#but voltron??? the best episodes were stupid filler

[nyxi-pixie]

seeing people argue that the trend of everything getting less eps per season is okay/good because theres less filler in stuff now. im killing you.

IM ASKING YOU TO STOP THIS HATRED OF FILLER!!! I LOVE STUPID EPISODES OF NOTHING THAT DONT PROGRESS THE PLOT. THEYRE PROGRESSING INTER-CHARACTER BONDS!!!!!!!!!!!

[disgruntled-screaming]

As my rewatch of Voltron season 6 comes to a close, here are my thoughts on it. Mind you, as I'm writing this, it is past midnight. I took my medication, and one of the pills I take makes me a bit sleepy. I wholeheartedly apologize for any repeated sentences, nonsensical phrases, poor spelling of certain words, and poor grammar.

Keith and Krolia's adventure to the area where the other Alteans are should have been at least two episodes - there are moments that should have been more fleshed out, but were unfortunately cut short by production, and possibly absences of Steven Yuen since he is a popular actor in both America and South Korea

Season 6 was ordered, it started production with a certain number of episodes, then one of the suits decided to cut down on the number of episodes - that explains the weird montages

Monsters and Mana, while the best episode of the season (and I stand by it) was definitely written as either a needed filler episode (which is fine) or a special episode to release between season 6 and season 7

Anything that I said about Lotor, in terms of how he ruined Allura's character, is wrong. Allura is just not a good character in this season. I can understand that she needs that connection to her people, and Lotor is able to help her. But I genuinely stand with Lance when comes to not trusting Lotor, since he could not shut the ever loving fuck up about their fathers being friends. My brother in Christ, Lotor, we fucking get it. Your dad and her dad rubbed elbows.

The kiss shared between Lotor and Allura still makes me gag. Nothing against the shippers of this specific ship. I just hate Lotor and how he manipulated Allura. I've been through my own kind of manipulation, so I can't seem to like the character as a person.

I am still right in the theory that Lance and Shiro's relationship was supposed to be important. As much as I adore the fight that Keith has with Kuron, and he tries to being Shiro back and Keith says "I love you", shocking the clone enough for Keith to get the final blow... Lance was given the shaft once again. I could try to work with this in my fix it fic, despite sacrificing my favorite moment in the finale. I'm still outlining my fic, and still on chapter 1, so only time will tell.

That Galra robot that was programmed to have fun was amazing and the scene of it being tied to a rocket getting shot into space as Amazing Grace played in the background is iconic and I wish people talked about it more. Because it was insanely funny and I loved it too much. Fly high, random robot. I will always love you.

Despite me bashing Lotor for all that he is, I will still say that he is a well written character that I would love to punch in the face. Unfortunately he is like 7ft tall, and I am the same height as Krillin from DBZ. So I'm either going to have to learn how to do a Shoryuken a la Street Fighter.

As much as I love the finale of Season 6, I genuinely have to say that Keith's inclusion after being away from Team Voltron just seems convenient.

The Black Lion is the most disloyal bitch I have ever seen. I love the Black Lion's design, as I should. I'm a basic Voltron: Legendary Defender fan. But the Black Lion instantly took Keith back after leaving the team to be with the Blade of Marmora. Also the Black Lion had no problem with Kuron after a certain point, which is stupid. How dare it not be a continuous struggle for Kuron to gain its trust. Then again, this is the same lion that was still loyal to Zarkon despite the fact that Zarkon was evil. Never understood why Zarkon's bond with the Black Lion was so strong when Shiro proved himself to be the better paladin, but that's none of my business at this time.

I personally felt like the Blade of Marmora overstayed their welcome after a certain point. This could just be a me problem, and I am wholeheartedly willing to be the only person on this hill.

Coran is consistently amazing.

I don't know when the writers started making Hunk more of a tech savy character (I genuinely have no idea), but it's quite eye opening when you notice the change in archetypes.

Matt is still an okay character to me. When he was revealed, a good chunk of the fanbase was madly in love with him, which I understand, but I just look at him and shrug.

[skaylanphear]

I didn't realize you were so critical of Voltron's writing. Is there anything you think the writers did really well?

Not… really? 

The one episode that sticks out to me as having been well-written was an episode in season 3–the one where Keith is leading them into that planet and all their tech gets screwed to hell. It works on a lot of levels because it introduces Lotor as a scary villain, establishes Allura as inexperienced while giving her the chance to learn, and shows Keith learning a lesson while Lance gets to stretch his legs as an actual competent member of the team. What I loved about it though was the lesson Keith learned onscreen and how he learned it–we got to see actual development as well as him opening up to another member of the team other than Shiro. It’s one of the best episodes in the series and really goes to show what Voltron could have been if the writers actually knew what they were doing. I assume, at this point, that the episode was merely a happy accident. 

Now that isn’t to say Voltron doesn’t have memorable moments for other reasons–the scene where Keith and Shiro fight was wonderfully animated and probably the most beautiful looking scene in the whole series, but that doesn’t mean how we got there was as good by comparison. 

One of Voltron’s biggest problems (among other glaring issues) is that it relies heavily on concepts, but pretty much fails to expand those concepts into actual narrative development. We’re told via Hunk’s one episode in the Galra empire that he’s become quite the diplomat, but we never see that in action or see him struggling with that arc at any other point in the series. We’re told Lance has become a great member of the team by seeing his sword form during training, but we rarely get to see those skills in action. And yeah, Lance takes up giving commands when Keith and Shiro are busy, but it’s never highlighted. He’s never given his moment to truly prove himself to the audience. Which makes it all little different than telling the audience that development is happening offscreen, which you should NEVER do. Which brings me to Keith. Not only was Keith’s path through “development” poorly concocted, but we didn’t even get to see it. Why was he such a great leader after having spent time with his mother? What did that do for him? Fans can speculate all they want, but at the end of the day, Keith is one character when he left and another when he comes back, and WE DIDN’T SEE IT HAPPEN! 

This leaves me with one of two conclusions: Either the writers were too lazy to put any effort into telling a proper character arc OR they simply don’t know how. And seeing how poorly every other character in the series is handled, I’d bet on the latter. The Voltron writers don’t know how to do their jobs on the most basic level. Even Shiro, the second-shining child of the series after Keith, doesn’t get any development. He’s got PTSD, sure, but he’s literally the exact same character he was in the beginning as he is now, much like the rest the cast. What would have made Shiro’s character really great would maybe be some regret on his end, or some self-doubt following his PTSD issues, or maybe a loss of confidence he had to overcome or literally ANYTHING! Instead he’s relegated to a plot device. 

Which brings me to another glaring issues with Voltron alongside the character development–they’re taking what should be a character-driven narrative and pretending it’s a plot-driven narrative. 

You want to know why Voltron was so promising from the start? Because it had a perfect premise for character building. It was like Avatar the Last Airbender but in space. You had a big baddy in the distance that the characters had to work their own skills up to in order to face. It gave the characters time to explore both themselves and the world around them, while still retaining a goal that implemented a sense of urgency. Which is why the originally episodic storytelling of Voltron in the first season worked so well and why the series seemed so promising. Each episode had a different character or couple of characters that had a problem they needed to overcome before the resolution of the episode, or a couple of episode as they sometimes did them in twos. This is a good format for storytelling with a big cast because it gives each character the turn they deserve, while still giving time for things like comedic relief and problem solving/conversations between characters, which is the FOOD of character development. Being able to have two character sit down and simply chat is the main course of character development and interpersonal relationships, hence Shiro and Pidge’s relationship was so precious in the first season, and why people latched onto Keith and Lance so hard, because they were constantly snarking at one another. 

The problem comes with season 3, where the writers tried to change Voltron from an episodic format into a serial format while trying to retain the same tone. Serial storytelling has an overarching pot that the characters work toward the whole season–like all of a season is a single episode. Yes, Voltron already had an overarching plot, but it was secondary to the character story-telling. That was, until season three, when the writers decided that they wanted the story to be “epic all the time” instead of sticking to what was originally good. 

Avatar the Last Airbender isn’t good because it’s epic all the time. It’s good because it’s well-balanced. Because the characters got the time to build themselves up so that when those epic moments finally happened, the audience actually cared. Voltron decided that they wanted to be edgy and took all of that away from us to make the show serial and focus more entirely on the end plot instead of each individual character’s struggles. They tried to retain a bit of this, but in contrast with the more serial episodes, it feels like whiplash. This is why season 3′s tone is so vastly different from season 1 and 2, and why so many people were so shocked. And why it feels so fast. 

