'Maybe they just didn't know what scenes they were animating' or 'Didn't know the intended finished product' but in this case, it is documented that they saw the final season and that it's different from what was aired. The poor workmanship in what we see from S8 - all the edits Hate goes through to find and explain, coupled with Mir's disbelief, is indicative that the animation studio had no idea this happened. That means it 1) Happened post-production and 2) It wasn't the Studio that changed anything. Dos Santos mentions in an interview [March 4th ABTV] that they were cut and pasting mouths and moving frames around - no time, no budget, and no staff left. It was all them, after it had been completed - after Mir had seen the original rendition and loved it, that all this happened. The parallel point to that to further support it is, had this been written in the script from the beginning, we would've seen a flawlessly animated season with a painful storyline. We don't see that.” 

Although Mir’s reaction to the season they viewed in October (before its official drop) has since been deleted, one animator’s response to the season 8 that was released on Netflix is still online, comparing the show to a house and stating that “every single brick of the last season is very upsetting” but “everything else is good” (translation can be found here), making it clear he was not pleased with the final product. Joaquim Dos Santos does also mention in the interview Crystal references that changes were made to season 8 after season 7 dropped, stating, “You can probably see it in the animation. If you really pay attention it’s like, it’s literally our editor cutting out mouths and puppeting different dialogue.” It’s documented that the epilogue was added to s8 late after s7 dropped however it does not have any dialogue, this statement paired with Shada’s about “still recording on Voltron” begs the question, what change was made besides the epilogue? Hate shows in her Darkness meta that Shada’s character Lance was used to replace Lotor as well as Allura in key scenes, if Shada was still recording lines (unusual since audio recording is done very early in animation production) then it would have been for these moments.

Not all criticism has been based on the editing premise however; the story they present as the original has garnered negative comments as well since it featured Lotor, a divisive character due to his moral ambiguity and previous condemnation as a killer, and predominantly focused on his redemption as well as relationship with Allura. The narrative makes it clear that Lance, the blue paladin and one of the main characters popular with fans, would not have been the focus as he was in the released season and would have been replaced by Lotor as Allura’s partner. When I brought up the claims of bias in their reconstruction Leaking Hate pondered on it. 

 “Do I love the story because it is Lotura, or do I love Lotura because the story makes me love it?” she mused, “I think it's all the same. I was able to pick out the original story because of my bias in favour of Lotor, Allura, and Lotura. Had I not been invested in those characters, and that ship, I would have had no reason to look. I am not reconstructing based on wish fulfillment, or what I want to see,” she asserted, “but the story I am finding happens to be a story that I love.” In regards to Lance and her analysis on him she stated bluntly, “I HATE Lance. Were I reconstructing based on wish fulfillment I would have him alone and miserable. But that is not a good story. The real story of OGS8 has Lance coming to love himself and to learn to accept Allura's friendship as equally worthy as her romantic affection. It has him grow into a good man, and it has him become Allura's right hand when he helps her save the man she loves. It is an uplifting and wholesome message for little boys and grown men alike. And I think it is equally important that we save S8 for Lance as it is that we save it for Lotor and Allura.” When I mentioned that some would find her dislike of Lance an argument against her she also added that “they are right to.”

“I would not trust someone claiming to have found the 'real' story if I knew they hated Lotor or Allura.” However she admitted, “I don't hate him all the time. I think, if the Lance we get in OGS8 is the Lance I believe is there, then I will find him tolerable, if irritating.”

While it’s true that Hate is critical of Lance and his character, the reconstructed story she presents in Seek Truth does reflect her words, giving him an empowering and sympathetic arc growing from his previous immature and womanising character into a selfless, respectful friend. The team have also put their efforts into creating and realising the story in their reconstruction of the original s8, Rise and Atone, and so far it has stayed true to what they’ve promised, addressing characters and their arcs, the only deviation made being a romance free conclusion in a bid to stay ship-neutral. Dragon of Yang explained the narrative decisions they made with R&A stating clearly, “If this was wish fulfillment, we would have stopped at one detail or another. Every character’s arc was halted and destroyed beyond reconciliation or catharsis. Every character deserves their story to be done justice, and open-endings give that catharsis VLD originally had while remaining respectful to everyone’s shipping preferences. VLD is a story of hope and growth, to deny that a character has grown since day 1 is to deny that there is a story there to be told, and that in turn denies a person out there - who likely identifies with that character - the feeling of being seen. The best thing we can do as scholars and as activists,” she concluded, “is try to recreate the vision the staff had originally made and do so with care and attention to the work they put into every line.”

