#lotor discourse

[transasahi]

vId fr brings out the worst in me i am just going through the notes of the lawlight v kIance poll and just. blocking people. instead of enjoying my saturday like a fucking normal person

[salfishersimp2]

Dude i fucking love you so much you are my life savior i will build a temple for you and pray every single second of the rest of my existence in this universe so that you get everything good you deserve in this life and all others

Seriously tho I found like, 8 decent keitor fanfics and I only loved like 2 of them and they're so short and I was so tired of looking for good fanfics I just resorted to tumblr and you just made my depression so much better thank you thank you

I was bored and I fell into Keitor hell yesterday and scrolled through all Keitor oneshots on Ao3, so have this thing I did

This is just basic Lotor/Keith oneshot eng search, including all other ships

This is the same but with Klance excluded

Same but with Klance and Sheith excluded

This is Keitor (including other ships) without abusive, rapist Lotor :)))))

And THIS is Keitor without abusive rapist Lotor excluding Klance and Sheith :))))))))

*inhales*

Can you all literally stop

It's not that hard to create a fucking OC as Keith's abusive rapist boyfriend, okay

All you need to do is find a fucking name and make him fit into the fic

That's it

That's literally it

👏STOP👏USING👏LOTOR👏TO👏FULFILL👏THE👏ROLE👏OF👏KEITH'S👏ABUSIVE👏BOYFRIEND👏JUST👏TO👏MAKE👏OTHER👏SHIPS👏SAIL👏

[animentality]

This is in response to an ancient ask from around 2018 so feel free to ignore it. I found that post about fandom discourse on your account and found out the sh/eith asks on your blog. So here's some clarification about it.

The majority of the bullying and harassment in the fandom was done by kl shippers, specifically the antis and the normal kl fans got caught in the crossfire. I dont know what hunty did but a major reason why they were on the kl hit list was because they were actively compiling all the harassment and vile behaviour of the fandom (regardless of the ship of choice). This doesn't absolve any harm done by sk shippers definitely but there is a big gap between the severity of bad behaviour on both sides.

The kl fans told a gay man (David Gaider) that he was a pedophile for liking sk and tried to get him fired. Harassed a non binary lesbian who worked on the show and painting her as predator and threatening to hurt her till she stopped wanting to appear at panels, threatening a voice actor's children to the point that he had to start reporting people, and the continued and absolutely vile treatment of Lauren Montgomery for 2 whole years at every perceived slight to their golden by.

The reason kl fans were called delusional by some was because they made several really bad reaches like writing entire manifestos about why kl would be canon and calling it a bible and a testament despite the show runners repeatedly saying it was never on the table and it boiling down to head canons. Insisting that every a/llurance interaction was secretly about kl and insisting every sk interaction was platonic but then redrawing those exact same scenes as kl. Insisting that Kihyun's Keith groping Shiro's tiddy art is brotherly. Telling gay men that that using words like brother or family for your crush when you don't fully understand your feelings means they have psychosexual problems and have an incest fetish then turning around and insisting that C/atradora, another ship popular with kls was actually just the lesbian experience since they were actually raised as sisters. Outside of that there was sending sk shippers gore and cp and telling one they should have died from their cancer.

As for the ages and the sk age discourse, the backstory was revealed in season 7, in season 1 the characters were introduced as 5 teenagers in space meeting aliens, which included Shiro. Now considering Shiro has always looked like an older guy even when he was a teen in the original series people went with it, even those who didnt usually read him as an older teen. Later Keith came back about 2 years older while Lance was still 17 so they started insisting that Keith was mentally stunted and therefore still a "baby adult" at about 20. This was because back when people said Shiro could be 18-19-20 that Keith being 17 is still weird. But kl fans started insisting that all ptsd sufferers were inherently abusive in relationships and that he had "scrambled eggs for brains". They also insisted that he could only be shipped with Allura who was an adult according to them. in season 2 a non canon book was released that said Keith was 18 at the start of the series and Shiro was 25. Unless people were obsessively looking at this stuff you wouldn't know that. Later Allura's va made a reference to Allura dealing with trauma like an average teen which instantly had kls throwing shiro/allura fans under the bus. Also note that they were very against lotor/lance and harassed the shippers within a week of the ship becoming a thing. Basically every ship outside of kl involving these two became problematic in one way or another, sk and a/llurance taking the worst hits. By the end of season 6 kls had their chats leaked discussing their fears of sk becoming canon and needing to cope by rereading the kl manifestos and doubling down on harassing the sk and a/llurance shippers. By this point Lauren Montomery had already liked fanart of shiro and keith making out (s2), Barlee had liked art of them snuggled up (s3), the famous "Shiro loves you baby, he's looking at keith" art had already been posted by Chirs palmer (s1), Josh Keaten had already coined the ship name (s1), Kihyun Ryu was drawing Keith groping Shiro (s6) and Bex had already made several jokes about Shiro and Keith being a couple (s1-7). At this point kl fans started harassing the staff directly and calling them predatory, after their infamous attempt at blackmailing them to make kl canon didn't work. They would change their approved non ship questions during panels to put the staff on the spot, they recorded Jeremy Shada without his consent for a scrap of kl evidence, they posted videos of children forcing them to watch vld, they posted uncensored pics of two classmates (minors) for wearing blue and red, as well as of their very very small students because they were kl coded, they spammed Jeremy Shada's posts with his gf insisting its uncomfortable cuz they look like siblings and how he should date Keith's va instead (a married man btw), they then proceeded to harass Shada when he lost his cool and ranted about the behavior of kl fans in a panel calling him awful things. They told csa survivors that they should be ashamed of liking a ship.

