#i have an entire rant about how much potential the mfe pilots had

[monochrome-genesis]

James Griffin my beloved

[ptw30]

VLD Season 7 Reactions

My inbox has been busy non-stop since Season 7 dropped, and I thought I’d share a few with you, @dreamworksanimation and @voltron, just in case you’ve missed the fandom’s reaction to the new season. 

It's sad that we've gradually gone from being excited to new seasons to feeling worried and skeptical. There was a lot of dread in the fandom instead of anticipation for s7 and the interviews fueled it. People used to make intriguing theories but now it's all "how s7 would have been better" and "this is a crack theory but knowing vld it might be canon" We are supposed to be right before the grand finale of a space opera but people can't wait for it to be over. What a great way to end a series!

The grand space opera became a space tragedy in one season. We’ve waited for a payoff that will seemingly never come - including the end of the lion swap. An introduction of a new mecha should have exciting but was overshadowed the permanent demotion of Allura from commander to foot-soldier and the banishment of Shiro from Voltron and his lion, the latter with whom Shiro shared the strongest bond. This also ended Shiro’s internal struggle of “can I be worthy of the paladin mantle” with the answer, “no, you can’t be.”

Season 7 could have the fandom’s resurgence, after a strong Season 6 showing, but from the standpoint of almost everyone in my inbox - the fandom is just tired and ready to move on.  

More under the cut. 

I commented on a Youtube video how I didn't like the Atlas consolation prize, and someone replied saying I need to stop because they “clearly“ aren't trying to bench him or anything. It took everything I had to not respond with a rant. 

Wanting to rant is understandable. I’ve had this conversation a few times - messages, on my blog - about why Shiro being in Atlas isn’t a satisfying conclusion to his character’s arc. It’s not about him being benched, per se - though he is. Shiro’s internal struggle was deciding if he was worthy to be a paladin after everything that happened to him - and what he had to do to survive. By putting him in Atlas, the show is saying he is unworthy of the Black Paladin mantle. 

Sending this demoralizing message in the same season that we learn Shiro is also LGBTQ+ representative is reprehensible but perhaps ignorant. Saying that Shiro is also unworthy of the Black Paladin mantle as a multiple-minority, LGBTQ+ character with PTSD and a disability, is unconscionable.

I honestly think the dream works execs weren't told the full story on what they were planning with Shiro. The way they speak about the Atlas, the DreamWorks execs seemed to be left out of the picture as to how much distance they put between Shiro and his team - or how he goes half the season being nothing more than a background prop. The way they say “the Atlas does something really cool“ makes me think they never gave the impression Shiro was going to be next to irrelevant.

Could be! But now it’s DreamWorks’ job to correct the issue. They need to come out with a statement, say that recognize there is an issue, and that they are taking steps to correct it. However, the only communication we’ve gotten from DreamWorks was JDS’s apology (and subsequent tweets by LM), and that letter was ineffective. It addressed queerbaiting, not what the EPs did to Shiro, a LGBTQ+ character, or even to Adam, Zethrid, and Ezor. 

So I’m not sure if DreamWorks’ execs have acknowledged that there are offensive and harmful messages in Voltron, especially Season 7. 

My deepest wish was that after they came back from Sven's reality, they actually went to another reality, very similar to the original and never realized, and in the end of season 8 slav will tell them that and they'll go back to their own reality, and continues on s9 with Shiro being actually alive, just captured again by haggar, then rescued and he is the bp for ever and keith is back to red and allura is back to castle and lance is like blue i missed you and blue is like [expletive deleted] me too the [expletive deleted] 

Duuuuude. Can we make this canon?

I know being salty helps nobody least of all myself, but I'm so irked that the EPs pat themselves on the back for making Shiro gay, when a)they don't get that Adam's death is an issue that goes way beyond OTPs, b)they did kill Shiro, c)even though Shiro eventually got back, Kuron didn't, not in any piece of actual canon, and presumably Kuron was gay too so that's 2 dead gays (4 if you count the implied lesbians), and d)apparently Shiro being Asian, mentally ill and disabled doesn't matter as rep

Being salty helps. Really. It helps DreamWorks to determine what worked well and what didn’t in their latest season.

Though I understand how some fans felt queerbaited by VLD, the fact that it is the only thing addressed in JDS letter tells me DW is waving a hand over all the other implications. DreamWorks didn’t want to address all they did to Shiro, so instead, they apologize for the least offensive issue and hope people will be satisfied. (From my ask box, they are not.)

melissa18999 said: So even the execs thought that shiro was an interesting character. I can see why. The writers wrote him to have one of the saddest backstories ever and he’s the only human on the team that has experienced the galra’s bullshit first hand. The other 4 paladins pilot voltron because they’re told to. There doesn’t seem to be the same drive that shiro had. Sure there’s Pidge but she was the one trying to quit voltron to save her family. removing shiro exposed the others lack of a call to action.

It exposed that practically none of the other characters had any stakes in Voltron. We can say that Hunk received his stake in Season 1 when fighting for the Balmera, and Keith’s stake was Shiro. Lance? Nope. Never really had one and really never got one, considering his family was safe and sound on Earth. You could make the argument that he cares for Allura and wants to be a better paladin because of her, but...we don’t actively see him trying to do it for her. We saw him trying to be a better paladin before she and he connected.  

And now they’ve removed the aforementioned motivating character from Voltron. Yeah. Not cool. 

The thing about the execs liking Shiro and demanding that he gets a better role... is that we always hear about creatives who want to get rep on screen but the EEEBIL executives say no. And here we have a case where the creatives saw a mentally ill disabled poc character that broke all stereotypes, and they could see no place for him in the cast, while the execs recognised his incredible potential and wanted him to shine. So I have zero sympathy for the EPs here. The execs were RIGHT, damnit!

The reason I liked VLD S1/2 so much was because it broke tropes. Shiro is strong leader but also needs help. Allura is a warrior princess and isn’t scared to go toe-to-toe with the emperor of the universe. Keith and Shiro hug. Look, no matter how you view their relationship, hugs just don’t happen in cartoons, especially between men. So I just loved that part so much. and it made Voltron progressive. (You can share and show your feelings and not be scorned for it.) 

Oh, and Lance was originally the heart of the team, not Allura. She became so after moving into Voltron, but having a male character being the heart? That was groundbreaking, too. 

Sure, VLD had its issues, but the show was empowering to so many marginalized groups - until Season 3.

perhaps the worst part of Shiro's placement is that he's effectively become the side character of an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SERIES. I've started watching robotech, and CANNOT see the atlas as anything but the ship from that (down to the transformation), or the MFEs as a mix of Vehicle Voltron and the robotech fighters. 

I would argue that the worst part about Shiro’s placement is that Shiro is no longer a part of the eponymous character, has no family, and is a multiple-minority character who proved that he can not only be a part of the team but also be the strongest part. 

And then Voltron decided to show people who identified with Shiro - that’s not the case. In fact, you can’t even be a part of the team or win your own battles. You have to rely upon others to do so. 

But you have a valid point. That part’s bad, too. 

Please note: I received more asks with VLD Season 7 reactions. I’ve answered some on my blog, but I’ve also deleted a few that were too harsh to post.