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ororosmunroe · 6 years ago

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I’ve been thinking about Voltron (never good) and Allura’s carousel of ships and I’ve got one question: What was the point of any of it?

I’m going to run through the ships and add some theories/rumors that have been talked about because since the show is over we’ll never know so why the fuck not.

Why don’t we start off with

Shallura

During Season 1 and 2, I feel everyone was with cool with Shallura. I mean they got dubbed the Space Parents (tired sigh). Heart and Head. There was a comparing them to a sword...it was chill. Tim Hedrik (Lead Writer and Story Editor) seemed to like the ship and wanted fan art of an unshown scene of Shiro and Allura bathing the mice together), Eugene Lee (Episode Director and Storyboard Artist) compared them to Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask (I remember this one distinctly because I was geeking out about it at the time). Kim Brooks and Josh Keaton (the VAs) seemed to be cool with it. Kim said she supported it and everyone went about their merry way.

Until LM and JDS opened their mouths. JDS said, something to the effect of, Allura was just acting as an teenager would.” Huh?

Before this point people had thought Allura was an adult (I mean by the way they wrote her she seemed older and more mature than the rest of the Paladins. And they certainly had no problems fencing her off from the rest of group (the first trip to space mall still makes me angry) no one really questioned it. I mean they did question it a little bit because everyone was curious about the ages of everyone. LM AND JDS were odd about the ages since the start and when the Handbook came out Allura’s was the only one not listed (I mean we all agreed that Coran was the adult-adult of the group).

Honestly I feel bad for the VAs that probably got hit with so many curveballs and then THEY had to smooth it out with fans at Cons. That is super rough.

Anyways chaos ensues because Shiro who was (at one point also said to be a teen?) is now confirmed to be a 25 year old.

Given Lance’s canon crush Allura that put Klancers up in arms and painted a shiny target on Allura’s back. Allura’s tag is in shambles (and has never quite recovered).

Now according the rumor mill, JDS wanted Allura to be with Lance so she got Piotr Rasputin’d (he got aged down because one of the Marvel writers wanted Kitty Pryde and Piotr together). So to kill the ship (can’t have a teen and 25 yr being all intimate on a kid show) and to get rid of Shiro (Lord love Shiro because neither LM or JDS did or do) they killed him off….until DreamWorks was apparently like, uhhhh no bring him back. Thus the creation of Kuron (then they tried to kill Shiro again via Kuron but DW was like NO, HE STAYS). Apparently there was also a writing staff change up? Who knows.

So yeah, that was the long and short of Shallura.

But then things get odd(er)

Mattura

Voltron and it’s inability to keep anything consistent has Matt (who HAS to be the same age or at least slightly younger than Shiro given that they were both on the Kerberos Mission with Sam Holt) starts flirting with/complimenting Allura. UHHHHH WUT? LM AND JDS (and their latest batch of co-workers) seem to love playing by their own rules because no one know what goes on and things get choppy and confusing. Why is a (theoretical, because we’ll never officially know) non teen flirting with Allura?

I think it’s by this time in the show’s life we figure out that LM AND JDS hate confirming things unless it wins them brownie/woke points. They just let things happen and only address it when their hands are forced. Like Shiro’s sexuality, It was at SDCC 2018 where they said Shiro was sexuality was open-ended. They said that he was definitely in a relationship with a man (Adam) but according to LM, they didn’t want to put anyone in a corner and wanted the fans to see it how they wanted to see him (time mark: 1:16).

It was a vague but diplomatic answer (rare) to a vitriolic fandom and then somehow it got changed to Shiro was strictly gay? I mean, I’ve always headcanonned him to be Bi since S1 (and honestly I’m kind of hesitant to admit that because ya’ll will call anyone homophobic/drag them through the mud for having a differing view. RIP me I guess).

Okay but back to the topic at hand, sorry for that mini tangent.

Voltron writers (past and then present) never seemed to talk to one another because easy inconsistencies in writing can be avoided if you have an actual game plan. Oh and time, I still can’t believe all this happened in the span of 2 years, looking back it makes a lot of sense.

Lotura

Lotor has been described by LM and JDS as a space alien vampire and according to the writing he has been awake for those 10,000 years unlike Allura. They have been cool with the ship. VA AJ Locascio has been the ship’s captain and Kim Brooks has entertained the idea. There was even a part of a panel where Kim, Josh and AJ were joking about who would Allura would pick thus throwing everyone into confusion again.

Anyways it seems that Allura seemed to really like Lotor and felt comfortable with him. He seemed to reciprocate but it was always overshadowed but the veil of mistrust. In the end like most things in Voltron it didn’t matter because the ship got tanked unceremoniously by the writing.

Kallura and Allurance

LM has been adamant about VLD going it’s own path (yeah okay) and said that they weren’t doing the Original pairing (from GoLion/etc). Did that stop the shipper goggles? Does it ever lol? People were pissed that it didn’t happen.

In the end Allurance happened but then it got killed off when Allura died so does it really count? I feel bad for the Allurance shippers ya’ll won but at what cost? While I’ve never hated Allurance (I found that they had their moments) it feels like a “fuck you“ band aid of sorts.

As does the whole ending/epilogue but that’s another story.

TL;DR

So why am I writing this? I guess it’s because I’m confused and frustrated and sad. Both LM and JDS said that romance wasn’t a thing on VLD so why include hints at all? Especially with Allura if they were just going to kill her off anyway?

Black girls almost never get chosen as romantic interests in active/growing franchises and it seems like Allura was just a magically convenient swing door. Was she desired and admired? Yes. But was she loved? I guess, but not the way I think she needed to be.

Why do I say this? Well when she was giving herself up to save the universe. No one stopped her. No one even volunteered to go with her. For a show that was “all for one, one for all” they just left her hanging. The writers (and LM/DreamWorks) thought that one was enough. As always the black/brown sacrifices everything for the betterment of everyone else. It’s a old tired trope. One I’m used to unfortunately, but not to the kids coming up. They are the ones who aren’t used to this type of thing. Their rare black/brown hero doesn’t get a happy ending and soon they will see this trope happen over and over again and they might come to think it is normal.

That’s atrocious.

I’m not going to lie, sometimes I still imagine that Allura was an adult. Not for ships but for the simple fact that I can’t stand the idea of a depressed and isolated teenager, a child who had barely begun to live and who has already had everything taken away from her, willing giving up their life for any reason.

Does me seeing Allura as an adult help somewhat quell the bitter sadness I feel? Yes but not really. My fave still got railroaded into a completely avoidable death. It’s still a punch to the gut but life goes on.

Allura, as evident in the writing, wasn’t a character after awhile. She was merely a a plot device waiting in the wings. A shiny sparkly bauble that entranced the viewer with her light.

Ironic, no?

#allura #voltron #meta #??#idk it’s late #suicide mention

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