#especially as I have a few vld friends who DO like s1 keith and can crank out The REAL Keith fics and guess what! I enjoy keith’s character

[void-tiger]

please tell me more about the fic where Ke/th doesnt get to be a paladin again, i keep seeing shit like how the team abandoned/failed Ke/ith and should have apologized to him when it was literally the opposite (i am sorry but the team almost DIED because K/ith fucked off to run off with the Blades, werent for Kuron entering Black they would have actually died, i do not understand how anyone can see this and say the team was in the wrong/Ke1th was in the right, and still be considered a team player let alone a team leader is beyond me. Really really sorry about salt in your askbox)

No worries! (Although, disclaimer: I had to set aside my voltron fics for a bit ‘cause I can’t work on them without getting salty, and too much salt is bad for you. So they’re…curing, I guess. I’ll stop with the bad salt jokes now XD)

But short answer? Keith’s their comfort blorbo, and it’s incredibly easy to have that become “can do no wrong ever it MUST be EVERYONE else!” and…not recognize that kneejerk bias. Ask The Real Fandom Olds TM who’ve participated in fandom culture since the 80s and 90s and that’s a key issue with Current Fandom and especially younger fans (ie, probably our generation and younger.) Add in that a lot of us online trend (in my antidotal experience) towards having untreated anxiety or depressive symptoms and/or undiagnosed neurodivergent brain wiring that an individual might’ve not quite learned how to cope with yet (and many come with emotional regulation symptoms) in addition to…human brains really just Don’t stop developing until mid20s regardless of someone’s birth gender and brain development is particularly chaotic and…well.

That’s a recipe for a volatile fandom, and since the VLD Characters in particular were geared towards Teens or Teen Nostalgia? [Comfort Blorboing Intensifies.]

Now, in one fic series Idea, Keith DOES become the Red Paladin again, but he has to work for it. Really work for it. Like, the Team is still incredibly hurt that he left and never really apologized for ditching them before THAT Scene where Jiro is forced to step in s4. I think I have in my notes somewhere [coughs] prolly a random post or very buried DM to a friend that Red Lion finally outright takes Keith for a joy ride (much like Blue and Black did with Lance and Shiro) and literally has him bouncing around in zero g and gforces until Red’s really willing to accept him back as Paladin. (Also it makes me feel better.)

[tags: blackbox verse, rewrite the stars, blackbox, veeladee fixit. Note that some of the older posts especially I’ve probably discarded. But I do my best worldbuilding thinking aloud, and hey. It’s fanfic. Who gives af about spoilers? Not me.]

But, in Blackbox verse, I wanted Jiro to have his very own Lion…and the Sincline Meteor is right there. Plus, y’know. Fixing-fixing. Making as much work as I felt like since it was intended to be a series, anyway.

Buuut, that’s not the fic idea you asked about.

The one you asked about is actually a Redo of The Black Paladin’s episode following alteanroyals’ prompt of “what if Shiro’s the one who fights the clone, and the clone gets to just come home. Have his own name.” Because, c’mon. The visuals would’ve been incredible, and Josh Keaton and Studio Mir adores Shiro and Jiro even if the EPs and arguably NONE of the writers (even the better ones trying to patch job before bailing out) gave a shit about Jiro as his own character.

So. Back to Keith.

He actually tries flying Black Lion, same as the (egh) canonical episode…and…

WHOOPS. He gets lasers shot at him for his efforts (hA HA~)

Allura steps in, and has a battle of wills against Black Lion, then realizes that what has Black so torqued is Keith tried to dominate the Lion. (Imo? The only reason why Keith could fly with Black in s2-4 was because of the bond they both had with Shiro. “Help me help you.”) And well. Allura’s learned a thing or two: trying to dominate a Lion does NOT work. She learned that for herself with White Lion, she’s now realizing that’s why Black Lion accepted Shiro as it’s Paladin over Zarkon at all. So Allura changes tactics, senses Shiro’s Quintessence still inside Black Lion nearly two years after he vanished, and calls the others in. They do a reverse-balmera ceremony via their voltron bonds and pull Shiro back out—in his OWN body, tyvm.

And well. Remember how it’s technically a “Shiro vs CloneShiro” prompt? Yeah, they fight. (I’ll try not to have them totally wreck the place. All Shiros are Good Shiros.) And when Black Lion comes for them now that the Lion can get a clear shot? Red Lion also comes.

Because Keith isn’t the only character who holds the needed qualities for a Red Paladin. (Reactive instincts, laser focus, loyalty, but often emotionally volatile.) Jiro does too. And unlike Keith, Jiro stayed even when he “no longer” had a Lion to fly from his POV, and he struggled with the rest of the Team to adjust to Lions that no longer suited them in the wake of Shiro’s Absence. So Red chooses Jiro and flies to him. (Black would’ve saved Jiro, too, even though Jiro wasn’t Black’s true paladin. But seeing a Lion accept him, and further proof that he’s not just a poor copy but his own person and even a Paladin in his own right?)

[gemini fic, shiro vs jiro]

Basically, in starting writing and continuing to ruminate on ideas, I realized that Gemini works best as a single fic, so having Firm Consequences make more sense. Other tidying up?

-Allura and the Paladins take the Castle and immediately head out for the Altean Colony while Shiro (and Black Lion at Black’s literal insistence) go after Jiro. (And with Shiro here to lead and analyze + Convenient Recap/Alternate Explanation, Pidge is able to shut down the virus far earlier before it makes the Castle truly dead in the water.) Haggar never gets her claws into them.

-Keith formally leaves the Blades. He had a family, and he turned his back on them. Those relationships won’t be what they were before (ie, symbolic in losing his Red Paladinship), but this time he’s willing to put the work in to repair their trust in him. Meanwhile, the Blades never were going to help him find his mother intentionally no matter how many times he sacrificed his life for them, and his life and the lives of all the other Blades ultimately meant very little to Kolivan and the Blades as an organization. He surrenders the knife to Krolia, and walks away if Team Voltron will let him stay. It not, he can do better good with the Rebels. (Infiltration was Pidge’s thing, anyway. He’s the showy diversion maker.)

-Lotor returns to Orionde. But when he faces the Ancients and White Lion again, he stops attacking and running from his sins. He sacrifices his full life force, and the Drained Alteans revive fully restored. The tragedy his family caused and he ended up perpetuating ends with him. (That does leave…y’know. The Galran Empire without an Emperor. But hey. IF I finish this fic, that’s potential sequel material, baby!)

-

…anyway. Point is, Keith Antis put a bad taste in my mouth, but the point of “Keith loses Red” wasn’t to punish Keith (okay…maybe a little. But that was still mostly Black blasting lasers everywhere. For catharsis.) The point was, “There are consequence, and while some relationships can be repaired or make new ones with the same people after you’ve hurt them, others can’t. You lose them. It’s important to put in the work, but it’s also important to accept loss and endings, especially after you’ve fucked up.”

And well. I felt that Keith Losing Red, Jiro Gaining Red made things narratively tidy.

[the-ferocious-kittyrose]

My complicated opinion on Keith Kogane

Keith Kogane is definitely one of the more popular characters in the VLD fandom. People love brooding emo bad boys.

My feelings on Keith are... complicated. I definitely don’t hate him. I have a lot of problems with the character but I don’t think I could ever bring myself to actually hate him. Mainly because I kinda relate to him. We both have problems controlling our emotions, interacting with people, and making friends.

And we both have trouble believing there are people who truly have our best interests at heart and won’t abandon us because we’re a burden.

What I do hate is the way his character was written and the way it negatively impacted the characters around him.

There are definitely a lot of factors that contributed to VLD ending up the way it did. But to me, Keith and the writers insistence on pushing him to the forefront was the poison that killed the show.

Ok, before we get into this whole rant I feel like I should talk about the things I do like about Keith.

