#baited u haha

[robo-dino-puppy]

horizon zero dawn (remastered) | erend 8/?

[baeshijima]

everyone dont be like me. do ur assignments on time.

[name-that-isnt]

Had this in my drafts for a while and forgot about it, but I been pondering this info

It definitely makes sense that ravio wouldn't be his real name since it's just two words related to his appearance mashed together,, I wonder what his potential real name could be

[secretcircuit]

obvs this is my opinion and not universal or whatever, but things like "reblog to give prev a bowl of soup" doesnt feel like reblog bait. stuff like "if you dont reblog this, [x terrible thing occurs]" very much does feel like reblog bait. its all about the guilt for me :)

[eekysqueaky]

for the kink meme: office worker scenes

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ no | rather not | i dunno | i guess | sure | yes | FUCK YES | OH GOD YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

super hot!!! not exactly top tier bc like .. idk im not tryin to actually get sucked off in the office for real lol, but i do have a soft spot for uptight office guys getting fucked 😳 blowjob under the table while ur trying to work is one of the all time hottest scenes

[worstqueerbaittournament]

Submission message: howdy, would like to submit keith and lance from voltron (lmao)

Submission message: BBC Sherlock and Moriarty / BBC Sherlock and John Watson

Additional propaganda: Now Keith and Lance on the other hand was a whole fucking mess that they then shoehorned in an hetero romance to try and "fix it" but by lord it was bad, everything about voltron is so fucking bad

Anyway this is my Klance propaganda : They were actually bait

Klance's queer baiting by the team was the worst!! We had to deal with NETFLIX ALSO GETTING IN ON THE QUEER BAITING!! If you searched up Kkance during the times for season 6-8, the SHOW WOULD POP UP. The directors would make jokes about it being canon, even Lance's VA got in the joke!

Their queer baiting was the worst for anyone who was even looking for an ounce of queer rep in that show. The only queer rep we got was a man who died after not even 5 minutes on screen, and shoehorned in the credit scene of a gay wedding of a character that was neither Keith nor Lance.

I do not know Agatha and Sophie, so I can't argue that klance was bigger bait or not, I just know voltron was mean lmao. the creators said stuff like "lance will be someone's first choice!" (meaning NOT ending up in a relationship with allura bc she very much chose another guy over him) and heavily implying he would be Keith's 1st choice (or a guy in general bc of point number 2). point number 2: they also released official art showing how super cool and diverse the main cast was! race! gender! LGBT - they had shiro (who was......canon gay but that's a whole other can of worms) and lance hold the sign with LGBT on it and then did absolutely nothing with that w lance at all (he hit on allura, so obvi he's not gay, but at least bi or smt) (UNLESS you count the scenes where he's flirty with keith). I just remember going into the last few seasons being like "klance probably won't be happen be honest with yourself there's like no queer kids shows!! but damn like it so could tho!!! because of how much it's been teased both in the show and by showrunners like I can't have no hope with the way the producers talk about it!" lmao I should have had no hope, but i genuinkey believed there was a possibility it could happen. and actually I discovered after the fact that i think one of the writers for the show who was the main advocate for klance (they had a lot of diff writers for eps, which led to lots of character butchering but ANYWAY) left not terribly long into the show I believe bc he didn't like the direction it was moving in and didn't want to be tied to the show anymore. so it's not like fans just made klance up either - it was written into earlier episodes with the hope and plan to continue developing later, and then just nothing ever happened with it besides INTENSE teasing it to keep queer fans around. esp after shiro's relationship was literally only a flashback and then his fiance thing or whatever got blown up before we even got to watch him interact w shiro as we knew him in present time in s7, so I think they kept being like hmmm klance and the stuff about lance being a first choice before s8 to keep ppl around. also esp bc klancers made up such a big portion of the fan base. then they made a horrible szn and ended it w a flashforward to shiro marrying some random background character who maybe had 1 line? I just remember hitting the flashforward and being like uhhhh who is this dude??? but they did that to hit those diversity points wow first gay marriage in a cartoon or smt idk it doesn't count to me really. so anyway voltron in general is queerbait lol but klance is because it started out as a legit possibility and then they said sike! but only maybe sike bc u guys are mad at us burying our guys in s7 so maybe klance could still happen haha okay now we're serious no it's not happening. anyway I think klance is p bad queerbait and a vote for them is a valid vote, not just u liking the ship.