But the problem is that the writers clearly want to write an episodic show, they just don’t realize they do, which is why we’re getting TOLD character development instead of shown in favor of over the top battles and other “intense” mumbo jumbo that falls flat when anyone takes a moment to sit and think about what they’re watching. 

This is why I got so infuriated when all those new characters were introduced in season 7–we don’t even know the characters we got originally and now I’m expected to care about these new ones? No, absolutely not. And this is also why I get angry every time we get a “filler” episode. Avatar had filler episodes, but Avatar was also episodic and used that filler to develop the characters, with the exception of Tales of Ba Sing Se, which was amazingly done for other reasons entirely. 

Voltron made itself serial, which means we don’t have time for filler. It’s jarring and takes the viewer out of the experience. I don’t care about a stupid gameshow episode because the writers have made it overly clear that the situation is dire and serious and now I feel like I’ve been slapped. Especially when that filler does nothing for the characters. It’s a waste when they could have been using the time for something more worthwhile. Instead, they just wanted a Q episode, or a D&D episode, as if their storytelling had been good enough prior to earn them that wasted time. 

Which brings me to yet another glaring issue that Voltron has–pacing. Not only did the change in storytelling alter the pacing in a way that was jarring for everyone, but they can’t keep up with the pace they decided to set, nor do they know how to keep tension going in the story so as to take advantage of that faster pace they forced on themsleves. Pidge, Lotor, and Zarkon are prime examples of characters whose arcs were slaughtered by this incompetence. Why was Pidge’s search for her brother concluded at the beginning of a season in a standalone episode that is so far outside the serialized plot? Well I can tell you why–because they didn’t know how to integrate it properly with the rest of the story. Which is why it feels like filler. Like fan service. Why it’s so out of the blue. Why is Zarkon’s death so lackluster? Because we’d been told that Zarkon was the big baddy the whole time and then they ended his reign in the middle of a season. Not only do we see Zarkon suddenly in the daylight outside his scary space darkness, but his entrance is lame and lacking impact. And then Lotor, a newer character by contrast, is the one to take him out. Suddenly, the show is without the big baddy that had been pushing it from the beginning, which is glaringly obvious in how disorganized the plot becomes after his death and Lotor’s subsequent defeat. Sorry, but by default of the role she had previously, Haggar is not as scary as Zarkon was, nor is Sendak. It’s like we’re supposed to now watch Voltron clean up the leftovers instead of fight a war, which is fucking stupid. And don’t even get me started on Lotor’s arc. They wanted to make him seem like Zuko and then pull an Azula? Well, sorry hons, but your storytelling capabilities aren’t strong enough to accomplish either. 

Lotor was not made sympathetic or psychotic enough to pull off either act, which just makes him fall rather flat. The most interesting thing about him was his relationship with Allura, which was only interesting because we hadn’t gotten any romance yet in the show so everyone was super paying attention to how it’d unfold. 

This pacing issue is continuous from season 3 onward. The story regularly takes detours it shouldn’t and focuses on things we don’t care about and interjects important plot-points at the wrong time while completely leaving out others. Like Haggar coming back in season 7. If we’d actually seen a bit of what she was up to, the addition of the last robot to the final fight might have been a little less stupid, but we didn’t see that, so it’s still just regular stupid. 

So the characters in Voltron suck, the plot sucks, and the pacing sucks. The only thing that’s saving Voltron is the fact that it looks nice and that the fandom is happy to take concepts and run with them in fan works. There’s a reason the fandom is so happy to explain away everything in the series, because expanding the series for themselves is the only option they have. Voltron itself doesn’t do it on but rare occasions, and if the fan creators didn’t give the characters depth, no one would. Every piece of “character” we get in Voltron is a concept, not actual storytelling. They set up what could be something amazing and then dash it at the last moment by completely ruining everything. People say Voltron never ceases to surprise them, but this isn’t because they’re great storytellers, it’s because of the exact opposite. Voltron rarely follows through with minor plot points set up previously, instead settling to just tell you about them later in favor of laser battles. Lance is insecure? Just give him a sword, he’s fine. Hunk has no development? Give him a short, five minute moment about his family–a family he talked about one other time and a plot point that should have rightfully gone to Lance. Pidge’s “arc” is over? Just have her say a whole bunch of nonsense in the next scene. Need someone to do something cool? Better get Keith since that’s all he’s good for anymore due to his character being so inconsistent. Need some of that quality angst? Throw in Shiro too, because god forbid Keith relate to any of the other characters on a personal level and actually break out of the isolated existence that caused all his character problems in the first place. Oh, and don’t forget Allura, whose overpowered abilities have become such an expected norm and so unexplainable at this point that she’s nothing more than a bore-fest to watch. 

Voltron had everything going for it–it could have been great, on par with Avatar the Last Airbender by sheer default of how the original premise was set up and how interesting the characters were to start with. And then the writers screwed it up because they didn’t know how to properly tell the story they’d set up in the first place. 

This is why people who don’t watch Voltron or who don’t see anything special about it don’t understand why it’s such a big deal (and why comparing it to Avatar the Last Airbender is such an insult). Why it’s plain toast in comparison to other, better shows. Because anyone who actually takes a step back and looks at the show with more thought than “oh I like this character because of what they could have been,” they’d realize just how badly concocted Voltron is. 

I know. I was once one of these people that had faith in the concepts that I eventually realized would never come to fruition. I was happy to ignore the faults in the show because I kept hoping it would get better. But then it never did and all that was left were the faults. 

Voltron is not a good show. Like, it’s just literally not well done. The visuals are nice, which is part of the reason it’s gotten so popular. But even if the art is nice, at the end of the day, the writing has been and always will be the heart and soul of any narrative, and if that’s a pile of trash, the entire show will end up that way. 

[witchycosmo]

Why I think voltron fucked up and fucked up bad

(this is going to include spoilers and a lot of ranting and bitching on what could have been a great series but was fucked up more than it’s own fandom)

Forget klance, forget allurance, forget all the ships, I don’t give a fuck about that this season!

Let’s start with the biggest (in my opinion) fuck up the show did, Lance’s character. I know a lot of fans overhype his character, and I have to agree, the fandom does have favor Lance a lot more than the other characters of voltron. But you have to understand why the fans care for Lance so much, it’s because of how relatable and likable his character is. Not to mention the amount of potential before this god aweful season. Lance started out as a flawed character with a few insecurities he hid through his boisterous attitude and confidence. With how the show started off, it felt they were going to delve more into his insecurities and where he saw himself on the team, allowing him to truely learn about himself and maybe even become an even bigger part of team voltron. But nope. Fuck that shit! Throw all that build up into a lack luster arch on his relationship with Allura and focus most of his character around their romance!

In the scene where the team meets the original paladins, Lance meets Alfor and Allura meets the Blayz. This part really pissed me off because it only served to point out this problem. Imagine if it were Lance meeting Blayz. The two have the exact conversation he and Allura had. It would fit so much better. It would also make the reunion with Allura and her Father so much more powerful. Her getting to see her father only driving her more and when he is freed from Honerva, the emotions would have been so much stronger.

Lance becoming a farmer was a stupid idea that only drives my point ever further! Lance saying he wants a simple life, to me, is bull shit! He started out wanting to become a fighter pilot for Christ sake! And looked for adventure (the scene in of him flying the blue lion and the animation in how he reacts fucking shows this!) The writers really fucked up its character, even when they had so many opportunities. Not to mention the fucking Altean bullshit they pulled out of their asses that I really don’t want to get into because this is long enough!

Second, Allura. They killed her off. It was a fucking stupid idea in the first place. Why did the writers kill her off? Was there even a legit reason? I didn’t see one!

I don’t even want to talk about how she was one of the only main female character of color! Do I think the writers had racist intent? No. Does that make it any better? No really. It just shows how much the righters weren’t really thinking in the first place.

Third, the righting in general. It was just bad. Lance turned Altean because... I don’t know. There were two filler episodes in a row. One was Kinkade making a documentary about life on the Atlas and Voltron. There was a scene that lasted about ten minutes that had a dog holding the camera. It was slow and boring. Ezor just... turn good... for reasons. Bullshit excuses everywhere. The ending. Shiro marrys some random dude, and while great for lgbt wedding, it’s out of now where and just thrown into the story. It last a minute or less.