I like the premise of Keith’s character. He’s half Galra and never really fit in on Earth. He didn’t act like the other “normal” kids so kids made fun of him and adults didn’t want to deal with him. So in order to protect himself from the pain of rejection he would put up a tough angry facade and push people away and reject them before they could reject him.

This is something that really resonates with me personally having grown up neurodivergent. It’s awful growing up in a world that isn’t made for people like you and not knowing how to interact with or connect with your peers. Especially when you don’t know why you’re like that.

You learn to avoid social interaction because it always ends up negative. You put up walls because you don’t feel like anybody understands you or what you’re going through.

I know the writers probably didn’t intend to code Keith as neurodivergent. They just wanted Keith to be a hothead with abandonment issues, but nonetheless, this interpretation means a lot to me.

I also really like his relationship with Shiro. Keith is so used to being left behind and abandoned that when he meets someone like Shiro who’s patient and genuinely cares it’s new and strange. He’s so ready for Shiro to abandon him, even telling Shiro to send him back to the home, but Shiro refuses to leave him and tells Keith ethat he’s never going to give up on him.

It’s also interesting to see how their relationship develops over time. It’s clear Keith trusts Shiro, but you can tell that that fear of abandonment is still there deep down. In S2, Keith tells Shiro that he’s like a brother to him, and then in season 6, he takes the extra step and tells Shiro that he IS his brother and that he loves him. And for someone like Keith, telling their friend they love them is a big scary thing.

And also it’s just great to see a platonic “I love you,” especially between two guys. Don’t be afraid to tell your bros you love them!!!

Now let’s talk about the stuff I didn’t like.

Keith doesn’t have much going for him in terms of personality. He’s just sorta brooding and serious all the time. He does make jokes occasionally but it’s rare. The writers were more focused on making him cool and badass rather than fun.

I always loved the idea of Keith as a cocky carefree asshole who doesn’t give a shit about rules/laws and is kinda rude/aggressive but has a heart of gold deep down and would do anything for the people he cares about. (Just like a cat.)

I would also make him more alien esc. In terms of design I like the idea of Keith having red eyes with narrow pupils and fangs. And also just small things like the way he walks and holds himself. He growls and bears his teeth when he’s angry, his hair puffs up when scared, he’s fast and agile, disappearing and reappearing without making much noise, small things.

Then you have his race and sexuality. I have no doubt in my mind that Keith was intended to be a straight white dude. A lot of people see him as gay and Asian but there’s no evidence for this in canon. Acxa was originally intended to be his love interest and his race was never mentioned in canon. His name isn’t even Kogane in canon. (And the race of the voice actor doesn’t equal the race of the character. If that was the case Shiro, Hunk, and Lance would be white.)

They should’ve totally made Keith Japanese like he was in the original. It would’ve been so easy! Just canonize Kogane as his last name and have the book say he’s half Japanese half Galra. They could’ve also done what they did with Shiro and keep his og GoLion name. Just have him be Akira Kogane. Definitely cooler than “Keith.”

And as for his sexuality, I definitely think they should’ve had Keith be gay. But well get to that Later...

I also don’t like how they handled the whole Krolia thing. Not only was it crazy rushed, but it completely goes against the shows theme of found family.

Keith’s arc should’ve been about overcoming his abandonment issues and learning to accept the paladins as family. But instead they just get rid of the abandonment issues by just giving him his mom back.

I know a lot of people love Krolia but I don’t feel like she should’ve been introduced in anything other than flashbacks. Because Keith’s mom isn’t really that important. The show is about found family and friendship, not blood relation.

You can definitely have Keith learn about his mom and his family, but I feel like giving him his mom back was too much.

Personally, I always headcanoned that Kolivan was Keith’s grandfather or just a close friend of Krolia’s, and when Keith showed up at the Blade’s base Kolivan recognized the blade as his Krolia’s. Keith could learn about his mom through Kolivan telling him about her, how she was a great person and warrior who died fighting to make the universe a safer place for her son.

Another thing I didn’t like was the whole Keith leaving the team for the Blades thing. I know why he did it, he felt like the team was gonna reject him, he wanted to be more useful, and wanted to learn about his family, but I feel like you could’ve touched on all that without having him abandon his team.

One of the biggest problems with the show is that they did a bad job at establishing the paladins as friends, they feel like coworkers more than anything, and I feel like Keith being absent for two seasons contributed to that.

And his absence is hardly addressed. The team forms Voltron perfectly without him and no one ever says they miss him. Keith doesn’t even seem like he missed them after being gone for two years.

And a lot of the weight was taken out of that Keith v Kuron fight by the fact that Keith and Kuron hardly interacted.

That whole thing amounted to four things, Keith meeting Krolia (which I don’t think should’ve happened), them finding the colony (which was a dumb plot I don’t think should’ve happened), Keith aging up two years (which was weird and unnecessary), and Keith meeting Kosmo (which is... complicated).

I don’t think this plot was necessary. Keith should’ve stayed with his team.

Then you have his relationship with Lance. I know people are very sensitive about this topic. People have very strong opinions about whether or not Keith and Lance were intended to be romantically coded.

Personally, I do like Klance but I don’t believe they were romantically coded. I think if you want them to get together some things would have to go differently.

For example, the bonding moment. In canon, Lance tells Keith, “we make a good team.” I don’t see this as referring to him and Keith. I think he was talking about the whole team. If you want it to be about the two of them, I feel like it should be Lance telling Keith something like, “ya know, you’re not so bad after all,” and then Keith smiles and responds, “you’re not so bad yourself.”

Another example could be the scene where Lance comes to Keith with his insecurities. (Whether it’s as a leader or a friend.) This scene was weird in canon, Lance comes to Keith for advice and Keith basically tells him to just stop thinking about it.

I would prefer if Lance brought up to Keith how he doesn’t feel like he’s good enough or that he doesn’t have, “a thing,” and Keith is completely dumbfounded like, “what are you even talking about?” He goes on about all the good shit about Lance. Talks about how Blue chose him, how he’s a great shot, how he’s good at dealing with people, meanwhile Lance is standing there in shock as Keith says all these nice things about him.

Over all you would just have to develop their relationship more. More meaningful interactions. And if you want the relationship to be romantic you would have to establish that early on. Establish that one or both has romantic feelings for the other in like S1/S2 because if you wait too long it’s gonna feel forced/out of no where.

And then... you have the Black Paladin arc... I’m gonna be real with y’all, this is the arc that killed the show for me, for a few reasons.

One, even ignoring the whole quintessence bond thing, it makes no sense for Keith to be the bp. He doesn’t fit the role. I adore Shiro but choosing Keith as his successor was a dumb move. I get that he saw potential in Keith but they’re are fighting a war, there’s no room for favoritism.

Shiro should’ve chosen Allura as his successor. Not only does she have actual leadership experience, but you would only have one paladin in a new Lion instead of three.

If a lifeguard breaks his leg and can’t work, he should choose an experienced swimmers to take his place, not his little bro that’s still in water wings in the hopes that it’ll teach him to swim.

Two, Keith being the bp doesn’t help his arc. Keith’s arc is about overcoming his abandonment issues and learning to be a team player, he doesn’t need to be the leader for that.

VLD should’ve been about the paladins growing into the best versions of themselves they could be. Their development shown by unlocking new abilities in their respective lions, new forms for their bayards, and new Voltron bayard power ups. They shouldn’t have to change lions and themselves.

Keith and Red have a strong bond and work great together. Keith and Red are both temperamental, unpredictable, and have issues with trust. Keith having to fight to get Red to trust and open up to him mirrors how others have to fight to earn Keith’s trust and get him to let down his walls.

It would’ve been interesting to see them grow together. Keith has no emotional connection with Black.

We never even get to see them bond. Keith just suddenly becomes the “perfect” bp/leader because he got over his mommy issues

Three, it’s a MASSIVE disservice to Shiro’s character. Shiro put all the work in earning his position as the bp, he literally fits fought Zarkon on the astral plane to earn her trust, yet Keith is the true bp? What?