As for the harassment claims attributed to Team Purple Lion by both fans and The Voltron Store on twitter, there’s not much to support them, and in fact a great deal to disprove them. The team has maintained a level of professionalism in both their work and in their conduct online, consistently citing sources and providing proof for claims as well as campaigning respectfully. Hate commented, “they seem to be conflating our protest with the general hatred being thrown around in the fandom. We've made a point to emphasize polite but firm protest and advocate reaching out through official channels.” While there is a lot of anger and hate from fans towards the show and the producers, none of it has been from Team Purple Lion. Their protest has continuously avoided and often defended the producers and voice actors, who have been regularly attacked by other fans during the show’s airing and since due to the poor conclusion, all of whom TPL have made clear are under NDAs and cannot comment freely (although it’s worth noting, they stopped actively promoting the show on their social media after the season 8 release). Instead their questioning has focused on WEP, the company who own the Voltron trademark, after discovering through a meta analysis of a VLD episode signs that they were meddling with the creators’ vision of the show and ordered them to change it against the producers’ wishes. While it was only a speculative piece, WEP’s quick reaction to the release of said meta by claiming through their Voltron Store twitter that they “do not have any influence over the creative direction of the show” despite ignoring fans for months after the season release suggests some truth to it. Twitter user Eros compiled all evidence of their involvement since then in a Twitter thread and the majority of it is damning, their denial directly contradicting statements from the voice actors and producers prior to and after s8 that confirmed they were the controlling party and had creative input, as well as the creators’ desire to tell a progressive and empowering story however not being able to because of “other controlling parties” outside of DreamWorks. WEP have also made contradictory statements to fans about the season, saying that “nothing was edited” yet agreeing with a fan that a lot was left out and a director’s cut would sell well, as well as mocking another who left a Facebook review (March 16th 2019) complaining of being hung up on, replying to them that an “imposter” answered their phones:

[Image description: A facebook review of The Voltron Store. Text from the top reads as: 

Reviewer (name coloured out) doesn’t recommend The Voltron Store. 

Review reads: Terrible customer service. They literally hung up on me mid sentence and it was clearly not a case of a call accidentally being dropped. Extremely disappointed by the lack of professionalism!

The Voltron Store’s reply to the reviewer: if you actually talked to us you would find we are very nice people! And we never hang up on anybody EVER - unless they make outrageous claims like Power Rangers is better than Voltron!

The reviewer’s reply: The Voltron Store I did speak to a woman who identified herself Stephanie briefly, but I will never speak to your company again. Thank you for the response but I don't appreciate being called a liar. Please see the attached screenshot for proof of my abruptly ended call back in January. I desire to have no further communication with your company now, I simply decided finally other people deserved to know my personal experience.

Below is a screenshot showing the reviewer called The Voltron Store’s number.

The Voltron Store replied: We do not have a Stephanie here. That must be the issue: you dealt with an imposter! We would review the security cam footage but it does not go back 2 months. End ID.]

In stark contrast to WEP, Team Purple Lion has responded to criticism and addressed it, as well as reaching out to media outlets to clarify and correct poorly sourced claims, however have been faced with no response. Their questioning of WEP and their requests for the original season 8 on social media have been civil; their replies to the Voltron Store posts on Twitter containing no insults or cruel remarks, the harshest only critiques on the company’s lack of tact promoting a show and its merchandise that many considered offensive and toxic due to the last season. “At no point did we set out as some kind of campaign to “attack WEP” or “demand a new season”,” Crystal Rebellion said. “We were a handful of people looking at what amounted to, to use a metaphor, a puzzle that had technically been assembled but most of the pieces didn’t match up properly. We eventually decided to take the pieces that didn’t line up and look at what the picture was supposed to be. There was no ulterior motive - we just wanted the truth. When we realised the truth and it became obvious early on that Mir had seen the original season, we became convinced there was an unedited s8, perhaps in Mir’s backup drives. People saw it, which means it was a completed product, so it became a campaign to ask for it, it’s what the fandom wants, it’s what is profitable.”

In the face of all the negative response and disbelief, Team Purple Lion have gathered an overwhelming amount of evidence to support their case, not only from the show itself but also corroborating statements from the production team and cast as well as WEP’s conduct in response to the campaign. As a result TPL have gained a great amount of support and followers from the Voltron fandom, and are still gaining more a year and a half later. “I gotta give a shout out to Cosmic Royalty,” Leaking Hate said, “a group of Russian fans who reached out to us asking if they could do translations of our work. We host their translations on our website now and there’s apparently a group 500 strong on the Russian social media site VK that supports the work we do together!” Violet Howler on Tumblr has also been a big supporter as well as new fans, recently revealing themselves in the wake of good news, the fight to get the original season seemingly won as Leaking Hate displayed in her most recent meta. In it Hate outlines evidence for the franchise’s ownership changing hands from WEP to DreamWorks and therefore the release of the original season, based on the recent repromotion of the show through articles, new merchandise from the store and the new store designs that all suggest the release, since there would be no other reason to promote a show that was a PR disaster, so universally hated. Regardless of all the opposition and discredit they have faced, confirmation of the truth of Voltron’s original season 8’s fate is expected this summer before the official art book is made available, in the form of the season’s release itself. Whether the fans will be happy with it is another story, however Leaking Hate emphasised firmly that fan satisfaction was not the point, or at least not entirely. “Nothing is perfect, and nothing will please everyone. Especially a show like VLD, with almost 35 years of legacy and fans behind it. There are people who will not like the original season, there are even some who will prefer the edited one - I’m sure the WEP executives are some of them. But it will be the season it was supposed to be, the one that was a labour of love. There is so much love and care poured into every frame of VLD, this was a story that the people working on it wanted to tell; it was more than just a job to them. It was created with love, and it was with love that we fought for it, and when it comes down to it that’s what VLD’s meta narrative was about: love.”