#im sorry but johnlock is a household name in ther queerbait trenches

I don't know much about blaze runner, but this website made me endure Johnlock FOR YEARS, that ship makes me so fucking angry, and it's so much bait, the whole fucking show is just 4 kinds of bait in a trenchcoat trying to pass as something good, and Tumblr(and the rest of the goddamn world) ate it up like a five course meal. So anyway that's why I'm voting Johnlock

[moons-of-dewclan]

a patreon for this comic would be dope af. im sure ppl would pay to see ur work !!! : DD

YOU’RE SO KIND. i definitely understand why fulltime artists paywall QnA’s, asks, tutorials and tips and stuff bc it seems easy and quick but it takes a lot of time and energy. and i am putting early access out of pretty much everything i do, including comics, when my patreon and ko.fi go up!

BUT my reluctance to hop on here specifically and be like ‘YOU CAN READ THE NEXT PAGE ON PATREON !!’ is ONE, i don’t have much up yet aside from timelapses and the next page bc i didnt.. have time to prepare before i needed to change to this format- AND MOST OF ALL it feels almost like a bait and switch?!

i’ve gotten a kind and large audience going and they were getting everything for free, so i feel like i sucked them in and then was like ‘haha now if you want more, i’m gonna grab u by ur ankles and shake the change outta ur pockets’. i can understand why it would feel a bit like a betrayal SPECIFICALLY from tumblr’s pov. my deviantart account had a patreon going for a while a couple years ago and they’re used to my circumstances going through ups and downs

BUT HERE AAA

also i acknowledge it is incredibly dumb from a business standpoint to not advertise to your audience and if anyone wants to make a living on art do not be like me PLS ALDNAKJ

[romsabombs]

malevolent part 46 the unclean live listen notes

SPOILERS BELOW

faroe jumpscare

is she haunting him lol

i cant believe he slept

"its probably an animal" u guys keep forgetting what podcast you're in

"you were sleeping?" "NO👹" defensive for no reason

stop hiding things from eachother challenge impossible

"it was just Things" 😐

what is blud yapping about😭🙏

LILY MENTIONED‼️

yeah yeah we know john we were all there🙄

cheesy ass episode where are the horrors

TRAIN STORY CALLBACK :33333

u dont have to remind me this story is bouncing around in my brain at all times

ooohh okayyyy music

arthur is not registering any of this let the man sleep💀

john praising lily for just doing her job is so funny to me

omgg :3 faroe is hanging out

no its not malam his ass doesnt sound like that

is he not even considering that it could be faroe usually he jumps at any chance to mention her

its disney pixar movie brave

shes guiding him?? showing him the way??

do u think they're fae

oh hes being compelled

"we shouldnt just sit here" ya thatd be a boring episode

hes fighting it

they're fae i faer

maybe just go the opposite direction

"what We're seeing" ok arthur

oh ermm😕😕

ANOTHER CULT??? COME ON😐😐

omg crying obsidian literally minecraft

oh dear a child. oh nvm He

its that dead child in the river isnt it

HAHA HE ROBBED THEM

arthur what happened to your decluttering mindset

HAHA YORRICK💀💀💀 they kidnapped his ass

oh his ass gonna is snitch on us

👹fuck mother darkness👹

"as unfortunate as that is" 💀

what makes u think he didnt lie to you about being the last of his kind

"we wouldn't be walking into a trap BLINDLY" "we'd be walking in with MY EYES wide open"

yorrick if you dont rat us out we'll buy you a lego set😇😇 or a chew toy

bro just dont follow him hes obviously just using the bag to bait you

ok dont get the bag guys r u dumb

STUPID!! DONT!!!! ☠️😠 guys i cant keep defending you

they will not ignore the lights bruh🙏

god we're only 19 minutes in

they're gonna die from this bruh

goddamn it john😭

oh no💀💀💀 man come on

they're cooked🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

wait is it actually okay i cant tell anymore

oh😕😕😕 BLERGH☹️☹️

naur the hunt got to him🙏

idk wtf is going on anymore bruh

okay ya its still a trap

dont drink that fucking water bruh i bet his corpse was in there

ofcourse it looks inviting bruh💀💀

they're what

💀💀 HAHA HE LEFT dumbasses

funny as hell now what

DONT DRINK IT HAHA ARE U CRAZY

it looks inviting again huh😐😐

NOOOOO💀💀 jarthur needs a babysitter bruh

"it leads men astray" only men huh😐 god forbid women have hobbies

HEART OF THE FOREST MENTIONED‼️‼️‼️‼️

they're trying so hard to be otgw

IN THE DREAMLANDS?