It sucks. Sendak told Shiro that a monster like him could never be a paladin and the writers went and proved him right. Hell Shiro didn’t even get to kill Sendak, Keith got that too.

And don’t tell me, “but he got the Atlas!” REALLY!? A massive Deus ex machina that required absolutely no effort from him to acquire!? Filled with a bunch of rando background characters no one gives a shit about!? You’re totally right, that 100% makes up for it.

I could go on and on about how the treatment of Shiro in this show (and fandom) is blatantly ableist but that’s a rant for another time.

It sucks. I want to like Keith! He had the potential to be an amazing character but the writers just kept on trying to turn him into something he wasn’t and it ruined him for me.

They kept trying to turn Keith into the main character and ignored that ALL the paladins are the main characters. It’s an ensemble cast! You don’t have to have everything come back to one guy.

[captainharunanase]

Sigh...

I had Allurance for a moment only for vld to make it a ghost ship with Lance now forever pining after Allura's death.

Shiro was finally able to be the "White Paladin" of the team but he barely interacted with them or even looked at Keith.

Hunk and Pidge had amazing screentime but Matt and a few others got sidelined and forgotten.

And Keith? He apparently wasn't even in Shiro's "wedding" with that rando--Curtis--even though he pretty much has been implying since s1 that Shiro is his family and his guiding light so therefore someone he would always be there for especially in his ups and downs of life.

Sheith held on all this time only to act like coworkers in the finale but not anything more like they have forgotten how to be best friends until it was convenient for the plot.

And Allura? The girl who lost everything? She ended up being almost like Honerva--sacrificing everything that is her to help her new family get their happy endings even though she could never attain hers.

I loved the fighting, the mecha transformations, the development of the MFEs, the plot, and the final showdown against Haggar but--

--To give Lance and Allura happiness and hint on giving her a new belonging only to stripe it away as a "price" all while "subtlety" diminishing Keith and Shiro's importance to each other to make their disjointed individual endings "make sense" outside of their s1-s7 buildup and somehow mesh both ships to fail in the end as a "this was the only way to save the universe" ploy-----

--Despite the damn show constantly paralleling the lesson on how Zaggar's love turned to a twisted hate that destroyed the universe and it was up to literally Allurance and even Sheith's love that actually saved the galaxy throughout the series--

----Only to rip both ships off as a sacrifice to satisfy the plot just enough to "justify" their demise as a means to an end. That metaphorical 'smoking gun' we expected to go off at the end? Over Allurance and Sheith? Was nothing but an illusion and wasn't even loaded to begin with apparently.

It is aggravating and disappointing.

I really loved this whole season but that last episode completely went against it's own theme.

They wouldn't have let Allura sake herself let alone let her do it alone--even with Honerva.

Lance wouldn't have even accepted the thought of Allura with that dark entity in her for long or even allow her to die or even worse be forced to love her ghost for the rest of his human life.

Allura wouldn't have wanted Lance to pine after her and not move on from her. She wouldn't have asked that of him by giving him her marks as a way of keeping a part of her quintessence in him.

Keith wouldn't just estrange himself from the one person that made up his whole universe especially after his oath to Shiro of always being there. He, at least, should have been the best man in the wedding if he was the selfless type to watch the canonical love of his life get with someone else.

And Shiro? He wouldn't have remained sidelined til the very end when they only needed him for his Atlas to only help boost Voltron and he clearly, while became a pseudo-Paladin for a moment, did not make any direct change or impact on the 6-man team. He especially should have had a direct moment of any form of romantic attraction with someone in the show and not as a damn fucking footnote of a "One Year Later" offscreen and unwritten romance with a character we didn't even know the name of at first nor should Shiro's final arc be seen as a "oh btw he got married and retired? Idk we keeping it vague so we give you lgbt rep!"

Despite the clearly, already written in the show, deeper bond he has had with Keith since even before s1 and that now makes his supposed bond with Keith a moot point and now unnecessary since it did not deliver in any way or reach a pinnacle in the climax nor did it have any proper closure to even indicate whether it could have or couldn't have been in the first place.

I have a lot of amazing points I would have shared earlier if I hadn't watched the last episode but that last scene completely turned the whole s8 around it's own head and practically told it to go fuck itself.

They try to amend it with a cheap superficial "Praise Allura Day" and despite a few of the team indeed having some form of ending--the main cast which consists of Keith, Shiro, Allura and yes Lance too by his association with her as her boyfriend--was literally given the short end of the stick.

Keith was sidelined and not allowed to act but be an observer at the end with none of his usual prowess, Lance now forever will chase after Allura's ghost and be haunted by her, Allura, herself, died for literally no reason than to right Honerva and Zarkon's wrongs, and Shiro wasn't allowed to even be a part of his paladin family and only there to remind people--at the last 5 seconds--that he's gay and apparently not single anymore with literally a no-name guy (actually it's Curtis but I had to look that shit up) that looked too much like Adam for my liking and while completely disregarding everything he did for Keith and vise versa.

Man that last episode is like Bleach's last chapter.

A completely different almost rewritten reality from the entire series itself. It overturned all the canonization of seven seasons under one episode.

And whether it was DreamWorks or JDS & LM's doing is irrelevant.

While it was an incredibly impactful season it did it with a fucking high cost.

Not about the ships per say--except Allurance for why make it happen only to destroy them immediately later?--but rather the complete turn arounds it had to do to try and justify why they made it that way.

That is what's so aggravating and disappointing.

Not the plot.

But the writing standpoint of trying to explain plotpoint A to upside down B. In a way, they became Haggar themselves and rewrote B and inverted it to make no sense whatsoever but pretend that it was "the only way" for it to end.

I expected an open ending for Sheith or actual development of Keith with Acxa and Shiro with Curtis if need be--and it had to be extremely good--but they couldn't even do that right.

And Allurance? They planned for Lance and Allura since the beginning but apparently the price Lance had to pay for his happy ending was her life out of the blue and at the last second.

And that hurts me.

This isn't as bad as Bleach's notorious ending but this is a definite close second at how they completely turned things around to try and make the ships happen just so they can fail while preaching how the theme of vld is found family and true love saving the universe.

Too bad the main trio--plus Lance now too--weren't allowed to partake in that lesson or in true happiness.

I still love Allurance and I will always love Sheith.

But what they did to Allura and Shiro completely ruined both Lance and Keith's endings.

And that breaks my heart to see it as the price they paid for daring to love them and trying to make them happy.

Lance can't truly be happy now since he can't move on and let Allura go or rather he won't to keep her memory alive in him.

And Keith didn't even get to watch the man he loved get with someone else and is now estranged from his best friend he swore he loved so much he literally was willing to die with Shiro and allow the universe to pay for it.

And what of Pidge and Hunk? We know what they accomplished but what about their personal lives? Is Hunk with Shay? Is Pidge still single? Is Matt still with his girlfriend? What of Acxa and the others? It is so vague with no clear answer and that is also disheartening.

Ah, sorry for my ramble. I stayed up to watch it from 3am and it's now almost 9am as I finish typing this jumbled vent post.

I'm both happy it's over and saddened it ended that way. While I didn't expect Sheith to happen I never imagined it like this and while I hoped for Allurance I didn't want them to pay the price for loving each other to the point of ending them.

I'm sad but I won't take it out on the writers--idk if I trust them at the moment--but I am still grateful they gave me Shiro and so many other characters to love.

I just hope they understand what they did and how much they disappointed nearly everyone with this "twist" ending.

Imma go sleep now I still have a lot to process.

I thought we'd get to see them all get happy endings but apparently only half of them did.

And last but not least no one suffered more than Coran when he found out--I feel so broken for him the most since he couldn't keep the promise to King Alfor to keep Allura safe--which is what his whole point in life was and what defined him as both a mentor and father-uncle figure to Allura and his new family.

And I think that's the one that hurts the most.

