#Voltron mfe pilots

[thestarsands]

Y’all ever think about how crazy Voltron was sometimes? Like, have we ever truely acknowledged that in s7 the show introduced another set of pilots to absolutely takeover from the paladins in s8 but everyone collectively agreed ‘no they’re not’ and low and behold, no they did not. Like there is no other reason for the show to introduce the MFE pilots as a group of five to just, what, mirror the paladins? Act as foils to them in season 7?? I like that they exist but I have no clue why

[pearlescent-gal]

I NEED a voltron fandom revival. Like, I want to see more fan art and headcannons about the paladins and MFEs. I don’t want to scroll through a graveyard of a fandom anymore.

[komohine]

That lifeguard james griffin au. The lore is unraveling as we speak and its acc sooo cute

[vldfix]

voltron as albert flamingo tweets

[nerdy-nook]

James: You know she has some problems for sure but I think its important to just-

Nadia: She's also ugly!

Kinkade: Well, ok now I don't think that that was necessary...

[mosscreeper-ao3]

“Seasons 7 and 8 suck!”

Seasons 7 and 8 have the MFE pilots, Kosmo, Romelle, white haired Shiro, competent Black Paladin Keith, and canon Allurance.

[siivn]

my current hyperfixation are the mfe pilots but since there is little to no content about them it's a little bit hard to hyperfixate on them idk if that makes sense

(pls i need someone to supply me with mfe pilots content,,)

[nerdy-nook]

Holy shit this is gorgeous

Another MFE piece from that zine

[vldunchartedregions]

Voltron Season 8 Meta Introduction

Hi! Welcome to "Uncharted Regions."

Now that it's been several years since Voltron Season 8 came out, the news of Netflix's removal of the series on December 14th, 2024 shook the fandom and pop culture as a whole.

You may be wondering... 1) Huh?! 2) Why?! It's a Netflix Original! 3) I loved this show, I don't understand! I was the same, too. We were all a little confused. However, licensing rights were ending to Netflix and Netflix doesn't want to renew. Fair play.

As someone who worked in a corporate company who also provides live streaming services + has a degree in television production, I have a better understanding of the executive decisions at play that comes down to it. It was not too hard to decipher why when you know what went on in the trenches of the Voltron fandom from 2016-2018.

The bottom line is that Netflix marketing did not match the source material provided, and there was intensive discourse across multiple facets of the fandom. You can imagine Netflix were not fans of the outcome of the series, and may not have even been told by Dreamworks the outcome of the series when Season 8 dropped; especially when Netflix's global social media accounts openly admitted to shipping Klance on Twitter.

Regardless, we're not looking at who's to blame, but you do have to wonder how such a large international miscommunication between Netflix, Dreamworks, and Voltron's IP holders went down the corporate funnel.

...I digress, let's move on.

As many people did from the news of it's removal (which also surprised the official Voltron accounts), I got back into the Voltron fandom really quickly and tried to rewatch as much as I could before it's inevitable removal from Netflix.

I haven't touched this show in years, friends. Not since 2020. The rewatch showed me one thing: that this show is breathtaking, stunning, and at it's core - it represented change. It's truly one of it's kind. To have the crew from Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Legend of Korra working on it on such a high level? Hell, there was an MFE pilot spin off in the works.

There was a lot of promising stories to tell with new outcomes and twists with a classic IP such as Voltron. It was promising a new future and fresh takes with comics, games, and so much more.

Now, alike to most viewers, I was there when Season 8 dropped. Hell, I was at the NYCC 2018 panel where they gave out these posters (which will be VERY relevant to this meta, I assure you):

The hype of Voltron Season 8 lead to a FULL panel that got closed off mid-way in the line. Many fans flew from across the globe (including myself) to get a glimpse of the showrunners, cast & crew, and a unique slice of the pie into Voltron Season 8's trailer.

The excitement was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before in a fandom. It was extremely thrilling, the trailer was outstanding, and Season 8 wasn't too far away.

First shown at New York City Comic Con 2018, get a look at the #Voltron production team's take on the upcoming final season of Voltron Legendary Defender, streaming on @Netflix tomorrow!

Then Season 8 dropped on Netflix... December 14th, 2018.

It was jarring. There were plot points that made no sense, obvious edits to scenes, censorships like a One Piece 4Kids dub, characters cut and pasted into scenes, and storylines were slapped together like a messy sandwich. And it was incredibly obvious too.

The fandom noticed and reacted accordingly - asking questions and demanding answers left, right, and centre. The showrunners responded through podcasts and statements on various levels.

