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webanglikethat · 2 months

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Okay I absolutely need to know, what was the Italian fuyuka wattpad drama of like 2014 about??

okay so,

mind you I was around 9 during this time so my memory isn’t the best but I went through the pain of searching this person’s old account to gather proofs *sighs*

okay so there was this girl, let’s call her L.

L was around 19-21 at the time I’d say? so an adult, and I was a child. I feel like I need to highlight this for I was very childish at the time, ACCORDING TO MY AGE DUH 😭 and SHE was the adult who should’ve known better but I digress. also in no way (I hope) this represents her today. I do follow her on insta and she seems like a better person ! growth and redemption are powerful forces, and from what I can see, she seems to have embraced them — for that reason I have also blurred her name.

okay so L shipped herself with Caleb or Fudou Akio. she had a whole hashtag on wattpad as well as insta. it seemed harmless enough at first — you know, a harmless infatuation with fictional characters! after all, who doesn’t indulge in a little self-shipping? but as I soon discovered, this infatuation was a double-edged sword, and the blade was sharp (LMAO I’m trynna make this dramatic).

So Yeah. things quickly escalated when she began to despise anyone who dared to ship Caleb with someone else, particularly Camelia/Fuyuka Kudo.

she was extremely misogynistic and slutshaming her for *checks notes* being boring

here’s an actual translation:

"Camelia Travis/Fuyuka Kudo, what do you think of her? 💚 I HATE her to death, I don't like her at all, she's cute but lacks character, and I find her quite useless. I also hate the ship with her and Caleb u.u💚 and even the one with Mark u.u💚 #Cameliaxdieapainfuldeathforever u.u💚 Seriously, she seems like she's straight out of a fairy tale about princesses and it's just not right."

which to be fair this is alright ! disliking a character for their lack of depth is one thing, but L took it further, slut-shaming both Camelia and Silvia/Kino Aki.

here is the translation:

"She goes after both Mark and Erik, who are the guys two of her close friends are in love with; she's very slutty."

"[replying to someone who defended Cammelia] defenseless? She's a 'good girl,' okay no, I'd say slut who bats her eyes at every being with a penis she meets xD"

THERE WAS SO MUCH MORE. but I don’t have the mental strength to look for it. just imagine this but ten times even worse. SO. MUCH. SLUTSHAMING.

L’s behavior wasn’t just limited to these hateful comments. she even coined a derogatory hashtag—Cammerda, a portmanteau of Camelia and “merda,” meaning shit. this level of cruelty was so ??? staggering to me, especially as a child trying to navigate the complexities of fandom culture and online interactions 😭 she would write fanfictions and people would just wish death on Cam for no reason except blind following.

even as a nine-year-old, I knew this behavior was insane and I called her out. it struck me as profoundly wrong that an adult would invest so much energy in hating fictional characters and slut-shaming them. and obviously the irony wasn't lost on me that she hated Camelia for lacking character but absolutely adored Suzette and her non-consensual storylines. this hypocrisy was glaring but I digress. (also no hate to Suzette! I do wish her character was more than just being infatuated with Erik tho :/)

adding another layer to the madness was L’s homophobic stance. despite her apparent love for Yuri (girls' love), she openly criticized yaoi (boys' love) in the most derogatory terms. her comments on yaoi were not just dismissive but laced with homophobia. she repeatedly belittled yaoi as “dirty,” contrasting it with her praise for Yuri.

one comment left by a fellow user on her page pointedly addressed this hypocrisy:

“Secondly: do you hate yaoi? Fine. I'm not one to judge. But if you could please avoid saying 'yaoi sucks dick' every other minute, you'd be doing the world a favor. You need to respect other people's choices. For example, I don't really like yuri that much, which it seems you do. Yet, I don't go around announcing it to the world."

as a nine-year-old, I struggled to make sense of L’s behavior. i mean, the disparity between her actions and the maturity expected of someone her age was glaringly obvious to me, even if I couldn’t fully articulate why it was so wrong and why it felt so painful almost ? in my mind it made no sense. why are you wishing death upon them? I knew, even then, that what I was witnessing wasn’t just a difference in opinion — it was a display of toxicity and immaturity from someone who should have been a role model.