Okay I'm tired and sleepy so I'll be sure to interact with yall later for better analysis of s8 when I'm in a better state of mind.

Peace out yall.

Edit: Keith apparently IS in the wedding but he’s literally behind Shiro the whole time that it took me a few rewinds to see his ponytail and slight show of his profile. Geez way to hide him from the camera angle DW it almost made it look like he wasn’t even there if you didn’t pay attention behind Shiro and gave us the impression he wasn't there to begin with.

[sol1056]

git along little nonnies

Got a whole bunch of you on related themes, so I’m just gonna do this all at once: a bunch of questions about DW, spinoffs, merchandise, business, management, support (and protest) and whatnot. In no particular order.

Ok there are petitions and peaceful boycotts directed at DW but problem is they aren’t addressing the EPs and things they, not DW, did so how are we to sign them, how to handle this when this could at best confuse the situation and not give any results and at worst, make matters even worse about what we want regarding DW addressing things? 

Here’s what companies care about: money. Everything else is gravy.

If you want a corporation to pay attention to your complaints, then you need to figure out their sources of income, and find a way to threaten that. If the social reprobation is high enough, damage to the brand can translate into lost sales, but the tempest required to make that happen must be much, much larger than anything I’ve seen the fandom manage. 

I’ve been saying this all along: voices are far more powerful than signatures. If twenty thousand people wrote or called in, and said what they liked vs what upset them, that would have a far greater impact. Certainly a lot more than a list of names with no emotion beyond a request that may not even be something DW can, or would, fulfill.  

And don’t even get me started on mailing stuff in. Cute, but hardly actionable.  

Do you know what kind of contracts DW sign, as in, are they obligated to air all seasons, can they choose not to air them, do the companies they work with (netflix, wep) have a say or more say than them? Who gets the last word? Is airing all seasons squarely on DW or more? 

As I’m not a corporate lawyer employed by any of the signatories, I can’t tell you what the contract stipulated. What I can tell you is that a contract of the magnitude of the DW-WEP-Netflix agreement probably had a dissertation worth of riders covering the different types of possible defaults or breaches, and the penalties for each. Additionally, the contract also likely covered what constituted ‘satisfactory delivery’ of the product. 

To take it down to a really simple level: you place an order at a restaurant. You expect to get it, eat it, and pay for it. You don’t expect to be told, “hey, we burnt your steak and we’re out of butter for your sweet potatoes, so have some green beans instead,” and then be told you still owe the full amount, anyway. 

Netflix wouldn’t settle for ordering (and paying for) something never delivered, anymore than you would. Sure, any corporation worth their over-inflated stock options would try --- but that’s the point of contracts, to make sure they can’t. 

Netflix paid, DW delivers, end of story.  

 ...do you think ppl in charge didn't think EPs would tell they made changes and also thought they'd manage to bury it? And then they got in trouble and DW is going thru changes for that reason? -waves at DW goings on and silence.

I got lost in all the pronouns, there. Who’s the first ‘they,’ the EPs or DW execs? Is the second ‘they’ referring to the same as the first? So... I’m not really sure what you’re positing, but if the ‘DW is going through changes’ is implying DW’s got a shakeup and/or is promoting its head-of-TV to president and that’s somehow connected to two newbie EPs screwing up?

I’d say the chances are so infinitesimal as to be nearly in the negative. (I should also note, the press release listed successful shows Cohn oversaw, yet oddly did not include VLD.) DW is not a three-person start up; it has stakeholders and a board and a C-suite to satisfy. Cohn got that promotion ‘cause she’s got a track record going back thirty years, most recently growing DW’s TV division from 8 to 800 in five years. 

Most corporations tend to announce their new CEO or President like someone woke up that morning and went, hey, I’ve got a great idea. Truth is, it’s usually in the works for at least a year, sometimes several years, or more. The only thing that has me side-eyeing the announcement is the silence around who’ll fill Cohn’s previous position. 

But that’s again less to do with a single series, and more to do with what it says about DW as a whole, business-wise. 

What meaningful changes could the new president Margie Cohn make that would be different than the last one? Also I'm sorry if your getting a bunch of Voltron/DW questions lately, you just seem to be the most knowledgeable person on this platform.

I’d be willing to bet I’m far from the most knowledgeable person; I’m just someone not bound by an NDA, and curious enough to do a bit of digging and jaded enough to talk about (most) of what I find. 

A president can have immense impact on a company’s direction; that’s kinda why they exist, to set that high-level strategy. That said, Cohn will be bound by all contracts signed by her predecessor. The TV side (barring someone filling the shoes she left) will probably continue as it was. The theatrical side (which she’s taking over) will be where we’ll probably see any major changes. 

And even those aren’t likely to be on films currently in production. Hell, given theatrical animation can take up to five years, I’m not sure that’d show much change, either. Look instead to changes in investors, new deals, and new properties. 

What do you think DW will do about a sequel if there’s really no bible? Theres tons of plot holes & abandoned storylines. VLD will never feel satisfying, and fans already argued with different interpretations based on conflicting content, without a nice satisfying explanation...

I know this is the first of a three-part ask, but I’m skipping the rest because the only answer possible is to your very first question: the bible doesn’t matter. 

Any new series --- even a continuation --- will construct its own bible. Same as we’d do in fandom: they’ll patch together what they can, fill in blanks as they need, and gloss the rest, or retcon it outright. Even if there were a bible, diligently followed, that doesn’t mean the next series is automatically beholden to it. Some franchises would care (ie Star Wars) while others might let a reboot mess with the details (ie Star Trek). 

For every continuation, there’s gradations in between, since otherwise what’s the interest for creative minds, if you’re obligated to follow someone else’s script exactly? So, no. The absence of a story bible doesn’t preclude the next iteration making its own, as it needs, to whatever extent it requires. 

I was wandering around the hot topic online store, and i noticed a shirt that raised a few flags and questions. it's the 'Voltron Location' shirt. it has all the paladins in different places in a star globe chart thing? with what might possibly be planet designations. plus Lance is the only one not inside his blue colored bubble. Keith is in Red and Shiro in Black again. it's interesting at least.

Nearly all the shirts use the same base images, just changed up. It feels a little like someone handed a designer a half-dozen images with a request for forty-something designs --- and now HT is just throwing them all at the wall to see what sticks (or sells). 

HT’s stuff has been pretty consistent, from what I’ve heard: Shiro is Black, Keith is Red, etc. Considering the t-shirts seem to be selling out regularly (along with various other sidelines), I’d say someone is savvy as to the fact that the segment of fandom spending the most money is also the segment that prefers the S1/S2 lineup. 

If that’s what customers want, it’s smart business for DW to provide.

(Yes, that applies on more than one level.)

There are VLD comic books being released by LionForge Comics, are those considered canon? Do LM and JDS have any involvement? They take place before Season 7and8 but I don't wanna support the original EPs.

Every fandom has its own stand on what counts as canon. Sometimes (especially with adaptations) you’ll find fandoms being explicit as to whether they’re book or movie (ie HP and LotR). I expect the same will eventually shake out in VLD’s fandom, too. 

From everything I’ve heard, Hedrick and Iverson were handed the comics and ran with it. I suppose that would argue for seeing the comics as canon, being they were written by people also writing the main series... but from what I can tell, it’s one-way. The show affected the comics, but nothing in the comics ever affected the series.

That said, your purchases have nothing to do with the original EPs. All you’re doing is telling DW you like the VLD-iteration of Voltron.

What are your thoughts on the final vld poster? I feel like it’s missing the end. Allura is randomly staring back into nothing.

It’s a clever idea to do a poster for each season, but it’s not something I’ve ever paid any attention to, really. If it were drawn by the head writer? That might mean the artist had more insight than, say, a storyboarder or animator. But even then... cool picture, still not-canon. I’m only interested in canon.

