#but we should also be able to be honest about which lgbt+ stories get greenlit by big properties like marvel and disney

[moistvonlipwig]

well. no. not really. the bury your gays trope has roots in the hayes code which mandated that gay/queer/'deviant' characters be shown as villainous and/or die by the end of the story. (i do think we're past the point where any instance of a dead lgbt+ character counts as byg for the record; i would say now it more has to do with whether the character's death is or appears to be associated with their queerness in the language of film, whether or not they're the only lgbt+ character/half of the only lgbt+ couple, whether the purpose is to create tragedy for their partner if they have one and little else, how violent/shocking the death is, etc. -- metrics like that.) but it's not really about whether or not it serves the journey of the 'straight protagonist'. that's much more akin to how the fridging of female characters works. by this definition cl*xa wouldn't count as byg and i thought that was pretty universally considered a prime example lol

[littlemisssquiggles]

Voltron Musings: I think some Voltron fans are missing the point.

A lesson to be learnt for all potential series creators. Never used LGBT representation or the promise of it as part of a marketing tactic to get your fans excited for an upcoming instalment in your franchise. You can have representation; yes most definitely, but never let your fandoms know of it prior to the story. Let the show reveal all instead.

Because if you do and fall short on those expectations, the repercussions can be profoundly damaging. No fandom has taught me that lesson better than Voltron Legendary Defender.

If I have ever been more disappointed in the Voltron fandom or needed any justification to prove the toxicity of some of the members of its community, then the reception for its most recent season has given me clear reason. After reading some of the posts from fans in the #VoltronLegendaryQueerBaiting tag on Twitter, I am saddened.

I get that folks are upset but the levels this has reached is beyond astounding. There are folks who are going so far as to call VLD it ‘a bad written show’ or even make talk about getting Netflix to take it down.

First of all, that’s kind of impossible right now. As far as I know, Voltron has already been greenlit for its eighth and final season. S8 is scheduled to premiere later this year and it will be the season to wrap up the story, from what I know.

This is exactly why I used to stay out of the Voltron fandom and enjoy it on my own terms. It’s upsetting to hear some of the things being said. After 7 seasons of telling a quite compelling story with a great cast of characters, it’s displeasing to see all that great work being bashed now. And for what?

All because the showrunners didn’t live up to something they promised…or did they? The jury is still out on that, at least for me.

Do I think S7 queerbaited anyone? Well…honestly, in some ways it might’ve unintentionally did so and in other ways, it definitely didn’t.

Did Voltron reveal a main character’s sexual orientation only to have his love interest be killed before they can get a chance to reunite? Yes. They did.

I have to be honest here folks. I didn’t care that much for Adam’s character nor did his death scene have any sort of impact on me as a viewer. This had nothing to do with the fact that he’s gay or POC but more so with the way how he was introduced into the current story. How am I supposed to care for a character who I only met for a few short minutes and whose personality and bond with one of the main characters wasn’t honestly established in the best way possible.

There are Voltron fans making the current argument that I should care more about Adam and Shiro’s failed reunion than the successful reunion of Pidge’s parents. There are actually fans contesting that the only reason that Mr. and Mrs. Holt received a proper reunion and thus, an entire episode dedicated to them is ‘because they’re a heterosexual couple’.

Nevermind that part of the episode which was the two-parter: Episodes 7 and 8 “The Last Stand” additionally brought up Mr. and Mrs. Holt desiring to reunite with their children and establishing that Voltron is alright in order to help protect the Earth from the Galra invasion.

Nope, that episode was mostly about the Holts, a hetero-married couple and them alone, right?

To the fans making this debate, guys, be reasonable here. It’s not because they’re straight. Seeing this couple unite has nothing to do with their orientation. It’s because their relationship and their desire to see each other again was something established since the first season.

Unlike Adam, the audience has known of Pidge’s parents since the season one. Since the get-go, part of Pidge’s development and character arc has focused on her reuniting her family---finding her brother and father; then helping her father to get back to Earth so that he can meet their mother again and let her know that they’re all alive and safe. When Mr. Holt arrived back on Earth and gets to see his wife again, you actually want to see these two reunited because you genuinely get the desperation. This is a couple who haven’t seen each other in over a year or more where one of them was believed to be dead. You care about them. You want them to have this moment to themselves and you feel happy when the series takes its time to highlight it.