Fanfiction writers show more respect to the show than the actual fucking writers for Voltron. How can an unpaid teenager write a better story than a paid professional?

What I am mostly pissed about, is how the show could have been so much more than what it turned out to be. Voltron could have been so much more. And I’m not talking about representation or pregression in media and shows, though that is a big part. I’m talking about how it could have been this amazing adventure where these 7 amazing characters explore space and fight to keep the universe safe from the galra and learn more about their team and themselves while also learning maybe things aren’t as black and white as they seem. While the show started with this concept, it fell the moment Lotor turned traitor. That, I think, is where the show truly started to suffer.

Don’t even get me started on how the show runners decide to hype up the show.

Fans had put so much into this season, hoping it would fix the show. But instead it only made it worse and brought what most seasons kept at minimum, to a much greater level. It show caste all what was wrong with the show and only made it worse.

This season was meant to fix what started out as a great show, but it only managed to make it worse.

Like with Lance, the show help so much potential, but ended up being wasted away.

(Sorry for how long this is and it just being me bitchy about the new season. I really just needed to share my thoughts and clear my head. I really think the only reason I stayed in this fandom is because of how many amazing artist and writers are in it and how creative the fandom can be.

Despite how fucked up this fandom can be, and Voltron not being that great of a show, it’s the creativity the show inspires and bring out the best of people’s talents.

I only wish the show would live up these fans that create because they see something more.)

What are your thoughts?

[i-am-an-accidental-hipster]

Anime and Animation Recommendations (Includes shows I would never recommend, please read the accompanying text)

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: I feel like this is what would happen if the album Clockwork Angels by Rush was turned into anime, but the main character was replaced by two brothers who actually have a personality and an interesting backstory. Essentially, it is a mix of a compelling take on western philosophy from an eastern perspective, good character writing, and FANTASTIC art direction. Characters undergo meaningful development, it has no filler, and it avoids the problem of power creep fairly well. Adding to that its heavy use of Sakuga an minimalist animation, and it is one of my favorite anime of all time.

Mob Psycho 100: Criminally underrated. With a plot borrowed from a japanese web-comic maker who is surprisingly good at making comedy and relatable themes meld seamlessly, and animated by Studio Bones which is basically my favorite studio, this show is absolutely fantastic, to the point at which it competes with ol’ Fullmetal for my favorite anime. Like its sister anime One Punch Man, this show uses VERY heavy use of both Sakuga and minimalist styles of animation, switching between them in a way that is hardly noticeable but also really captures the feel of the situation; it even switches art styles regularly, and the animators are not afraid to try new things, making the show an absolute blast to watch. Despite its comedy focus, the main characters undergo extensive development, sometimes in the span of a single episode, and the combat sections are mesmerizing to look at.

One Punch Man: Really good show, slightly overrated, but mostly deserving of the attention it gets. As someone who was unemployed for a long time, this show really captures the difficulties of someone in that situation. The plot, such as it is, is pretty repetitive by it’s very nature, but it’s animated by Mad House studios, and is basically composed entirely of Sakuga with short spurts of minimalist animation to remind one of the original web comic (you may notice a theme in the anime I like), making it a blast to watch. Would recommend.

Hero Academia: The Naruto of our generation, and it’s easy to see why it’s so popular. The character designs and personalities are all memorable (such that you can actually remember all their names), and basically all of the main cast gets at least some screen time; as a result, it is really easy to remember basically everyone’s names. Because of the memorable character designs, it is no surprise that the fandom is bursting at the seams with shippers, but for the most part it’s non-toxic and results in a lot of pretty good fan art. And of course, as you guessed, it has Sakuga, and makes good use of it. Finally, as an aside, it has one of the best portrayals of a paragon archetype character I have seen in a long time, in the form of All Might. Would recommend, but I really don’t have to because it’s all over the place.

Guerren Lagann: Good animation, good character designs, stupid nonsensical plot. A really fun anime if you turn your brain completely off and just watch the GIANT ROBOT FIGHTS.

Kill la Kill: Good animation, but I can’t stand the character designs and the plot is so physically painful I couldn’t watch past the fourth episode (I only watched in the first place because some idiot on youtube said it had interesting themes, which it does not). Do not recommend.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team: Good anime, but the fanservice is too much for me. Just as I was getting invested in the plot (a treatment of the Gundam war from the perspective of the grunts on the surface), BOOM NAKED BOOBS HERE. No seriously, it came out out of nowhere so suddenly it gave me a heart attack. Mixed feelings on this anime.

Death Note: Good anime. A little melodramatic. I love L, ‘cause he’s basically me but smarter. Would recommend.

Bleach: SO MUCH POTENTIAL WASTED. Season 1 was GREAT, season 2 was ok, and then I couldn’t get past the Bount arc. Would recommend for the sake of the first two seasons.

Attack on Titan: two words: CRIMINALLY OVERRATED. It’s basically edgy trash with little depth or nuance, and a plot that seems ripped from Starship Troopers.

Assassination Classroom: Really good, actually. Well animated, decent character designs, a little weak on character development. Korosensei is my spirit animal (I’m a teacher). Goodness gracious, he embodies everything I want to be in terms of being a teacher, except perhaps his obsession with big boobs. Would recommend.

Psycho-Pass: Very cerebral, very interesting, very mesmerizing, has complex themes. Only downsides are that it’s basically a torture porn during the entire first half of the first season, which means you don’t want to eat before you watch it, and really only the main two protagonists and the main villain have good character designs. Would recommend for those who don’t mind seeing a lot of mutilated bodies and who like complex themes.

Now for shows that look like anime:

Avatar the Last Airbender: No surprise, this is a really good show. Minimal filler, and what filler there is doesn’t feel like filler. Good action, excellent handling of complex themes, good magic system. The plot starts out okay and then ramps up significantly after the season one finale. Where this show really shines, though, is it’s characters, who are almost all memorable and have great voice acting. Better yet, almost all of them get character development. Also a good exploration of eastern philosophy. Would recommend to those three people who haven’t seen it yet.

Legend of Korra: Good action, good art direction, really good animation. Not sure I like most of the characters, though. to be honest, Varrick, Zhu Li, Bumi, and Bo Lin are the only protagonists who I like in this show, besides of course the returning caste from the previous show. Season two was pretty bad, but the plot was very strong for seasons 1, 3, and 4. Some things felt very shoehorned. Almost all the villains were so incredibly compelling that they almost made up for the bland protagonists, and each one represented an individual theme, which was a very nice touch. Kinda screwed up some of the lore and the magic system, though. Mixed feelings on this one.

Dragon Prince: Season 1 was good, introduced a really cool magic system, nice complex themes, and a diverse and likable cast. The down side was that it suffered from some... questionable choices in animation style. Season 2, on the other hand, is... just really, really, really good. It has a good chance of becoming the next Avatar the Last Airbender if it keeps this up. It explores the magic system in fascinating detail, the themes are developed with a depth that rivals that of Korra, the plot has thickened, and the characters have developed significantly in likability and relatability. I highly recommend this one.

Voltron Legedary Defender: Starts out really good with Sakuga all around, kick-ass action scenes, and a decent plot. Unfortunately the shippers infested the fandom to the point where they were actually influencing the direction of the show, and the plot suffered as a result. Over the course of eight season, the show slowly decayed into a hollow shell. Mixed feelings on this one.

Ben 10: Kinda overrated, but still good. A nice watch on day you just want to relax and watch well-animated fights, but don’t expect it to make much sense.

Generator Rex: Criminally underrated. I love all the characters, all the action is great (even if it doesn’t make sense sometimes), animation is pretty good throughout, and it actually has really good technobabble. Honestly, it is my favorite show out of all of the ones on the list, despite its problems, just because of the really cool aesthetic. The main character starts as an obnoxious stereotypical Cartoon Network Protagonist, and develops into my second-favorite depiction of a paragon archetype. All the villains are memorable (even the silly ones). The first season has the best stand-alones (with some absolutely hilarious comedy episodes, dark edgy episodes, and fascinating pieces of science fiction); the second season has a season finale so good it made me cry, and the third season has by far the most interesting plot. I have a recommended watch order if you want to watch it.