so I decided to speak up and I’ll admit I was being childish (but in my defense, I was a child). I fought a lot with her because it made no sense to me. I called her out and did call her stupid, I’ll admit that LMAO. my voice was obviously drowned out in the cacophony of hate. L and her followers dismissed me, labeling me as naïve for not understanding the “depth” of their feelings. it was infuriating. it made ME feel guilty to the point where, three years later I reached out and apologized to her sister 😭

in the end I feel like my experience with L was a painful lesson about the complexities of fandom culture. it illuminated the darker side of online interactions, where anonymity can breed cruelty and where toxic behavior can overshadow the joy of storytelling </3 a silly football anime fandom turned into .. whatever the hell that was

so while I hope L has grown and learned from her past, as I see her flourishing on Instagram today, I can’t help but reflect on the impact her actions had on me back then. it’s insane to me that a nine years old knows better than to slutshame!

anyway fandoms should be a space for creativity and acceptance, not a battleground for misogyny and homophobia ❗️

#☪︎ ִ: JB responds

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becomingpart2 · 9 months

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another thing that candy did that annoyed me was how she would constantly defend caroline’s actions, but then would insist that she thinks caroline is just as flawed as elena. like it was so transparent. and one time she cited “proof” that fandom is more open to seeing caroline’s flaws than elena by linking to one tumblr post that said caroline was flattered by klaus’ attention despite everything he’d done. one single tumblr post, because that totally reflects fandom’s attitude to caroline and elena. and if she truly cared about acknowledging Caroline’s flaws she would put the same energy into correcting caroline stans rosy idealized perception of Caroline as she did in correcting elena stans. but of course she didn’t because it was never about appreciating morally ambiguous women, it was about hating elena.

OMG!!! So much to say about this... YES absolutely! I had forgotten about that one thing about her but it was SO prevalent. She defended Caroline over the most stupid banal things. In fact, I think that was the basis of my first interaction with her. She was always like this, even before she started to criticize elena stans and the feminist side of the fandom but it became even more ridiculous after when she would do that while claiming to love how "morally ambiguous" Caroline was because SHE CLEARLY DIDN'T LMAO

And also YES omg, she LOVED to handpick random tumblr posts and use it as an example of a wider fandom opinion. Also let's talk about how a post praising Caroline for being "morally ambiguous" in relation to KLAUS had a clear shipper agenda in mind lmao

Like OF COURSE klaroliners will want Caroline to be this way, that validates their ship, that makes Caroline Klaus' dark princess like they've always wanted her to be!

But Candy didn't see that, oh no! She didn't see the dishonesty in that. She didn't see any shipper agenda coloring people's views of the characters and the show. I wonder why that is. Oh right, because it was her agenda as well! It aligned with HER views of the character/show and what she wanted peaple to see out of it. SHE WAS SO FULL OF SHIT LOL

if she truly cared about acknowledging Caroline’s flaws she would put the same energy into correcting caroline stans rosy idealized perception of Caroline as she did in correcting elena stans.

EXACTLY. I think I even said something like that once to her but yes it's exactly like that. She NEVER addressed when Caroline was indeed shitty, not without caveats! When she did, it conveniently was to support klaroline and to propel Caroline as a superior character lmao

#anonymous #answered

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thinkingisadangerouspastime · 4 years

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So, this may sound weird, since I don't ship ZK, but I think the reason some dislike EIP is because they realize it was the first part of a busted enemies-to-lovers arc. EIP was part one, where Zuko and Katara see how others see them, and it weirds them out. Yet, Zuko insisted on sitting next to Katara and Katara pushes Aang away, suggesting there might be something there that they don't want to acknowledge. (1/3)

The first part of the finale was Part 2, where June reiterates the "Hey you're with your gf again!" Zuko and Katara deny it, but there likely should have been an undercurrent of 'Why do people think we're together? Do we act like it? Should we be? S/he is kind of cute.' During this time, Zuko defers to Katara and despite Toph likely being more helpful, asks Katara to be the one to take down Azula with him. (2/3)

Last part of the finale should have been the money shot, Zuko taking lightning for Katara, and in a parallel to CoD, Katara healing him. Dante Basco is right in that there probably should have been a kiss at that moment and the end scene of the gang at the Jasmine Dragon with Zuko and Katara shyly proclaiming their interest in each other. (3/4, sorry I have one more)

