#most hated ship with him is shieth or whatever

[jajanvm-imbi]

You know what, I put al my thoughts in the tags but I have so much more to say about this so EDIT, i'm putting my thoughts here instead of studying for my math final that I have in 2 days.

Klance was 10000% queerbait but I only blame the producers for it. The creative team was put through HELL because the producers couldn't decide on a course of action to take after Dreamworks forced them to keep Shiro alive instead of killing him off permanently like they originally planned. (There is a fantastic video essay about some of the behind the scenes drama that was uncovered. I'll link to it here. The creator of the essay was a Shieth shipper so you know I mean it when I say its a good video essay)

(NO HATE TO SHIETH SHIPPERS PLEASE DONT INTERPRET THAT AS ME DUNKING ON THEM. YES I DON'T LIKE SHIETH BUT I WISH NO ILL WILL ON ANY SHIETH SHIPPERS)

Anyway, Dreamworks made the VLD creative team keep Shiro alive because he was so popular, and since that pretty much fucked up the entire rest of the story in order to have Shiro be in it, the producers were stuck with the mess Dreamworks put them in. But instead of making the logical decision of asking for an extension on production for whatever reason, because it be too expensive to rewrite and reboard all of the following seasons that were already in production after season 2 was released, or something, the producers continued with production as scheduled but completely blind. (All this is covered in the video essay I linked, seriously i recommend watching it, it actually puts a lot of the issues with VLD into perspective) Literally anything beyond season 2 had no clear plan. If it feels like the story was being made up as it went along, its because it literally was. Thats why so many things made no sense in later seasons, there was absolutely no plan.

So what does this have to do with Klance? Well its simple. If the rumors are true and Klance was originally planned from the very beginning (which I wholeheartedly believe), then this change of plans completely fucked everything over. The reason why Keith was barely in seasons 4-6 was because the producers had to make the choice of either keeping Keith or Shiro more present in the series. The whole "Shiro was a clone" thing was made to cover this. Keith was barely in those seasons because Shiro was taking his place, and Shiro was never supposed to be there. (Again, all covered in the video essay) Because of all the last minute changes being made to the story, Keith was almost completely written out of season 4-6. How are you supposed to write a love story between two characters if one of the characters isn't even there??? You can't.

But here's where it gets messy. If Klance was originally supposed to happen, but the last minute changes made it almost impossible for a natural romantic progression to happen between Keith and Lance, why the fuck did they keep hinting at it? You know what I'm talking about: the thumbnails, the tagging, the fucking HotTopic merch. If Klance was no longer logically possible because the story had to be taken in a completely different direction, why was Klance being hinted at like it was?

I'll tell you why.

Its because Klance was the driving force behind VLD's popularity. Without Klance, VLD wouldn't have been nearly as popular as it was. Check Fandometrics from 2017-2019. In 2018, VLD and Klance were listed as two separate fandoms in the Top 10 Most Popular Fandoms list. Klance held first place rank for most popular ship from 2017-2018, and was in second place in 2019 being beaten by Good Omen's Ineffable Husbands. And thats just on TUMBLR, thats not even considering Twitter and Instagram. Klance was obnoxiously popular from 2017-2019 because literally everyone saw its potential. Without the numbers and the ratings the Klance fandom was raking in, the show would have probably been canceled because the story was a MESS, it was either super confusing or super boring. The Klance fandom was what kept VLD alive, and the producers knew this.

(Does this justify any of the Klance fandoms actions toward the VLD cast and crew? Absolutely not. There's a reason why the VLD/Klance fandom is one of the most notoriously toxic fandoms on the internet.)

So instead of just dropping Klance and leaving the early season Klance interactions up for speculation, the producers made the worst possible decision and kept hinting at Klance even though they knew it probably could never happen due to the decisions they had to make because of the Dreamworks exects. And since literally no one on the creative team knew what was happening because they were all making it up as they went along, they too thought Klance was still a possible endgame. So the storyboard artists drawing this stuff and the cast (Jeremy Shada specifically) continuing to talk about Klance as if it was endgame wasn't them baiting us, it was them being baited as well. The producers could have easily been like "Hey, we don't think Klance can be possible anymore because of XYZ, lets stop talking about it to please the fandom" and instead decided to exploit the Klance fanbase in order to keep the show running.

The whole Shiro and Adam thing is the more famous and obvious example of queerbaiting the VLD producers did, but Klance was the more sinister example. They kept feeding the already violent Klance fandom with hope because they needed their devotion to keep the show alive. They were using Klance as bait since SEASON 3, for practically the ENTIRE SHOW'S EXISTENCE.

Yes the Klance fandom was rabid and insanely toxic, but the blame can't be 100% put on the fandom when the producers were knowingly enabling the Klance fandom. Again, Klance was no longer a logical possibility because of the direction the show had to take in order to meet Dreamworks' demands, but they still depended on Klance's popularity to keep the show running. The actual fucking lives of the VLD cast and crew were being T H R E A T E N E D by the rabid Klance fans, and the producers really thought to themselves, "Yeah, the safety of our cast and crew are being threatened by obsessive fans, but lets keep baiting them with the thing they want so we can get the numbers and ratings we need to continue to run."