In a later panel for season 6 Josh Hamilton flat out said that sk were in no way related and JDS said that people would come out of the show either thinking they were together or thinking they are just bros hinting at some degree of ambiguity. It was only in season 7 after much of the thing was over that we saw their backstory, the pics that are used to harass shippers. By this point most sk shippers had a completely different backstory for them and those who shipped them from before didn't ship them in this variation of canon. He was also dating someone else during this period anyway.

As for why people ever started shipping sk in the first place, its because Bex made two snapchat posts about the very first episode refering to Shiro being Keith's true love and Shiro bringing the kids (the other three paladins) to his and Keith's date night. Mind you, both Josh Keaten and Bex were actively harassed for saying that sheith was a perfectly normal and healthy ship.

TLDR: The vld show had no show bible and the ages were never elaborated on, people didn't know shit about how sk met and a lot of the narrative is made up head canons being pushed as facts. Majority of the claims against sk shippers is revisionism that was done by antis and these things can be proven with all the records and screenshots maintained by hunty and several other blogs. That being said there were assholes in all ships, even the ones that insist they were unproblematic and innocent.

Jesus Christ.

maybe I take it back, maybe shippers are worse than power scalers.

Lord Almighty.

the Voltron fandom was fucking insane.

was it the beginning of this "two years of age difference is pedophilia" discourse too???

like.

for fucks sake.

it's just a cartoon.

they're not real.

omg they're very not real.

chill out.

thanks for sending this anon, I actually found it fascinating to read.

ships really aren't this serious. you just like whatever you like, man.

I wonder how angry the klance shippers were when allurance became a thing.

[rist-ix]

The sparxshipping teasing from Iginio got me wondering.... if we ever did get canon sparxshipping explored, whether in a reboot or new adaptation, how would you like it for it to be done?

I'm gonna try to answer both of these in one post cause they overlap a little, but first of all thank you!

Buckle up fellas I'm bringing discourse.

This is gonna be a bit of an unpopular opinion I think, and it’s that I don’t want sparxshipping to be canon at all.

Feel free to get the pitchforks, but until then imma talk. I have villainships that I think not only add something to the overall plot, they kind of define it too. Reylo for examples, with its themes of redemption, masks and compassion, or Darklina and how important their relationship is to the war and Grisha oppression, or Lotor and Allura with its symbolism of breaking the cycle of abuse, making peace, reclaiming a heritage thought lost and so on.

To put it very briskly: an established Sparxshipping relationship adds nothing to the plot. It would have to be a plot of its own, and while there are tons of fascinating plot threads you could weave back into Domino, Bloom's family and the war before the Fall, it is simply, plainly, and rightfully so not the story Winx Club is telling.

Winx Club, at its core, is about the girls and their friendship. That is the show I love, and that is the show I am invested in. Fanfiction is a separate thing, I’ll get into that later. But canon, commercially produced and globally aired Winx Club is what we are talking about now. And the one defining truth of Winx Club is that it’s about the Winx. Their boyfriends are the side note, the Kens to their Barbies, to cement them as the cool popular teenagers younger kids are supposed to see them as. If Bloom and Valtor had a lasting serious relationship, Valtor would inevitably have to be shoved into that category as well, and that would ruin the entire appeal of him.

To boil it down even more: if sparxshipping were canon, either Winx Club would have to shift away from its intrinsic premise and formula, or Valtor would have to be diminished beyond recognition. So my longstanding opinion has always been: don’t make sparxshipping canon. Just don’t.

What I, personally, would do if I were ever to gain access to the mythical and likely overcrowded writing room at Rainbow SpA, is this:

Tease the fuck out of it.

