#and stan pidge btw

[halleyys-comet]

I’m watching Voltron for the first time in the year of 2023 and you bitches had me FOOLED thinking Lance and Keith were gonna be canon! I only started this show for your little gay edits and fanart and I was CONVINCED they were gonna get together- but now I’m hooked so i’m gonna watch all of it of course.

[yamirosenkreuz]

random doodles from my twitter

[klance-fics]

Hiiiii!! I was wondering if you have any

1) Sports AU fic recs, prefferably with intense rivalry klance or enemies to lovers? Some of the ones I've read and enjoyed are Vicodin on Sunday Nights and On Thin Ice

2) Mystery/Detective/Spy Klance fics, preferably ones where they dont get along and they're forced to take on a case or something together

*nervous laughter* No I definitely don't have a thing for enemies to lovers what makes you think that😅

Thanks a tonn btw!!!!🙂

hi, first of all amazing url stan annabeth chase (both admins are pjo fans lmao). i have a few for each i hope they're enough! (enemies to lovers is indeed a spectacular trope anyway)

I'm waiting for the light of your supernova

EnlacingLines

Lance loves the idea of being literally written in the stars with another, but so far it hasn’t been the love story he’s dreamed of; the fated meeting, the instant and momentous connection. A klance soulmate AU where each person is born with their soulmate's constellation on their skin, the marks changing colour as their bond grows.

I Know You Want Me

KoriMuse7124

Lance and Keith have been rival soccer players since their freshman year of college. But they also have been pining for each other since freshman year. Tonight is another big game between UOA and UOM. Who will win?

blink if you want me

xShieru

He wakes up to Pidge’s face hovering above him. “You gotta stop running into him like this.” “Dude, he fucking shot me.” “I know. We saw.”- A hitmen AU wherein two thirsty assholes fall for each other and then jeopardize their respective missions because of it.

[darthkvznblogs]

Hope you had a Happy May the 4th and Cinco de Mayo! Been busy. BTW, what do the various main characters of your stories think of Star Wars? I especially hope that we see Allura and Coran's reactions to it.

Thank you! I had a wonderful day of basking in everyone’s sharing of their preferred parts of Star Wars. We don’t really celebrate Cinco de Mayo in México, but I’m always happy to see folks take part in a little bit of the Mexican spirit for a day (the ones who do so respectfully, at least).

So, I’ll keep it brief because I’ve been mulling around the idea of a “Headcanon Sunday” and this kind of prompt would be perfect for it.

>Luz, I think, is more of a fantasy nerd - and not the mainstream Lord of the Rings fare, but the slightly weirder side of popular fantasy. Good Witch Azura is her current hyperfixation of course, but I could see her being an Eragon stan. She’s watched Star Wars, and she enjoys the films (more the prequels and animated shows, for some reason) but they never quite clicked for her.

>Kara is more of a Star Trek person but she finds it hard to get past how utterly inaccurate she finds most human portrayals of life in other planets to be, either way. She enjoys it alright, but she’d be a nightmare to watch the movies with - she gives a running comentary of all the things they get wrong.

>Ben is a huge Star Wars dork and, in particular, loves the KotOR era. Grandpa Max would gift him worn out, Half-Price Books-sourced copies of the old EU books after reading them himself. Most likely of the bunch to go into a rant about the Disney takeover.

>Chloé flat-out doesn’t get the appeal. She likes Magical Girl anime and romcoms and Star Wars is unfortunately neither. She would also scoff at the notion of redeeming an evil parent.

>Nico hasn’t watched any of it; between his obligations to the Underworld and the Greek and Roman camps, he hasn’t had the time. This is a good thing, though; he is miraculously unspoiled and primed for absolute devastation come Episode V.

>Danielle/Ellie likes the OT a lot but hates the prequels with a passion - partly because they’re kinda bad movies (A/N: I love them anyway), kinda because she hates how they depict the clones. She’d stan the Clone Wars animated series, though.

>Pidge is an OT purist. She usually refuses to watch the prequels and she would probably be livid about the sequels. She’d probably like that project going around restoring the originals to their “pre-George meddling perfection”

>Caulifla and Kale live on Xandar, and thus have no opinion on a human sci-fi series...yet

>Tulip is (A/N: like me) a fan of all things Star Wars; sure, some of it kinda sucks, but she just loves being immersed in that world and anything new that comes out, she’ll give a chance to. OT, prequels, sequels, Legends, new stuff...she’ll consume it all. Dipper...likes the monsters? He’s too busy researching paranormal Reddit boards and working on his conspiracy board to think too hard about SW

Hope you enjoyed! @the-literary-lord

[binart]

bina voice "i will draw one (1) pidge but then it's back to lance stan hours" (bless you for the wonderful pidge and lance moment btw!!)

Completely Accurate LMFAO

[saltyjedimaster]

Y’know, as time goes by and further hate Allurance gets, the more I appreciate the ship because of how it exposed the Voltron’s true colors. 

You guys are not feminist like you think you are nor are the Allura stans you claim to be. The whole stupid ass “rebound” and “first choice” arguments and arguing how Allura didn’t really love and appreciate Lance (and completely ignored the many times she supported and helped him) prove it. Point blank, these arguments were just good ol’ fashioned slut-shaming and Allura-bashing dressed up. 

You guys aren’t progressive like you think you are nor are the Lance/Voltron fans you think you are. The fact you guys spouted that a simple boy from Cuba has nothing to offer to Allura (thereby sounding classist and racist, btw) and how he’s a Nice Guy fuckboy but yet turn around and talk about Lance is your boy and OMG you love him when he interacts with Keith/Pidge and not think twice how it looks for the other half of your Lance ship to be shipped with a supposed “no-account fuckboy loser” proves it.

You guys aren’t as woke and aren’t for representation like you guys think you are. The fact you repeatedly threw Allura or Lance under the bus to prove how how their lighter-skinned/white counterparts provided better support than Lance/Allura , therefore is X is better than Allurance and/or slammed Allurance as “another terrible hettie ship” and not think how it’s an interracial ship that subverted gender roles prove it. 

You guys aren’t morally opposed to Klantis like you think are. The fact you willingly to hop into bed with the very Klantis and antis who slammed your ships as abusive/pedophilic in order to bash Allurance prove it. 

Voltron fandom, you guys wholeheartedly and completely embraced the very things you claim to hate and oppose. You embraced misogyny, slut-shaming, racism, classism, character-bashing and teaming up with the bullies with zero hesitation and all in the name of ship-bashing. 

Thank you, Allurance for being a beautiful ship that also exposed hypocrites. What an OTP. 

[icravestrawberryflavoureddeath]

Okay here it is

I was gon wait but I feel like I need to get my thoughts on EVERYTHING out before it gets too complicated.

Honerva

Alright, I was totally on board for honerva, not gonna lie. We saw her history, how she fought through it all, what I’m curious about is, it’s not really clear HOW she exactly remembered she’s honerva and not the witch haggar.

I like how we saw how she got her name but there’s so much regarding timelines and ages that just,,, fuck me up? But I mean, sometimes u have to forgive those

But the main thing was, I feel like she was the most developed character in the entire season. I almost wanted to know more about her and what she was thinking. Honestly, all and all, I wish the season was longer or more well,,, organized (something I’ll get into later).

She could step on me. She’s earned the right. Also,,, she’s kind of a snack not gon lie.

Allura

I was gon wait, BUT ITS BOTHERING ME SO MUCH.

I am in love with allura I love her I would fight for her and everything, but this season? Even I was like “okay okay, can we plz hurry up?” She was,, annoying almost? She reminded me of Veronica lodge from Riverdale if that tells you anything.

I understand that there was some sort of whining needed, but,,, it felt,,, uhhhh... yeah.

anD OKAY! Maybe she suddenly liked Lance. I’ll believe that, cuz yes, he grew up so much (something I’ll also get to) but,,, like,,, if I told allura I was in love with her, would she kiss me?? Cuz that’s what it seems like. Anyone tells her they like and she’s like “frickin spunky u tiny man” and kisses them.

She didn’t even want to go with lance originally in the epsiode, romelle, hunk, and lance had to convince her. And it was meant as a “hey my family is making dinner u wanna come?”