Again, ZK is not my ship, but EIP seemed to set up a ZK endgame that jumped the tracks at the end. By all the "rules" of a good narrative, Zuko and Katara should have ended up together, otherwise EIP should never have been countenanced or storyboarded. Full disclosure that I'm not a huge Kataang fan either, but Kataang was done a disservice by having EIP exist. It either should not have ever gotten written, or the ZK enemies-to-lovers arc should have been concluded. (end)

Disclaimer: I don’t care if someone ships Zvtara. Never have, never will. If the takeaway you (the general you, not anon specifically lol) get from this post is that Zvtara is “bad,” then I’m going to assume you didn’t actually read anything I wrote, because that is the farthest thing from my point here. Also, this post is strictly my personal response to these asks. I don’t expect everyone to read this and be like “YEAH” lmao. I am sure some people have different opinions, and that is a-okay!

In short, I think we will have to agree to disagree, anon.

Do some people consider EIP the beginning of a busted enemies-to-lovers arc? Of course they do, they’re “rabid zkers” who wear Zvtara shipping goggles 24/7 lmao. EIP couldn’t have been the beginning of an E-L arc because such an arc was never in the cards for them in the first place! Katara forgave Zuko in the previous episode. Trying to cram a romantic relationship into five episodes after months of hatred between Zuko and Katara would have been awful writing (and thus probably would have been a decision mercilessly criticized until the end of time, lmao). So it’s honestly better that Zvtara gets to spread its wings in fanon instead (much less pressure)! Also, realistically speaking, Katara and Zuko probably still had so many issues to work through in their friendship. Like yes, she forgave him and recognized he was trying to do better, but that doesn’t erase what Zuko has done to her and her friends. There is still plenty of forward progress they need to make before romance can even be considered between them. If that makes sense?

Also, let’s be real: EIP and bit with June afterwards were 100% ship bait. Just an attempt to add to the “drama” of who Katara would end up. A technique only effective while it was airing, for the record, because if you watch the show straight through, it becomes glaringly obvious that Zuko and Katara’s relationship - while gorgeous - was always meant to stay strictly platonic within the canon timeline.

Anyways. I’ll try to break down your ask one piece at a time!

“Zuko and Katara see how others see them, and it weirds them out”

Yes, they are definitely weirded out! The transcript says, “Zuko and Katara inch away from each other, slightly uncomfortable.” Which is just a longer way of describing that they were weirded out by the depiction of their relationship in EIP, lol. However, the play is not how others see them. The play is the Fire Nation’s imperialist propaganda, meant to demean the entire Gaang. I talk about in specifics how the entire Gaang is belittled here, but this is the key stuff I noted about Zuko and Katara:

it’s important to situate that and more importantly situate eip zuko and katara’s relationship within the context of the show. the fire nation is an imperialist country. the southern water tribe has suffered heavily beneath them. we know from “the headband” that fire nation individuals are fed pro-imperialistic propaganda from birth; that combined with zuko and azula’s degrading comment of “peasant” towards katara demonstrate very clearly how the fire nation views every other nation - put simply, they are superior and everyone else is inferior. that attitude is therefore reflected in the eip play:

- katara, an indigenous woman, is highly sexualized and portrayed as overly dramatic and tearful, because the fire nation objectifies women not of their own people and views them as less intelligent and less emotionally stable

- she is thus paired as having a “romance” with zuko in eip because naturally, via fire nation logic, zuko would be able to “score” an “easy” woman of one of the water tribes

- furthermore, the eip “romance” between zuko and katara emphasizes zuko’s position as a traitor to the fire nation; the implication is that as a traitor, he’d only be able to achieve a relationship with a “lesser” woman, e.g. a woman not of the fire nation

That is not how other people truly view Zuko and Katara’s relationship. That is how the Fire Nation depicts their relationship in order to degrade and dehumanize Zuko and Katara. To misinterpret that as “evidence” that Zuko and Katara should have been together romantically is… disturbing, in my opinion. (I really try to stay far away from zkers who use EIP as “proof” of supposed Zvtara interest in each other like honey that is imperialist propaganda please don’t 😭).

If you want to talk about how other people actually view Zuko and Katara’s relationship, look at the Gaang, who were around them most of all! They never tease the possibility of romance between their friends. Why? Because within canon, there wasn’t one. Simple!