Samurai Jack: Minimalist, very stylized, has some kick-ass fight sequences. Each episode has it’s own plot with not much in terms of overlap, but even the minor characters are memorable. My favorite is the Scotsman, but that is really no surprise if you watch the show. The Yin Yang dynamic between Jack and Aku is really interesting in its own right. Would highly recommend.

Teen Titans: Starts out mediocre, quickly gets good by the end of the first season, then ramps up to amazing by whichever season had the Trigon arc. Characters are almost as instantly recognizable as those in Hero Academia, and each one gets character development. It also has some standalone episodes that are almost as good as the standalones in Generator Rex. YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS SHOW.

Young Justice: Very similar to Generator Rex in many way. Memorable characters with good character development, good sci-fi, good action, and a similar season structure. It’s having a new third season right now which, despite the drop in animation quality due to limited funds, still manages to be engaging (especially the Vandal Savage origin episode and the three-episode arc devoted to Cyborg’s origin). Would recommend.

Transformers Animated: Criminally underrated, largely because of its... different animation style which is more like the animation for Teen Titans than the original G1 series, and the fact that they changed a lot of the lore. It has surprisingly complex themes, the voice acting is spot-on, and they do a good job of handling power creep. Though many of the protagonists start out kind of unlikable, they get really good development as the series goes on. By season 3, every single character has become so likable that it becomes legitimately distressing when they get hurt, and they play it to good effect. To give you an idea, when my sister saw the season finale of this show, she had an enormous melt-down at the end when her favorite character died (not telling who). It took three days to calm her down (the only way to do so was to introduce her to the idea of fan-fiction. I HIGHLY recommend this show.

[the-sixth-lion-blog]

Things Happen For a Reason... Unless You Write For Voltron

There are tons of continuity errors and full on missing character arcs. So many, in fact, that I wonder if they didn't know how many seasons they were cleared for or how much time they had.

Has Lance Always Been Like That?

The Lance I met was a relatable character. Erratic, rash, defensive, but also empathetic, loyal and infectiously optimistic. Still, he's... The dumb one. That's his main title, the running joke, the flatness of his character.

So where did this suave, sweater wearing, humble nerd come from? He uses words that indicate a college reading level. He is capable of expressing his thoughts and emotions with beautiful fluency. It doesn't feel right.

This is a massive change from his fairly well developed character arc of him finding a place in the team, growing as a sharp shooter, being uplifting and learning selflessness. It also completely undermines his budding brotherhood with Keith to let him go have fun with Allura. Sure, we all like a well dressed Lance who uses big words and likes... Farming?

Yeah, so nothing about Lance's love for piloting persisted past Voltron I guess. His extreme passion for being in a team, his clear ability to shoot and his love of flying and exploring must have diminished the second he touched Earth and transformed into a completely different and unrelated field of work. I understand that, I promise, but it doesn't seem like Lance, who spent years overcoming his intrinsic dumbness to be a pilot at the garrison. We see him struggle for this! He wanted it.

He loved it.

And Speaking of Love

Guess what, this isn't going where you think it is!

That's right! Friend love!

These guys are best friends. They hang out, they know each other, they spend excruciating amounts of time stuck with each other at the Garrison on ships. So why does that all nearly disintegrate come Voltron? Lance and Hunk almost never exchange memories of their time at the Garrison. Anyone who has moved knows how fast those memories of their old life flow. And Pidge completely isolates herself. If you didn't know it you would never guess the three had been a lovely little friend group.

No wonder Lance had such a crisis when Keith showed him up as a pilot. Hunk and Pidge are immediately emotionally distant, his hero Shiro thinks he's a dumbass and he has to live on a crazy space castle with the usually angry and creepy closeted emo kid (adored by Shiro, who don't forget is Lance's #1 role model) who is somehow also clearly better than him.

Their friendship has been reduced to filler episodes.

Was That Shiro Cowering in a Corner or am I Imagining Things?

Nope. There it is.

Wow. Well. If I'm not mistaken this man has a rocket arm that delivers swift and capable punches. Now, that is clearly not as important to the show as his arm wrestling capability but if the writers wanted Shiro to have true, consistent and well written PTSD I would have accepted that as an explanation for his sudden inability to fight. But seeing as Shiro's nothing but traumatizing past (torture, losing his arm, being made to fight for his life in a space Colosseum while grappling with the existence of fully developed alien life that is trying to end earth, losing Sam and Matt, being trapped in a Lion, suffering the loss of Adam) has had almost no effect on his life past serving to provide minor exposition or to give Keith a chance to do something.

To further this point, here is a list of every time Shiro (not Kuron) got into a fight before and after Keith became black paladin. Here, a fight is if Shiro was outside of Voltron and engaged in any hand to hand combat or was injured by a malevolent being that was targeting him.

Ep 3 S1

Ep 4 S1

Ep 8 S1

Ep 9 S1

Ep 12 S1

Ep 13 S1

Ep 1 S2

Ep 3 S2 (in flashbacks)

Ep 4 S2

Ep 6 S2

Ep 7 S2 (in the astral plane)

Ep 10 S2

Now let's skip ahead.... 4 seasons... Oh man

Ep 12 S7

that's it

Ah. Hm. I think the data speaks for itself, don't you?

So what in the world happened to Shiro, gladiator and protectorate who would die for his team? When the enemy infiltrates his ship and attacks his friends, he is transformed into an inexplicably incapable soldier.

Shiro Actually Married "Adam", if You're Hard of Hearing

Have you happen to have heard the video guide for the ending of the last episode?

I'm a little skeptical of the source so let me know if this is incorrect. If it's real audio then I'm just disappointed.

Full Metal Paladin, Brotherhood

Sorry for forcing the title but it's the best thing that came to mind.

Keith and Shiro are close. Since they met, Shiro has been gently guiding Keith to his best path. Their bond is undeniable.

Out of all of the paladins, Keith should understand Shiro the best. So why in the world does Keith never bother to check in with Shiro? Strange migraines, not feeling like himself, making unnatural decisions? I doubt that anyone would see this as a warning sign for "clone," but anyone who has claimed a close friendship with someone will be concerned when they begin acting erratically. When Shiro mentions how terrible he's feeling-

(here is where I used up my image allowance so just imagine what I put in brackets)

He gets no response, and even Keith ignores his joyous outburst of "I feel so much better!". There's an appropriate "friend" response to that that Shiro does not receive from anyone. Keith, above all other paladins, is likely to know just how much Adam meant to Shiro, but Keith doesn't supply a shoulder to lean on at any moment. The writers want us to know that Keith loves Shiro. In what exact way I care not to delve into, though I would personally argue in a brotherly way. So why does Keith let Shiro's heart waste away like this?

[Shiro being sad which happens a lot actually]

Me too, Shiro. Me too.

The Allura of Power is Too Great

Why did the white lion choose Allura if not because of her intrinsic incorruptible self? And what changed in her heart or the story to make her seek dark power? She got infected with S1 Lance disease I suppose, because all of a sudden she's being dangerous and thoughtless.

[Allura opening up the stupid case and letting that thing out]

In s8, the situation is pretty dire. But it was dire before. She already learned not to trust Lotor, but then you know, he shows up and looks like Lance a little bit and that's enough for her to open up her arms and give dark alchemy a great big hug.

The white lion chose her over Lotor because she was bright and accepted her fate for the future of everything she held dear. What became of her, and why did we only see this change truly take form with less than an hour of the entire series left?

[White Lion jumping around with Allura]

Thanks for Making it Through This Post

There are hundreds of other things that I could mention, and feel free to add on to this with your own opinions! I know this isn't exactly plot continuity but characterization continuity. I hope that is okay! If you want me to focus more on plot next time, let me know 😊

[blue-likethebird]

Vee El Dee: The Good The Bad and The Ugly

If you’ve ever been on this hellsite, you’ve probably heard of Voltron: Legendary Defender. You’ll find the characters and the ships (and the discourse. Dear God the discourse) in tag after tag and on blog after blog. Now that the show has officially come to an end, I’m reviewing the whole damn thing. Talking about what I think worked, what didn’t, and what exactly the show did to make even the fans look at it so harshly now. (Just a warning “The Ugly” section discusses racism, and homophobia so if any of that triggers you I’d suggest you skip it)

Review under the cut

The Good

The Character Potential:

   Voltron’s characters had so much potential at the beginning. Their motivations, potential subplots, and clues to their arcs the first crew left us were actually interesting. How did Coran know Allura before they were frozen? What happened that caused Shiro to lose his arm? Is Lance going to reunite with his family? The show didn’t answer all of these questions mind you, but at the time they were introduced, those questions felt like they were worth sticking around to hear the answers.