YEAHHHHH

omg i knew it'd come back

no guys maybe it's the same forest remember when u gave it your finger n u actually didnt need to and u said Lets hope they'll pay us back

FAE FAE FAE THEYRE FAE💥💥

mushroom smell is a core memory for him💀💀

HAHA WTF sillyness

william mentioned

what is his ass yapping about 😭

is this still a trap wtf r these mushrooms doing to him💀

hes dancing???? naur what the hell

hes cooked the fae got to him💀🙏

music is distorting ermmm😕

blud snorted too many mushrooms

WHAT?????? not the traumadumping

madness madness madness

man what the hell

☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️

man i thought he had a relatively good relationship with his dad😕

YOU DID WHAT😨😨

WHAAAT WHAT THE FUCK MAN

did the dancing exhaust him

😕 man what the hell was that

what the hell wait what now

its the king isn't it

this eppy is crazy man ill kms

the fae got to him‼️🗣️🗣️

EVERYONE SPEAKS IN YOUR VOICE BRUH THERE IS ONE VOICE

what is going on bru

WHO?? 🗣️ horick???

was the shrine for him then

bro is bargaining💀

wuh oh😕

WHAT😨😨😨

YOUNGER????? not again arthur💀

once a child murderer always a child murderer

is arthur pulling this guy's chain bru

nah he was definitely lying right😕

fym "what are you doing" what are YOU doing

he what. he slept?? i think arthur was just pulled away from him so he was like. unconscious?? maybe

they just keep making secret deals with evil gods🙄

oh man hes so ashamed

john trying to have a moment with him and getting shot down again

so whats the plan here are you just gonna go back to killing children

"us" hmmmmmm

hes definitely not gonna tell john abt the deal

oh he did. but not about the child part

YEA THE CORPSES RIGHT

yess i was right💥💥💥💥

yeesh😕

i like how in audio dramas the throwing up sound is always just some tin foil getting squeezed

what an episode. i have to pee so bad

MMMM REALLY not liking the theme im seeing in this season (children)

[saireye]

rare helluva post

‘Millie’ this ‘Millie’ that

U know who I wanna see more of? Fucking LOONA

at this point she’s literally just there to be sexualized

I saw the new merch of her and I thought “oh my goodness. Just now realizing how interesting and fun she could be.”

she definitely has more character than Millie, I think, but no one ever really thinks about her unless “haha sexy furry bait”

I want to learn about who she is. I want to learn about why she hates blitz so much. I want to learn about how her trauma affected her. I want to learn about her past. It could also be great worldbuilding, learning about how hellhounds are treated.

she could have such satisfying character development. She could be so much fun.

[plagalkey]

i’m such a big fan omg i would buy all the f1 art if only my mom didn’t scold me alrdy 😔😔but butbut i need NEED your opinion on ur head canons if atsuoikage omegaverare, what’s everyone’s secondary sex? like atsumu alpha slay but the other two??? are they just both omegas???? no we have to unpack this.

okok and second of all the half blood camp au for atsuoikage omg i might just PASS AWAY i love you and your sexy brain SO MUCH. i would make an alter of all ur art in a room for me in my house next time to go into and every morning just to chant plagelkey and atsuoikage and just ADMIRE UR ART. ALSO STREET RACING AU omg OMG. ur art with ally’s fanfics, I WAS ABOUT TO COMBUST. i love you and u deserve the universe, not just the world, EVERYTHING. <33

Oh you're so sweet thank u so much for the support with the prints and sorry to ur mom hahah 😭😭😭

Omegaverse: TLDR My peak fave scenario for the OT3 is both atsumu and kageyama as alphas and oikawa as the omega

Oikage: my default is kageyama alpha and oikawa omega... but I can fuck with alpha/alpha (i am enthusiastically looking and enhance zoom 200%) or omega/omega (less interested but i am watching from afar... you can hook and bait me easily as long as it's oikg lol) I'm quite partial to kageyama being an alpha bc i enjoy kageyama having the one up on oikawa in like... talent / genetics / whatever system of the universe they are in bc it gives oikawa more reason to feel inferior, fight against the odds, and resent kageyama at the beginning of their relationship LOL it makes it all the more sweet when they bridge that gap... and also bc I like kageyama admiring oikawa soooo much and being obsessed with oikw regardless of his status (especially if it's considered lesser) in any world haha.....