“Zuko insisted on sitting next to Katara”

Nope! This is all the transcript says: “Zuko [Removing his hood.] Just sit next to me. What’s the big deal?” He doesn’t even mention Katara! Zuko is literally just like I’m already sitting. Why do I need to move? lmfao. It’s no thoughts head empty for our favorite firebender 😂

“Katara pushes Aang away”

I’m assuming this about the kiss, which I’m going to make a post about in the future because I am TIRED of the tomfoolery. Anyways, I’ll keep this brief - yes, she does push him away. She does not deny that she likes him. For Katara, the issue is the timing: “This isn’t the right time.” Both Katara and Aang know they like each other, plain and simple (which is why Aang doesn’t ask if he returns her feelings - he asks if they’d be together, because he knows their feelings are mutual). Katara pushes Aang away because, as she says, they’re in the middle of a war. She’s already seen Aang die once. He might die again. She doesn’t want that, of course, but it’s a reality Katara is forced to consider.

Anyways, her decision has nothing to do with Zuko. Lol.

“June reiterates the ‘Hey you’re with your gf again!’ Zuko and Katara deny it, but there likely should have been an undercurrent of ‘Why do people think we're together? Do we act like it? Should we be? S/he is kind of cute.’”

June’s assumption - especially because it is a repeat of a gag from earlier in the series, when it is incredibly concerning to assume a Fire Nation citizen would be with someone of the Water Tribes because of the war and its consequences - is comic relief. Not even good comic relief, lmao, because of the horrific implications I just mentioned that come with it, but it’s supposed to be comedy. There was no need of any “Zvtara” undercurrents there because a) Katara and Zuko had never expressed romantic interest in each other in the past, b) it wouldn’t track with the show’s narrative of Katara as Zuko’s surrogate sibling because of her position as Azula’s primary foil, and c) it just doesn’t make sense in general. Katara likes Aang. Zuko likes Mai. There was never a love triangle there, plain and simple. Fandom invented it.

And again, if you want to talk about how people actually see Zuko and Katara, don’t look at June, who has never had a proper conversation with either of them. As I said, the Gaang is a much better example, since they’re with the two 24/7. If they never tease Zuko and Katara about romance, why should we trust this random lady who doesn’t even know them?

“During this time, Zuko defers to Katara and despite Toph likely being more helpful, asks Katara to be the one to take down Azula with him.”

As I mentioned, Katara is Azula’s primary foil, so from a literary perspective she absolutely needed to be the one to take her down. Zuko needed to face Azula, but taking her down - again, from a literary pov - was always meant to be the end of Katara’s journey (she was the only person besides Aang who was ever a match for Azula, after all, as we see in CoD). Also, how would Toph be more helpful?? Not saying you’re wrong, btw, I just don’t understand what you mean. If I was Zuko, I also would have brought the waterbender that I’d already witnessed almost take down my sister already 😂. But even if Toph would have been more helpful, sometimes practicality must be sacrificed for a fulfilling narrative arc, lol!

“Last part of the finale should have been the money shot, Zuko taking lightning for Katara, and in a parallel to CoD, Katara healing him.”

Honestly, anon, this part of your ask baffles me 😂 I totally understand why rabid zkers might make this argument, but taking into account the rest of the show… It just doesn’t make sense? It’s been talked about a hundred times, but Zuko taking lightning out of romantic interest would ruin his redemption arc, regardless of if it was Katara or Aang or Sokka or anyone in the Gaang that he was taking it for, so that should be the end of discussion, full stop. I’ve talked about this issue here and here before, and someone else does a great job breaking it down in this post, too. But seriously. Zuko having romantic interest for anyone in the Gaang would ruin!! His!! Entire!! Arc!! I hate when people don’t understand that 😭 Zuko had to learn selflessness, to learn how to put others before himself, and to unlearn the imperialist rhetoric he’d been indoctrinated with from birth. Romantic interest during canon for Katara, Sokka, Aang, whomever, I don’t care, completely disregards all of his growth of breaking away from the Fire Nation. Plain and simple.

“Dante Basco is right in that there probably should have been a kiss at that moment and the end scene of the gang at the Jasmine Dragon with Zuko and Katara shyly proclaiming their interest in each other.”