The First Season:

   The first season is the only season that genuinely sticks out for me, way back in ye olden days when Voltron was a character driven show as opposed to plot focused. In season one, the plot took a backseat and the characters were what held up the show, and it’s probably not a coincidence that most of the character development and more emotional/memorable scenes occurred in season one, when there was time for the characters to develop. Likewise, the character focus allowed for everyone to get their day in the limelight -not just the characters who were valuable to the plot at the moment-.

The Balmera and The Return to The Balmera:

     I am never gonna be shy about my opinion that the Balmera arc is one of the strongest arcs that Voltron has had. Allura using the story of her people to inspire others and using Altea’s ancient connection to the Balmera to save an entire damn civilization! The goddamn adorable chemistry between Hunk and Shay! Believable suspense! Unlocking Lion Powers! The Balmera arc had it all and I was fed. Plus, Balmera gave us the introduction of the most blessed couple in Voltron history, hunay.

The Bad:

The Timeskips:

In theory, there’s nothing wrong with a timeskip. But you’ve gotta be able to show that the characters and show’s universe changed in some way during that timeskip and you can’t use them just to avoid actual story and character development. Take season six (? Or was it five? I don’t remember and I don’t wanna) when Keith and Krolia take a two year camping trip on a space whale while Voltron is off doing God knows what. Presumably during that time they developed some sort of mother-son relationship but we don’t get to see that development happening, or how that new relationship changed them, or really any proof that the timeskip happened at all besides Keith getting Galra marks and a teleporting space wolf. That particular time jump felt more like a cop-out to avoid writing Keith bonding with his mom.

Pacing:

To put it plainly, the pace is way too fast for anything to stick. The writing cycles from one season's worth of plot twists and WTF? moments to the next at the speed of light, leaving no time to address how the previous events affected the characters involved or not the show’s universe as a whole. So Lotor was actually evil all along and was using Allura to achieve his goals? Well there’s no time to mention how Allura feels about that, we’ve got three more surprise twists and a magic robot to shove into the plot! On the flip side however, the pacing is slower than a geriatric snail during fight scenes. The giant robot fights are usually the most exciting part of anything, but in Voltron, the fights are so formulaic that they just kinda… blur together into a boring fog. Lemme know if you can name this Voltron fight scene: the team’s fighting some random baddie, there’s a lot of yelling, someone gets a power up just big enough to defeat the current baddies when a bigger, eviler baddie appears who’s more powerful than the power up they just got, new baddie whoops Voltron’s ass, the support team watches in horror, someone else gets a power up that’s powerful enough to defeat the new bad guy, Voltron reins triumphant. What fight scene was that?

The Filler Episodes:

The fast pacing also means that they need to set aside breather episodes just to allow characters to interact besides in battle. That’s all well and good and there’s nothing wrong with filler episodes, if done right they can be some of the most memorable episodes a show can have (The Tales of Ba Sing Se anyone?) that is, if done right. But Voltron filler episodes don’t have that going for them. Filler episodes in vee el dee are an oasis of mud in the desert that is canon, they’re a generally unhelpful standstill point amidst a constantly changing series. I’ll admit that they can be funny at times but for the most part filler episodes are bizarre, unnecessary, and more often than not, poorly timed. If we just heard about a millenniums old empire folding in on itself and we’re just about to see a major character attempt suicide do we really need to see Coran go batshit while planning a space Disney On Ice?

The Ugly:

Racism:

#justiceforallura

I must confess that I am whiter than a polar bear in a snowstorm, but even I know that killing off a black girl (or black coded as the case may be), constantly torturing the Japanese guy, reducing the Samoan guy to food and fat jokes, and having the latino guy flirt with everyone before turning him into a farmer isn’t the best way to handle writing characters of colour. Denying said characters of colour arcs and screen time in favour of giving your white characters the same story in a different hat over and over again is also not the best treatment you can offer your poc characters. That’s not even mentioning other horrible treatment and stereotypes you’ll see the Voltron characters of colour experience. Let us also recall #notallgalra, the “what if the genocide victim was actually the bad guy” au mess in s3, all those “lol lance is stupid” jokes, the black character Kinkade speaking mainly in grunts, Allura dying to redeem the two genocidal dudes responsible for most of her trauma, and Hunk’s (half black half Samoan) family being enslaved at a fucking concentration camp like goddamn what the hell were you thinking Voltron that’s like hetalia levels of fucked up when we remember what kind of genuinely awful shit this show’s done to it’s minority characters.

Homophobia:

If you’re reading my review in the Voltron tag, and you watched the whole series, then there’s no way in hell that you haven’t heard about Adam dying and the backlash against Voltron for it. If you are somehow the .000001% of people who don’t know, Adam (a gay moc) was Shiro’s (another gay moc) fiancé who got a grand total of forty five seconds of screen time before dying when the Galra invaded earth. Meanwhile, L*tor and Allura’s relationship got almost triple that despite being abusive as fuck. But Shiro got married at the end of season 8! In a credits scene, to a guy in the background of a couple of scenes Shiro was also in. When lgbt fans expressed outrage at their rep being hyped up despite having no bearing on the plot or even Shiro as a character outside of one scene, instead of owning up to their mistakes, the crew of Vee El Dee said (or implied) that it was the fault of lgbt fans for hyping ourselves up. Yeah okay. Except after that we got confirmation that Ezor and Zethrid were a couple! Yay! Clearly a win for us El Gee Bee Tees right? Well… not really considering that both of them were depicted as psychotic torturers who also died a couple minutes later. Gotta love those crazy dead lesbians amirite?

Klance:

But why is klance in the “ugly” section!? You cry, I thought you were a klanti! I am an anti and I did ship klance but that’s not what I wanna talk about right now. When I put klance under ugly I wanted to discuss two things, the crew and the shippers. First let’s talk the crew; several folks on the Voltron staff have at the very least, not reacted negatively to the omnipresent ship that is Keith and Lance. I’m sure you’ll also remember that Lance’s VA Jeremy Shada was considered a KICK icon before that went south. The crew was also purposefully misleading when they talked about possible romances for Keith and Lance, the language they used was ambiguous enough that shippers interpreted it as proof that klance would become canon. When it inevitably didn’t and shit hit the fan, the staff backpedaled again. Stating that klance was never meant to be interpreted as romantic and we were all fools for thinking otherwise. That’s happened in the past so it’s a reasonable defence, except for the fact that scenes with Keith and Lance tended to contain unnecessary parallels to canonically romantic relationships, (the bonding moment paralleling an allurance scene in season six and their talk at the start of season eight paralleling two scenes, hunay in season one and l*tura in season five). So it’s not unreasonable to be a little suspicious there. Klance was huge on the internet, it’s impossible for the crew to have been completely unaware of what they were doing.

Next I wanna talk shippers. I’m not saying that being disappointed that a ship didn’t become canon is a bad thing. But when you act like that’s the worst thing Voltron did amidst the sea of ableism, racism and homophobia it gets a little tiring. The fact that so many klancers rushed to demonize Allura after season seven and eight and add on that I saw more people complaining about klance not becoming canon king than Allura dying a completely unnecessary death to redeem L*tor of all people was the final straw. I washed my hands of klance and Voltron as a whole.

———————————————

So that’s my review of V*ltron. I was gonna do a separate review of season eight but I didn’t even finish s8 and to be honest it probably wouldn’t have been any more than the words “Fuck Vee El Dee, Allura Deserved Better” in big pink letters. And I know I probably made someone angry with this review but if you actually managed to stick around my ramblings all the way to the end then I salute you regardless of whether or not you agree with me.

[boss-the-goofball]

My Thoughts on Season 4 of Voltron

Putting under cut due to spoilers and so people who follow me and don’t like Voltron can scroll past this with ease

Alright, where do I begin?

The fact that Keith has been going on Marmora missions and leaving his team behind was very immature and stupid of him. I will say I agree with him.