Atsuoi: Atsumu I can be flexible on as an omega sometimes, I'm less solid on him... like I like Atsuoi omega/omega... and I like Atsuoi alpha/omega where either of them is the alpha i like them both ways haha... I also like Atsuoi alpha/alpha!!! I love all forms of Atsuoi!!!!! give me any Atsuoi I will probably die and cry and treasure forever

Atsukage: I'm only interested when theyre alpha/alpha!!! I don't care for the alpha/omega or omega/omega dynamic between them it doesn't tickle my brain personally I like them when they are fighting u know like bark bark head empty

Also ally and I appreciate the love and support on street racer AU so much I can't believe it sometimes haha it started as a simple idea for me bc I just wanted atsuoi to have car sex lol and now we are here... with lore and everything and sunaosa and ot5 with atsuoikg/snos alas LMAO

[ghostyeri]

Honestly, as someone who saved 200+ pulls for firefly since the first leaks, I can't help but feel disappointed with her, so naturally, I'm gonna rant about it. Read more if u wanna

----------------------------------------------------------

Firefly really doesn't seem to have a true personality other then shy waifu bait, which sucks, because the duality between a sweet girl and a murder machine had so much potential, and it feels kinda wasted. Firefly and Sam aren't displayed with as much contrast as I would've liked. A sweet girl without armor, and a notoriously violent machine when in armor? That's such a cool concept, and I wish they showed more of it.

If I had the chance to tell her story, while still keeping them as relatively the same character, I would've liked to develop Firefly and Sam as separate characters for a while. Firefly would be shown as a seemingly sweet and defenseless girl, but it becomes increasingly clear she somehow has far more knowledge and skills in battle then someone with her supposed story should have. In contrast, Sam would be a violent robot built to kill, but as the story progresses, Sam would seem less like a murder machine, and more like something—no, someONE, who has empathy, yet is forced to act on the script. Somewhere in the story, you realize that there's holes in both Firefly's and Sam's narrative, and Firefly reveals that she and Sam are one in the same.

A girl who lost everything in battle, and a machine who lost everything in battle. Mixed and shoved together, creating the amalgamation yet perfect duality of whatever Firefly/Sam is meant to be.

She's still pretty, and that's why I loved her in the first place, plus the kit is still fire (haha get it) and I grinded for all her traces and stuff so still pulling

tldr: I want her identity as Sam and her identity as Firefly to have more conflict

[vampirevatican]

so im working on playlists for shark bait, literally have bru- gw and tigs already and will share them if u want. however! this will be my thoughts on songs that'd work for a few other characters

LEE

strings - iyla

okay so him and the doctor right? right?? because he doesn't adress what that interaction is lacking til later but i feel that he'd resonate

pretty girl - clario

his need to please, to conform, to be whatever someone needs of him

loving is easy - rex orange county

lee starting to date neb and the chorus is directed at the doc with a little bit of venting upset

happier than ever - billie eilish

finally leaving the doctor, considering every moment he felt terrible in his hands. the times that he hated, the pleasure that he was lacking

are you bored yet - mellow fellow

after his first interaction with neb, or maybe even after mc shows him aftercare. either way the song is like "hey uh, we both aren't great here can you say something so i don't have to."

again and again - the bird and the bee

again (haha, im not funny) him and the doc. but this feels like more of an aftermath and him healing. like while going on the journey mc could show him this song and he lays in nebs bed just looking at the ocean bay windows like "wow... they were right."

how was your day - mellow fellow

HIM AND NEB, YES GOD!!! they're so cute and perfect for each other i love them

NEB

walls could talk - halsey

get it, bc of his camouflage ability... i'll see myself out

(VAGUE) SPOILERS TERRITORY

are we still friends - tyler, the creator

bc of how he tricked you... bc things are awkward now and he has to hate you but you're the first human he doesn't think is that bad

control - halsey

identity crisis by the end of the game, and nearing it. should he continue with his mask? should he isolate? he's very powerful...

do ya thing - gorillaz

his place in stryker's palace, his place on that island? he likes the comfort of his room, but he was lonely and stryker didn't exactly care for him

i think i love you - the partridge family

him falling in love with the poseidon blessed human!? very literally this whole song. bc they arent bad, and he's crazy strong, so why tf is he afraid???

STRYKER

glimpse of us - joji

very obvious its about mc and his old love

i want you - mitski

this man is desperate... not exactly for you but for his dead partner

this is a life - son lux

him finding acceptance with the loss? moving on. healing. he listens to it so many times, with the comfort that mc gave him about "consider, multiple universes and in one of them they lived forever."

over and over - rio romero

him drinking, bc canonically he resorted to alcohol after the loss. but also going above and beyond for mc even tho they and his partener aren't the same.

the world we knew - frank sinatra

i feel like he'd listen to this while drinking wine in the tub. thinking about his dead partner... possibly crying

[bikelaned]

GANG I'M ACTUALLY LOSING IT THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY (it's horrific too so maybe skip out on this if you're not in a good headspace... Misogyny, transphobia, R-word/SA mention, SH mention, CP mention) just a guy being really pathetic

I was flabbergasted by this comment I saw in some replies

translated it to english, haha that's not english! silly robot!

then I was like 'hmm I recognize that username I think', pretty sure this guy is a freak or something

so I go to his channel and it's just this guy making fun of this random ass woman for a sailor moon presentation 😭

(not going to link it, please do not seek it out. It's very clearly bait for engagement, don't give this freak what he wants unless you're reporting his ass 💀.)