Lean into their fucked up little hate-obsession. Every time they share the screen they have to be radiating unresolved sexual tension. Their chemistry has to be so off-the-charts it sparks a million fanfics before the season even ends. If there aren’t so many crappy amv's set to angsty Taylor swift songs it brings down the YouTube servers by midnight you have failed. Because canon is bound to certain limits, but fanfiction is NOT. The goal of any show should be to create something that will awaken an inescapable need to build on it, to continue where it left off, or to wonder but-what-if? To make people text incoherent keysmashes to their fandom buddies with shaky hands in the middle of the night and be unable to sleep until they’ve confirmed their buddy has seen it too.

I would want to see Bloom go fully I-have-lost-sight-of-everything-but-revenge until her friends manage to pull her back, I would want them to fight so vehemently the structures around them collapse and they don’t even notice. They should be in situations where they are UNDENIABLY going to die if they fight on and they still do it, they literally CANNOT stop, they don’t care to. To the point that everyone around them is seriously concerned and talking about their terrifying obsession with each other, more or less out in the open. And after a season full of epic fight scenes, high stake conflicts and frankly obscene tension between them, I would want Bloom to kill him.

Straight up.

Give her that moment of calm self assurance, at peace and perfectly in control, while Valtor tries to gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss his way out of this, contrasting the way her support network and genuine, unconditional friendships strengthen her while Valtor, who is always sabotaging everyone around him, is forced to confront his own powerlessness in the face of the power that created him. His manipulation attempts have nothing to latch on to. They have one last exchange where Valtor is visibly furious at her denial of him / his own failure — to really drive home that this is Bloom's triumph — but the last words they exchange are cordial. Maybe a comment at her growth, or a warning about his mothers, or another way to foreshadow future threats — if he couldn’t defeat her, no one should. He ends on a high note, but he does end, and it’s at Bloom's hands. She retakes the corrupted spark into the Flame she is guarding, and that is that.

And then, and this is important. He fucking haunts her for the entire next story arc. The next season, the next two seasons maybe, because she has learned a fuck ton of things from him and it is really, really difficult to move on knowing everything she does, knowing everything he implied or hinted at, or simply knowing so many really, really cruel ways to get her way now, which isn’t who she wants to be, but it would be easy, quick and effective for the greater good, right?

Boom, character conflict for the next season established, lots of potential for future flashbacks or visions, Valtor stays on his high horse of forever-the-juiciest-fucking-villain-of-the-franchise and the story can move on.

The End

Cue three decades of mind-blowing fanfiction. We all say Thank you Rainbow and cry ourselves to sleep thinking about what could have been.

[imhereformysciencefriends]

Day 3: Literature Love

Tags: @loturaweek2024 banter/arguments, blink and you miss it background Shiro/Keith

Not sure how well the "love" part of the prompt was honored but eh I had fun

Read on AO3

“I’m not saying writing in first person is bad, just that it gives the novel a distinctly juvenile feeling. I’m not some plucky teen being whisked about in supernatural romance, Stephanie is, and quite frankly she makes quite a few choices that I would never make.”

“It’s about immersion!” Allura protested, “Limiting the perspective creates a narrower scope that draws the reader in and can make figuring out what’s going on beyond the protagonist’s perspective before the protagonist does even more rewarding. Obviously the author does not think that you, specifically, would make all the choices that their protagonist makes, but the sense of closeness can create a relation between the reader and the story that draws one in and forces us to come aware of our own behavioral and thought patterns.”

“Which is something that is useful for adolescents, which we are not. I, at the very least, am well past that developmental phase in my life. I do not need the young adult protagonist experiencing heretofore unfamiliar sexual attraction to a werewolf to extol to me the virtues of saying one’s mind and taking up space in the world. I’m happy enough to read about her discovering such virtues for herself, but I and not doing anything.”

“Oh, use your imagination Lotor!”

“There is no book written in first person that could not just as well be written in third person, excepting the aforementioned YA novels that are serving an adolescent purpose.”

“Where’s your sense of suspense! Having access to all those characters and perspectives is too broad at times.”

“Third person limited is perfectly acceptable where third person omniscient would be too broad.”

“Y’know, there are merits to both—”

“Stay out of this Shiro,” Allura and Lotor both chorused.

“You’re not the only members of this book club,” Keith grumbled defensively, offended on Shiro's behalf his arms crossed and a faraway look on his face, head tilted all the way back to rest on top of the library’s couch.

“You have this fight every time we’re choosing a new book,” Pidge groaned, dragging their hands down their face and exposing the insides of their lower eyelids. “Can we go once without rehashing this?!”

“Well maybe if we read more books in my preferred point of view we wouldn’t need to rehash it! The last four books we’ve read have all been in third person, I am not being unreasonable in saying I would prefer a first person perspective selected for our next volume.”

“Whether or not the frequency is unreasonable has nothing to do with the inherent inferiority of the—”

“Inferiority!”

“We could read a script for a play,” Shiro suggested, rather helplessly, “That’s not in first or third person.”

“Yes! Let’s go with that! Let’s go with that and just move on!” Pidge agreed enthusiastically.