He is not fit to be a leader and he got SO lucky that the Black Lion accepted Shiro again. I will say it is a good thing that Keith took backstage this season for the most part, because we got bits of development from some of the other characters.

Reunion is probably the best episode for me, because we have Pidge finally reuniting with Matt and we got more backstory on her. Her relationship with her brother, it really sets it in how she was affected by what happened on the Kerberos mission.

Also I am cool with Matt liking Allura. A huge dork with a princess feels a lot better for me than a playboy flirt with a princess.

Though I will say I think Lance now sees Allura as a sister instead of a potential lover. Just the way he interacts with her now, really gives off the big brother vibes. So the fact that he was glaring at Matt, I don’t think it was out of jealousy. I feel like it was more of Lance thinking “Oh HELL no, I am not letting anyone go near my little sister!”

The episode where Lotor was pretty much disowned by Zarkon and when Narti was killed,

I can understand the rage people feel at Lotor and Dreamworks for killing off a named character who is canonically disabled. However, I must say that in Lotor’s defense, it was a mercy kill.

Narti was a sleeper agent, and Lotor probably did not know of a quick way to get rid of Haggar’s influence on Narti. They were also under attack, and even if Lotor left Narti behind she probably would have still perished. 

Though I will admit that Axca shooting Lotor and saying “For Narti” despite her showing immense loyalty to Lotor throughout her appearances, it definitely felt great and I could resonate with her.

There is only 1 episode that I must say was fucking unnecessary. 

“The Voltron Show” or “The Episode That Completely Shat on Pidge and Hunk, Especially Hunk. Poor Hunk”

I will say sometimes filler episodes are necessary. You use them to develop characters and their relationship with each other. However, this filler episode was unnecessary because all it did in the end was unite the coalition and make fun of Hunk with fart jokes and constantly tripping him.

That episode is probably the only one you should skip at all because it was just bland and unfunny, especially after we got a great solo episode for Pidge.

So those are some of my thoughts on this season. No I won’t make any comments on the red and blue ship cause I already voiced my distaste for it. No, I don’t think Shiro is a clone. He could be a sleeper agent like Narti, and that could be a key point where Lotor would actually come into use.

I did like the fact that Lotor might be joining Voltron, cause he was one of my favorite characters last season.

Also good on you Dreamworks for remembering that Allura can also use Space Magic.

Those are my thoughts of this season. Here’s hoping next season will be better and doesn’t shit on Hunk at all.

Actually, we need a good Hunk Solo Episode. Give us good development for Hunk that gives positive character growth.

[groundramon]

I’m only writing this down here because I have shit to do and cant sit pondering on things for the time being, but:

I’m currently trying to figure out why certain things bother me in Steven Universe and Voltron that are also present in Teen Titans, but I find endearing in Teen Titans.

I’ll start with Voltron because I actually have an answer to that one.  Voltron’s tendency to switch between comedy and seriousness at the drop of a dime always bothered me a lot.  It’s not as present in the 3rd season because that season is just straight drama (ironic considering Shiro was missing for most of it, and ill get to why thats ironic in a minute) but it is in the other seasons.  The best (and by that I mean clearest and also funniest in the contrast) example of this is the Space Mall episode.  While everyone else minus Allura and Shiro are fooling around in a mall and doing mostly comedic shit, Shiro is nearly killed by the big bad of the series in a beautiful but pretty dark scene.  (And Allura is also off doing something funny and cute, its worth mentioning).  This perfectly highlights the tonal differences and what causes these differences - its whether Shiro is in a scene or not.  Like I love Shiro, I love Shiro a lot, but...giving all your serious scenes to one character, or worse killing the mood of a scene just by his meer presence, is...bad writing.  The only three other characters that have really had any serious backstory or serious moments are Keith, Pidge, and Allura.  But I can basically never take a scene with Lance, Hunk, or god forbid Coran seriously.  Coran is okay because no show ever develops the Old Crazy Uncle comedy relief character (but i will love this show forever if they do that honestly) but Lance and Hunk?  It’s appalling how little development they’ve been given.  To be fair it looks like theyre building up to /something/ with Lance, but honestly?  That should’ve bubbled over two seasons ago.  You establish your characters’ problems and struggles in the first season, not season 4 or later.  Sorry not sorry.

But comparing that to Teen Titans, okay.  So Voltron’s problem is that instead of its serious moments vs its comedic moments being situational, they’re character driven.  They dont treat all their characters equally; they act like they have a cast of comedic characters and then a cast of serious characters.  Teen Titans, meanwhile, relies on all of its main characters as a source of humor.  Robin gives bad puns, Starfire is the quirky alien, Beast Boy is the Typical Teenage Boy(tm), Cyborg is his slightly chiller and cooler sidekick, and Raven is the emo kid that cant stand the Typical Teenage Boy(tm).  And all of its main characters also have a darker side that fits into these comedic topes that they fall into, that makes them overall well-developed characters and fitting for the tone of the show as a whole.

Now onto Teen Titans and Steven Universe.  I’m starting to absolutely despite Steven Universe’s filler episodes.  Like, sincerely, there are so many episodes in Steven Universe that bore me, the “stupid” episodes especially.  So why do I hate SU’s filler episodes but not Teen Titans’?  Well first off, I said Teen Titans’ make me laugh, not that I like them.  There are a lot of episodes that I didnt even find that funny, I just found myself laughing as a reflex because my brain was stuck in a loop of “what?? what the fuck??? this is borderline kinky”  Secondly, the reason I can laugh at Teen Titans’ is 1. because they purposely dont take themselves seriously in those episodes, and 2. because they dont take away from screentime that should have gone to the shit pacing of the serialized story.  Control Freak is my favorite (irONICALLY) but I’d prefer to see Slade terrorizing the Teen Titans with his latest plan over another Control Freak episode any day (except yesterday because i watched a lot of depression shit yesterday).  Having said that, I dont mind watching Control Freak because (USUALLY) by the time they get to a filler episode, the main plot has hit a stopping point where a filler episode is okay (IE the titans cant do anything about it), or the “filler” episode actually is the plot.  Because the Titans stopping Control Freak from robbing a bank IS their job, so it IS the plot, regardless of where Slade is at.  But yknow how I mentioned usually?  Yeah well, as much as I love Terra herself, I had a LOT of problems with her arc because the writers gave her five (5) episodes and four of those were inherently linked despite there being two filler episodes sandwiched between them.  Winner Take All was the one I had the biggest problem with, because she was around for ONE (1) episode before her betrayal and she wasnt even a focus in it?  Like really??  You gave yourself a new character to work with and you didnt even explore the possibility of “filler” episodes with her???  And Fractured is a bit more understandable (well, plot progression wise - the episode itself is basically a drug trip) but even then, I feel like...that wasnt really a good place for that episode.  I feel like taking out those two filler episodes, and maybe taking out another one or two earlier on and moving her first episode as a Titan up further, and dedicating those episodes to filler episodes involving her would be much better for her overall arc.  But I digress, it does it right MOST of the time, where as Steven Universe basically hasn’t done it right since the second season.  The problem is that the filler episodes are interrupting the plot, instead of the plot stalling and leaving room for filler episodes.  And the moral thing - there’s no fucking moral to Fractured or even Winner Take All, but Steven Universe acts like there’s some kind of moral to episodes like Onion Friend.  I dont know, I just feel like the show tries to say “be nice to people who are different!” about a character that really is the embodiment of being MEAN to others who are different.  And I dont mean he’s mean to others (he is, but he doesnt discriminate), I mean that he himself is the embodiment of the “weird kids are weird and nobody should like them” kind of trope.  Onion isn’t just some quirky child, he feels like a creepy autistic stereotype - and this is coming from someone who isn’t good at picking up on these kinds of things and really hasnt heard much about Onion from anyone else other than “hes annoying”.  He puts me very, very off and I know the writers had good intentions, but Onion was very much the wrong character to do with this - or he needs to be more redeemable and less psychopathic.  Like you cant say “oh he’s just different and does strange things [implied because hes autistic]!! uwu” and then show him robbing an arcade a few episodes later.  You need to commit to how you’re portraying a character.  But I feel like Onion could be comparable to like Starfire, since Starfire’s status as an alien is treated both seriously and is generally the source of her jokes, but this already got too long and i dont have time to pinpoint the exact difference right now - but I guess for the time being you could say that “starfire saying weird things because shes a cultural minority, both on earth and in space” is a lot less harmful than “mentally ill people like to rob arcades”

I’m gonna write a more articulated version of this some time but rn I’m not satisfied about how I’ve highlighted the differences between SU and teen titans and like i said i dont have time right now so

[brattyboyblue]

Personal Thoughts of VLD S6

After having a wild emotional day due more to hormones than the actual season’s release (lawls), I finally calmed down long enough to watch season 6 of Voltron. Now, I haven’t actually watched a complete season of voltron since season 3, but I kept up with enough spoilers from seasons 4 and 5 (while having watched at least the last 3 episodes of season 5) to understand what’s going on.