So in the comments I see why he seemed familiar, because it is a bot that just leaves "MY VIDEOS ARE BETTER THAN {YOUTUBER CHANNEL NAME}!!!!!!!!!!" and yknow the weird fucking child porn one

but oh god

oh lord

he has a community page and it is so fucking funny (also horrific, again)

it's a screenshot from the random woman's tumblr page

and he goes, EEK PRONOUNCE!?!?!? and says the most unhinged 12-year old sounding rant i've ever seen

he thinks he's absolutely destroying those woke liberals (he's just a bad person)

AND HIS MOST RECENT COMMUNITY POST IS A LIST OF @'s AND I'M PRETTY SURE IT'S JUST EVERYONE WHO LAUGHED AT HIM

IT'S SO SAD LMAO

and while looking at comments I kept seeing the praise "UTTP bots" and I did not know what that was

there's a whole group of people who just... do this

"U tube troll police"??? HELLO??? FOUNDED IN 2011 ASS NAME

god

and you know what

he @'d another freak

THEY HAVE A WHOLE ASS DISCORD

THEY JUST DON'T LIKE IT WHEN PEOPLE FEEL JOY 😭😭😭

IT'S SO OBVIOUS THEY ARE MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL BOYS DUDE

I've been giggling

anyway the random woman he harassed seems pretty cool, don't know why he's crying about it + don't give this freak attention

[thisisnotkitty]

hello securitywaiter nation have you thought about ness being abby’s teacher bc I HAVE

below the cut because i can't shut up ever :D

-abby does well enough in school academically but is still needs some work in the socioemotional dept

-when she starts a new school year mike is a bit worried but then she comes back home absolutely ecstatic and mike is like “okay this is good”

-she talks all about how mr. ness lets her color while he teaches and how mr. ness gave them all name tags w silly drawings (hers is a bear) etc etc

-mike is actually really happy bc most teachers have a hard time understanding abby (heck, he has a hard time understanding her) so he’s looking forward to meeting this mr. ness during back to school night

-it goes on like this for awhile, with abby raving about mr. ness and mike is just happy that his little sister seems to be doing better in school. the first time she comes home talking about these kids she hung out with at recess he practically cries

-back to school night is here and the first time mike sees this mr. ness he’s like abby u traitor you didnt tell me this man was exactly my type (he doesn’t actually tell her bc he never brings up his lovelife around her - not that he’s had much of one - but still isn’t this the type of things siblings know intrinsically)

-anyways they’re having the kids show their guardians around the classroom and their seats and everything and then mr. ness is explaining the way his class works and mike is totally paying attention. yup. he’s not distracted by those chocolate brown eyes at ALL

-so they’re waiting to do the one-on-ones with the teacher and mike crouches down next to abby and tries to be all chill “hey, abs. has mr. ness ever mentioned a partner or anything?” acting all nonchalant

-but abby sees right through him and is immediately like “he’s single! do u want me to put in good word for you?” and mikes like “NO i have no idea what ur talking about haha i just wanted to know bc it’s important to know that about ur teachers okay wait why are you smiling like that”

-(abby’s a little menace and already ships it)

-when it’s finally their turn mike is just chanting to himself “be normal. be normal. be normal” lmao

-but now that he’s sitting face to face with the teacher he notices that he has freckles and every chance he had at playing it cool goes out the window

-ness is telling him all about how well abby is doing in class and if there was anything he could do to make it easier for her in the classroom and abby’s just sitting there looking at mike internally screaming with a smile

-so she turns to her teacher and is like “you should get mike’s number just in case something comes up. he’ll probably think of some things later since he’s been taking care of me alone for awhile” (bc u know when kids do that things where they kinda trauma dump at the most random moments lmao)

-and ness at first refuses and is like “im sure email works just fine!” and abby’s like WHYY is he not just taking the bait and then she has like a lightbulb moment

-bc ness probably assumes like everyone else that mike is a single father and abby’s his daughter and abby’s like oh no how do i make this work