Something that I unfortunately cannot say the same for Shiro and Adam and their relationship since, until S7, we never even knew Adam existed. His entire presence was something added in at the last minute as part of Shiro’s past and development.

If anything, if the series had given Adam and Shiro an entire episode devoted to them reuniting, it probably would have appeared forced since we never knew Adam until S7. There was never any mention of him in prior seasons either.

Shiro didn’t even ask about Adam the first time he returned to Earth. Adam was never a factor for the past seasons because he was never a plan. He was added in later which regrettably, placed him in the pile to be expendable.

I wish the writers hadn’t introduced Adam in the first place. If they wanted Shiro to have a husband/fiancé who was deceased, they could’ve done the same thing but have Shiro be a widower with Adam having passed away prior to the series.

It would’ve given Shiro more leverage to go on the Kurboros mission. They could have had Adam pass away before he got the chance to see his beloved fulfill his dream of going into space. So the reason Shiro went on the mission against all odds is as a promise to his fiancé. There are other ways the series could’ve handled Adam’s existence and his connection to Shiro than they did. Instead we got what we got and I don’t blame the fans for being upset.

But the arguments. The things fans are saying. It’s horrible.

Fans are arguing that Adam was killed off because of his race and sexual orientation. Y’know, the show creators killed him purposely because he’s a gay POC character. Again, this is ridiculous and I honestly wish fans wouldn’t say things like this because it sounds so unintelligible. A character being LGBT and/or POC doesn’t expunge them from death. In terms of the Legendary Defender storyline, the characters in Voltron are fighting a war against a tyrannical alien race and in war; there will be casualties and deaths.

Adam wasn’t the only character to die in the line of duty while defending the Garrison. There were other soldiers who went down too but unfortunately no one cared about the rest since Adam was the only one with ties to a main character.

For me, Adam, a confirmed LBGT POC, dying in the line of combat wasn’t the issue. My problem with that more stems from the show just introducing this character and the fact that he had an intimate past with one of our main heroes only for him to be axed off before we can even get the opportunity to know him better as a person or learn more of his and Shiro’s relationship. That’s the real zinger.

Adam died as he was created. Short with me barely getting the chance to learn more about him. Not sure if we’ll get more flashbacks of Shiro and Adam for S8 but…I think by now, the damage has been done.

People have already begun to forget that Shiro is still around. Shiro was revealed to be LGBT. He’s gay. Shiro was already a great and well-fleshed out character from the start. So the show adding the fact that he’s also LGBT just elevated him even higher because the LGBT community now has that representation. They have a character on the main cast of Voltron who they can look to and say, that character is representing us.

LGBT Voltron fans, no offense but you wanted a character to represent you and the show gave it to you. You have a character---a main character. One of the best well-written and well-developed characters in the show in your court. But folks are too busy fussing over Adam dying and Shiro not getting to mourn a character we didn’t realize was special to him until this season started to see that. Even when the show writers give you what you want, you still find some way to get upset.

I might get shit for saying something like that but hey, my post, my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt. My goal here isn’t to insult anyone but I still feel the need to express my blunt honesty in what I’ve seen going on.

The writers didn’t even need Adam. At least, not in the way he was written for this season. As I mentioned earlier, they could have revealed in a flashback that Shiro had a fiancé/boyfriend who had passed away before he left on the Kurobos mission and that would have been enough to sell that he’s LGBT with a former lover who died fighting for the Earth. They could have done the exact same story only better and the fandom might not have been this mad…probably.

As a matter of fact; the sad truth is, if Adam wasn’t revealed to have any ties to Shiro at all as his former companion---If Adam was only shown as a former colleague of Shiro who lived with him as his roomate then no one would’ve cared that much whether or not they reunited.

People saying that Shiro only got to mourn Adam for 5 seconds. Well to be fair, Voltron had been gone for 4 years. Adam died long before Shiro returned to Earth. We got to see Shiro mourn Adam for a scene after learning that he died in the line of duty and thanks to Josh Keaton’s great voice acting, we actually got to hear how pained he sounded over it.