(Vague???) Spoilers under the cut. Sorry if you’re on mobile!

tl;dr: Keith’s arc was probably the most well done out of all the character arcs. Fuck you Lotor, but also, I really pity you Lotor. Shiro needs to go to Disney. Allura wipe your tears honey bunch. YAAAAAS HUNK. LOREMASTER CORAN; Team Punk the real saviors of the universe; I’m sorry the showrunners are making the writer’s do you dirty Lance. You are my sunshine hubby always. klance still has a chance and y’all aint gonna destroy that for me. Allurance can still be salvageable as long as they make Allura smart in regards to Loverboy Lance. Krolia is QUEEN. the fuck are the generals?

Keith & Shiro

- DAMMIT KEITH WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HOT. also, I'm very proud of you. He came into his leadership, now I just hope season 7 provides more team bonding with the other paladins and not just Shiro.

- Speaking of Shiro, rest. Rest child. You have done well and you have earned your peace.

Lotor & feelings:

- The award for sympathetic villain goes to Lotor. He followed in his mother's footsteps and I hope--I can't believe I'm saying this--he either finds peace in death or he finds peace in a redemption arc.

- I actually do believe his feelings for Allura were genuine. She clearly had feelings for him and still did in the end when she was willing to sacrifice the lives of the team to save him (NOTE: this is an exaggeration of what actually went down, but she did insist on saving him despite everyone telling her they needed to go.)

Keith & Krolia:

- It's a damn shame they cut the Keith/Krolia bonding down to montages but it had to be done. There's just not enough episodes in a season to dedicate toward that. They learned from their experience on Avatar at least.

Lotor’s Ang--Generals:

- The generals are really just watered down versions Azula's generals but more stupid. I really don't understand their purpose in the show. (And this may be due to the fact that I skipped season 4 and half of season 5).

Allurance:

- All the allurance scenes, with the exception of the first one in the first episode, really didn't come across as being romantically coded. Every single scene with them didn't have the violet coloring but its possible that'll change in season 7.

- It's also possible that Allura will, finally and kindly, tell Lance that she isn't interested and wants to heal from Lotor’s betrayal now that she understands what its like to have your heart broken. It probably won't put an end to Allurance but maybe it'll be able to salvage it.

Klance:

- I did see some hidden klance things. The stars in the astral plane was one. Lance noticing Keith's physical changes first before anything or anyone else, the parallels between Keith's parents finding the Blue Lion and their encounter with the Blue Lion. Lance is the first person Keith sees through the Black Lion's eyes followed by the rest. The fact that once Keith returned to the team, Lance was already by his side in terms of positioning when before he stuck around Allura. I'm not going to look any deeper than that until I know where Season 7 plans on going with Allura's heartbreak and healing.

Broganes:

- Keith's familial backstory confirmed brother Shiro--all of that was beautiful and executed wonderfully.

Animation:

- The animation and coloring this season was top-fucking-notch. Bravo. All the pivatol scenes captured my attention just with the details they added to the characters. Everyone’s BSOD expressions (mostly Shiro and Lotor’s) were so well done I was praising the team outloud lmao.

Pacing of the Plot:

- Story-wise--when it focused on the plot--it was nicely done. It didn't feel out of pace like previous seasons or rushed. Its not quite as good as seasons 1 and 2 in terms of pacing but it's definitely one of the more better paced seasons among the shorter sets.

- I appreciate the temporal fuckery as a means to tell a story through flashbacks and the use of foreshadowing in the DND episode.

- The story through characters, I think Keith’s story and Lotor’s story were definitely well portrayed this time around. So it’s really nice to finally see that red ribbon on Keith's fucking arc.

Hunk:

- Hunk stepping up was absolutely gorgeous and beautiful and obviously expected and thank you for finally acknowledging that Hunk is an engineer.

Coran:

- They reminded us that Coran was also an engineer and that was beautiful.

- Also GAME MASTER/LORE MASTER CORAN IS VICIOUS AND I LOVE HIM.

Team Punk:

- Hunka and Pidge's friendship is probably the better-depicted relationship out of the entire season. I’m not sure when they grew so close, but I really enjoyed their interactions.

Lance:

(disclaimer: I’m a Lance stan and I love him with all my heart so my disappointment is warranted)

- Hoo boy, here we go. Its obvious this season Lance absolutely no longer has a connection to any of the paladins. I didn't see it like I saw it in previous seasons and while I love the langst that I did see, I didn't like that it revolved around his unrequited crush on Allura. With that being said, they utterly shaded Lance this season. He was the most pointless character in the whole damn show. CORAN did more than him and that's really saying something. THE FUCKING CASTLE OF LIONS DID MORE THAN HIM!

-it's interesting to note that the Monsters and Mana episode predicted [Lance’s uselessness] because all he did was vanish and teleport as a distraction or get the others fucked with a trap. (Speaking of which, the DND episode was the best fucking filler in the entire series and I love it so much. Bless you Shiro)

- Anyway, back to Lance--I cringed every time he opened his mouth. I know it's not his fault his writers hate him, but holy shit, I can understand why some fans would hate him.

- His characterization this season was about as captivating as a fucking cockroach on a wall. It actually destroys previously established moments of badassery in other seasons.

- However, it was really, really, REALLY nice hearing Lance bark out orders when Keith wasn't there to do so. He can step up in time of need, but the writer's don't really give him any credit afterwards.

- They could have handled the Clone Shiro arc in a different way that would've given Lance time to shine, but instead, its given to Keith who had the power of a Deus Ex Machina-esque vision that told him of Shiro's fuckery. It made the last scene in Season 5 between Shiro and Lance really unnecessary.

- I do look forward to them going back to Earth in season 7 and a part of me hopes it does focus a bit more on Lance BECAUSE they're going back to Earth. Its a great opportunity for him to really think about whether or not he wants to return to Voltron once the castle ship is built, but I get the feeling Lance will not be important in that season or in any season. (Of course, thats just me being pessimistic.)

General/Shipping Commentary:

- In terms of shipping, other than the klance moment I mentioned and the allurance, its hard to predict. The whole series is based on Identity and Family, so i guess ultimately a romance isn't really (and shouldn't have been) necessary but its really hard to say what will be endgame at this point. But that's okay. I rather no one end up with anyone in the end.

- I wonder what the significance of the wolf that keith bonded with is

- Krolia’s romance with Texas had me emotional.

 - BABY KEITH!!!!!! I WANNA SEE MORE BABY PALADINS!!!!

Overall:

Overall, I actually enjoyed season 6 despite my earlier heartbreak. I realized, as I was working, that the fandom is dramatic as fuck and certain people have a tendency to become toxic in the face of adversity, regardless if they mean to or not. I learned I should always form my own opinions on a matter as opposed to believing in others.

I also learned that the showrunners are shady AF, and while I understand they need to protect their show from spoilers as much as possible, I would really wish they’d stop making “promises” of... well, everything really. I rather they be vague (”You’ll just have to see for your own eyes”) as opposed to adding commentary to something that’s probably never going to happen.

[skaylanphear]

I guess I’m not surprised? Voltron thoughts and spoilers.

Review for season 7: Eh?

Honestly, I don’t understand how Voltron can be so well-written one season and so poorly written the next. I think season 7 was worse than season 4. I haven’t yet watched a season where I was concocting my review before I was finished watching, but I was honestly waiting for it to end by the time I was halfway through. 

I didn’t know I could be bored through an entire season. 

Like, I was literally just waiting for the end, hoping for something amazing to happen. I was literally like “wow, maybe all the paladins will die and then they won’t have to be subjected to poor writing like this anymore.” 