Here’s my thing, if they would have written some of the klance moments (yes I’m finally going there) from the past seasons, I would have been all on board!! But as a lance Stan and someone who wants nothing but lance to be happy, this season,,, hurt. Allura was hurting and she wanted to take action, but she was portrayed as,,, whinny, almost selfish(?) and I didn’t like it. Because I LIKE ALLURA! She’s a great character but was not properly used. I didn’t want the entire tension to come down to her dating life. I wanted her to heal, and not have that being her needing a relationship.

And that brings me to my next part, she was hurting. Allura just had everything she thought she knew tangled into a mess and her first reaction? Date Lance. I would have been happy with this if it wasn’t done,,, like it was. And they made their relationship,,, seem,,, I don’t know how to describe it other than,,, forced? I don’t like using that word cuz of what it has meant for this ship but,,, idk I just wish it wasn’t her trying to heal that lead her to it. I wanted her to realize that voltron was her family without having to date lance. Idk I just wanted more

Lance

Now for my boi. I love this man, he’s grown so much, I want nothing more then his happiness, but this season? He wasn’t lance. He was “alluras boyfriend” and that bothered me. Every conversation that wasn’t about the war was about allura. And I get it. U “love” ur girlfriend (of like??? 1-2 months? Max (this well come back to. Again)) but he’s more then that and I don’t think they knew how to write him as a full character on his own.

I had more hopes for lance and it kind of let me down.

He talked with friends?? Allura. He wanted to go somewhere?? Allura. He wanted to- allura. He wasn’t lance, he was alluras boyfriend.

And don’t get me started in the paladins of old “my daughter” bull shit. I rolled my eyes so hard at that.

They wanted to makeup for seasons of rudeness within one season. And it was messy

Also,, WHY IS HE NOW ALTEAN?????? I’m sorry but it’s really strange.

Keith

I would talk about Keith but HE WAS JIST SHOUTING FORM VOLTRON AND THE. YEETING OUT. WTF

Like honestly, there was a lot I wanted to be covered, shit like the Bayard thing with lance, opening up more, more about his time with his mom but what did we get?? Just one note Keith (until lance which we’ll get to. I say that a lot).

Also someone get that boy a haircut

Speaking of haircuts - Matt and Pidge

This is a small list so their gonna be together.

HEWWO?? pidges hair in the beginning and her as the 80s pidge?? I loved that!! She honestly was one of my favourites this season.

Also MATHMATICS HOLT WTF U DOIN WITH THAT HAIR??! U cut off the locks of peRFECTION!

No but seriously, I wish there was more Mathew but that family picture and small scenes were amazing, I was just so happy with everything with pidge and Matt and I cry

Kinkade and the others

I say others cuz it’s background characters. But kinkade and his video? I cried the entire time for no reason other then I love that man.

Acxa was amazingly perfect to join the rag tag group of background characters. Veronica and acxa? Gay. Veronica has strong bi energy like lance and I wanted her and acxa to just get together.

James and kinkade? Gay. That’s it

LESBEENS!!!

Ships

U knew it was comin! I’ll make separate posts about the ships all together later (if I do) but seriously, voltron was like “fuck you and your grandma. Shut the fuck up” and then through a brick at us.

Also, they straight up said (multiple times) that lance allura and Keith were a love triangle. Like bitch???

And while allurance was kind of shitty and very in your face, she still kind of spoke down to him??

And like, the only two times lance and Keith spoke it was so soft and wholesome and,,, that’s why I ship klance???

He helped him with alluras death and DAMN they really did that huh?

I had a theory that klance was supposed to happen, but somewhere along the line they said “yeah, no” and had to rewrite it and allurance was the only way to go and that would explain a lot. It wasn’t a ship planned. It was thrown together like a collage students essay two hours before the deadline. U can tell they tried, just not enough.

Shiros man btw was is clear day date and that’s some cute shit

Plot

I wish they would have converted the honerva story line in the previous seasons so it wasn’t so,,, jumbled.

There were parts were I would zone out for a second and get so lost on the plot and who everyone was

Also thicc voltron/atlas was kinda,,, strange,, but I mean, when you meant to kill shiro and now u have him for the last season, u just hot glue that bitch to the final season script.

It was everywhere and no where at once. I felt like I was about to start watching fucking twilight in space at that point.

They called back a lot of old plot points but some had me going “whomest the fuck is u?” And some made me happy.

I wanted lowhore to come back officially not gon lie.

I WANTED THE BIG LANCE AND KEITH FIGHT SO BAD AND I WAS ROBBED

there’s so many problems with this season that would have been fixed with proper editing and timing

Conclusion

It felt like they started a story and knew what they wanted. But got half way and realized it wouldn’t work. They had to try and create a different ending with what they had made and this was the result. Messy, strange, and kind of hard to follow. There were times when animation fell flat ( that one screen shot of Veronica’s face real close up when her and acxa spoke) and times when, it felt like fan service (for who? Who knows). It would have been better if the show was episodic and not every four months a new season came out. It was rushed for released and it showed in the quality.

I wish it would have been better, everything we wanted, but that never was on option and we should have been prepared for that. But what can u do.

[thedrunkturtles]

voltron s7 lgbt rep things and my other opinions (that noboby asked for but im gonna give anyway because this is getting out of hand) on stuff:

ok so this is probably getting old but i wanted to give my two cents about the whole thing. first off,i wanna say that i love voltron and season 7 doesn't change that. i personally thought it was an amazing season, though of course like everything there are things i didn't like. lets get this out of the way so we can get on to the positives.

-one, i didn't like the forced allurance. fuck that amirite ladies and gents (no offense to people who ship allurance).

-two, lance isn't dumb. he is a beautiful smart man and i will not stand for this >:(((((((((((((((((.

can't really think of anything else though i probably have a little more than that loool. oh well.

-the positives.

I LOVE HUNK. hunk this season... do i have to say more.

i am a klance shipper and idk bout y'all but i am kinda satisfied. they were few and far in between though and honestly the only thing keeping me hopeful about this is fan theories, even if some of them are reaching. and the klible.

though i'm not really a multishipper, we got some good moments for a lot of other ships too!!!! that's real noice.

i don't like anything about lotor excluding his hair, his hair is beauty. i love him as a villain, but i never have and never will like him as a person. but him in the feud episode. ABSOLUTE GOLD. GO GALRA WILL FOREVER BE STUCK IN MY SMALL BRAIN AND I WILL NEVER BE MAD ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!

romelle. she's beautiful, she's funny, her interactions with the team (mostly hunk), did i mentions she's beautiful, she's an alien. i will absolutely marry her. she is beauty.

james isn't as much of a tool as i thought he'd be. he was still kind of an absolute dick to keith at moments but he's an overall cool dude and he has good intentions. i loved all of his other friends too and can i just say. kinkade. damn son you is foine.

keith called krolia mom!!!!!! and he said i love you to her!!!!! and she said it bacccckkk!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT LEADERSHIP THO and his teleporting space wolf kosmo is absolutely everything. basically everything about keith i love him. though this season i think he became closed off again because of basically no human interaction for 2 years. i don't believe that answer he gave about choosing lance, like come on ;)))). his arms were crossed and that's just typical closed off seasons 1-3 keith.

pidge we didn't really see that much but i love her. when she hugged her mom. 100000000000/yes bitch. when she hugged her dog i died.

lance... sharpshooter lance??????? YES GOD. he was amazing and funny as always this season and his arc isn't over y'all. ugghhhh i just love him so much. he needs to talk to someone about his insecurities and get a noice hug. I LOVED HIS REUNION WITH HIS FAMILY THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL :"DDDDDDDD. and his sister veronica. dudes. just yes. yes.

shiro is always amazing and strong and he gets even more so with every season. idk how my boy is doing it cause he's been through hell as well. i think he needs to mourn adam a little more, and i know they broke up but they were together for a long time too. he needs a long nap and a break and i love him.

allura. umm i love and adore my girl allura but right now i think she also needs a nap and a break. her heart was broken by the snek lotor (sorry lotor stans) and she needs time to heal. aka not try to get with lance cause she doesn't need anymore romance right now. sorry lance, and allurance shippers, but it's the truth.

atlas. i never knew i needed this and all i'm saying is she thicc as fuck.

i don't think the fight scenes were boring or too much. i liked the fight scenes and i appereciate them.

coran is gorgeous as always. love him.

i loved majority of this season its is beauty!!!!!