I learned in a discord I’m in that Dante Basco apparently hadn’t seen the whole show until this year lmao. He didn’t know what energybending was nor did he know A:TLA ended with a Kataang kiss. Take that with a grain of salt, of course (you can watch the livestream this is revealed in here, and it was also mentioned in the recent StageIt A:TLA reunion), but I think it’s safe to conclude Dante Basco can be treated like any other Zvtara shipper. He likes the ship, which is totally cool, but he is not one of the writers, so his opinion meant naught in constructing the canon narrative.

ANYWAYS. My point is why would Zuko and Katara proclaim interest in each other if such interest would have to be crammed into five measly episodes?? Especially when four of those episodes were the finale?? That is awful writing, of course the A:TLA writers wouldn’t do that, lmao! They’d built up Kataang and Maiko already. Why scrap it and needlessly rush a romance from an excellent - and, important to note, a newly established - platonic bond? Nah.

“EIP seemed to set up a ZK endgame that jumped the tracks at the end. By all the ‘rules’ of a good narrative, Zuko and Katara should have ended up together”

Nope. Idk what rules people have been teaching you, anon, but they were lying!! You deserve better than people who would lie to you like that 😤. But yeah, narratively speaking, Katara and Zuko getting together would have made no sense. It would have undermined Zuko’s and Katara’s arcs, it would have completely disregarded Katara’s established feelings for Aang and Zuko’s for Mai, and again, it would have been totally rushed. Who wants that?? Normal people don’t, lmao. This might be hard to believe considering I occasionally rag about BNF zkers, but I actually have several friends who are Zvtara shippers! They agree that canon Zvtara would have made no sense, and that it’s better to play out a potential Zvtara dynamic in post-A:TLA fanon. I swear, it is only the rabid shippers who think Zvtara should have been canon, and trust me when I say no one should want to associate with them, lmao.

(And again, as I touched upon earlier, Zuko and Katara’s canon narrative relationship was surrogate siblings because of Katara’s position as Azula’s primary foil. The show wrapped their arc up perfectly! With a lovely bow and all. So no complaints from me!)

“otherwise EIP should never have been countenanced or storyboarded. Full disclosure that I’m not a huge Kataang fan either, but Kataang was done a disservice by having EIP exist”

What EIP did right:

- accurate (and horrifying) depiction of pro-imperialist propaganda

- recap of previous seasons

- a lesson on consent (Aang kisses Katara, it is depicted as wrong, and Aang reacts appropriately by admonishing himself and by giving Katara space afterwards. like, people call Aang an incel/entitled/whatever, BUT HE HAD THE PERFECT REACTION?? he literally backed off and never pressured her again. i would have killed for the guy who kept getting in my personal space during my junior year to have backed off when i told him to. spoiler alert: he didn’t)

- hit some good humor beats

What EIP did poorly:

- honestly it’s not very interesting just based on watching it (deconstructing it as propaganda gives it better depth), but that’s to be expected from filler

- stupid shipping drama

- not having an additional conversation/explicit apology between Aang and Katara

HOWEVER. This final point is actually very subjective. For one, A:TLA has a clear trend of not showing apologies on screen. Ex.: Katara doesn’t apologize to Sokka for what she said about their mother, Zuko doesn’t apologize for anything he did to the Gaang, Song, or really anyone (closest we get is “Hello, Zuko here” lmao), Ty Lee and Mai don’t apologize for putting the Kyoshi warriors in jail, etc. etc. So while an explicit apology would have been great, the lack of one admittedly tracks with the show’s pre-established standards. And two, while I of course would love a conversation between Aang and Katara (that’s literally MORE KATAANG. why would I refuse 😂), it isn’t… necessary, to be frank. Aang’s mistake is treated as such - kissing Katara was wrong and he should never have done that. Like I said, Aang acknowledges this error and gives Katara space afterwards. Thus, it is Katara who chooses to be with him when the war is over. She respects the time he gave her to come to a conclusion, and the choice she makes is that she loves him despite his poorly-timed kiss (I mean, she forgave Zuko for being complicit in Aang’s death. Katara is clearly a very forgiving person!). So like,, it gets to a point where if someone doesn’t recognize that, they’re probably the kind of weirdo who labels anything they don’t understand in a story as a plothole, lmao.

All of this is to say that EIP wasn’t a disservice to Kataang. It certainly could have been better, of course, and the kiss was obviously only put in to hype up drama (“will they, won’t they” blah blah blah), but overall it handled consent well for a kid’s show.