Do you think that Voltron was rushed purposely by the EP's. [...] Wouldn't this effect the quality of, well, everything? I feel as if they got frustrated with the show at that point and just wanted out.

Dude. There are times I sit here and just stare into space, bewildered yet again not just at the thought of 39 episodes released in one year --- but doing that with 26 as a last-minute cut-and-paste rearrangement. All I can tell you is that what I’ve seen from animation people and aficionados (and friends) is that three full seasons in one calendar year is just bonkers. 

If DW hadn’t wanted the schedule that packed, the EPs aren’t the ones getting the say. That’s a DW-Netflix thing. I really wonder whether DW used VLD as a guinea pig. TH went a year between S1 and S2, and the numbers slumped badly. Perhaps DW wanted to know if more episodes, more often, would keep fan interest high? DW has experienced execs, but they’re all from broadcast; how you arrange and time things in the brave new world of binge-watching is a completely different beast. 

So, it’s possible it was less of a rush job to get the show out, and more from a desire to see what'd happen to release so much, so close together. 

I still think it’s a bonkers schedule, though.

"Relaunch the whole property" sounds like they won't continue expanding the whole vld universe and they'll make a new itineration. Though if they do a spin-off it'd likely be on the vld universe surrounding the new "Legendary Defenders" from the epilogue. And "especially given the response" do you think after the negative response from s8, wouldn't be better for WEP to not keep working with Dreamworks? Or maybe they need to clean their brand from vld fiasco? What can you say about all of this?

I can say you might try re-reading, because boy is that a radical interpretation of the text. Remember, Jeremy was speaking before S8, and all indication is that he was caught off-guard as much as the fans. Re-read in light of Jeremy (at the time) appearing to expect S8 to be a crowd-pleaser.   

...I'm becoming more confident in my belief that DW has something planned for Voltron. I mean they are still heavily promoting the show, LionForge is still publishing Voltron comics, and merchandise is still being made. These don't seem like the actions of a company trying to get people to forget a show. 

You’re not wrong. Up to the last few days of 2018, DW gave every indication they wanted S8 quietly buried. Nothing they’ve done since has fit that pattern --- including the anomaly of failing to announce their 2019 series. Something is going on, that’s for certain. 

Did DW really just throw the VAs to the wolves [for] three days? and there's still no official stance? One panel was enough. They had [the VAs] take the heat for them? But thankfully fans felt sorry for them? Which could also have been the goal, shut the fans up [with] the VAs of the characters who got the worst treatment and who love their characters ... Yes DW this really makes me trust you /sarcasm/

I don’t think that was the original plan. Let’s pretend DW released its 2019 schedule via press release in the first few days of January, and among those was an announcement of a VLD sequel or spinoff, coming late 2019. 

People wouldn’t be fussing over putting the VAs through three panels. They’d be complaining we didn’t get the biggest room for every panel. The majority of the fandom doesn’t trust the EPs, and is wary of DW --- really, the only ones who retain any goodwill, at this point, are the VAs. So who better than to assure a nervous fandom about the goodness of the second iteration than the VAs whose characters were most shafted by the first iteration?

What breaks this is that immediately after S8 dropped, Josh and Kimberly went silent on twitter. AJ slipped into passive-aggressive snarking; Jeremy fell off the radar and usually he’s pretty interactive with his fans. Bex pretty much wiped  VLD from her stream, possibly including deleting older tweets. Neil tried to engage and made a hash of it, bless his heart. 

Josh and Kimberly are consummate professionals who reliably promote the series after every season drop, but their radio silence continued for almost two weeks. This wasn’t the first season that came saddled with controversy; if there was a time to go quiet, it was after S7. Something else was going on. 

I have strong suspicions backed by research, but if I’m right, I’d be stepping on a major legal landmine. In the interest of not getting blown up, I’ll only say that the VAs appearing for those three panels (and their low-key and mostly diplomatic hedging around VLD’s conclusion) was a good sign that all parties involved are willing to work things out.   

[DW was] quick to handle the Season 7 backlash and have stayed mum on what is arguably a much worse reaction to the 8th and final season.

and

I believe the S8 of voltron we got was not the original ending we were supposed to get and highly edited. My question is why? What was the point of changing the original ending? [The] radio silence from DW and the cast is driving me nuts. I wish DW would make a statement.

DW is in an interesting place. Its TV side is barely five years old, but dominated by execs with long-time broadcast experience, predating vibrant interactivity afforded by platforms like twitter, tumblr, or instagram. DW’s background as a theatrical company also seems to incline it away from any ongoing engagement with the audience. It releases a movie and by the time that hits theaters, DW is onto the next thing. 

It’s a strong contrast with production studios like Zagtoon (Miraculous), who penned an open letter to their fandom about production delays. Or little studios like Wonderstorm (The Dragon Prince) whose deft use of twitter and tumblr sets their brand apart. Or Federator (Castlevania), with their witty marketing campaigns and willingness to engage with fans. Even Disney was willing to be open about its errors with Tiana, and to make clear how it was striving to do better --- so there’s no excuse that only small studios do such outreach.

My guess is that DW's core leadership is from the school of business in which admitting a mistake is tantamount to ritual suicide. Don’t blink first, or maybe the rule is never let them see you sweat, but whatever it is, DW is turning into a textbook case of how silence can damage a brand. 

Companies have multiple avenues to reach customers directly, now. Our modern technologies are a two-way street, and good companies leverage that to create not passive fandoms but active communities. It takes work, careful planning, and some level of transparency --- something old-school execs find highly uncomfortable, to be honest --- but in this day and age, those are crucial building-blocks to achieving any kind of audience loyalty.

DW isn’t going to render itself obsolete (at least not overnight), but it's on a track to end up as the studio whose work audiences only watch when there’s nothing better being offered. Unfortunately for DW, there’s a hell of a lot of other studios out there, and they're all offering something better. 

[rangergirl3]

Hey everyone! So I just got back from traveling, and I wanted to join in on the ‘Vldgen’ movement!

For those of you who may not have heard of it, @bosstoaster came up with this brilliant idea for making it a little bit easier for people to search for and find gen VLD content - which, personally, is some of the stuff I absolutely love to read and write. <3 

Everything I write is pretty much gen, so if you’d like to check out my AO3 page, here’s the link:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/pseuds/Rangergirl3

For those who’d like to see a list of the separate titles, it’s below the cut! :-)

1) Lost Paladins - a series that’s still in progress (25 works as of right now). Mostly gen, some Shiro/Allura but nothing other what you might see in a PG movie. The focus is on the friendship that the Voltron group shares, and how friends can become your found family. (Very Keith-centric. Set immediately after the end of S1 and goes on from there).

Summary: It’s a big universe, but with your friends beside you, it’s not as bad as you might think.

Link here: https://archiveofourown.org/series/579643

2) People are more important than Ideals - a one-shot I wrote after seeing S3.

Summary: Keith has been hurt, and Pidge is pissed. You know me, guys. This is kinda my thing.

Link here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11719938

3) People will stab you in the back and then ask why you’re bleeding

Summary: When it turns out the new Red Paladin is part-Galra, Allura decides the best thing to do is ignore him as much as possible. But hostility has a way of making itself known, and when trust is broken, there's no easy fix.

Link here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13220595/chapters/30240609

(This one’s set about half-way through S2, when Allura’s not dealing with the fact that Keith is Galra in the best way. Basically I just had an idea and wrote it out. Might add more to this fic in the future.}

4) One More Battle Scar (written for the 2018 VLD Gen Mini Bang, art by @arrowcomix)

Summary: Keith and Shiro crash-land on a hostile planet. Things get worse from there. But when the nightmares come for you, a trusted friend at your side makes all the difference in the world.