-onto what all the people are talking about and want the tea (not that i have any) on: the 'supposed' 'lgbt rep'.

this is an unpopular opinion but i think we did get that. people are always giving this argument but it's true; just because adam and shiro broke up and adam is dead and we didn't get this big reunion doesn't mean shiro isn't gay. imo adam was definitely overhyped. shiro is still gay my dudes. and another thing about this is, while lgbt rep is extremely important and i'm not trying to say it isn't, that isn't what the show is about. it's a show for kids about robot lions who create one giant robot man called voltron defending the universe from evil alien dudes. simple. and before you say 'the kids who watch this don't know shiro is gay because they don't go on the internet and there is nothing to support that in the actual show and it's the same for other people in general who don't watch it and don't actively search for proof on the internet'.

one, do kids even really watch this show? obviously some do but this has really been taken over by fangirls. the small children who do watch this are probably watching it for the giant robot and the cool fighting.. stuff (no offense intended if you are a small child reading this. btw if you are why are you on tumblr get out while you can). and for the other people don't watch the show... they don't watch the show. don't go to people who don't watch vld and never will to prove your point because they don't. watch. the show. i think what's important is that we, as a fan base who actually love the show and watch it, know that our beautiful shiro is a beautiful gay man who doesn't need a man or a few scenes with one to prove it (though some more flashbacks with adam would be nice hehehehehehehehe).

keep in mind these are my opinions and feel free to not agree with any of them. maybe i got some things about the lgbt thing wrong, idk. and if you are a person who hated this season because of the lgbt rep thing then that's completely fine to have your opinion about it, and if you want to stop watching voltron because of it, be my guest. i can't change your mind with just like 2 paragraphs. you guys just need to stop sending hate towards the people who gave us voltron. that is absolutely HORRIBLE and you should never ever give someone hate. it's not good and you can't justify telling someone to kill themself over a show. because in the end, that's all voltron is. a show. and to some people, including me, a show that is still amazing and will hopefully continue to be amazing in the next season. this whole thing will probably never be noticed but that's ok. i just needed to get this stuff off of my chest. thank you and goodbye to you beautiful people who decided to read this, and remember, don't spread hate!!!!!

[heero-yuy]

And now I’m gonna make you all feel bad for not trusting Shiro

And explain why new ugly hair Shiro is the Shiro we know and love.

First of all:

If this Shiro is a clone, operation “Kuron” would be fucking dumb.

Like real dumb.

And here’s why.

So like lets say they captured Shiro after the Zarkon fight and made a Shiro “clone” or whatever who's goal is to infiltrate Voltron or something.

Atleast that’s what it seems like the goal is because this dude says 

when Shiro escapes and they shoot his ship. So like it seems like they let him escape on purpose.

Thing is...

Shiro nearly dies like 50 fucking times before he reaches Voltron (BY FUCKING MIRACLE)!!

I mean just think of ALL the coincidences that had to happen for Shiro to get to Voltron.

I dunno if he’s like the least lucky person in the universe or the most lucky, because of how he’s ALWAYS almost dying in some way and ALWAYS escapes death against all odds.

But that was one heck of an incredible journey there!

But seriously, if Keith wasn’t looking for Shiro non stop and Shiro didn’t connect to black in that very second, the Galra’s “clone” would have died. Their project “Kuron” would fucking FAIL. 

I think if that really was the Galra’s goal to make a clone that would reach Voltron they would have made it a tiiiiny bit easier for him to survive somehow.

Just a tiiny bit. 

They dun have to go THAT FAR to convince him he actually escaped and they didn’t just let him go. Just you kno, give him a bit of a push there when he’s starving in space or something (assuming they somehow keep track of him). 

They dun have to go that far also for the viewers to fool em that Shiro escaped so him being a Clone would be a surprise later. I mean they just changed his hair a bit and no one in the fandom trusts him anymore haha.

So unless that ice planet and the universe is like filled with dead Shiro clones bodies who were eaten by monsters or froze to death or died of hunger or whatever, because of all times the clones didn’t make it, and the Galra were just waiting for that one special one that finally would, then I’m guessing that maybe something else is going on.

Because there’s no way that they’d just let him go like that and trust what? FATE to bring him to Voltron unharmed SOMEHOW???

Like that’s a dumb fucking plan.

So I dunno, unless the Galra know that no matter what happens Shiro and Keith always find eachother again and again like a pair of destined lovers.

I’m gonna say...

Complete bullshit. I dun buy it.

OK, Now how long has it actually been? Like how much time passed from their battle with Zarkon till they meet with Lotor? How much time passes until Haggar even summons Lotor?

What if it’s actually been longer than you thought? 

What if it’s been like... I dunno, a year?

Thing is that when we go back to Team Voltron in season 3, they seems to think Shiro is gone, dead, like they act like they all moved on and Keith is the only one who’s still stuck there.

I doubt you get to that point after a day or two, or a week, or months even... (They love Shiro, I dun think they’d give up on looking for him after such a short time or get over his death this easily..)

It’s at a point where they all like “Ok Keith, that’s enough time to mourn, we all accepted it and you have to move on too”

I know they all look the same, and there’s not alot of indication of how much time exactly it’s been.

But it does seem like they’ve been doing what they were doing (freeing planets, Pidge looking for her brother) for AWHILE.

This would explain Shiro’s long hair. It simply been long enough for it to grow that long since he disappeared.

(btw there’s a genetic thing that makes your hair grow really fast that also makes a flock of your hair white in the front, Shiro could totally have that) 

Also the fact he can’t walk at first can be explained with him just not doing that for awhile.

Now when Shiro is finally free he SOMEHOW makes it to that Gas planet they were fighting Lotor at the first time.

Voltron is leaving the scene and Shiro appears and chases it here

I actually looked to see if we can see him but we don’t.

(I also didn’t realize it my first watch, and now every time I’ll see the 3rd episode I’ll be like “NoooOOOOOOOOOOOO you fools wait for hiiim!!!!”)

Shiro sees Voltron leaving him behind.

Besides the fact that he knows this is probably the end for him now, it also shows him two things:

They moved on.

And they are doing well without him.

Anyway, 7 days later, Shiro is dying, thinks of his Voltron days and connects to the Black lion in the last minute.

And Keith (who hasn’t stopped searching for him, now with black lion)

finally finds him.

Now besides the headache, I actually dun particularly see anything really strange about Shiro’s behavior when he goes back.

Watching it again I just got the feeling he just has a really hard time accepting what happened with Black.

I dun see a reason to not believe what Keith suggests there, that Zarkon teleported him to captivity using the Black lion.

Shiro seems upset about it because 

What does it tells Shiro? 

That his bond with black was still not strong enough.

Like, he had so much fighting spirit when he escaped before, and suddenly when he finally reaches Voltron he’s depressed in bed and seems like he doesn’t want to see anyone?

What happened???

Like yeah he wanted Keith to lead Voltron, but I think maybe then seeing the team actually function without him and forming Voltron and fighting the Galra, and considering how much Voltron means to him and his struggle with his PTSD and how Voltron literally been the only thing on his mind when he was dying. 

I think it’s a bit hard for him to accept what he sees when he comes back..

He sounds fake here

Because he’s not being honest. 

Deep inside it hurts him to see they did fine without him.

When Keith goes “They need you”, he lies.

He’s the only one that needs him. The team has moved on. Maybe he says it because he can’t say “I” or feels like he’s not enough, maybe he’s trying to encourage Shiro, because he understands how Shiro feels, without Shiro needing to say anything. He always did. From the very beginning.

So maybe it’s like “Hey Shiro, I know how much this means to you and you’re still a valuable part of this team”

Shiro obviously doesn’t want to go back on his word and be all “Ok Keith, so give me back my lion now!”

But Keith does it for him, and I think you can see Shiro is very happy about it.

Only the lion won’t accept him anymore.

And before this you also have that scene with Lance doing math that I think connects the two

Shiro feels like Lance, he feels like he has no place on the team anymore.

But he doesn’t deal with it in the open, honest and good way Lance does. (which is the reason Black won’t accept him anymore, he’s not thinking of the team)

That’s why he butts heads with Keith over leadership in this episode, and we can see even in the season 4 trailer that it goes on.

I think his position as a paladin and leader of Voltron gave him control over his life back after what he’s been through. In a way that was how he coped with his captivity and his PTSD.

He’s obviously proud of Keith, but I think he’s also jealous and hurt. 

I dun think he's ready to accept he’s no longer leader or a part of Voltron.

(Like he’s proud of Keith, but he still puts him down saying “You’ll get there someday”)

And I think Keith understand where it’s coming from and he doesn’t buy it.