“It either should not have ever gotten written, or the ZK enemies-to-lovers arc should have been concluded.”

On the whole, EIP is absolutely an unnecessary episode, yeah. It was just a recap before the finale. The only important thing is its accurate depiction of pro-imperialist propaganda, but most people’s minds don’t immediately go to that, I’ll admit lmao 😂. And as I’ve already said, there was no Zvtara E-L arc - fandom completely made that up. Which is totally fine! That’s the point of transformative works. But they are still fanon. Plain and simple.

TL;DR - Zvtara was never in the cards for A:TLA. I wish rabid zkers would stop pretending it was and have fun in the sandbox like the rest of us 😭

And for the record, anon, you absolutely, 100% do not have to be convinced by any of this! It’s just my own, personal thoughts on the whole dealio. No worries either way!! 💛

#emphasis on my use of rabid zker. if you know you don't fall into that category then it's obviously not about you lol #(general you. not anon specifically)#amy answers #anon #amy analyzes

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incarnateirony · 4 years

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In what season and episode did you realised that Destiel went from subtext to actual text?

Difficult question really. I don’t exactly have a magic switch of some weird personal set goalpost I have, and frankly, wasn’t even really a shipper, just defended shippers, until... 13.5/6. I think I started slipping after 12.19 because I’m not a moron, I don’t live under a rock, I have eyes and know what the fuck a mixtape means to Gen X. But I kept it at arms reach because even Carver era was so totally subtextual-- atop all the stuff that got cut S10 after the S9 blowout, I didn’t exactly want to invest myself as much as point out shippers weren’t crazy for seeing what they saw, especially S8/9+ and even prior the resonance of the hero’s journey over our entire human civilization and historical othering of queerness made earlier readings or notices of it completely fair even if not really like, directional by the crew?

But to begin, Carver era was when I saw /intentful and meritful construction of the body of text, via subtext, to subtextually tell a story with classic queer coding./ Because a lot of what this fandom calls queer coding makes me want to hide my face behind a quantum hole of facepalms and is often like, pretty much the reverse of what should be advocated or considered. All those retro old “he’s been written as queer from S1″ make me want to kick puppies or something because oh my god it’s Not Good, most of the content there is Very Bad And Hugely Problematic, and it’s an attempt to retroactively prove what old canon was doing without any substance.

Carver era was the shift to substance, but silent substance. Subtext that’s genuinely thematically scaffolded into the storyline in a way that while the events themselves were largely cued on subtext, consideration of that subtext was critical to understanding the full body of text and people that refused to grow into and adapt with that text as the tone shifted are the ones that got more and more confused and angry.

Dabb era was the threshold crossing into (often low-visibility) text. Fandom intentionally arguing points that require complete removal from social structures (which is everything from regional meanings of major symbols, social codes, language, or why-letters-mean-things) doesn’t mean shit doesn’t mean what it means. A mixtape isn’t subtext any more than getting on one knee and popping open a box is subtext even if they don’t verbalize the words. We know what these fucking things mean and anyone who doesn’t is in DESPERATE need of going outside and experiencing the real world before making any kind of social commentary on a body of text.

When it comes to dialogue text, Last Call is where Bi Dean or at least Queer Umbrella Dean was textualized. Again, it doesn’t matter if people don’t understand the long argued history that was put to bed about repeat sexual encounters with men, it doesn’t matter what the gender of the other triplets were, literally none of that matters. It doesn’t matter if the person understands it. It doesn’t matter if they know their queer culture enough to know their arguments were already buried. It is what it is.

There’s this disillusionment that unspoken physicalized shit like kissing or sex, or verbalized ones like “I love you,” but “I love you, in a gay way, specifically and only you, and want to be romantic with you” because every other statement of the like so far has people crying or arguing about it as not enough either.

These things are nice, but it is not the only way to deliver a textual romance. These are things we want and deserve, and people aren’t wrong for wanting them, the only wrong comes in deleting other text because it isn’t the style of text they want. 100% unhelpful.

Text in AV is complex. No matter how decontextualized people try to pretend this all is, throwing pasta at the wall and calling it an argument worth validating, AV media study doesn’t just incorporate social codes on shit like dialogue -- though anyone that applies those social codes wouldn’t be arguing anyway, as per my old post on that -- but visual language and TV literacy are a long studied topic and are just as relevant as understanding of textual/verbal language and having textual literacy. People trying to eschew these in the interest of favoring fanspaces to try to keep them equal within the canon, which is NOT what fandom space equality is supposed to be about, is just... lol.