The producers were put in an incredibly tough spot when their story was forcibly being changed because of the exects, I'll give them that. But it doesn't justify any of the queerbaiting bullshit they pulled in order to keep an already declining show running, and it certainly doesn't justify allowing the Klance fandom to threaten the LIVES AND SAFTEY OF THEIR CAST AND CREW for ratings.

Remembering how this is all art by official VLD crew members.

"Klance wasn't queerbaiting" my ass

[beowulfs-booty-call]

Shiros like 25 wyd posting Sheith

Ehhh, 

on the marks of the ages I barely tried dealing with it because while 

Yes. It’s obvious Shiro’s an adult.

HOWEVER,

The ages listed in the Voltron book are apparently still vague af because they were accepted by fanon yet the Voltron team has not actually been “affiliated with it” as seen on the wiki

Like, even with that, Keith is technically 18 in space at season 1 with Lance being 17 along with Hunk. But with time being such a vague factor, the time towards season 2/3 can be like a year without even knowing. It’s not like the crew were celebrating their birthdays because the show isn’t about furthering their personal developments through age (However Pidge has still remarked that she shouldn’t be treated as a kid of course.)

That said, I like sheith. I project myself through Keith and I love the dynamic he has with Shiro. And I like to think he’s obviously like 19 at this point if we wanna use the book as canon, however, we aren’t given factual info just yet since the book which “confirmed” the ages are of course, invalid.

Perfectly saying, again, I get Shiro is like 25, I personally see him like 24 or so considering how advanced he must have been compared to the other characters by the time he went post-kerberos.

However, to strictly tag him as 25 when we still don’t have a canon age is sorta… a bit much anon. 

I get people are waaaaay too off with Sheith because somehow this seems like “pedophilia” but the fact is, Shiro isn’t a predator as people make him out to be; far from it.

Keith already looks to Shiro as a leader and probably so much more than anyone else in the story, and you can already see the hug™ among other parts of the storyline that emphasizes it.

And I like that dynamic: Shiro cares about Keith in a way so much more than he’s used to and acknowledges that.

Keith was the one who went the furthest to find Shiro and couldn’t accept that he was gone for some time, and didn’t want to be the black paladin when the time came, hoping to give the position back to Shiro ASAP when he arrives.

People also want to say not to ship the two because of the brother comment Keith uses in the BOM trial, but I like to think that Keith simply can’t access or talk about his feelings just yet: After all out of all the people that show up in his illusion, it’s Shiro, not his father, or whatever could be his mother. And the comment, 

“Your friend desperately wants to see you”

Gets me every time.

I think when we finally get the Voltron team to tell us whether or not Shiro’s obviously so much older than the team to dissuade others from shipping shieth, I think then I’ll not post about it and so on, but honestly?

Why not ship it since we don’t have canon ages? Netflix described them as “teens”, and who knows? Shiro could have been 21 or 22 and just graduated quicker in the Garrison because he was just that good a pilot / researcher / soldier.

The other thing is, the team also barely could be “children” besides Pidge (Though it’s already shown she’s not, just saying children as in the Garrison by logic obviously isn’t using children to fight or work in the military) that the vagueness of the ages just don’t apply: It’s not even used for the plot because they’re out here fighting against the Galra. I don’t think in the plot, anyone cares how old you are besides the general ages of being in the later teens / young adults / college kids. Even if you wanted to argue that Keith just isn’t in the same mindset as Shiro due to being different ages, at this point, their mindset is mainly about taking on the role of Paladins and fighting the Galra for peace in the universe. (What happens after that? I dunno. I might write about that.) But it’s also that sort of mindset that makes them all… More mature when they’re just teens / adults. It’s hardened them to think about the wellbeing of the universe rather than their personal lives.

Like, if it was really about that, I say the team would have been on Shiro and the team’s age asap: But they haven’t reviewed the book that claimed the ages as such so the info isn’t valid until they come together and say what is or not!

So with this, I’ll say:

Ship what you like, but have obvious boundaries / knowledge.

Shipping Shiro with Pidge is pretty much sorta on the “Yeah… No” seeing as Pidge was is likely the youngest of the bunch and more younger than Matt who’s likely Lance’s/Hunk’s/Keith’s age. Shipping Shiro with a child character is obviously pedophillia. Shipping any child character with an adult is pedophillia.

But shipping two obvious adults (if we really wanna use Keith’s age of being 18/19 currently with the book even if it’s wrong) isn’t as bad because not only is their relationship healthy, there’s nothing really “bad” about it sans the ages, and honestly: it’s already shown Keith and Shiro knew each other before Shiro went off to the Kerberos mission.