“No. Pick a hill to die on or wait until Lotor and I are done.”

The other three groaned, and Lotor and Allura resumed their ongoing discourse. 

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

@sockdooe

If youre ok w sharing then i would love to hear your thoughts on lotor........ Hes such a weird guy. Dissecting him like a frog

If i get hate for this, i am blaming you/j but in all honesty i apologize if this kinda messy, as i have said it has beem awhile since i saw any of the episodes about him. Most of it is my personal interpretation and opinions of his character-

First of all i personally hate both "L0tor is evil rapist imperialist who did not have a single redeemable quality" and "L0tor is uwu poor baby who did nothing wrong", because yeah he had good intentions and he seemed to genuinely love Alura and care for Alteans but also he very much did do a lot of things Wrong. I am pretty sure a lot of his actions fall into category of Very Wrong

Lot0r to me is an absolute control freak, he has to be 10 steps ahead of everyone, he needs to be control of the situation no matter what. Whether it be through a silver tongue or by his blade (see N@rti's death, him vs White Lion). This is as much as a ruthless strategy as it is a trauma response. Being raised under Z@rkon, a father who only saw him as inferior half-bred, he had to learn survivor tactics. He will do anything to survive whether it be beg, lie, manipulate, and kill. He is a survivor of some genuinely godawful abuse he suffered for 10,000 years, combined with racism he suffered for being half altean

However this need to be in control extends to his allies and people he cares about. I am sure Lotor may have loved Alura, it doesnt change the fact that he very much abused her trust. Their entire relationship was based on a lie. He knew Alteans were still alive and not only did he not tell Alura about it he leaned into the "last survivors of Altea" for their relationship, which is why it was doomed since the beginning. And if it had not been this, then it would have been something else. Cause lying and manipulation are very much core of his character, that is how we are introduced to him

Like i see people going "Oh Lot0r could have been good if he had therapy and a hug", and i am not really not sure about it, cause like would he? Would he choose to be vulnerable and actually let his feelings out and be truthful in a an unbiased reliable way that will neither serve him in any way nor make him look better nor is a part of some machivilian scheme he cooked up because he doesnt trust the therapist he is paying? No

And thing is he does desire connection. He looks for connection in people who are similar to him. Half galran, altean survivors, Alura these are the people who he chose to get close to. He looks for similarities, people he can relate to, people who he sees as like him, people who he thinks can give him a sense of belonging. He is deeply lonely. However his desperation for control, absolute mistrust in anyone and everyone, and his inability to be actually honest dooms any relationship he'll ever have

Also this is probably just me, but for someone who is this morally complex character he has tendency to see things in black and white? Like it is His dad and empire= bad, alteans=good. He idolizes Altea to the point of seeing it as an Utopia, and this ideal was more important to him than any Alteans who are alive and with him. I also cant remember him ever caring about someone outside of the Dichotomy. Like at most i remember is after he became the emperor Lance pointing out how other planets need to be freed and he just brushed it off

Overall he gives me the "smart people dont always make good decisions, but they are good at justifying their bad ones" vibes. We dont know exactly why he decided to use alteans as batteries but i am choosing to go with my interpretation- "Lottor saw something fucked up in that future showing space whale thingy, decided the only way to solve was altean batteries except in true self fulfilling prophecy greek tragedy way it only made things worse and started a series of event that will cause the thing he saw causing real trouble a few years after his death.

Another thing! I think it should have been him being the focus of Evil Altean episode instead of A//ura. I hate that episode and everything it stands for but like if there Had to be an evil alteans episode then it should be around someone who is you know? Obsessed with Altean culture? Is big on control and manipulation? Is more geared towards big picture and "greater good" over individual? Is worried about turning into just like his galran father and so desperately wants to connect to his idealized version of his altean mother? Yeah

[astralscrivener]

✨ fic directory ✨

i’ve created a post to keep all of my fics in one place. all fics can be found on ao3. (last updated may 4th, 2024)

major ongoing works

STEALING OUR OWN PLACE IN THE SUN

- voltron: legendary defender: a rewrite of vld seasons 4-8. - team focus, broganes, klance, adashi, romellura - rated M, graphic depictions of violence + other warnings in author notes - 22/45 chapters, 251k words (december 25th, 2022) - last posted: chapter 22: season 7, episode 3: elliptical orbit

AT SKYFALL

- voltron: legendary defender: canon-divergent au in which keith and shiro are captured by the galra at a coalition gala. things become more complicated when the team’s search for shiro turns up someone else: adam, shiro’s fiancé.  - broganes, klance, adashi - rated M, graphic depictions of violence + other warnings in author notes - 8/? chapters, 25k words (september 2nd, 2023) - last posted: chapter 8: division and discord