He puts himself down and says he can’t do this because he wants Shiro to feel needed and important.

And Shiro is doing what ya’ll Shiro stans have been doing for months haha, crying about him not being the black paladin anymore and how all his work on his bond with black was meaningless now that Keith is in it.

Shiro's bond with his lion meant the most, he was the one who had to put the most effort into it. And suddenly, it gives him up. I think Shiro feels betrayed even.

And he’s not ready to do what Lance did with his lion yet and give it up for the sake of the team (maybe some Lance and Shiro bonding in the future??)

That’s why it seems like they are heading for a leadership conflict there. That Shiro would try to make Keith feel like he’s not ready for this. Unintentionally. 

And Keith would continue to play along with it, (though being the more fitting person for the position of leader) because maybe that’s what he’s been doing all along from episode one. Trying to gently give Shiro the power and the control he lost when he was captured by the Galra, back. (Without directly confronting Shiro about his PTSD.) (would explain their odd dynamics)

Thing is Shiro is just not as good as Keith with leading Voltron. And I think he’s gonna mess up AGAIN.

It’s like we are back in square one, where Keith is the one that has the right idea in mind and no one listens and they all listen to Shiro who makes BAD decisions.

( Shiro WTF 1 Shiro WTF 2 Shiro WTF 3 Shiro WTF 4,)

This is leading to them finding their balance as leaders and co leaders.

Now Shiro’s leadership is centered around teamwork and protecting his team. 

Keith is the better decision maker (and I have a long rant about Keith coming, because I dun think people understand why Keith is the perfect person for black still.)

I’m just gonna say Keith is definitely the leader they need in they ever want to beat Lotor. 

This all seems like buildup to Shiro finally opening up about his PTSD, and him piloting blue (the team work lion) which I talked about before also. I’m guessing he and Allura will be sharing it, Because someone needs to pilot the castle once in awhile.

This is a very natural arc for Shiro, so I doubt they’ll let a clone go though it.

And back to the clone thing:

The flashbacks Shiro sees when he escapes, seem to me like his regular PTSD flashbacks. There’s something in his memories Shiro is terrified of.

Obviously the clone IS a thing, because we see two Shiro’s. And obviously the Galra has some sort of plan for it.

But the clone is the one we saw in the bed, this is Kuron:

The Shiro that they got back is the real Shiro, or atleast the same Shiro from season 1-2. (who is the Shiro that arrived on Earth, but maybe not the Shiro that went to Kerberos btw)

And the Galra didn’t let him go, they just assumed they shot him down and he died. So they could start doing whatever they had planned to do with his clone.

They just have no idea real Shiro survived and is gonna fuck up their plans.

I’m guessing the headaches are connected to that somehow.

And this part

I’m gonna have to say maybe this isn’t just connected to Keith actually physically saving Shiro all the time. 

But also to Shiro’s ongoing probably life long battle with his PTSD, Keith is always there to kinda always remind him like “Your’e still valuable, your life is valuable, don’t give up.”

Now go embrace your even uglier hair Shiro and tell him you’re sorry for not trusting him.

[ashasdramadrawer]

Why Lance is so popular, and why I had it wrong: a short ramble

I have a confession. I found myself following Lance as the focal character/ main protagonist when I first started watching Voltron.

And I did it for a fairly simple reason. After Shiro was introduced and promptly kidnapped, my first thought (because I didn’t know the the original GoLion names) was that we would never see him again. So when we’re introduced to the Garrison Trio, and focus was shifted almost entirely to Lance, I thought that hew as meant to be the focal point character. The character we were meant to identify most with, who is, often, the protagonist. In shonen manga and anime, usually the character we see first is the person who will be the most important. And after all, the first third (which was supposed to be the first episode) was, very much, all from Lance’s POV. Lance trying to make the team bond (despite it being an excuse to meet girls) and Lance thinking of a way to rescue Shiro, his hero. It was about Lance being chosen by the Blue Lion. It was about Lance piloting Blue to get away from the Galra cruiser.

These are all tropes that usually signal to the audience who the protagonist is going to be. FMA has us focus on Edward first, with Alphonse as a close second. Harry Potter sticks to Harry immediately. Almost all games invite us into the head of the protagonist to show is their lives first thing. Most shonen tropes will introduce the young protagonist, who has to grow into the leadership role over the course of the story, with a cool senpai character who leads the way but steps aside (or dies) later on, which could easily be Shiro.

When Keith comes in later to rescue Shiro and Lance set him up as some sort of rival, I immediately fell on Lance’s side in this, because it was easy to relate to. Keith felt like he was being set up as the asshole rival character that was usually see. I kind of liked that- I had no real attachment to Keith at that point, even though I had watched or had knowledge of most previous iterations of Voltron- because it felt like a fresh take on these characters. They hadn’t been rivals before, but the idea of seeing how their friendship grew appealed to me. So I didn’t question it.

So when the focus shifted off of Lance, I was... a bit adrift. It had taken barely twenty minutes for me to shove Lance into the role of protagonist, and the reason I became attached to Shiro later was because I appreciate his kindness and patience over a damaged spirit. Lance himself was what broke the rest of that attachment later on by being a wanker.

A friend pointed out that Lance was meant to be an unreliable narrator. And I felt kinda dumb because I hadn’t really been thinking on those lines, even if I knew his POV was unreliable. I just hadn’t thought to see such from a kids’ show.

And here’s the thing: I don’t think most of his stans were expecting it, either.

That first impression we get of Lance is nuanced, but how many times do we see a flawed protagonist that’s almost just like him? The every-boy who is meant to be the audience surrogate-turned-hero? A great example is Daniel from the 2011 Voltron Force (and someone I fucking hated, but that’s another story) who is cool and fun and grabs the idiot ball and NEVER LETS GO.

Voltron: Legendary Defender, as a whole, delights in subverting expectations. Shiro/Sven was supposed to die early on. Guess what? He’s the leader, has survived hell, and is generally an overall great guy. Pidge was often mistaken for a woman, but had been a 12 year old boy. Guess what? She’s pulling a Mulan the whole time. Allura was often the Load (especially in DotU s2) but she is literally the strongest character of the main cast. Hunk went from a rough-and-tumble brawler to being a cynical foodie. Coran went from serious and constantly questioning Allura to being her greatest support and the comic relief. Zarkon is nuanced, as is Haggar, far more than from DotU.

Thing is, it isn’t always easy to see an unreliable narrator. Lolita is considered the ur example, and how many people still see it as romantic? Lance was meant to be the relateable one, but that didn’t mean he was the hero. He was always the self-absorbed, sometimes mean guy we know. He was always lacking in empathy. But because we were pulled in initially, it is incredibly easy to keep projecting on to him as the story progresses and miss-attribute who the actual focal characters ARE.

The everyman who is kinda horrible as a person is pretty common. I mean, look at Xander from Buffy. He’s a gross Nice Guy who is never called out. Lance desperately wants to be attractive to women, wants adoration, fame, glory. He’s finally growing up some, but that narrative trick at the beginning still has a lot of people fooled, I think. And because people were fooled, they created this massive body of fanon that has warped the idea of Lance completely out of shape.

It took me until season 3 to really start liking Keith. And I think it was because we rarely followed him until the second season. I think, had we started the story following him, the Lance Stans wouldn’t be as vocal. I like who Keith has proven himself to be. His relationship with Shiro, over time, has been one of the best, most supportive relationships in the show. It was nice to see the hints dropped without tons of exposition. But, if, say, for example, we had followed Keith’s POV on the Shiro-rescue? I really don’t think fandom would be quite the same.

VLD fans, especially Lance stans, are really poor at distinguishing fiction and reality. They’re often young and have little experience. So the most common tropes- following Lance at first, and the slap-slap-kiss trope- are what have shaped their initial impressions of Lance, Keith and Shiro. (Slap-slap-kiss is horrible, btw. It is excusing poor behavior and communication, usually so girls will accept boys being assholes to them because ‘they have a crush on them! Assigning it to Lance and Keith is a disservice.)

Subverting expectations often makes for a really good story. But I think here was not a good place for it.