Link here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15239268/chapters/35345424 

Okay, so, there are even more works on my AO3, but I think these four titles (listed above) are the stories that have gotten the most hits. I mostly write Keith whump/hurt/comfort/angst. If that’s what you’re looking for, here are a few titles for you in the ‘Lost Paladins’ series that you might especially enjoy:

Red Means Blood - link below.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8470732/chapters/19408216

Broken Paladins - link below.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8471944/chapters/19411468

Family is More than Blood - link below

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8472328/chapters/19412593

Echoes from the Past - link below

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8541871/chapters/19582597

Bloodlines - link below

https://archiveofourown.org/works/9860594/chapters/22126127

and, for anyone who might like to read a gen fic which stars Lance and Keith, here is another title:

Sapphire and Scarlet - link below

https://archiveofourown.org/works/9656150/chapters/21813155

As always, i absolutely love to hear from readers! :-) Comments can literally give me more energy, and it’s one of the reasons I love to share stuff on AO3. And feel free to PM me here on Tumblr, or send an ask, or whatever. It’s really fun to get to know people. :-)

[freedom-of-fanfic]

I just wanted to vent anonymously for a sec - I was convinced by my girlfriend to watch Voltron and I finished it last night, and I don't understand how it developed this culture of antis at all? There's almost no shippy stuff in Voltron at all. I especially don't understand why I've seen so many people say that kl*nce is a canon m/m couple; they're barely even friends??? How did people convince themselves that they're dating at the end of S3?

the kl@nce fandom has been queerbaiting tumblr into watching vld for the promise of canon gay for over a year now :V it’s incredibly popular and thus widespread, and I’m sure you know how fans talk to each other about their OTPs. I doubt that many kl@nce fans really believe the ship is (currently) canon, but there’s more than a few that really depend on it being VLD endgame.

Reality check: 

so far VLD has proven to be pretty close to a true ensemble show and it’s definitely not very shippy in canon. 

the relationship dynamic between all the Team Voltron members seems to be Found Family.

the target audiences are preteens and adults with nostalgia for the original Voltron (Defenders of the Universe). 

Shiro couldn’t be gone for more than a few episodes because he’s gotta sell toys and by all accounts Dreamworks gets huffy every time an episode passes without a giant robot fight. 

It’s going to be all plot, plot, plot from beginning to end, with maybe a (straight) romance or two on the side.*

If there’s been a relationship that’s driven the plot forward more than any other so far, it’s been between Keith and Shiro - Shiro being unwillingly tangled up in the plots of the Galra and Shiro trying to help Keith grow as a leader, and Keith’s strong loyalty to Shiro for Shiro’s past kindness and his struggle with his own growth as a person. but other important, plot-driving relationships have been the one between Allura and her father, Pidge and her brother (and Shiro), and Hunk’s fast friendship with Shay.

Poor Lance and Coran! So far they’ve just been ‘along for the ride’, so to speak, with their personal stakes in the state of the Universe being their affection for the rest of Team Voltron. I think Lance will do some plot driving soon, though. (Coran, I’m afraid, is trapped in the Comic Relief Zone.)

But part of what makes Lance so great is that he’s an everyman. He’s relateable. He’s insecure about himself, competitive, likes to show off, friendly and open, and deeply homesick. I get why he’s so wildly popular and why people exaggerate his angst and minimize his flaws. It’s easy to see yourself in Lance. I know I do. and favorite characters inevitably get shipped the most, and honestly: kl@nce is seen as a rivalship, and rivalships are incredibly, unbelievably popular as a trope. of course Lance gets shipped with Keith constantly.

IMO: kl@nce isn’t actually a rivalship. Lance considers Keith his rival, but Keith shows no particular recognition of Lance that way. Lance frequently provokes Keith in S1 & S2 and Keith reacts when sufficiently irked, rarely ‘starting it’ himself and being civil - friendly, even - when Lance isn’t sniping at him. Lance wants everything Keith seems to (effortlessly!) have, but Keith bears Lance no returning ill will except insomuch as Lance keeps attacking him for what Keith perceives to be no reason. But they do butt heads when Keith gets pissed and have opposing personalities and I know that’s enough for many people. 

Now I don’t ship it: rivalships aren’t my thing, and rivalships-that-aren’t-actually-rivalships are even less my thing. I’m sure a kl@nce fan could better tell you why they think kl@nce is a likely endgame. But I can see how people who love the pairing would get a lot of hope from the immediate softening that happened in season 3. Lance did a lot of off-screen growing, it seems: he’s able to put aside his jealousy of Keith to support him post-Shiro’s disappearance, and his decision to respect the Black Lion’s choice and accept that Keith will be leading the team from now on does away almost any reason they had to be antagonistic. Keith responds by warming up to Lance very quickly, and Lance is able to relax into doing what he does even better than before.

But there’s certainly fans who take that fast improvement a lot further than I think canon does.

(I’ll reassess when the main tension in Team Voltron isn’t between Keith and Shiro trying to negotiate their changing relationship dynamic as Keith rotates to leadership and Shiro wrestles his PTSD and injured self-worth.)

*I know the creative team mentioned wanting to have queer representation on the show but I will be quite shocked if it’s she1th or kl@nce. The show is rated TVY7 & the relationship focus is on found family, not romance; conservative parents are very sensitive to their kids being exposed to LGBT content ‘too early’; this isn’t the same directors as LoK, and both DW and Netflix aren’t especially ready to stick their necks out for queer rep. I’m betting on some side characters getting a nod or Coran alluding to a boyfriend back in the day or something.

[jokocraft]

[long meta] the hidden depths of voltron S1 E6

part 1: lance’s literal awakening and keith’s metaphorical one 

(if you already know where I’m going with this, you might find part 2: an entire subtextual plot in S1 E6? - in this same post - more interesting)

I’ve been rewatching season 1, and I got to episode 5 with the bonding moment and was like yeahh but then I got to the beginning of E6, with everyone waiting for lance to be released from the healing pod, and I was like wait. I never really thought twice about the scene before, but this time around I was like...hold the phone. 

what is keith’s reasoning for being impatient in this scene, anyway? like, if everyone else can wait a few ticks for lance to wake up, why can’t you? 

is this just your Personality, to be an impatient nuisance sometimes, haha queue comedic intro? well, while keith is often impatient, it’s usually during situations involving life or death decisions. and since lance isn’t about to die, and the timing of his release from the pod doesn’t put anyone else’s life at risk...

since i trust the vld writers enough at this point (at least with keith, i guess...?) to not make characters do shit for no good reason, i don’t think keith was being impatient for the hell of it, especially to do with someone he’s made a point of *Shrug* Not Really caring about -- that is, until shit went down in E5 and keith dropped that pretense like it was hot and didn’t hesitate to initiate the famed bonding moment.

my point here about this scene in E6, is that it’s directly linked to E5′s bonding moment, like 100%. maybe you’re like DUH OBVIOUSLY - and you’d be right, cause it’s obvious to me now and I was probably just being really slow on the uptake - but nevertheless, i don’t think we should hang up the the phone there...

i think that - well, with the “cradled you in my arms” line, we all kind of know - that keith took that bonding seriously to some extent. but to what extent? just seriously enough to be annoyed with lance’s response? personally, I think keith took it seriously enough that he truly believed a major shift had occurred between them - a shift, if my thoughts here are on the right track, he’d probably been hoping for (perhaps only subconsciously) since this scene: 

it’s from the tail end of S1E2, after they successfully form voltron for the first time. i referred to this frame as “first time keith realizes that lance is actually kind of cool”. the way I interpreted this was that now, keith can no longer see lance as >insert stereotypes here< and predictable, but rather as someone interesting and possibly full of surprises and definitely worth paying attention to after all. but in this episode, keith’s still too closed off emotionally to acknowledge at maybe his new perspective of lance is making him wish things between them were different - not so they could be BFFs like lance and hunk are, but something else....something he can’t yet put into words (space ranger partners). 

god they r all 3 uber-dorks okay

anyway

back to E6, I’m now imagining that keith has spent the last 24 hours secretly relishing the idea that he’s finally (for the first time in his life??) got himself a friend that is both a peer and someone that he feels instinctually closer to compared to other peers. (shiro is of course someone he feels instinctually closer to, but he is not quite a peer in age or maturity. the stuff can you do with a mentor/idol is definitely not the same stuff you can do with another shitting teenager like yourself).

buuuut we all know keith’s about to be disappointed when reality rears its ugly head and lance says some bullshit to allura again. “classic”. and so, from keith’s perspective, the reality is this: despite any shift between them that lance definitely felt (he saw it with his own eyes dammit), lance must have nevertheless interpreted it in a way did not put them the same page. fukin sux

poor keith. don’t we all hate when we hype something up in our minds and it turns out we were totally off the fucking mark all along? I imagine right now that he’s busy mentally burying his disappointment six feet deep. (note to remember for later: you can also see in the image above that shiro has the highest tolerance for lance’s shit.)