The answer was clear... their vision wasn't the only vision going into the show:

"You know, as we sort of got through the process of premise, script, it went all the way down the line. It got storyboarded. And then at some point, you know, we received pushback from the studio and you know, we were sort of a little confused, like, “hey, how did it go, like, so far down the line before we received pushback?” And you know, this is not like a, like, a vilifying of DreamWorks or anything, like, every exec that we ever interacted with was, it was like, “hey, we understand why you want to tell this story. We understand where you’re coming from. It’s a little bit bigger than that. You know, there’s-there’s other, sort of, controlling parties with Voltron which makes it unique. It’s not just a DreamWorks-owned property.” And it just–I think logistically it just got really, really weird."

Joaquim Dos Santos - Afterbuzz TV interview. Source: https://dragonofyang.tumblr.com/post/183820127648/abtv-mar-4-transcript

---

Fans promptly started a petition two days later to release the original Season 8. THAT'S how obvious the editing was and how obvious the deterred, original vision had become.

As a disappointed fan and someone who studied media analysis intrinsically for university, I did try to rewatch back then, and it was painful to watch. What happened? There were layers of context on the cutting room floor and scenes didn't make sense. Hell, each episode title always has a double layered meaning, and even those layers were stripped from the core of the episodes for the most part. This left fans to say, "Whaaaaat is going ON?" The entire fandom was hurt by what had occurred.

The cast & crew that were also unaware of these story changes were also quite hurt, too. To make it more apparent, the showrunners were pretty open on speaking about leaving the project as well on the Buzzfeed Aftershow Podcast, but they simply couldn't:

LM: It’s not-it’s not just like, “Oh I can’t afford my mortgage!” You know, we have a crew that we care about we brought onto this show. If we abandoned them, we-we don’t know what’s in store for them. We don’t know, do they get to stay on? Do they get to keep their jobs? Does someone else come on and then they’re working under someone else that they didn’t sign up for? Or–

JDS: Or they’re working under someone else that’s just gonna be like, “Alright, we’re just gonna finish the show and not really do right by the rest of it.”

Lauren Montgomery & Joaquim Dos Santos - Afterbuzz TV interview. Source: https://dragonofyang.tumblr.com/post/183820127648/abtv-mar-4-transcript

---

We all wanted answers, and sure, some members of the team did speak up - but it didn't provide clear answers on what was the go with Season 8 being edited so far into post-production.

Now, this blog isn't dedicated to restoring Season 8 to it's original format (that would be lovely, but we have to be realistic - it has been 7 years and no google drives of the original season 8 have dropped so far). No, no.

That might happen (I've got a positive mindset on it - someone has to have a back up copy on some hard drive somewhere), or maybe it will be released... in a green sock reality.

Rather, this blog is dedicated to all the fans (new & old) whom want a sense of closure to as to why their favourite show on Netflix from 2016-2018 dropped the ball so hard for Season 8.

Not thinking much of it, I had posted a twitter thread detailing how the ending with all the lions flying off looked a little odd.

...And so, I received an anonymous inbox on New Years Day, 2025

This DM... was the start to an unravelling of webs and a rewatch that crumbled immediately. The cracks were all there.

I rewatched Season 8 with this information at hand with a few of my closest online friends, and we were shocked at how much there was to uncover. We were absolutely FLOORED by what was found, including incredible pieces of evidence from the fandom itself.

Now... Why does this matter? It's been YEARS and I'm sure we're not the first to uncover some pieces of information (See the #FreeVLDS8 movement - so, so many good finds there as a foundational point of reference).

Some of what we've uncovered in these Uncharted Regions has NOT been covered by the fandom before, nor does it scratch the surface of what's been found as of yet.

Welcome to the Uncharted Regions of Voltron Season 8.

Our aim for this meta is to acknowledge the following with detailed evidentiary support: 1. The editing of multiple episodes & scenes.

From there, we will look at the alleged changes: 2. Plot points & scenes that may or may not have had cuts. 3. Providing official-style edited shots comparisons to portray how some scenes should've looked in the original Season 8. 4. Piecing each episode / episode orders together (as best as we can) 5. The original ending.

Cheers to the beginning of a new meta, a new hope, and a new perspective on what truly happened to Voltron Season 8.

(Allegedly; for entertainment purposes only)

The one thing I humbly request is PLEASE... No hate towards the showrunners, cast, crew, or the official Voltron IP holders. There's a lot that has changed culturally and intrinsically within the industry over the years and this outcome was not something they could simply control. Let's be adults, look at this open conversation with empathy and love, and respectfully, let's indulge in this topic with grace - your feelings, however, are incredibly valid when it comes to this meta and what we uncover, as there's many alleged finds that may shock the fandom.