[maychorian]

silverheartlugia2000 replied to your post: Voltron 4.06

This season.. it feels like they are trying to pinch off lance for something plot wise, Keith took off so Shiro could get black and Alura saved the day with Blue after his pep talk, Pidge and Hunk were nerding around with matt and shiro is in charge with alura.. aside from him getting the stage time he wanted all we saw him do was care for his cow (which BTW I’d like to know where he learned about proper milking and cow wrangling) and it leaves me with worried vibes…

Yeah, I definitely feel like all of the stuff with Lance is building up to something big. I want Season 5 now. It definitely felt like he was a little isolated this season. (Another thing I’m not looking forward, Lance stans whining that Lance didn’t get any development this season. He freaking saved the day, okay. Yes, by encouraging Allura to try to save the day, but he did. Lance is amazing.)

[hamphobicbasil]

so season 4. 

i decidded to put my incoherent thoughts together and put a lil thing below

give that a read if u want

(btw if anyone wants to discuss season 4 hmu!)

so uh. voltron season 4 huh? i mean?? not bad? but not good? like, better than season 3. i'll be real, season 3 was actual garbage. the lion switching was bullshit, the paladin - lion mismatching was awful, the writing fell flat, IT WAS RUSHED AS HELL, it was just all around horrible. so yeah, this season was an improvement. but i will admit it had a LOT of flaws like, there were some good moments that kept me there, but god it was just eh at best. everything was just ALL over the goddamn place that the plot felt so scattered like the end part? completely out of no where with no build up. and dont get me started on keith this season you have to understand, im a keith stan in the sense of "im really attached to this character because he reminds me of myself a lot and i genuninly adore his stand alone character and traits that do vastly differ from my own, but i can still see him a good, comforting way" kinda way. not like, "HE'S PERFECT AND IF ANYONE SAYS OTHER WISE I'LL NUT THEIR NUTS OFF" but i think even other stans of other characters can agree that the treatment he got? kinda bullshit some spoilers here but, after episode 1? he's gone. no really he's gone until the last two episodes. they completely disregarded a mAIN CHARACTER and its not comparable to the "oh so awful" treatment lance and hunk got in season 2, because at least they were still there keith was gone, and no one cared. i guess that may be reflecting on how he was treated on earth, but its kinda discouraging to see that his team, his FRIENDS, didnt even spare a thought to him being gone the entire season. I get it yeah they cant focus on something for so long and need to keep moving, but at least we could have gotten some moment there. also the shows of the coalition? FEELS BAD. its kinda?? weird to show off a weapon as some sort of show thing just to get allies and episode 4? that should have been an extra episode to take ironically. there is so much more that could have been done. like matt and pidge reuniting? could have been a two episode thing instead of one. draw out the emotion of pidge thinking matt was dead, draw out the search for him, make it PAINFUL although i will admit? that ending was pretty good. i enjoyed lotor's arc, and the emotions he felt when his generals turned on him. when he was grieving narti. i enjoyed the short reunion of matt and pidge's remeeting, that was fucking awesome. and i love how matt was pretty fucking cool too. but a lot of things could have been fixed. so yeah, that was kinda my thoughts on this rushed shitshow of a season. it wasnt bad, but not good either. at least it wasnt season 3 levels of terrible but i guess i expected more from a team of writers that are putting so much work into a passion project but its whatever i guess, this has just been a 15 year old ranting on the internet about a kids show.

[arisushanti]

my thoughts on voltron season 4

quick summary: all I want is longer seasons, better writing and more thought out plot. don't get me wrong I love getting seasons really fast, but it's at the expense of the writing. i don't care if I have to wait a long time, I just want more quality episodes and slightly longer seasons!! I feel like this season was super half asked since the voltron team is trying to pump out seasons like a machine. Just chill out guys! We can wait! (Also here's other thoughts on specific things, if you care at all) ~~~ 1. when keith went to the blade of marmora in ep 1, I thought like oh cool okay not keith focused, that's fine by me. but then he doesn't return at all? like none? only a bit in the end? i was at least expecting a little more snippets of him doing BOM things, but nope, bye bye keith! i do realize this season wasn't supposed to be about him, but come on! you basically got him out of the way to make it easier and shorter, which I find to be lazy. at the very very least have two more scenes where we see him doing some fancy slish slash stuff. then again I might be biased because I'm a keith Stan. whatever 2. If you're going to introduce a new character (Matt) and "replace" it with an old one (Keith), at least include them more? I do realize that he did have a whole episode-ish on him (mostly Pidge), but same thing I said for keith. where'd he go? only a single sentence that said "Yeah btw he's out doing rebel stuff, dw about him, NEXT!" again, kinda lazy writing in my opinion. BUT I DO APPRECIATE THE ALLURA X MATT SCENE, THAT WAS GOLDEN 3. What the fuck was up with Zarkon magically being raised from the dead. Like hello. What. No specific reason how he healed, kinda just "*putting on armour montage*" Seemed a bit abrupt to me. 4. Lotors generals suddenly turning? I completely understand how, but it's just that thing with acxa! She was the most loyal to lotor, but we barely get to see any visible signs that she genuinely didn't want to do it. just kinda a little boop on Lotors nose and the face of a stone cold killa. but maybe it's because she actually didn't give a fuck. idk seemed a bit out of character. (Then again, he did kill narti which probably messed her up) 5. Lotor joining the voltron coalition. That's all I need. I knew this was going to happen from the first time I saw him. And I am super giddy that I was right! Can't wait to see what team voltron reactions gonna be! Okay that's basically it, thanks for reading bye.

[spiftynifty]

Voltron season 4

So this season was... kind of a mess. I’ve talked briefly before about this show’s struggle with what I feel like the creators want it to be (character driven) and what the clients (Dreamworks & Netflix) want it to be (action driven). This season for me was DEFINITELY the weakest of the four, no contest, because of that very struggle. Spoilers below the cut.

So maybe I’m just more used to an Avatar-verse type of pacing, but to put it in animation terms this season felt like it was all keyframes and no inbetweens. The passage of time was murky as all hell and the omission of certain key developments or heck even moments that lead to developments was sorely felt. 

First, Keith being a Blade of Marmora. What?? Like don’t get me wrong, this is awesome and I’ve always hoped he would be this eventually but there was no lead-up to it whatsoever. It’s just episode 6/7 then boom, “months later...” all these things are different, all this tension feels completely out of nowhere because we haven’t seen ANY of it. We’ve just been dropped right in the middle of the ACTION. Honestly a throwaway line in season 3, like maybe Kolivan sees Keith training and comments, “You are technically Galra. As such you could train with Marmora and hone your tactics.”, a brief shot of Keith considering this, PERFECT. Pair it with that Shiro/Keith scene where Shiro insists he’s proud Black chose him, even better. This is how you write character over action.

Second, Pidge’s episode was great!! But it was also completely out of nowhere. Apart from that brief scene in season 3 where she finds video footage of Matt, the motivation to look for him just hasn’t been there. I was additionally annoyed by her super quick explanation about the shopkeeper giving her intel, like how did she know the shopkeeper had that intel? What led that on the goose chase? Again something solved with a tertiary character mistaking Pidge for Matt in a throwaway scene. Heck, starting the episode with this would have been great. Lose the lizard assassin entirely, we never learn anything about him or his boss and all it does is show that Matt and Pidge are a great team-- something that can be shown easily in future episodes. 

Third. NOT RESOLVING THE CLONE(??) ISSUE. I’ve read a lot of posts about this and I agree; as great as it is to feel like Shiro is truly back, season 3 set up so hard that he wasn’t really Shiro, or that he had been brainwashed, so as a result the audience just doesn’t trust him at all. He was my favorite character for a long time, and this season I didn’t like him because I didn’t know who he was. The way they did this season too didn’t feel like they were being clever for future seasons, it felt like they had dropped the whole issue entirely. I was sure that in the last episode Haggar’s secret weapon was going to be Shiro, what an amazing moment that would have been (though making the rest of the plot nonsensical). But no, there was absolutely zero payoff in this episode and it’s a lot easier to root for a character when you know who they are.

Fourth. After stealing much of the show in season 3, Lotor and his Generals.... just... kind of... sucked this season?? It was like someone had just sucked all the energy out of all of them. Lotor was an interesting, clever character in season 4 and suddenly he got rash and stupid. There are better ways to show the fall of confidence in a cocky character that really show that character and evoke sympathy from watchers. I didn’t care about any of them this season.