ABCS OF KLANCE

- voltron: legendary defender: oneshots, one prompt for each letter of the alphabet, focused on keith and lance’s relationship - variety of aus, some overlap with squad up (2017-19 modern au), mostly established relationship klance - 18 works, 87k words (may 4th, 2024) - a: artistry • b: brutality • c: comfort • d: defeat • e: elegance • f: faithfulness • g: grief • h: homelessness • i: information • j: jealousy • k: knell • l: loyalty • m: mercy • n: need • o: opportunity • p: pain • q: quest • r: rumor • s: sleep • t: trust • u: uncertainty • v: victory • w: worry • x: xenon • y: yearning • z: zero - last posted: lightning in a bottle (y: yearning)

other ongoing works

THESE 20S ARE RAWRING AND THESE DUNGEONS ARE DRAGONING

- voltron: legendary defender: modern au + d&d series started in 2020 as a stress response to quarantine - team focus, klance, adashi, romellua, hunay

• main work: the rawring 20s XD - chatfic that only updates if i think it will be funny - rated M, no archive warnings apply + other warnings in author notes - 5/5 chapters, 17k words - last posted: chapter 5: there is no easter bunny, there is no tooth fairy, (september 8th, 2022)

- other works include klance-centric oneshots + snippets of the group’s ongoing d&d campaign - 5 works, 37k words - last posted: midnight into morning coffee (february 7th, 2024)

VLD FIC REQUESTS

- voltron: legendary defender: oneshots across a variety of aus written in response to prompts from friends and followers - variety of ships, but mainly klance and adashi - some overlap with squad up  - 15 works, 92k words (july 8th, 2023) - last posted: distraction

major completed works

DECEIT SO NATURAL

- voltron: legendary defender: canon-divergent trilogy in which lance and keith fool their way behind enemy lines and onto lotor’s ship to steal vital information on the galra empire—only for lotor to become far more dangerous than anyone anticipated. - mainly klance, extremely one-sided lancelot - written before gay shiro reveal + age discourse, contains side shallura - 3 works, 315k words - completed june 15th, 2018

• WHERE PEOPLE GO TO DIE - lotor mistakenly believes that lance is a galra soldier spying on the paladins, and invites him to return home. keith follows him undercover as a prisoner, and quickly draws lotor’s ire as things spiral rapidly out of control. - rated M, graphic depictions of violence - 14/14 chapters, 49k words - completed july 9th, 2017

• DYNASTY DECAPITATED - lotor becomes vindictive after having been played for a fool by team voltron, and the team struggles to hold the voltron alliance together while fending off his rapid advances. meanwhile, keith and lance explore a new stage of their relationship and learn exactly what the other means to them. - rated M, graphic depictions of violence - 18/18 chapters, 67k words - completed august 7th, 2017

• STARS GO DOWN - lotor has captured lance and sentenced keith to death halfway across the universe. lance struggles to hold onto himself as he plays the role of an amnesiac, while keith attempts to fight his way back to the team, alone. meanwhile, the team, down two lions and two paladins, scrambles to bring keith and lance home amidst betrayals and tumult in the voltron alliance. - rated M, graphic depictions of violence, temporary major character death + other warnings in author notes - 37/37 chapters, 198k words - completed june 15th, 2018

SQUAD UP

- voltron: legendary defender: modern au written from 2017-19 to cope with the horrors of being in high school and the transition into college - written before gay shiro reveal + age discourse, contains side shallura and shiro/allura/matt - 25 works, 561k words - completed may 10th, 2019

• main work: squad up - chatfic chronicling the gang’s last year of high school - rated M, no archive warnings apply + other warnings in author note - 140/140 chapters, 327k words - completed june 15th, 2018

• main work: a midsummer night’s meme - chatfic chronicling the gang’s last summer before college - rated M, no archive warnings apply + other warnings in author note - 27/27 chapters, 79k words - completed august 31st, 2018

• main work: because guys like us are cool in college - series of oneshots/snippets following keith and lance’s freshman year of college - rated M, no archive warnings apply + other warnings in author note - 84/84 chapters, 83k words - completed may 10th, 2019

LIGHT UP THE PATH (THROUGH A SKY FULL OF STARS)

- voltron: legendary defender: 28 oneshots completed for klance au month february 2019. - klance - variety of aus, including but not limited to modern au, canon-divergent/other paladinsverse, fantasy au, and more - rated M, creator chose not to use archive warnings + other warnings in author note - 28/28 chapters, 49k words - completed february 28th, 2019

additional oneshots not mentioned here can be found on archive of our own ✨ other writing (including drabbles, snippets, and prompts from tumblr ask games) can be found in my writing tag ✨

happy reading!

[hydrasaura]

I've seen a lot of new Voltron discourse pop up again (and now I know why) and I was just thinking that I am truly impressed with how I managed to isolate Hira from this show for so long, as to not constantly remember about the way my other faves ended up in the last seasons.