Let the journey commence.

Check out my Twitter page for any and all updates in regards to this insanely detailed meta; including teasers and screenshots! Please and thank you.

[urzannia]

voltron but they're quoting outdated memes from 2017 cuz of their long ass stint in space. the MFE pilots and evryone else are cringing so hard evrytime one of them make a joke😭

[pidges-lost-robot]

Love the idea of Veronica getting the opportunity to sort of parallel Shiro with the MFE pilots and I wish there'd been more travelling back to Earth content to see what else occurred when team Voltron disappeared from Earth.

Like imagine like 3 of your classmates disappear after washing out of a class and your school is being super weird about it all and then your mentor ends up being the sister of one of the people that disappeared. Do you talk about it? Do you mention it? Would she?

Like just an episode every couple of seasons that just explores the situation on earth for a while as we see things change rather than like just towards the beginning of the team getting back to Earth. Keep us linked to the stakes.

[pearlescent-gal]

Here’s some silly headcannons I have about Leifsdottir because I saw someone else post theirs and she is my favorite Voltron character sooo:

Because of her Icelandic last name, I feel like a lot of her family still lives in Iceland. I also think that the family that still lives there own some sort of cattle or sheep farm in the more rural countryside

Band kid/theater kid combo. She grew up listening to jazz because of her dad and played trombone then also learned flute. And she’s also def a crew member, prefers lights/spotlight; has high key stage freight

I’ve seen this before and I heavily agree, she definitely made her self have a crush on James because everyone else had crushes on boys, learned she was a lesbian in her early teen years

absolutely ADORES reptiles, she always dreams of owning a lizard, specifically a gecko. She’s a dictionary of lizard facts

she almost exclusively reads dystopian/sci fi books. It started with animal farm and 1984 in “high school,” (whatever the garrison equivalent is) then it spread.

accidently flirts with people ALL THE TIME. Someone would ask her a question and she responds without even realizing that she did the triangle method on the person and now they’re questioning if she meant it or not

That’s all for now, I have many more but I’m tired and didn’t want this post to be super long, I will return >:)

[mangocallum]

VOLTRON SHIPS I LIKE :D

I wanna start doing headcannon and ship prompt asks, so if you ship any of the ships here, feel free to ask me :D

FYI: I WILL NOT WRITE ABOUT

- Any Shaladin Pairings

- Adult × Minor pairings

- NSFW

- Incest pairings

Ships I like :D !!

(I'm a multishipper soo..)

- Klance (MYY OTPPP !!) (also cmon it's obvious who we're shipping)

- Griffkade (James/Ryan)

- Jaith (James/Keith)

- Veraxca(Veronica/Axca)

- Nadina (Nadia/Ina)

(Also, in general, I like any MFE pilot pairings, so)

- Allurance (Allura/Lance) (I've read a lot of fics that flesh out their relationship, so leave me , plz 😔)

- Lotura (Lotor/Allura)

- Romellura (Romelle/Allura)

- Shadam (Shiro/Adam)

- Shurtis (Shiro/Curtis)

- Shunk (Hunk/Shay)

I'm sure there's more, but I'll add them when I think of them,

THE ASK BOX IS OPENN !!!

[vldfix]

How do you feel about Leifsdottir now? Has anything changed since the last time you posted about her? (Feel free to yap away!)

YWHAYAYAH TAHNKYOU SO MUCU

first of all i LOVE ina leifsdottir with my whole entire being she’s top 3 fav vld characters 100%

nothing has changed really but i’m not as hyperfixated on vld as i used to be bc i got fixated on other things but i still love vld with my whole entire being guys don’t worry and im gonna try to post more if i can la da dee la da da dooo !!

but yes absolutely love ina !! dropping some hcs bc i can .. she’s trans (mtf) guys trust i feel it in my bones.. imo she’s bisexual bc mfe polycule is REAL!! this is semi canon/ implied but she’s icelandic bc leifsdottir is an icelandic surname so boom. she has a white pet mouse and its name is mouse bc she’s very literal (cough cough autistic..) YES!! i hc her as autistic w an eidetic memory (photographic memory). she has freckles guys (ik this is canon but she has a FUCKLOAD of freckles like all over her body). i feel like she tried to cut her hair herself because .. well

SORRY but i can make those jokes bc i been there done that .. ANYWAU YAP OVER TYSM FOR THE ASK AND I LOVE INA LEIFSDOTTIR

[nerdy-nook]

Ina Leifsdoitter Aesthetic based on my headcanons bc I love her lots

[mosscreeper-ao3]

Why does him being the only MFE standing with proper posture here hurt me?