((((((( also eye-narrow worthy, but....perhaps...meaningless........hm: 

when coran presents the ticker when the topic of ticks vs seconds comes up, hunk and pidge come over to look instantly. allura is shown walking over to the group moments later at 22:00 into the episode. shiro is shown watching from where he stands a few feet away. and keith is just ... ... ... absent from this exchange for 4 seconds before he’s briefly shown finally walking into the frame at 22:04. for four whole seconds he was just...what? staring, I guess? at lance, waiting, probably feeling determined to Be There when lance woke up. but not so determined that he’d risk someone calling him out for it. (but shiro is likely an exception for him: shiro doesn’t have his back turned, and so keith must trust him not to raise an eyebrow if keith kinda wanted to, you now, Be There.) )))))))

anywaaaaaay

we know that burying disappointment not so simple as pushing it away and never feeling it again. because like keith, when present reality doesn’t match our perceived reality, we’re like, “wtf? where did i go wrong? how did i misinterpret this? was I delusional?” and sometimes we’re like, “no, fuck you reality, I was not delusional, not this time, I was not wrong.” And voila, here you see keith in all that frustration: he’s planted himself as much in lance’s line of sight as he can without just straight up taking the yellow mouse’s seat right in front of the bowl of goo. keith clearly intends to be acknowledged. or at the very least, to glean some clue from lance’s behavior as to why he’s being Capital-I Ignored. 

keith stays quiet during the conversation at the table until lance make a quip about the mice besting them all, and keith makes his salt known:

BITCH WHAT HTE FUCK? DID U NOT SEE HOW VALIANT I WAS PROTECTING YOUR ASS? I WAS THE SHIT! NOW STOP SPOONFEEDING THOSE FUCKING MICE I SWEAR TO

lance goes onto totally dismiss what keith did and this is....honestly not what keith expected

lance isn’t even making a dumb joke, he’s just being an asshole, plain and simple. keith now is like *softly* bitch what the fuck. “We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my arms!” keith says, trying to look indignant, because alternative emotions are supposed be buried six feet deep.

but it’s no use, he’s stonewalled and subject-changed. and while we the audience know that the overly-defensive tone of lance’s stonewalling practically confirms that he remembers, we can only hope that lance realizes this too and is able to feel a pinch of salty relief. 

it’s my conclusion that the whole point of these beginning scenes is not just to have some character interaction and a bit of thrown-in development, but to provide legit exposition and rising action to the fully-fledged subtextual plot of ep6. Read part 2 below, an elaboration of what I mean by this. 

part 2: an entire subtextual plot in S1 E6? 

(apologies to anyone else may have posted similar conclusions and I just totally missed them)

so here i get into are more circumstantial stuff. maybe my reasoning is clouded by ship-goggles, or maybe it’s the opposite, when armed with the interpretation lens that season 3 is all but dreamworks-signed confirmation that Keith and Lance’s relationship is intended to be something more than BFF friendship, and always has been, and everything about their relationship from S1E1 to S3E7 is very deliberate in order to make their future endgame as believable, nuanced, and in depth as is possible for a younger audience show. 

assuming that this interpretation of S3 is not totally mistaken, then I contend that S1E6, in its entirety, is a far more momentous step in their relationship than all previous S1 episodes combined, including the bonding moment. 

basically, hunk wants to fulfill his promise to save his girlfriend shay, but allura decides a new incoming distress beacon needs to be looked into first. they arrive, and very unlike shay’s introduction (S1E5), characterized by dull colors, distrust, and caution....

E6′s introduction to rolo and nyma is characterized by brightness colors, camaraderie, and repose. some quality irony here. tbh, It’s a fantastic way of fLipPing The ScrIPT if you ask me Hunk.

also I suppose it should be mentioned that shay is meant to be noted for her tattered clothes, androgyny, and lack of traditional beauty (but we aren’t fooled, shay is perfect) while rolo and nyma are clearly typed to be MUTHAFUCKIN SEX BEASTS. nyma is very overtly feminine and rolo is equally masculine.

as expected, lance swoons and does his gig. even says “Name’s Lance” which uh, de ja vu anyone ahem episode uno?  as the episode progresses, it becomes clear that lance is going hella overboard, b/c even shiro (who, remember, has the highest tolerance for lance’s shit) is like for the love of fuck-

that night, there’s a bonfire, and rolo starts getting into his backstory. it’s worth noting that that besides space parents shiro and allura, keith is the only other paladin there listening. anyway rolo mentions sendak, immediately acknowledging him as a major threat. the point of that: considering just earlier in the episode, keith mentioned sendak’s threat to lance and lance promptly didn’t give a shit.....

even from profile view, keith’s expression in this frame ^ is distinctly similar to his expression from before (last frame from part 1), e.g. wide eyes revealing vulnerability, small frown, etc. i would take a gander that this is the moment that keith decides to...let things play out, rather than support hunk’s suspicions. 

(why? maybe because he sees lance being a dipshit and if hunk’s right, and these people are liars and cheats, then lance is going to get what he deserves. but, i admit, such a theory has no basis in canon.) 

meanwhile lance is being a dipshit and lets nyma inside the castle while the others aren’t looking. she plays him like a fiddle to get to the lions specifically, and at this point, the keen viewer is really starting to wonder why he’s being so dumb. 

and this is important: I do not believe the writers were making him dumb because that’s his Personality. Just like keith’s impatience with the healing pod, there’s gotta be a reason behind his behavior beyond “that’s just how he is, that’s just what’s happening right now, don’t look into it too hard”. 

I believe - going off of lance’s highly defensive refusal to acknowledge the bonding moment with keith earlier - he’s in a rather delicate emotional state right now, whether he consciously realizes it or not.

regardless of what keith might believe at this point, I think the reality is that lance sure as hell did remember. and although lance’s interpretation was probably different, it was different in the opposite way keith probably imagined (i.e. an even more dramatic and sentimental interpretation than keith’s). but the real divide between them at the beginning of E6 is their reactions to their own interpretations of the bonding moment: 

keith reaction: omg a real friend?? for me?? maybe jesus does love me

lance reaction: lies jesus lies i have never had a gay thot in my entire life nope

one of the big reasons I’m fairly confident I’m not just making lance’s reaction up totally with ship-goggles is because of this slap-in-the-face parallel: 

of ALL the things that could have been done, nyma is cradling lance in her arms, the very thing lance wants to deny even to himself ever happened with a certain someone else. 

if you’re followin my theory, i think it could go like this: 

because of the bonding moment, keith’s mind promoted his relationship with lance from we’re-both-in-voltron to F IS FOR FRIENDS, but i think from what can be seen of lance’s vastly exaggerated womanizing behaivor all E6, lance’s mind promoted his relationship with keith from grumpy-voltron-frenemy to ... 

...

...

... something he can’t yet bring himself to put into words (space ranger partners, italicized coughcough)

honestly, the frame of lance in nyma’s arms is a little depressing when put in context with the beginning of the episode. what is lance thinking, in this moment? or trying not to think about? is he telling himself on repeat: this is what I want, this is what I wanted, this is how it’s supposed to go, this is who it’s supposed to be -- he’s 100% blushing when she asks him to take her on a ride around moon, holding him like this. 

this post is cancelled if keith’s explicitly mentioned cradling is somehow not intended to be totally parallel to this scene right here with lance blushing. 