This show left such a stain of disappointment that I never even re-watched it again, despite having it saved somewhere. The only episode I would occasionally gloss over was the Hira one just to take screenshots of her, and every time I watch it I am more and more enraged by the disgusting way in which they treated Allura. I wrote this in a yt comment recently, but imagine you wake up from a coma to find out you and your uncle figure are the only people of your race left and then find out that one guy on your team is half the race that destroyed your own people. I remember so many fans hating Allura and treating her as some racist for having mixed feelings abt Keith and I found that so damn insane. But THEN the SHOW decides to punish her itself by having her meet other Alteans for the first time since she woken up, just for them to be evil. I also remember how fans were calling Allura naive for blissfully trusting everything Hira spoke instead of trusting Keith, her own teammate. And sure, I get that they were trying to show that you shouldn't judge anyone by their race, not all Galrans are bad and there are evil Alteans too but this allegory doesn't work in the context were everything in Allura's life was literally taken away by Galrans. It kinda felt like telling a black person who has been persecuted all their life by white people that not all whites are bad. Even if she is well-intended, the trauma of losing everything to them would be enough to make her wary of them and it would probably be needed a lot of work for her to trust them again. So the way they literally punish her for having these emotions feels utterly disgusting to me especially since she didn't do anything extreme like to suggest throwing Keith out of the team. The producers constantly made her suffer and threw her around like a rag doll, they taken away everything from her until she was so miserable that it basically felt like she committed s*icide rather than heroically sacrifice herself in the end.

What I'm trying to say is that, I only rewatched 1 episode out of this show and hyper-analyzing it made me realize how it was already destroying the characters I loved, so I can't imagine the mental torment it would be to re-watch the entire show. Especially since I really feel like almost no character had a satisfying development and ending to their arcs. + the rage I'd feel of watching again those 2 child abusers being redeemed and siting side by side with Allura and Lotor at the end

So in hindsight, I can't feel sad or angry for them removing the show from their platform. It's the most elegant thing to do, to forget this mess ever existed. So sorry for the people who put their heart and soul into it as the show had amazing art, music and voice acting. I can only hope that those people have found better environments to work in, especially after all the unjustified hate they received from the fans back in the day.

[matt0044]

So... “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is a bop, right?

It’s firmly supplanted “Let It Go” as Disney’s latest ear-worm until the next one comes along but it’s more than just a catchy ballard. It spells out how the Family Madrigal view him as a blight on their family name, especially when they’ve been a pillar of their community.

It also describes how rather than dealing with his problem and maybe helping him through it, they opted to just let him retreat into his room never to be seen again. Better to sweep it under the rug. However, this also proves to be a root in while the house is coming undone.

The message is clear: a family can’t stay as one so long as they can’t talk about their problems with each other. It’s why Mirabel doesn’t get a gift so she can be the outsider looking in.

Where is this going? Well... somebody just finished Voltron: Legendary Defender... and enjoyed it.

Here me out before you scroll away.

I had finished up to Season 7 along with Teen Titans three days before Season 8 dropped. I knew that fandom discourse would be a bear and opted to let the season simmer before I viewed it for myself a few Watch Lists down the road.

What I couldn’t have known was this overwhelming hate for Season 8. I was on Twitter where handles were being altered to include #FuckVoltron and the like. I glimpsed spoilers of what happened in the finale without getting into the dirty details.

Thus I decided to put it off until the heat died down. A whole half decade at that. With Fandom Drama down to near non-existent, I decided to return and engage with Voltron on its own terms from the start. No shipping drama, no expectations for how it should go, no accusations of problematic behavior and no Purple Lion conspiracies.

And... I liked it. I highly encourage those scared off by the drama or felt Season 8 did it dirty to give it a(nother) shot. It deserves a full on renaissance the way Twilight got.

Why? (spoilers ahead).

I was sold on Allura and Lance’s relationship. I loved how he went from being a flirt to genuinely admiring Allura as a leader and Paladin, encouraging her in the season 4 finale without trying to get anything out of it.

I liked the tonal shift around Season 7 where the ultimate Golion homage is made with the Space Explorers coming home to a war ravaged Earth.

I liked how human Lotor and Honerva were as villains coming after Zarkon. I can see why there’s a whole ass conspiracy framed around him actually being in Season 8. Also them taking that “Your mother was an Altean bitch” like and running with it for Hagger was brilliant.

Keith becoming the Black Paladin after Kuron’s reveal was well done and felt weirdly natural in retrospect. He feels like he can’t measure up to Shiro and learns more discipline from

Allura sacrificing herself to restore all realities felt a lot better with the knowledge of spoilers. It helps that the ending went with a more noble feel than angsty, showing how the Paladins strove make sure that her actions set an example for years to come.