When that soap opera reporter that doesn’t even watch the show wandered in commenting on the full mise en scene of the 15.03 breakup being classical “Dark Point in the Romance” framing, that’s not subtext. In a book, characters aren’t running around on a blank canvas. Their environments are the text.

What people may draw symbolically out of an environment varies, and if someone’s /interpretation/ holds up, that’s fine. But being able to digest the entire presentation of a work, that is to say, to read an entire scene in a book and understand their setting and the relevance of that setting is simply a form of text. And when literal fucking randos can spot classic cinematography, it’s time to consider what the full cinematic framework is telling you both in incremental minutiae of texts and in the full body of work.

So basically, I acknowledged lowkey text based on the most basic understanding of social codes, by 12.19, even if I was still kinda eyerolling about it. By 13.5/6, Castiel returned to Dean in something later echoed by Eileen for the zoom shot, but the rest of the arrangement was verbatim identical to the original ending of Swan Song with Lisa, with the only difference being “Never too late” wasn’t a verbal line, but an entire sound track they applied to highlight the scene.

Despite the Swan Song parallel ending reactives went up in arms about the fact that they weren’t having big romantic moments anymore and kinda failed to wrap braincases around the fact that the endgame reunion that was literally the ORIGINAL endgame shot, which ALSO didn’t include physicality (in fact, the text read, “this isn’t sexual at all. He’s a lost soul, and she’s his home” in the script for Lisa), and this dumbass fandom would go “SEE PROOF THAT MEANS THE TEXT MEANS IT WASNT SEXUAL AND HE JUST BECAME BEST FRIENDS THAT WAS HER BEDWARMER MAYBE SHE HAS COLD FEET AT NIGHT” and that’s not how this fucking WORKS. Common sense is NOT removed from fucking discussion and what sense is applied needs to be levelly-- again, social codes.

So at 13.5/6 I had considered it textually paramount to the original endgame arrangement. S14 was just... blatant ass domesticity. Dean got his happy ending. He had his family. He got his win, his everything. They spoke frequently in the kitchen -- only vaguely over cases, more slapping around idioms, eyerolling over barbarous eating, and occasionally discussing how to raise their son. In fact, if you look at non-research-non-casework S14 kitchen scenes I’m gonna let you sit there and map out what all those domestic moments in the heart of the kitchen was, minding 13.5/6.

It was something gained. It was their life. And it was something to lose. 14.18 already advert framed it, we all saw it. Troubled family. People delete history of what is connected where to pretend “we” is vague or makes the romance any less of a canon piece and lmao guys

And season 15 is their year long run where they’re spearheading a huge part of the plot and will be a critical final resolution.

Speaking of 13.5/6 and social codes, anyone remember that Jack hadn’t met Dave Mather and looked at one nonphysical picture of them and recognized “he’s her boyfriend”? SOCIAL CODES MEAN SHIT GUYS.

So there’s no magic moment. There’s S8/9 coding and subtext. There’s S12′s tape and other elements -- tape is just the easiest to nail down but several through the year tbh -- there’s S13′s Never Too Late, and all things that followed that in waterfall. There’s S14′s established domesticity with Castiel having essentially moved into the bunker, something that wasn’t even entirely established in S12 yet even if he was more frequent there than Carver era.

Without social codes, I could argue that “Dean loves pie” doesn’t actually mean he loves pie. In fact, I could argue those letters mean nothing, because basic social codes are what even give words meanings. Without them these are just squiggly lines on a screen. If I eschew social codes, I could take a “love me some pie” line from Dean and say it means he fornicates with children and make long convoluded excuses around it instead of the observable fucking fact that Dean fucking Winchester likes goddamn pie.

Waiting for your perfect personally dreamed magic moment for a landmark to call text generally disregards the full body of the text and merit of the work. The amount of time and effort this FUCKING shipping fandom has put into -- even Destiel shippers -- bashing down and calling blatant ass text subtext because it’s not the text they want -- just because they want to argue with people that threw the logic baby out with the destiel bathwater they thought was dirty -- it’s fucking embarrassing tbqh. Imagine if people’s competitive fandom BS was muted how anyone here would be addressing this body of text.