-so she goes full anya mode (for my spy x family watchers) and is like “im sure mike would appreciate having your number on hand! he’s a very protective older brother you see. taking care of his little sister must be hard. i’m sure being a big brother like him is hard so it’d be for his peace of mind. did i mention he’s my older brother”

-and ness also has a little bit of a crush already forming so he doesn’t catch the obvious set up and is instead distracted by the fact that the handsome guy in front of him is in fact NOT a single father so maybe he does have a chance wowow

-yup so they exchange numbers andddddd ill come back to this later i really need coffee

[riacte]

So two things:

-Even though I've voted for the French girls options bc ??? the Martyn editing the Ren TCG card also gets me bc Martyn was really playing his latest hyperfixation, thought "haha this is a TCG do u know who also has a TCG card" and decided to go through the effort of editing and posting it it like dude who were you doing this for?

-When you did that all stars poll wishing for a good year of renchanting, you cursed us into 9 months of absolute nothing and then the craziest 3 months posible right? LMAO

RIGHT martyn itlw made that edit for the specific intent of BAITING or maybe just to make himself happy bc he’s insane.

Atp I’m definitely gunning for a year end All Stars, possibly earlier if we get 12 winners before Dec 31 because that’s the hard limit. Manifesting them is so much fun 😭

[worstqueerbaittournament]

Submission message for Klance: howdy, would like to submit keith and lance from voltron (lmao)

Submission message for Bechloe: Beca and Chloe from Pitch Perfect (mainly Beca but Bechloe was the ship they baited the most)

Additional propaganda Klance: Now Keith and Lance on the other hand was a whole fucking mess that they then shoehorned in an hetero romance to try and "fix it" but by lord it was bad, everything about voltron is so fucking bad

Anyway this is my Klance propaganda : They were actually bait

Klance's queer baiting by the team was the worst!! We had to deal with NETFLIX ALSO GETTING IN ON THE QUEER BAITING!! If you searched up Kkance during the times for season 6-8, the SHOW WOULD POP UP. The directors would make jokes about it being canon, even Lance's VA got in the joke!

Their queer baiting was the worst for anyone who was even looking for an ounce of queer rep in that show. The only queer rep we got was a man who died after not even 5 minutes on screen, and shoehorned in the credit scene of a gay wedding of a character that was neither Keith nor Lance.

I do not know Agatha and Sophie, so I can't argue that klance was bigger bait or not, I just know voltron was mean lmao. the creators said stuff like "lance will be someone's first choice!" (meaning NOT ending up in a relationship with allura bc she very much chose another guy over him) and heavily implying he would be Keith's 1st choice (or a guy in general bc of point number 2). point number 2: they also released official art showing how super cool and diverse the main cast was! race! gender! LGBT - they had shiro (who was......canon gay but that's a whole other can of worms) and lance hold the sign with LGBT on it and then did absolutely nothing with that w lance at all (he hit on allura, so obvi he's not gay, but at least bi or smt) (UNLESS you count the scenes where he's flirty with keith). I just remember going into the last few seasons being like "klance probably won't be happen be honest with yourself there's like no queer kids shows!! but damn like it so could tho!!! because of how much it's been teased both in the show and by showrunners like I can't have no hope with the way the producers talk about it!" lmao I should have had no hope, but i genuinkey believed there was a possibility it could happen. and actually I discovered after the fact that i think one of the writers for the show who was the main advocate for klance (they had a lot of diff writers for eps, which led to lots of character butchering but ANYWAY) left not terribly long into the show I believe bc he didn't like the direction it was moving in and didn't want to be tied to the show anymore. so it's not like fans just made klance up either - it was written into earlier episodes with the hope and plan to continue developing later, and then just nothing ever happened with it besides INTENSE teasing it to keep queer fans around. esp after shiro's relationship was literally only a flashback and then his fiance thing or whatever got blown up before we even got to watch him interact w shiro as we knew him in present time in s7, so I think they kept being like hmmm klance and the stuff about lance being a first choice before s8 to keep ppl around. also esp bc klancers made up such a big portion of the fan base. then they made a horrible szn and ended it w a flashforward to shiro marrying some random background character who maybe had 1 line? I just remember hitting the flashforward and being like uhhhh who is this dude??? but they did that to hit those diversity points wow first gay marriage in a cartoon or smt idk it doesn't count to me really. so anyway voltron in general is queerbait lol but klance is because it started out as a legit possibility and then they said sike! but only maybe sike bc u guys are mad at us burying our guys in s7 so maybe klance could still happen haha okay now we're serious no it's not happening. anyway I think klance is p bad queerbait and a vote for them is a valid vote, not just u liking the ship.