I love that they got creative with the multiple alien species and kept the Alteans from being just humans in space like in the original. It really took inspiration from Vehicle Voltron with more aliens in the mix.

Shiro the Hero, as Crazy Coran put it. What can I say except that he’s the kind of character you call a Mary Sue if he wasn’t a guy. Always calm, always perservering, putting the mission first and being a pillar the team can lean on. He even creates his own Voltron out of the Atlas

Honestly, the whole Adam thing isn’t something I fully blame the writers given the producers pushing back. Mind you, I feel like Keith would’ve made a good endgame pairing with him if they had even out their ages when they first meet, both as teenage proteges.

Studio Mir was amazing, especially with the space battles. Honestly, if Robotech managed to make a comeback, I could totally see them being tapped to match the classic Anime style.

So... yeah. Voltron good actually.

[problematic-faves-appreciation]

"Affected modern writing."

Are you for real? In actuality, the cartoons that came after Steven Universe continued the long-time tradition of punishing and/or killing off Big Bads rather than giving them redemption arcs:

Elktaur... Never, ever forget. T.T

Taking the punitive justice approach with villains is still more common than Talk-no-Jutsu-ing them, bruh.

[themattress]

Fire Emblem Observation

Rhea, leader of the Church of Serios.

Edelgard, leader of the Adrestrian Empire.

Dimitri, leader of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus.

Claude, leader of the Leicester Alliance.

They're all different, but they share one very unique thing in common.

They all add up to one Prince Lotor.

Seriously, I know @ultraericthered made the comparison with Edelgard before, but when you think about it, it's all of them! Rhea is over a thousand years old and believes that unlocking the secret to some great power is the key to ensuring everlasting peace is her conflict-prone setting. Edelgard is a white-haired imperialist who arrogantly thinks she alone has what it takes to change things for the better and will use almost every trick in the book to do so regardless of morality (and is also a huge nerd deep down). Dimitri is a charming, eloquent, handsome prince who has been through some serious trauma and then ultimately snaps, becoming a feral, murderous beast of a man yelling about how he will kill the white-haired girl he once loved. And Claude is a deceptive schemer whose default is not really opening up and trusting others with his ambitions and secrets, and in Three Hopes can become outright devious in the pursuit of the greater good he desires. And the fan discourse surrounding all of these characters often shuns nuance for black-and-white thinking! It's fucking Prince Lotor!

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

Ultimate Vriska Showdown Round 2 Masterpost

Info on the polls

Links to all the polls for round 2 are listed below. Sorry for the delay:

Alador Blight Vs. Catra - Winner: Catra (78.6%)

Grace Monroe Vs. Asuka Langley Soryu - Winner: Asuka Langley Soryu (53%)

Azula Vs. Edelgard Von Hresvelg - Winner: Azula (69.8%)

Dahlia Hawthorne Vs. Katsuki Bakugou - Winner: Dahlia Hawthorne (60%)

Vriska Serket Vs. Nanami Kiryuu - Winner: Nanami Kiryuu (lmao) (53.5%)

Rose Quartz Vs. Prince Lotor - Winner: Rose Quartz (71.6%)

Princess Bubblegum Vs. Ianthe Tridentarius - Winner: Princess Bubblegum (61.2%)

Homura Akemi Vs. C!Dream - Winner: Homura Akemi (35.1%)

Some thoughts below:

I am considering taking C!Dream off of this poll. This isn't because I have any opinions on the character. This is mainly because, from what I've seen, the controversy surrounding C!Dream only partially stems from things in his story. A larger part of the controversy is surrounding Dream the real-life Youtuber, which I don't want to get involved in.

The other characters on this list are known outside of their fandoms because of discourse surrounding the characters themselves. Meanwhile, people who aren't into MCYT are only aware of Dream the character because of the controversies surrounding Dream the creator. While discourse on other characters on the poll may spread to their creators, the majority of discourse I've seen on C!Dream was spread to him from his creator. This, in my opinion, doesn't fit with the other characters and isn't something I want on my poll.

Additionally, some people regarding C!Dream have been overstepping boundaries and otherwise making me uncomfortable, both privately and in the tags and replies of polls. When I said I wanted to learn about discourse surrounding the characters of this poll, I didn't want discourse about the creator to overshadow discourse about the character. I especially didn't want to be pressured to make a judgment call on discourse in a fandom I wasn't a part of.

Right now, the way to take C!Dream off the poll would be to have Homura automatically go to round 3, whether she gets the majority vote or not. Another option would be to replace C!Dream with another character (I'm considering Iroha Nijiue from Super Danganronpa Another 2), and have them go up against Mabel. The winner from that poll would go against Homura. In this case, I would be making a single post on the 24th with three polls: Mabel vs. the replacement, Mabel vs. Homura, and the replacement vs. Homura.