I just... I don’t get it. Season’s 5 and 6 were great. So what is this pile of shit? 

The first half is basically filler episodes full of stupid idiotic antics and literal fun-poking at Lance that is never addressed. I mean, he was literally called dumb over and over and over again and it was never addressed again. I mean, he was hardly in the season, frankly. 

Keith was... Keith was an asshole. I mean, Lance is generally annoying, but this hit whole new levels of annoying, and Keith was an asshole to him the whole time even when Lance was being nice to him and trying his best. 

Hunk’s arc... wasn’t an arc at all. They gave us a snippet of character recognition in the beginning and then a start to some kind of arc that was eventually not realized for Hunk on a personal level because it was taken over by these overly elaborate battles that I couldn’t even tell you about despite the fact that I just watched it. 

Pidge was... there. Though her father got the most airtime out of everyone. 

Allura was also around, but her character got nothing aside from some shoehorned in crush she now has on Lance? Despite the fact that he’s been basically useless the entire season and done nothing to change her opinion of him? Despite the fact that Allura is just as exasperated as Keith is with Lance most of the time? 

I mean, I love Lance. I love how he started and I love what he could be, but he’s annoying as fuck due to lack of development and it makes no sense that Allura would have feelings for him now. I’m down for some Allurance if it’s written well, but this was exactly what I was afraid of--Allurance being poorly written, Allura magically developing feelings for Lance, and Lance being the “nice guy” who somehow gets the girl despite that making no logical sense. 

And I am still baffled over why Keith was such an asshole to Lance the whole time. That bullshit about how Lance better not miss his shots, as if Keith and Lance didn’t fight back to back through season three. It’s bullshit and an insult to both their characters. 

And don’t even get me started on the Adam and Shiro thing. We didn’t even get to meet Adam before he fucking died, so thank you Voltron for doing as all media does and killing off your LGBT rep, and in record time too, btw. Instead of getting, at the very least, half an episode dedicated to their story, we got a whole bunch of Shallura stuff that doesn’t even make any sense because Allura likes Lance now? For some reason? 

The only moment that stands out to me was when Hunk and Keith had their little heart to heart, but even that seemed forced because it was like the writers were just “oh, Hunk needs a moment because we don’t know how to write his character so we’ll just shove this stuff in here about his parents despite the fact that it’ll never go anywhere.” 

Oh yeah, and the other moment I remember--when the Atlas somehow magically turned into a giant fucking robot. Because I literally said, out loud, “well that’s fucking stupid.” The hell? Humans aren’t alteans. The Atlas was inspired by altean tech, but it was not made using alchemy. It was created by humans, who have no magical inklings. Are you telling me the power of Shiro and the castle-ship crystal just... transformed it? Because, again, that’s fucking stupid. Also, the Atlas’ design is... not good. And it looks really, really dumb as a robot. 

But moving on. What the hell was up with Acxa? So she... changed sides, alright, and has a crush on Keith? I still don’t think that’s the case since she showed up at his Dad’s grave at the end, but it’s still poorly put together. 

A lot of which just comes down to how poorly written this season was. I mean... the writers literally did... just about everything you’re NOT supposed to do. 

There was no emotional weight because none of the characters interacted in a personal manner, aside from Keith and Hunk for two seconds and then Keith being an asshole, again, when they were stranded in space. We see Lance’s family, but we don’t meet them. The only one we do meet is Veronica and since we didn’t learn anything about her and Lance’s relationship or history, I literally couldn’t care less about her. Keith’s mom fucking leaves, which she said she would never do, which undos that nice little character bit. Hunk never actually rescues his family, they’re just... free as a result of... fighting? Pidge is just there, whatever, we hardly see her interact with her mom. Allura and Coran do basically nothing. There’s no one there to welcome Shiro back. Shiro, who got to fight Sendak and, yet again, take spotlight from what could have been an epic moment for another character before, again, being rescued by Keith. 

And then, we get half a season introducing us to characters we don’t know, doing stuff we don’t care about, making plots and battle plans far more complicated than they have to be just to show off these character that I don’t care about. The only new character I cared about seeing--because he had a personal connection to one of the main characters--died two minutes after being introduced in a fight that meant nothing. RIP Adam. 

I literally don’t care about any of the new pilots and they took up, like, a third of the season. They were cool at first until their pointless airtime quickly came to overlap that which could have been used to develop the characters we already love. 

The entire season was plot driven instead if character driven, because the main characters hardly felt like they were in it. Much like when the paladins were piloting the lions while being held prisoner, their minds and bodies felt like they were separated. We watched their bodies, but we didn’t get a whole lot else. 

AND THEN the end was filled with fucking mcguffins that were downright laughable. Sendak is killed by Keith, because apparently Keith and Shiro get to do everything cool, and then some random-ass robot with no ties to the season shows up. Oh, it’a Haggar? Okay. But we don’t know anything about it? Alright. More powerful than anything yet faced despite the fact that the battle against Lotor’s giant robot was way more intense? Sure thing. So now we’ve got two giant robots, again. Only for some stupid-ass third one to show up that is so huge you can’t take it seriously. It comes in and basically does nothing, before our paladins make a sacrifice that, really, doesn’t even matter because there’s no emotional investment in what they’re doing. They might die? Well maybe that would be more exciting than the last bore-fest I just spent 6 hours watching. 

It’s like they don’t know how to develop their characters, so they’ve just decided to stop and instead shove as many giant robots into our faces as possible. And try and distract us with love stories that have no weight because they have no development, rhyme, or reason. 

It’s the worst season I’ve watched yet. I was ready to go back to bed halfway through. I kept waiting for something, anything, character-wise to happen and instead all we got were a bunch of dumb robot fights that didn’t mean anything. 

The reason the fight with Lotor was so weighted was because of his and Allura’s background and his past. The reason the fight between Shiro and Keith was so weighted was because of their history. 

We got none of that. Veronica almost died, like, twice and I was like “whatever” because I know nothing about her and I’ve barely seen Lance around anyway. 

And I still do not understand why Keith was such a fucking asshole? It’s so out of character! I don’t... Ugh!

And all the queerbaiting from all the different sources from creators to Netflix, only to leave us high and dry on everything. If someone were watching this show without the assistance of things the creators have said, no one would realize Adam and Shiro were an item. It wasn’t explicit. They could have been best friends or brothers or literally anything. 

I just... I don’t understand how it could be so poorly executed. No wonder they want to finish Voltron this year--get it over with if this is what we have to look forward to. Lance and Allura can get married despite having little to nothing in common and having no development within their relationship. Throw Keith and Acxa together because that’s even better than Lance and Allura. The most they have in common is a knack for saving one another, let alone any personal interests. 

And don’t even bother with Lance’s family. We don’t know them, so they might as well not exist. Let’s make Commander Holt and Pidge’s family the main characters--they’re clearly the most important family unit aside from Keith and Shiro. Keith and Shiro, who do the same thing every single season. If I was a Sheith shipper, I’d be pretty bored at this point, personally. They have as little development as everyone else. 

Literally everything about it was either underdeveloped, boring, filler, mcguffin, or other characters that literally no one cares about. The high ranked lady dies? I don’t care, she was annoying the whole time, why are we dedicating so much time to her death? 

And why the hell was the entire season based around defending Earth? The paladins defend planets all the fucking time. I get that it’s Earth and we’re supposed to feel personally connected, but I didn’t see settings that would illicit an emotional response. We hardly saw any of the humans that were captured. It might as well have been another planet. Yeah, I wanted Earth to be attacked, but I didn’t want the entire season to be focused on defending it. That’s just... 

It’s everything I’ve said above, that’s what it is. 

They said a lot of people would be leaving the show after this season, as if something huge would happen that would make the fandom angry and cause people to leave. 

But that’s not why people will leave the show. They’ll leave it because it was poorly written, made promises it couldn’t keep, and kept the characters going in circles or even going out of character for no defensible reason.   

And that’s not something to be toting around as though to be proud of it. As if you made some hard decision that was going to anger your fans. You think ships are going to break up your fanbase? If you wrote them well, that wouldn’t happen. If you wrote a good story, people would stick around for that no matter the ships. Ships aren’t the problem here and they’re definitely not what’s going to have people leaving the show. 

What’s going to have people leaving the show is that this whole season was horrible on every level, ships aside.     

What a waste.