But at the end of the day, even if Shiro wanted to assume the fetal position and bawl his eyes out over losing Adam, he wouldn’t have been able to as much because there was a war that needed to be fought.

This is just me trying to make sense of the writers’ decisions. I don’t agree with all that they did for the Adashi relationship but that doesn’t mean I’m going to burn everything the show has built for both this season and seasons before it just because one of the show’s confirmed LGBT characters (yes there are more now) didn’t get to see his lover again.

A lover that was foreshadowed from the start to not be there when he returned anyways. Adam did tell Shiro don’t be surprised if he wasn’t there waiting for him once he returned from space---which I guess made his death even more heart-breaking given that those were probably the last words he said to him.

Speaking of more LGBT characters in Voltron, S7 also revealed that Ezor and Zethrid are an item. That’s kind of cute since they have always shared the closest bond of Lotor’s former generals. It’s interesting that the show took them down that route but of course; there are the fans complaining because  Ezor and Zethrid, the show’s canon lesbian couple, are villains.

So…what? How is that a problem? Firstly, Ezor and Zethrid have always been evil since their debut. The fact that they’re now an alleged couple was something only revealed this season highlighting that they became an item within the 4-year time jump. I just don’t see why two lesbians being villains is problematic. What? LGBT characters can’t be villains now? First LGBT characters aren’t allowed to be killed off, even if it’s in a scenario where they can realistically die, now they can’t be villains.

I…I don’t get some of the complaints I’ve seen. I think part of S7’s problem is that it tried too much to cater to the desires of some of its fandom. Seriously, the Voltron team really shot themselves in the foot this season with the LGBT representation. This is sad since it started off on such a positive note with it.

As for the shoehorned hetero-ships of Allurance and Kaxca. Whelp, I already shared my two cents on that in this earlier post but I guess I can talk about them again since they’re also a major issue with S7. Not that I blame em.

Do I think Allurance and Kaxca were shoehorned in at the last minute? Yes I do.

But here’s the odd thing. Just because the series hinted at signs of these two ships doesn’t necessarily make them canon. Neither does it reveal that Lance and Keith are straight either.

Call me in denial but this season spent more time denouncing Allurance and Kaxca with both Lance and Keith as much as it did to the introduce it. It is here lays the conundrum.

They had two characters call out Keith and Axca’s potential romance  yet we get no real reaction from either of them. We get another character tease Lance on Allura. Though he blushes and reacts startled, Lance basically brushes off the idea of Allura liking him.

As I said in my last Voltron Musing, if another character teased Lance about the slightest inkling of Allura liking him back seasons ago, he probably would have jumped for joy and go sauntering over to her all suave and shizz.

Instead Lance denies the possibility. I have no idea what the writers are doing but the impression I’m getting is that they might be setting up for something important with Lance and Keith in respect to their ships.

Yes we got Allurance and Kaxca but there were quite a number of Klance hints sprinkled all throughout S7. Not to mention, the frigging ‘The Feud’ episode. The two voted for each other to be saved if one of them had to.

The fact that Lance picked Keith over Allura still astounds me. Why do I get the feeling that the series is setting up to dissuade Kaxca and Allurance ships but fans are two angry to see the signs? I could be very much wrong but I’m going to wait til S8 to see.

I don’t know what the show writers are doing but one thing’s for sure, I’m not done with Voltron.

Like Shiro and Keith’s relationship, I haven’t given up on the series. I’m not going to start a stupid campaign to get Netflix to shut down the series or any of the other silly things I’ve heard some fans doing.

I still love Voltron. I still think it’s a well-written show with great characters I’ve come to adore. As I’ll say here, despite all the weird shipping hints, I really enjoyed S7. I thought it was another great season for the books.

While I didn’t like the way they crammed in Allurance and Kaxca, that’s still not enough to kill the show for me. It’s upsetting how fragile people’s loyalties are to a franchise they claim to like just because it doesn’t give them exactly what they want.

But as for me, I’m still here and I’m looking forward to seeing how S8 wraps up the series. I’m even amusing myself at the thought of, ‘Watch the haters bitch about Voltron for the minor hiccups in S7 and then come crawling back to eat their words when S8 ends giving them everything they ever wanted and more’.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)