Whoever wins the first poll, I'll be taking the winner from their poll against Homura and having that character move to round 3. This is to save time. I will be making the final decision on whether to take C!Dream off tomorrow. Unless a significant number of people want the second option, I will just move Homura up to round 3 automatically.

Me taking C!Dream off is not an indictment of either side of C!Dream or Dream discourse. It's just that I don't think this character is a good fit for the Vriska poll. If you disagree, I invite you to make your own poll with C!Dream. Maybe you'll have other characters that could count as Vriskas that I didn't even think of. Good luck.

Pandora

[lnkedmyheart]

Rewatched vld and looked through some of the discourse and I must say, hindsight really makes it so obvious that half the "discourse" was such blatant horseshit. The casual desexualization of the only actual gay character, one who wasn't a stereotypical bl style twink and the insistence that any kind of interaction he had with the only other adult in the main cast would make him predatory was wild. The way people were acting like wanting to stick this only gay character with his ex who dumped him after taking a shit all over his dreams, forcing him to stay grounded knowing fully well that this guy didn't have long to keep flying, or demanding everyone be happy that this guy got slapped into a badly edited wedding with some badly drawn nobody while his closest friend's face isn't even visible in the wedding shot. Wild that this was something people who stanned this guy since season 1, should be "happy" about. This guy who spent 7 seasons finding a family in the voltron crew, learnt to rely on his best friend who would go to the ends of the world for him was suddenly not interacting with any of his found family anymore. He didn't interact with them ONCE. He wasn't allowed to have the friends or the found family that he developed his bonds with for 7 seasons. And then he got married in post to some badly drawn, uninteresting squiggle that the writers forgot to name, then misnamed, and then couldn't be arsed to have given a decent design to and his entire personality is that he likes dogs. Wow, fascinating, totally someone I want to ship my absolute fave with. Sorry, but I can't give a shit about this rando everyone wants me to see as rep.

Honestly, fuck Curtis, fuck Adam, and fuck everyone that wants me to be happy about Shiro and the gay rep when the gay guy immediately loses his entire friend group the moment he is revealed to be gay. Great lesson there guys!

Sit on a cactus and rotate.

And dont even get me started about Lotor or Zarkon or hell even Honerva. I will actually maim a bitch if I have to think about what they did to the Galra.

[imjustheretoseetheprivateblogs]

How about Sailor Moon and Voltron for the Send me a Fandom meme?

Sailor Moon

The first character I first fell in love with: I think I’m gonna say Makoto Kino

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: probably the shitennou. I never expected to enjoy the characters, but fandom and fanworks really helped to open my eyes to them.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: uuuhmmm… I guess I’m not a huge fan of Chibichibi *shrugs*

The character I love that everyone else hates: can’t say there necessarily is one of those

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: I don’t think I have one of these either

The character I would totally smooch: Imma play it safe and say Sailor Pluto (IDK if aging up characters counts)

The character I’d want to be like: Mamoru. Guy’s really underrated

The character I’d slap: probably Wiseman/Death Phantom.

A pairing that I love: Senshi x Shitennou and I never expected to

A pairing that I despise: Usagi x Seiya. I wouldn’t say I *despise* it per say, but something about it that doesn’t sit right with me

VLD

The first character I first fell in love with: I guess Shiro

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Shiro I guess

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: I’d say Lance is my least favorite character but I don’t really hate him. I more just think if I met these characters in real life, he’d be the one I’d avoid.

The character I love that everyone else hates: ummmm… I feel pretty evenly about Keith, even though I know he wore out his welcome with some fandom factions.

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: ummm… Lotor, I suppose

The character I would totally smooch: with the amount of age discourse in the fandom, Think I’ll pass on this one

The character I’d want to be like: Coran. If I had that level of energy I’d be unstoppable.

The character I’d slap: the writers probably those dudes who tried to hijack them on the asteroid

A pairing that I love: Shallura, I guess

A pairing that I despise: Probably Klance

SEND ME A FANDOM

[noirsongbird]

I don't know enough about Voltron to go into detail but like, apparently that Lotor guy was being set up to go down a Zuko-esque redemption arc and then the writers were like 'lol no'. and now I'm like all the fanfix writers go do your thing.

oh yeah no that’s just My Brand at this point, we were absolutely robbed of Lotor’s redemption arc and I understand that the writers made a decision wrt him being irredeemably evil but given that it’s a stupid ass decision predicated on a wacky underexplained out-of-nowhere reveal, I’ve elected to ignore it.

[nomadicism]

Another day, another asshole trying to bait fans of Lotor with garbage takes and rude posts about/towards fans in the tags. A decent person would tag better, or put the hate and rude comments under a cut...or I dunno, not misuse the word “genocide” to begin with.