Fifth. On that note, this season made it hard to care about almost any of the characters. Everything felt tense and distant and oddly 2-dimensional about them (with a couple of exceptions that I’ll talk about in the POSITIVES below). I’ve read people insisting they did, it was only because Shiro and Keith got sidelined that people are salty. Well, yes and no? After the show being about him for 2 (1.5?) seasons, Keith got super awkwardly and obviously sidelined in a mission we never learned about, and this is after the untold story in between ep 7 and 8(s4 e1) of him becoming a Blade. Like we didn’t get to see him juggle Voltron and Shiro’s expectations vs what he wanted for himself, we only caught the tail end of it when it was reaching a boiling point (which btw from a narrative POV makes said boiling point feel disjointed and less effective). Shiro didn’t do much this season either besides hint at having struggled with losing Black (again, something that would have been nice to see but action sells more toys than character development) and then get Black back and be a little less tense. Pidge got a little development with her backstory, which was great, but Hunk still remains largely unchanged by this show which is frustrated. Also I’m sorry but I actually hated most of Coran ep. It didn’t move anything forward and actually felt like a step BACKWARDS in Coran’s character. 

Overall yeah, this was just a “hit the plot points hard and fast” season which was so frustrating because I want this show to be able to explore more character-level stuff without being afraid of turning off its young boy toy-buyer audience (who from what I have seen are still not the actual primary audience).

But despite my generally negative feels on this season, there WERE some ~~~~~POSITIVES~~~~~

-Marmora Keith is pretty great -We got another Sheith hug! Even if the animation in this hug was particularly weak and also there was a major awkward crotch gap? It was weird. -And then EVERYONE joined in the hug and it was beautiful -Speaking of Sheith, that Pre-Kerb photobomb that I DEFINITELY didn’t catch but thanks to Tumblr I have now seen, well played -Haggar/Honerva in the mirror was GREAT and this is the kind of character moment shit I want more of Dreamworks -Narti’s death genuinely shocked me, and the other Generals choosing her over Lotor was G R E A T -THE KALTENEKER SCENE OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. Literally my favorite part of the whole season. SO GOOD. -Coran being a big Shiro stan (but we didn’t get to SEE Shiro in that tight shirt so minus 10 points for Dreamworksdor) -Shiro hugging Matt -Pidge showing Matt around, particularly loved her room -Pidge, Matt, and Hunk hanging out and being smarty-pants together -ALLURA!!! This season was so great. From playing Keith to using her powers to lecturing Keith, it was all beautiful. And on that note... -LANCE AND ALLURA. I’ve been super super low-key shipping Allurance since the lion switch in season 3, but their stuff this season was WONDERFUL. He stops being the gaga-for-girls Lance with her and helps her out and picks her up when she doesn’t believe in herself. When she is able to work her magic and Lance says, “I didn’t do anything, it was all you” I was like *_* this is SO. NICE. -Female Galra generals! TWO OF THEM! It was like a beautiful surprise gift.

And that’s all I can think of to be honest. This season was just such a mess, even when paired with season 3. Season 3 had so much more emotional power on all fronts, which is def what I like most about this show.

[groundramon]

I’m bored and I cant focus on my drawing so...

Since I’ve been ratting on Teen Titans all week even tho I insist I like the show (I SWEAR TO GOD I DO...I was off-put at first but? its okay, its hard for shows to immediately hook me), I think it’s only fair to list some of my major problems with some of my all-time favorite shows and some other shows that are currently on that aren’t really my favorite, but I still think are objectively decent and arguably pretty damn good.

I’m not gonna go in order from best to worst but here we go: (keep reading tag because this is going to get really fucking long and ik i dont usually do this with my rants but i feel like i should this time, idk im inconsistent this is a personal blog sorry)

Steven Universe: - I sometimes feel bad critiquing SU because it’s not too far into its run.  I love the show, some of the moments and even full episodes are legitimately mesmerizing, but it...has quite a few problems, yeah.

- The one I bitch the most about is the pacing.  Steven Universe tries to combine serialized storytelling, which is telling an overarching story over the course of several episodes (IE Avatar: The Last Airbender, most anime, ect), and episodic storytelling, which is telling several smaller stories that each fit in one episode with little to nothing connecting them besides the characters (IE SpongeBob, We Bare Bears, most cartoons honestly).  But emphasis on “tries”; Steven Universe, unfortunately, is not very good at blending these two styles.  Steven Universe ridgedly adheres to the idea of having a season that is half filler/”townie” episodes and half “cool alien”/plot-related stuff - and this is something that’s been confirmed, by the way.  So while this was fine in the first season (where the only true overarching plot-related episodes that weren’t just worldbuilding were at the end of the season) and the second season (where the plot episodes can be summed up all-together as “they catch and befriend Peridot and learn, not stop, the Cluster”), it isn’t in the later seasons.  Season 3 has the following plot points: the Cluster is defeated, Malachite is found and defeated and defused, Lapis joins the Crystal Gems, more homeworld gems (rubies) find earth, Jasper is corrupted and bubbled, its revealed that Rose Quartz shattered (killed) someone, and Steven gets lost in space because of a plan gone wrong with the Rubies (and he’s rescued in the last episode).  That is a paragraph worth of plot points.  And, being generous (IE including plot-forwarding episodes that feel more like filler than actual plot, like the baseball episode) that is 13 twelve-minute episodes worth of content.  All of those plot points are addressed in 2.6 hours time.  That is not long enough to visit all those episodes.  And there are a few more I didnt count that /are/ related to the aliens, but Bismuth and Centipeetle currently irrelevant and weren’t related to the plot points I listed so I didnt mention them.

- I’m also still waiting somewhat impatiently for resolution on certain character arcs.  Pearl’s behavior hasn’t been properly addressed for a while and I’m really hoping they dont wimp out of addressing what a piece of shit she can be sometimes.  Like, I love Pearl, but get the fuck outta hear with your Pearl stanning shit.  She’s unintentionally awful and I lvoe her for it.  I’m more patient about Bismuth but.......crewniverse, im starting to get a little impatient with her too.  Bring her back.  You should’ve brought her back in the next episode, because her friends shouldn’t have left her bubbled, but whatever.  It’s fine.  I’m fine.  (I’m not fine).

- Also, Lapis’s character arc.  Wasn’t properly addressed.  One episode she was saying she deserved to be with Jasper and the next she seems fine.  One episode she hates Peridot and two episodes (well several episodes, but two episodes as far as they appear) later they’re buddy-buddy with one another.  I get that there was probably a time gap where they developed closer with one another, but fuck, I would’ve liked to see that instead of Future Boy Zoltron but okay :) (and i dont even hate future boy zoltron, its just one of the few “meh” episodes I bothered to remember the name of)

- SPEAKING OF UNPROPERLY ADDRESSED CHARACTER ARCS I swear to god Crewniverse, if Amethyst was being sincere when she said she didn’t have self esteem issues anymore, I dont think I can call this one of my favorite shows anymore.  Where.  Where did she find the resolve to get over her self esteem issues.  The last time we saw her talk about them was when she broke down in Sardonyx’s room, but, she was speaking through Smoky Quartz (btw, where the fuck has Smoky been? I literally forgot about her because its been so long...).  But still, even if she WAS speaking through a fusion, before then she displayed the same self-destructive mindsets and she was never given the resolve to better herself.  All she did was wallow in her own pity with Steven (which? relatable, but not constructive).  Show us her getting the resolve to better herself.  Show her positively reinforcing herself.  Have her whisper “you can do this, Amy,” under her breath right before she kick’s a bad guy’s ass.  Have her high-five herself, have her cheer for herself, have her be sincerely proud and acknowledging her accomplishments.  Because that’s how you fix self esteem issues and kids should be taught that by someone other than a therapist or the internet.

- Just because a lot of these issues could be fixed with time doesn’t change where they are at this moment.  The past pacing issues might not ruin the show for me depending on the direction they go in, but I feel like they’re going to continuously make the same mistakes over and over - and with the intense direction this show is going now, the idea of having five filler/townie episodes in a row while Lars is in space is terrifying because of how awful that pacing is.  I do not care about Onion, please go back to Lars.  But even if they fix it and the rest of the series is near-spotless, what’s done is done, you cant fix the rushed pacing of the past seasons’ stories and the dumb filler that padded out the seasons in the wrong areas.

- Also, another problem with combining episodic and serialized storytelling is that SU’s story gets WAY too serialized for an episodic show.  There’s so much going on that you can’t just sit down and watch a random episode of the show and start watching the show from there, which is a huge problem when you have episodes like Onion Gang and Future Boy Zoltron that take up 30% of the episodes and offer literally nothing to the story and honestly arent usually even that great as far as episodic stories go.  You cannot have 30% of your serialized show be 100% filler.  That’s bad writing.  And SU is in denial of the fact that it’s too serialized to be episodic.