Here is my really boring and incredibly dry argument for #KLANCESWEEP:

There are countless examples of the Voltron showrunners queerbaiting when it comes to Klance. I will leave that argument and discussion to others. Instead, I would like to focus on why/how I believe Klance is the more significant instance of queerbaiting, despite Johnlock's queerbaiting being markedly more famous.

Queerbaiting is when a shows teases/hints at a character(s) being queer, but then never actually follows through on making the character LGBTQ+. Queerbaiting is, above all, a marketing technique; the show dangles the possibility of a queer romance in order to "bait"  a queer/ally audience into watching, and then continues to dangle or drag out the possibility of a same-sex romance in order to keep their audience hooked and continuously profited off. Queerbaiting takes advantage of peoples' hope and optimism, and that's why the betrayal stings so deeply once the queerbaiting is realized.

I argue that one of the major components of queerbaiting is that the show/writers must never explicitly confirm that there will NOT be queer romance. Queerbaiting is only sustained so long as the illusion of possibility persists.

Now, there are plenty of nuances to this.

If a showrunner comes out and explicitly states that there will be no queer representation in the show, this statement alone does not absolve the show of any queerbaiting it previously did. But, it DOES blur the lines for what can reasonably be defined as "actual" versus "willful" queerbaiting and subtext in the show going forward.

okay let me drop the pseudo-academic tone and just put it bluntly. what i'm trying to say is that, if a showrunner explicitly says "NO GAY ROMANCE," but the show's audience continues to insist and read for gay subtext anyway, and then the audience feels betrayed when the show ends with no queer romance --- at a certain point, wouldn't you argue that it's the fans that are actually baiting themselves, and not the show itself? this is what i mean by "willful" subtext.

As early as 2010 (this article/interview was posted the day of the first episode), the Sherlock showrunners explicitly stated that there would be no romantic relationship between Sherlock and Watson. Between 2010 and 2016, the showrunners repeatedly stated in multiple interviews that Johnlock would never happen.

I am 100% aware that I was drinking nothing but Kool-Aid while Voltron aired. I absolutely baited myself with desperate hope each season. But, in my weak defense, the flames of my Klance delusions were very much flamed by the promises made by the Voltron showrunners, who repeatedly floated the promise of queer representation in the show and spoke about Klance in the same breath. Klancers didn't bait themselves out of thin air; they desperately clung to the rope the Voltron writers threw us, and we were pulled in: hook, line, and sinker.

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TLDR:

Queerbaiting involves willful deception and deliberate misinformation on the part of a showrunner/show.

If a showrunner encourages a queer ship, or makes vague promises of queer representation, then it reasonable for the show's audience to assume that a queer romance will happen. When a queer romance does not happen, this is clear-cut queerbaiting.

But if a showrunner explicitly states that a show will not have a major queer romance, then the show's audience should reasonably assume that the show will not have the queer ship they favor. If shippers continue to insist that their ship will come to fruition, and continue to pin their hopes on their ship, then the lines between who is actually baiting whom become very blurred.

Johnlock fans knew going into the show that John and Sherlock would never have an explicitly queer relationship. Fans continued to read for subtext, and maintained hope. The lines of queerbaiting become blurred, as it was not entirely clear if the show was actually baiting its shippers, or if fans were the ones baiting themselves.

In contrast, Klance fans were repeatedly encouraged by the showrunners, Netflix's marketing, and to some extent the VAs that Klance was possible (and that queer representation would firmly happen), and so Klance shippers were repeatedly strung along each season, up until the final season when Lance and Allura started dating and the Klance ship was torpedoed once and for all. (Do not talk to me about post-canon Klance, I am willfully defiant.) This is a firmly clear-cut case of queerbaiting.

In summary, Klance is the more textbook case of queerbaiting. It matches all the elements of queerbaiting: there was the willful deception by the showrunners, which encouraged Klance shippers specifically to hang onto the show, allowing Voltron to profit off its Klance audience. It's true that Klance shippers also continuously baited and deluded ourselves; but in our defense, we were following the example and promises set by the show itself.

Additional propaganda Bechloe: Ok for a little propaganda, since you may have forgotten pitch perfect, I want you all to know I first saw it as a 16-17 year old at gay youth group and can you imagine my fucking surprise and bafflement when they werent lesbians. Like basically thru the whole movie I was like “fun lesbian film nothing out of place just waiting for them to actually be gay” I know this was mostly the youth group organizers fault but I still think pitch perfect should have to answer for their crimes

I could talk so much about this but I want to point specifically to this promo for pitch perfect 3:

Bechloe - Pitch Perfect 3 Promo

Bechloe is REAL!