What I think? Keith was Shiro’s biggest fan and was one of the main reasons that he was well on his way in the garrison because they were in the background of when Matt and Pidge had their picture, before Shiro went to space and ended up going missing causing Keith to drop out for however long it took for him to come back.

But anyway, sorry for the long essay Anon, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Sheith until the team comes forward and says what ages are the characters to stick to. In my eyes, Keith is about 19 years old and a consenting adult with Shiro being 24/5 and also a consenting adult. I’m not into making their relationship anyway toxic or worse than as wonderful and stable as theirs have been in the show and in Fanon, and I think I like it that way.

Until the team says otherwise that, hey, these are the canon ages and the relationship between these two are strictly Platonic / Romantic, there’s nothing wrong with shipping them in my honest opinion. After all, for the things Klance (Valid being one) has, I like to think the other ships can have too. And that goes beyond just Shalladin (I know people already have problems with that so I like to just stick to Sheith as it’s my preferred ship and it’s the most down to earth relationship for Shiro in my perspective), whatever ship you may have anon, I respect that, but I wouldn’t deem Sheith problematic because we don't know canon ages of yet, I would rather say it was problematic because it either 

A.) Is a toxic relationship

B.) One or the other party is hurt or is an adult while the other is a child

C.) Canonically the two don’t like each other and have reasons to hate each other (For example, one character killing the other’s closest family relative or something like that. A bit on the far side, sure, but that’s an example of a relationship that you shouldn't ship anyway.)

[dynared]

Voltron Season 3 and how the fandom views Keith

Well, with the new trailer having hit a few weeks ago and the Voltron fandom, as usual, undergoing what seems to be the 200th round of discourse and arguing, it, of course, isn’t hard to notice that it AGAIN seems to revolve around shipping.

This time however, it’s a wee bit different.  Just a tad.

The arguments this time seem to focus on how Keith is viewed, and how this informs his ability to be his own character, or someone to be shipped.

There’s two viewpoints - Keith as his own character (aka Leader Keith, the Keith that gets to be shipped with girls whether as straight, bi, or pan) and the Keith who is best defined by other characters (this tends to be the Keith we see in Klance pairings and the ones that inform a lot of the interpretation of gay Keith).

The first is seeing Keith as the hero of the story and Shiro as either a mentor figure for the team or a full on decoy protagonist.  In these interpretations, Keith tends to behave more like the classic super robot protagonist, very masculine, while his naivete and socially awkward nature are a reflection of his upbringing and the obstacles he needs to overcome.  This is the Keith that we presume Shiro sees, the one who is the hero of the story rather than a supporting protagonist for Lance, Shiro, or Allura.

The above examples are the type of super robot hero that the former viewpoint seems to show Keith as.  That he, for all his faults, all his fears, will rise to that challenge and defeat whatever enemy is in front of him with GUTS AND HOT BLOOD.  And they’re all portrayed that way, flaming backgrounds, confident expressions, etc.

(Interestingly, all three have their relationships, platonic AND romantic, inform their character, but it’s always to their benefit in the narrative, never as an accessory to another).

The second viewpoint is that Keith shouldn’t be the leader because they believe someone else is more qualified or want Shiro to return.  In this case, Keith is just one of the supporting cast, and the lead is Shiro (the static 80′s dynamic) or Allura (because let’s add Black Lion pilot to her litany of abilities.  I like the character, but isn’t that a bit much?)

I find this interpretation, coincidentally or not, to be the one where we see tropes like “pining gay Keith”, “angry gay Keith” and “awkward gay Keith who is awkward because he can’t spit out his gay feelings.”  Essentially, since Keith is a failure at leading the team like Shiro wanted him to be, he needs others to validate his existence in the fandom (conveniently, this is often why very few things are done with Hunk, since he isn’t going to lead the team, but isn’t framed as a prize for others either).  

If you look at a lot of the fanart, you’ll see what I mean.  Klance fanart (and Shieth as well to a certain degree, although not nearly as much) tends to have Keith hanging on Lance, or being the affectionate one.  He’s the one being prodded by his boyfriend, or in the background, in a submissive role.  Fanart of Keith as a platonic or heterosexual character (in fact, even in pairings like Heith where the two are considered equals) tends to be the opposite, where the two are grouped more evenly or Keith is allowed to look strong and heroic.

It is getting remarkably close to me, to the idea that Klance is a mechanism that almost keeps Keith down.  In roughly every other pairing I’ve seen (I’m sure there are exceptions) the pairing is defined by who can benefit each other the most or who benefits the lead the most.  An example - the infamous NaruSaku vs NaruHina fandom wars were all about who fandom believed loved Naruto more and who he’d be happier with.  In Klance vs. everything else, it seems more like KL fans hate Keith the character, or at the very least want him away from anything important, to be that background character that just props up Lance and no one else.

So once again, we have a whole lot of discourse that is defined not by social issues, but how you see Keith.

Pining boyfriend who exists for the hero.

Or the hero in and of himself.