Gravity Falls: - I generally cite Gravity Falls as one of the best combiners of the traditional episodic and serialized styles.  It’s what Steven Universe dreams of being; it becomes serialized when it counts (the final half of the last season), but up until then, it’s episodic with just a few clues/reoccuring things sprinkled throughout.  However, this show is far, far from flawless.

- Some of the episodic shows, and I mean a lot of the episodic shows, have a tendency to feel rather generic.  Ah yes, a girl whose obsessed with boys and boybands.  Okay.  Seen that.  A nerdy, whimpy boy who has a crush on a cooler older girl.  Again, seen that.  I’m not saying that’s all there is to Mable and Dipper; clearly not.  But a lot of their traits encompass many different stereotypes, and while the characters themselves aren’t bad, the situations they find themselves in aren’t always the most original.  Sometimes I feel like Gravity Falls is a PG-rated Scooby Doo meets Disney Sitcom.  Which is okay if you like Scooby Doo and Disney Sitcoms, but it doesn’t always make for the most eloquent storytelling.  Which is fine for a kids show, but less fine for one of the cartoons heralded as a harbinger of the current cartoon renaissance (then again, I’m not into hardly any of the other harbingers of the “current cartoon renaissance” and I’d argue that we aren’t in a renaissance at all; we’re just finally, finally getting some decent cartoons after the awfulness that was the late 2000s)

- I’m gonna say it; we should’ve learned more about Ford’s adventures in the other dimension.  It’s possible some of the non-animation related materials (namely books) have information about his travels, but as it stands, I havent got a clue what happened to him during those years.  And I want to know.  I should know.  Its a glaring plot hole in all honesty, because we should know what happened to him and how it affected him.  Or maybe im overreacting idk.

Voltron: Legendary Defender: - Hoo boy, where do I even start with VLD

- VLD seems like a show that wants to be character-driven but somehow refuses to.  It wants you to be emotionally attached to the characters, but either it does that and does nothing with it, or it doesn’t even bother to do that.  The only characters whose struggles I care about are Pidge, Shiro, Allura, and only as of season 3, Keith.  Allura I was kinda on the fence about until season 3 but thankfully, if season 3 did one thing right, it was Keith and Allura (and yes I know people are complaining abt Allura’s treatment but I like watching my faves suffer).  That leaves two paladins - and Coran, but I’ll give him a pass because literally the only show that’s done a comedy relief right is ATLA so I’m not expecting him to be superbly well-developed - that I dont give a shit about.

- Lets start with Hunk.  GOD I want to love Hunk so much.  So FUCKING much.  But every time a new season comes out, I feel more and more disappointed.  This show is so obsessed with melding him down to “the fat kid who eats a lot and makes a lot of dumb jokes” and it’s....so disappointing, because there’s so much potential here for something more.  In the first episode of the series, we see Hunk display cowardice (which isn’t an uncommon trait for a fat stereotype) and a prowess for engineering.  Yes he’s a bit of a fat stereotype, but you know what?  I dont care if a fat character is cowardly, makes bad puns, likes to eat, throws up a lot, all that jazz.  I care that they’re more than that.  I hate the idea that a character having a stereotypical trait (assuming its not straight-up a caricature) makes them automatically stereotypical.  Sorry buddy but smart asian people exist.  Preppy blondes exist.  And food-loving fat people exist (hi! i know that last one is true because I am one).  But they’re so obsessed with ignoring Hunk’s other traits - his love of cooking and his engineering skills.  I dont even remember if he used his engineering skills in season 2 and I know he only used it once in season 3.  He didnt even cook in season 3.  And I think the most telling thing in this show is how the show described Hunk’s relationship with Shiro.  As Keith was expressing grief over loosing essentially his big brother figure, Lance thought back to when he viewed Shiro as a legend and a hero, Pidge reminisced about how her father and brother used to praise the guy, and Hunk?  Hunk basically said “uhhhhhh he taught me to pilot my lion.....that counts right.”  Because Hunk has no relationship with Shiro.  Because Hunk has no relationship with any character.  He doesn’t even have that much of a relationship with Lance, and the two seemed to be best friends - or at least friends - prior to the formation of team Voltron.  At best, Hunk is friends with Lance and Pidge.  But all Hunk has done with Keith is make bad jokes while Keith acted all loner-y, and Hunk hasn’t even interacted with Allura and Shiro.

- Now, speaking of Lance, lets talk about him.  While Hunk gets points from me because he’s a sweetheart who deserves better, Lance is a flirter whose too high on his own horse and makes even worse jokes than Hunk does.  Considering Lance is the one we follow in the first episode, I would’ve expected him to be the most centric member of the team.  But first off, fuck me for projecting anime stereotypes/tropes onto a western cartoon (even though voltron was originally an anime kinda but shhh), but secondly he actually is...the most forgettable of all the Paladins.  Yeah I said it.  I legitimately dont like Lance at this point.  Yeah, I said that too.  I basically cant remember anything about him besides the fact that he flirts and jokes around a lot and that Klance is inescapable (like, not that its inevitable that you’ll ship it, but you’ll never escape the fandom for it).  He’s Sokka with all the charm, intelligence, and depth taken out of him, and also bi but that’s the only improvement.  Seriously, what...draws you all to Lance?  I dont want to judge, but he’s just....so stereotypical.  So boring to me, despite being the most lively paladin.  And the development cockteasing.  Oh, the development cockteasing.  I cant tell you how many times I’ve gotten my hopes up specifically because of something the show said about Lance/Lance seeming to be insecure about something, only for them to immediately shoot it down and replace it with more bad jokes or...nothing at all.  Because did Lance even do anything in season 3?  He pilots Red now, he had a funny bit with Blue during the “breakup”, he comforted Keith, Keith comforted him, uhhhh ??? did he even have a line in episode 7??  I feel like there might’ve been episodes where he literally had no speaking parts.  The only good things I can say about Lance so far are: 1. sometimes hes really fucking funny, and 2. it looks like they COULD be building up to something.  But if they’re just cockteasing me all the way through, I’m disowning dreamworks entirely.

- The tone of the show? also shouldn’t vary as much as it does.  The tone of a show varying is fine, but it shouldn’t vary in the way it does in Voltron prior season 3 (I’ll get to what I mean by that in a second).  In season 1 and season 2, the heavy moments of the show were almost entirely carried by Shiro; there was something for Pidge and something for Keith, but even then, Shiro got involved or was there for the entire time.  Shiro, by merely existing, brings the tone of this show down to something almost too serious for a kid’s show (emphasis on almost).  During the light-hearted parts, he just has to keep his mouth shut, because the only time he’s done anything funny (besides ironically funny like with his new outfit and haircut) was when he was yelling at Sven.  Yelling should not be your only source of humor.  But the rest of the show?  Was pretty goofy, yeah it took itself seriously sometimes but it also knew how to have fun.  Which is fine, a show should be able to have fun sometimes.  But that means all parts of the show, including Shiro.  Shiro is physically incapable of having fun and that’s kind of sad.  Season 3 was better about this though; nothing in season 3 felt fun and goofy, like at all, besides Lance taking selfies with girls in the first episode, and that was just one scene.  So I mean, they didn’t fix their problem, but the tone didn’t vary as much.  And I’m not saying the tone shouldn’t vary.  No, it should; you shouldn’t have all serious moments or all goofy moments.  Have some fun, but also take yourself seriously sometimes.  The problem is that parts of the show can’t take themselves seriously (Lance, Hunk) and other parts of the show can’t take a joke (Shiro, Zarkon/any villain too but they get a pass since they’re villains).

- Also we REALLY should know all of the Paladins’ backstories by now, ESPECIALLY Keith’s.  I know his is a mystery, but we need to know what he knows or else we cant get invested in the mystery.  If we dont have the same facts as the characters, we dont know where to start or what to expect.  We should’ve also seen flashbacks to Lance and Hunk’s families - ESPECIALLY Lance’s, since he seemed to care so much about them, but welp now that’s gone :).  We should’ve also seen more flashbacks to Pidge’s family but at least she’s trying to find them.  Nobody else gives a shit about their families and I just.  Aaaaaaaaaa this show infuriates me sometimes.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: - There’s nothing wrong with ATLA, move the fuck along

- I’M JOKING IM JOKING SWEATS okay but it’s no surprise I like ATLA and think its near flawless.  But still, it’s near-flawless, not flawless.

