#i would write klance if i was confident in my ability to write romance

[thefinestkilljoy]

I love you klance authors.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Hey.. thanks for your long VLD S8 positivity post. Seriously. It's one of the only positive posts out there that share my feelings about the final season, and its helped me with accepting the end of Voltron. It honestly means a lot that you put it all out there because I feel like we all need to take a step back and stop thinking about ships this and writing that and fully appreciate the amazing reboot that we've been blessed with. Best of wishes to you and your love for this amazing show :)

Oh my goodness, thank you so much for hopping in with this message! It means a lot to me to wake up in the morning to an ask like this in my inbox. Sending best wishes to you as well, fellow VLD lover!

I’m really happy to bond with other VLD fans who enjoyed the season. I want to keep finding all the people out there who enjoyed it so we can talk about what we enjoyed together. While there’s lots of salt out there on my dash right now, I also know many friends, irl and url, who’ve liked the season. There are fans who share in this love of the full series; we are not alone; we can create a more positive and energetic climate for S8. I think that what we do is take things into our own volition rather than sitting in others’ salt! :D 

We have the ability and the agency to write our own posts that are positive-focused. We can all sit down and write these positivity posts together! <3 And hey… if anyone has something you loved from S8 that you want to chat about, feel free to pop me another ask and we can get some dialogue going!

You’re right - this is an amazing reboot that we have been blessed with. An absolutely amazing reboot.

I agree with you completely about stepping back and stop thinking about ships and writing elements. I’m saying this all with love. Understand I’m also saying this as personal observation and encouragement rather than criticism. But one thing I’ve noticed with the VLD fandom’s more outspoken grumpy side, throughout the seasons, is a pattern of two things. Some of it is about the story in general, but it can all be applied to fandom shipping activities in particular. I’m putting it under a Read More in case some friends don’t want to see the observations. <3

The first thing I notice… is that people go into each new season with a specific preconception of what they want. If you become so attached to this prediction of yours, then you set yourself up for disappointment. The creators can’t read your mind and they aren’t your mind. The story will often go differently than what you expected. That’s simply the nature of being an audience member. But if you formulate in your mind that this prediction you made is “what you want,” then you’re going to be upset when what you artificially set your hopes and dreams upon doesn’t get fulfilled. It can take some training to teach yourself not to go into something with such preconceptions, but to take and enjoy what you do get… but I think that learning it makes you a lot happier with anything and everything you watch. If you go in with a simple desire to have fun and find positives (rather than expect perfection or specific end game ships or story elements), then you’re going in with an attitude that will be positively reaffirmed with the adventure you watch.

The second thing I notice… is that people can be quick to presume rather than waiting out the long end game. To give one example: S7 met with backlash because people called it queerbaiting and killing off the gays. Zethrid and Ezor were presumed to have died; I saw people lash out at killing the Galra space lesbians and Adam. But Zethrid and Ezor were going to end up happy and alive. People presumed rather than waiting for following seasons to explain what the story intended. Neither Zethrid nor Ezor nor (most importantly, really) Takashi Shirogane had died; Shiro is the queer representative role model and he’s the man who seems impossible to actually kill. The fact that he’s gay but doesn’t have a story focused in him finding a romance isn’t queerbaiting. The fact that Shiro and Keith are close but don’t end up together isn’t queerbaiting, either; there was nothing in their interactions that was specifically, explicitly romantic throughout the entire series (reminder: I’m queer and a Sheith shipper ^.^ ). Unfortunately, because lots of people presumed they knew what the story said rather than acknowledging that the story still had more to develop… they got angry over things that would be addressed and developed again in later seasons.

And you’re right that shipping is something that people can get caught up in and emotional about in particular. I’ve been watching lots of analyses blogs through the seasons (up to the premiering of S8) post discussions on what their predicted end game pairs were. They were all so confident they were right… and all these analyses were predicting different pairs. Plance, Klance, Kallura, Allurance, Sheith… I couldn’t help but sit there thinking that lots of these analysts were so gungho on their theories that they were setting themselves up for disappointment.

I’ve seen people adamantly, angrily post things like, “They didn’t make it canon, but I’m still shipping [X].” I think that’s a little bit of a skewed perspective of what shipping is. Shipping isn’t about trying to WILL it into canon. Shipping isn’t about accepting only canon relationships. Shipping is about enjoying two characters’ interactions and imagining it as romantic, regardless of whether or not it becomes canon in the story itself. Shipping is a recreational activity in fandom meant to celebrate how two (or more) characters bond or could conceivably bond. If a ship becomes canonical, that’s icing on the cake - a bonus, not an essential thing that the story “demands.” The writers have their own directions, and just because they write a different romantic pairing than what you enjoy imagining doesn’t mean that they’ve written a bad story. I don’t think we should ever be so caught up in our imaginations and ships that we get angry if the writers don’t align with what’s inside our heads. And there’s no WAY for writers to read our minds and write what’s inside our heads - and we all have different heads with different ships we like, to boot.

Canon romantic developments might not be the relationship you prefer, but I don’t think it’s healthy for anyone to get so caught up in believing their romance must be The One that they can’t enjoy a story when it doesn’t go their preconceived way.

As far as writing elements as a whole are considered… I could write an extremely lengthy constructively critical essay over areas in VLD I think could have been improved narratively. I could. I’m someone who adores narrative structure in story so it’s something I pick up on when I watch anything. S8 is a season that I think has a lot of imperfect writing points. I can see why some people are unhappy about certain things. But I can both acknowledge something as imperfect and not focus on those imperfections - both when I watch something, and after I’ve viewed it. It makes life more fun to focus on the things you liked rather than the things you didn’t.

I like your attitude - find the things to love. There may be things that disappoint us, or writing elements that aren’t anywhere near perfect, but that’s okay, and that doesn’t make a story horrible or worthless or awful or unenjoyable. We can go in to watching something to have fun rather than to expect perfection. 

Of course it’s okay if we end up not liking something, and of course it’s okay to not like something because of bad narrative structures or something. It’s okay to not like something for ANY reason - we all have different tastes and that’s okay. No one should be forced to like something. We’re all different humans with different preferences. It also makes sense to call out certain things if writers really drop the ball on important things. 

But I also think it’s good to internally acknowledge when something is legitimately *BAD* or offensive… versus when it’s simply not perfect or not your personal taste, and I’d say VLD falls into the latter whenever there’s a constructively critical element to be had. And again, it’s not a bad ability to be had of being able to recognize things that weren’t your cup of tea, but also look to the things they were!

I hope this doesn’t come off as pedantic or holier-than-thou or anything like that because that’s not what I’m thinking here! I hope the full complexity of my thoughts comes out rather than sounding like I’m condemning, because I’m really not meaning to. I’m just concerned when I see people going into a show with such an unyielding set of preconceived notions for how they want plot, romance, etc. to go… which sets themselves up for maybe avoidable disappointment and outrage. But anywayyyy. Let’s not focus on that. XD

If anyone has more fun VLD S8 things they want to share, toss me asks! Let’s get convos going about about all the awesome things of this season! I’m here to keep the convo going about all the bright things, and I’d rather talk about that! XD