(sorry little baby cuban, but it is not mindless bromance that is in your future.)

immediately after this, lance seems to check back into reality, and shows some resistance to nyma’s request. but then: 

TRIGGERED

chances are, nyma made an educated guess that lance - like any hopeless romantic douche (psa i still love lance with my whole soul) - would react stupidly and competitively when threatened to be bested by another suitor. but there is a smidgen of possibility that she’s smart as FUCK (which there’s plenty of evidence of) and she knew that there could be only ONE1 reason lance could be overcompensating so obsessively. and out of other TeenPaladins, keith’s the hottest. i wouldn’t put it past this chick to put 2 and 2 and 5 together to get 69 and be correct. 

bonus: she mentions how the minerals of the kinetic spring “reflect off the water, making a rainbow”. Also, I’m almost certain someone has pointed this out before, but I guess I’ll do it again - the bisexual flag colors are pink, lavender, and blue, and this background..!.............but that’s just whiteboard conspiracy silliness, surely.    surely. 

necessary? i think not

((((((( also on a related note, i’ve watched this clip below like eight times because I have a feeling that this sequence is some kind of subtle parallel or reference to something as well. on the surface, lance appears to be surprised and blush when nyma rests her head against his armpit side and starts laughing.

it just caught me off guard like, why would this bit be included? we already know that lance is infatuated with her, so what’s the point? why waste time and frames to keep making the same point? ... oR is there some other point that’s trying to be made and I am blind to see it? right now I can’t come up with anything, but if you have any ideas, definitely let me know. )))))))

meanwhile...

keith stap.

and so lance’s massive fuck up comes to a peak, and he’s so desperate for this thing with nyma to work (so desperate to prove to himself that nothing’s changed, he’s still the same, a beautiful girl is still what he wants, what he needs) that for one sad moment he’s actually willing to believe nyma’s a dominatrix before he’s willing to believe that she’d been playing him all along...

(how can I be mad at this boy?) 

the others start the pursuit to save lance, and i think that it’s clever how keith was given the spotlight in the blue lion’s recovery via navigating the asteroid belt. that pursuit scene was very flexible in its requirements for how it needed to go, technically keith’s role doing that was interchangeable, and so the whole sequence could have been designed in a way to cater to another lion’s strengths. but. 

“This kid can flat-out fly,” says rolo. the title of this episode is “Taking Flight”. why would the title of this episode, in which, tbh, keith hardly does anything for a majority of it, be dedicated to this relatively predictable space car chase?

A: because it enables keith to say that he got is lion back. I saved your ass AGAIN and this time you can’t deny it! 

and because of this experience, lance now has come to understand (to at least some extent) that there’s no point in wishing that he’d had his Magical Moment of Connection™ with some cool and pretty girl like he’d always imagined.

maybe, very very deep down, he’s begun to realize that the moment was only magical in the first place because it was with keith. 

keith, who keeps coming through for him when it matters most. 

the episode comes full circle, and - going along with my theory so far - the real conflict has been resolved. One might argue all that this “subtext” was just a subplot to the main plot of learning their lesson with the bounty hunters and always listening to hunk because he’s right and shay is 1000% more pure than rolo and nyma combined, tattered clothes be damned. 

Or like me, one could argue that all that non-subtextual stuff (not counting the interspersed, juxtaposed scenes of Overarching Plot, Starring Your Hosts Haggar and Zarkon) was just an external plot chalk full of thematic parallels tailor-made to accommodate the true purpose of the episode: for lance and keith to come to terms with each other in the aftermath of the subtle but major shift that’s occurred between them. 

lance took a big step in this one episode by going from total denial to verbal acceptance (for everyone to hear) of a bonding moment, in fact, existing.

and keith did good by accepting lance as he is and choosing not to continue resenting him for how he first reacted. its safe to say that keith progressed in character even more than lance, which I think is why he wins the focus of the episode title, because what he learned was that if he wants a deeper friendship with lance, fate’s not going to hand it to him in a healing pod. he has to do his part developing it. he has to work for it. 

knowing keith, that’s a pretty tall order. but at least this time, keith got to Be There for lance after all.

Here is a follow up post: link 

[rangergirl3]

Voltron Survey Meme

I was tagged by @callaeidae3 and @fractalabomination Thanks!! :D

How did you discover the show?

I heard from a friend of a friend about it, and he also told me that it was made by some of the same people who did ATLA. I immediately added it to my Netflix list and started watching it that same day. :-)

Was it love at first sight or did it take you a while to get into the show?

Honestly, while I really enjoyed the first few episodes, I think the moment I realized that ‘Oh, yeah, this show is definitely a favorite now’ was during the episode ‘Return of the Gladiator’ when we see that Shiro took Matt’s place in the arena to protect him. From that moment on, I knew that this show was for me. 

Do you have a favourite paladin?

Oh, GEEZ, I seriously love all of them so much! Shiro and Keith most of all. But I’d have to say that Keith is my favorite (if only by a tiny, tiny bit). There’s just so much to his character. <3 <3 <3

Do you have a favourite Lion (if different from favourite paladin’s, why?)?

Oooh, another difficult choice. I think I’d say Black. (That part in S2 when she banished Zarkon from the astral plane was just so fantastic). :-)

Do you have a favourite villain?

Hmm. Well, actually, I think I’m going to go with Sendak. Not that I like him - in truth he really creeps me out - but I’m really looking forward to more storylines with him and/or Haggar being the main antagonists. 

Do you have a favourite alien race?

The Galra. I’m looking forwards to seeing how the whole ‘choose Sendak or be purified’ thing works out as a whole. I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of the civil war plotline - not by a long shot.

Favourite side characters? (Rebels/Blade of Marmora/Garrison etc)

I like the mice (they’re just so cute) and Krolia. Though maybe she’s not a side character anymore...:-)

How/why did you join the fandom?

About a month after I saw S1 and we were all left with that huge cliffhanger, I ended up writing some fanfiction for the show, and it just sort of - grew into a series of sequential short stories that I kept writing out because I enjoyed it so much. I was really nervous about posting any of it, since I’d never done that kind of thing before, but I decided I’d try, and I’m so glad I did. :-). I started on fanfiction.net, and then @velkynkarma told me about AO3, and then @zenthisoror drew a fanart of one of my fics - and I loved it so much I made this Tumblr account so I could see more VLD stuff. So many people have been so welcoming, and I’m really, really happy I took that initial leap. :-)

Care to share a favourite headcanon?

Season 6 confirmed one of my favorites (that Keith’s eyes can and do change color when he’s under emotional stress). Totally made my day when that happened. :-)

But another one I have is that Keith and Pidge are great at being introverts together - like they can spend hours in the same room, with him watching training videos and her coding on the computer - and even though they never say a word, it’s a thing they like to do together if it’s late, or if either of them just wants company but not conversation. :-)

What do you think is the best part of the show?

The characters. I love how they interact - especially the Paladins. Everything else is incredible, too - the music, the animation, the backgrounds, just everything. It’s such a good show.

Any hopes and wishes for any future episodes and/or seasons?

I’m really interested to see how Garrison reacts to a) Voltron or b) Five Huge Mechanical Lions coming in to land. Granted, Sam Holt’s had some time to prepare them for the idea, but...yeah...I’m really looking forward to seeing how this all turns out. 

Do you think you’ll stick it out until the end of the show?

Yep!! I’ve got loads of ideas for more fics, and after Season 6, I’ve got more incentive to write than ever. :-)

Tag your friends or someone you want to get to know better.

Hmm - how about @familyofpaladins @darkstrangevirgilanxiboi @noisypaintersong @haleykim84 @hufflepirate and anyone else who would like to join! :-)