- If you cant stand a little kiddish cheese, you wont be able to stand ATLA.  ATLA takes itself super seriously for something on Nickelodeon, especially something on Nickelodeon in the mid-to-late 2000s (god I wish I watched this show as a kid, my standards would’ve been so much higher and i would’ve known what animation could actually do if you tried) but it’s still written for kids.  Which is fine!  I actually prefer things written for children over things written for adults.  But if you can’t handle something with content that’s clearly written for children, ATLA isn’t for you.

- Ozai fucking sucks.  There’s no other way to put it, his character fucking sucks.  He’s meant to be the embodiment of pure evil, he’s not meant to be sympathetic like Zuko, but for fuck’s sake, we needed his backstory.  And no, The Search doesn’t count; love that comic book, but that’s not enough backstory on Ozai (unless I’ve forgotten an important scene in the comic, idk its been a while).  Azula isn’t a sympathetic villain but we see her reasons and backstory.  Give us something like that for Ozai.  Show us a character that was emotionally neglected and then grew up in a society where killing and genocide were encouraged and praised.  THATS the backstory for Ozai I want.  I want to know where he came from to fuel my hatred for him, to see him as a real person but not as someone who should’ve done what he did, and I want to hate him BECAUSE he feels like a character.  Right now he just feels like the embodiment of evil and that doesn’t make for a good, truly intimidating villain.  A truly intimidating villain is one that you understand and can possibly relate to.  Not...whatever the hell Ozai is.

- Katara and Aang’s romance plot fucking sucks.  I am ace/aro and cannot write romance for shit nor tell when characters have chemistry, but I can still tell this.  It’s not...forced?  It’s not...rushed?  But it’s unnecessary and poorly written and it’s just puppy love and honestly if it was real live I couldnt see their relationship lasting.  Also the idea of seeing someone as a brother and then dating them later is verrrry .... poorly worded to say the least bUT ANYWAYS NEXT BULLET POINT

- Toph and Suki could’ve been developed more.  Like, they were okayly developed, they were great characters, but idk.  Toph didn’t grip me nearly as much as Sokka, Aang, and Katara and I feel kind of bad about it, but thinking about how much development the others got compared to her, it’s not really surprising.  I also am not the hugest fan of rude characters anymore, but I digress.  Also Suki.  Suki had like, little to no development.  I want Suki to be part of Team Avatar.  Can we do that

- General Zhao also fucking sucks.  He’s so generic that the first few times I watched the show, I forgot he was even a significant reoccuring villain.

- Sokka could’ve also been more developed but they could’ve all been more developed honestly?  You can always add to perfection.  I shouldnt complain about Sokka tho, he was finely developed and I love my nonbending son

The Legend of Korra: - Uhhhh the first season’s ending?  0/10 bad, rushed, not good.  I wanted to see Korra deal with the loss of her other elements.  I wanted to see her cope with that.  But no, because Nickelodeon kept screwing over LOK, they had to rush it because otherwise it wouldn’t have been a happy ending for the series if they potentially had to end it after one season.  Fuck Nickelodeon :) but I’m still going to critique LOK for it even if it is Nickelodeon’s fault.

- Bolin and Mako were horribly underdeveloped.  Especially Bolin.  It’s so sad how underdeveloped “Team Avatar” was in this series compared to the last series.  I feel bad complaining about Toph, Suki, and ESPECIALLY Sokka in comparison to LOK.  The only one even comparably as bad is Suki, but she got half a season to be developed and these two got an entire series.  We got some of their backstory and then...that was it, besides the love triangle that Bolin was barely part of.  I guess they were kinda irrelevant for season 2 and season 4, but they had no reason to be missing in the later half of season 4, plus they had season 1 and season 3, so....  God, poor Bolin.  It would’ve been nice to see a nice (fat) comic relief guy like him get the same treatment as Sokka, but whatever....its fine.......ill just sit here patiently waiting for my good representation coughs.  Also all Mako did was do the love triangle and I Do Not Like Him for it.  Keith is a better Mako than Mako ever was because Keith dont need no love triangle and also he already has more development

- Asami also should’ve been more developed, but it looks like there’s potential for more development in the comics so thats good.  From the series alone though, she was pretty flat; better than Bolin and Mako for sure, better than Suki from the original series, but not nearly as good as Toph or the others.  At least she did have some development and a likeable personality that’s relatively original.

- I hate saying this but...Korrasami should’ve been more developed.  I wouldn’t like, take points off of a rating for this point because I mean it was the first lesbian/gay representation in a kids cartoon (from my understanding) and Nick might not’ve even known they were sneaking in something romantic at the end, not to mention they completely subverted the love triangle plot so it actually gains back favor in that way and its great.  Also, I mean, they had that buy-curious joke lmao.  And I’m pretty sure its expanded upon more in the comic; there wasn’t really room to expand upon it in the show because it was just starting.  But they probably could’ve done better than that.  It was still okay though and also, the subverting of the love triangle trope is the greatest thing ever and i long for the day that I can do that plot twist in one of my shows lmao.

- The Villains could’ve been more developed.  Besides Ammon (who is FUCKING AWESOME and you can FIGHT ME) they all had the same problem as Ozai; we dont have many reasons to see them as human or relatable and it makes it hard to hate them as much as we should.  I mean, they do show /some/ human qualities which I appreciate, but I dont entirely understand their motivations half the time and I want to know how they came to view the world the way they do.  But at least unlike Ozai, they do feel somewhat human.  (Except maybe Unaloq, I didnt like Unaloq very much)

And that’s like half of what I could say about each of those shows, and those are just some of my favorite shows I watch.  Dont ask me to go off on like, AOT or something, because I’ll be writing for another three hours lmao (actually feel free to because i wanna INSULT this PIECE OF GARBAGE ANIME that looks rlly pretty but otherwise IS BAD AND IDK WHY I WATCH IT lmao [idk if im joking or sincere sorry])  No show is flawless so I’m going to insult whichever flaws I see.  Fight me.

[shibitct]

I found this in my google docs

This is my old and incomplete s6 review of vld. i thought i should just put it here.Though i mention ships in the first paragraph as it’s incomplete i never went into ships. 

Oh I’ve got a lot to say about this season. I love it but some moments were a bit weak.

I will be trying to look at especially some of the ships in a balanced manner. So I apologise is my inner klance shipper makes some bits a bit biased.

The plot of this season was above average but some bits were a bit predictable however others I was shouting OH FUCK at my computer so I think it was definitely balanced. The season had it’s main two conflicts with neither being completely resolved. Sendak is still on the loose and Lotor is well… alive maybe.

Hunks character development in the first episode was some of the best development we’ve seen for him. I am really happy to see his character thrive and I hope those galra culture things he learnt come up again. Also we learnt what Vrepid sar means which was cool.

Keiths development was just.. Ahhhhhh amazing! Can you tell that i’m a keith stan. We learnt about his past just baby keith was adorable and the grave scene was heart breaking. I loved that he didn’t take everything out on krolia as the BOM has obviously made him a bit more mature. Talking about maturity. I don’t know how good it was to age up keith. Now obviously there has been discourse over this on Tumblr but to me it felt to set up. You don’t just age up a character for nothing- it has to be more than just the maturity it gave him as that could have been implemented regardless. My guess is that they will go back to that planet-but maybe not keith and krolia as they still need to check in with the BOM- this may lead to the others growing up too. Now we can be sure they’re going back because allura will want to go back and it’s not to much of a jump to think that keith won’t be there as the real shiro in one form or another is back. Last thing about him- galra keith moments were a nice touch and I hope we see more of them. Also doggo and yorak.

Pidge didn’t get much development at all but a lot of the last season was about her major arc and got about as much screen time this season. I found it a bit disappointing but understandable as they expanded most other characters this season, generally this seems to happen each season to at least to one character.

Kuron was obviously there from the start everyone knew it wasn’t a secret but was well played out. Kuron had some nice moments this season and I actually started liking his character before the obvious change at the end. Top quality animation in that fight scene absolutely beautiful btw. It was a nice way to show the audience what was happening with Haggar. And we all know he wants to be the paladin next round.

Lance was thrown around like a rock. It was annoying to see the only development he gained was from seeing his heart get broken stamped on and then put together with cello tape. I know it was probably needed but they could have gone around it a bit better but i guess it was nice to see that it was continuous throughout the episodes that season and wasn’t one of those one episode emotion kinda things.