YouTube

and they then proceeded to give chloe an absolutely godawful love interest and like really overdid it (they also tried to give beca one too but anna kendrick was having NONE of that)

IIRC, Beca and Chloe were supposed to be lesbians but Universal vetoed it and made them give Beca a male love interest. Whether that changes things is up to you.

Even more Klance propaganda under the cut:

@klanced pretty well summarizes why Voltron was *more* queerbaity, but I think we should also consider what it means to be *worse.*

Make no mistake, the Sherlock team was.... for lack of a better term.... almost gaslight-y in their press, by disregarding the subtext that they themselves had written. But they were consistent. And their messages as showrunners did bear through, even as they were being cruel. Most importantly, Sherlock never needed the people they were baiting, so they could act aloof. That distance was horrible, but nothing like Voltron.

The relationship between Voltron and its fans was toxic, parasitic. Voltron couldn't have stayed around for that long without dragging its queer-baited audience behind it. It was a Netflix show, and those are always so close to the hangman's axe. It was the online fervor that sustained it.

And so, they had to appease the fans, pay the piper. But they had their own ideas for how the story would bear out, and each creator wanted something differently. In the end, they consistently used marketing tactics to imply something that could have been possible, if not for distinct creative voices that instead weakened the queer stories until they were watery piss.

Anyway, this was rambling. Vote Voltron for dangling queer alignment and ambiguity. Vote Voltron for pretending to be an ally. Vote Voltron for the stupid fucking LGBTQ banner that has Lance on it. Johnlock hurt, in a distant way, but Klance was worse.

I actually said this earlier on a different post, but I'll say it here too:

Its completely reasonable to think Klance was originally planned. Their interactions in the early seasons seemed a little too romantically coded to be something completely made up by fans. Thats why Klance was so popular, because it seemed all too possible.

However, when Dreamworks forced the creative team to change the story in order to keep Shiro alive instead of permanently killing him off like they originally planned, their entire story got fucked over. Seasons 3 and 4 were too far into production to stop and completely redo them, it would have been too expensive, even though it was the logical course of action. Instead, the producers had to make serious last minute changes to the story in order to keep Shiro in the picture. As a result, Shiro and Keith's switched places in the show, and Keith was almost completely written out of seasons 4-6 because Shiro was never supposed to be there. Any and all possible plans for any sort of development between Keith and Lance were thrown out the window because Keith wasn't there.

But as previously said, Voltron wouldn't have survived until the end without the rabid and feral online Klance fandom. The writing was very rapidly going to shit because there wasn't enough time to properly rewrite seasons 3 and 4 in order to meet Dreamworks' demands, and every season that followed suffered because of the decisions made for seasons 3 and 4. Everything was being improvised, and the storyboards for season 8 weren't finished until MARCH 2018 because of how behind schedule they were.

(I feel like the creative team don't get enough credit. Sure the show was a MASSIVE flop but their working conditions were less then ideal. Its impressive they got anything done on time due to the constantly changing ideas.)

The VLD producers knew that the Klance fandom was the only thing keeping the show alive, and continued to use Klance as bait until the very end. The VLD producers willingly enabled the notoriously toxic and violent Klance fandom with thumbnails and HotTopic merch, and allowed it to reach a point that the lives of their cast and crew were being threatenedby the rabid Klance fandom, just to get the ratings they needed to stay afloat.

THATS the disgusting part of all this. Whether Klance was originally planned as endgame or not, the producers used its popularity to keeping their already declining show running at the expense of the safety of their cast and crew.

I know next to nothing about BBC's Sherlock and Johnlock and whatever, but what the VLD producers did was sinister. Putting their creative team through both production and online HELL for some ratings, and it blew up in the most humiliating way possible. They did alllllll that, just to get one of the worst endings to an animated series of all time. Literally everyone hates them for what Voltron became, putting the lives of their creative team in danger was for nothing.

And obviously the producers can't completely blamed for the show's outcome, Dreamworks ruined their original plans. But continuing to use Klance as a marketing tactic while your fans are getting out of control and your creative team is being put in danger is just appalling. It was in their power to tell the Klance fandom Klance wasn't endgame, and that probably would have quelled the fire, but instead, with every season, they threw more and more gasoline into the dumpster fire.

So if you haven't already, vote Klance in this poll.

(I'm linking my source for all this info here. Its a video essay that I totally recommend watching. Super duper interesting.)