Like. “After Carver directed Misha to play Castiel as a jilted lover in season 9, Cain through S10 escalated it into Castiel as Colette, which was confirmed by both the author and actors, seating him as a lover, as Sam was Abel the brother; by season 11, pining and connected hearts becomes the driving theme of the show, repeatedly denounced both in text and showrunner commentary that it wasn’t Amara that was that romance, and instead, a different one rose; by season 12, domestic arguments were many, mixtapes were shared, coming into rooms and playing people for things secretly stashed under pillows were a hinging plot moment, by season 13 he was the Never Too Late Big Win as a far more powerful version of Lisa, by season 14 Castiel moved in, by season 15 their giant sacred marriage euchartist ceremonies on repeat are driving the entire body of the season while overtly making the straight pairing a secondary parallel to the primary Dean and Castiel pairing by 15.09 such as the AU scene, or the ending where they mimicked the same phrase, truncated by physicality. But anyone viewing this text is an adult not competing for their preferred fandom playbox to be considered in the text, and had eyeballs, saw Sam and Eileen were clearly courting, flirting, and/or romantically engaged for a long time before this.”

Can we hope for the equality in that, sure. I want that, sure. That doesn’t erase all the other modes of text before that though.

But there, I just addressed 4 consecutive seasons of storytelling as its stands in the critical themes, without breaking down the dozens of independent scenes themselves that have already been analyzed to death and yall have scorched in your eyeballs by now like angels have prophet names.

I’ve seen people desperately, desperately try to reinterpret this text, or this story structure, in inconsistent ways that fall short. They’re never held accountable for their entire shit falling flat on their face, they just keep building new shit that falls on its face too and keep using it as a base. People can *interpret* ~text~ however they want. Anyone that tells you that “true text is inarguable” is either an idiot or selling you something for your subscription to their blog. Anyone CAN make any jackass interpretation of anything they want.

So sure. You can make some nonsensical explanation around every core theme their relationship is shadowed by, removing all social codes and context from basic elements understood by adult human beings natively, whatever. You can take 200 pages writing around it and degaying it. Generally when I see this, I see unhinged, incomplete writings with no central thread, just a thousand disembodied excuses that don’t even make a story. They’re just that. Desperate excuses. Years of it at this point. And they’re free to /interpret the text like that/ if they want. But that’s their /interpretation/ of a /text/ and as-above generally in /intentional, willful, conscious denial and erasure of the basic social codes we all understand./

Just because they /can/ warp the most left field interpretation doesn’t make it not text. If I pulled an “I don’t know I can’t english suddenly” and threw those codes out the window that doesn’t mean that the shit doesn’t mean the shit it means just because it’s inconvenient to me lmao

And this isn’t necessarily at you, Nonnie, I just feel the need to expand on this because any single time I don’t nail down these conversational stakes, someone breezes through and intentionally hotboxes the conversation to go down these very predictable manipulations and extremizations of the conversation that I really am far too tired to repeat the arguments raging in my mentions again, so I head ‘em off before the shit ever reblogs.

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knightofbalance-13 · 7 years

Text

It’s Only Homophobic If I Don’t Like It/All LGBT People Must Think Like ME!

https://rwbycrit.tumblr.com/post/163790412947/speaking-over-lgbt-people-totally-okay-sarcasm

AKA Double Standard the post.

oh boy is there a lot to dissect in this one. first, hey dude, are you lgbt in any way, shape, or form? at all? if not, shut the fuck up

1. Actually, yes I am. I occupy a weird space between heterosexual and demisexual to my neurological condition. So you’re first point is immediately invalidated. And in fact, due to your accusations, your entire post either falls because of this...or you yourself are homophobic.

2. Yeah....and yet when Dudeblade does this later, you don’t call it out at all. You let it go even though, by your logic, he’s doing the exact same thing as me. But since it’s what you want, it’s not homophobic. so screw any LGBT people who didn’t agree with you huh?

there isâ€¦. a lot of casual homophobia here. 1. â€œyou peopleâ€ 2. â€œbitching about every straight coupleâ€ 3. â€œscreeching homophobiaâ€ like. slow down, dude. the post has only just begun and youâ€™re being homophobic.

Yeah...except that I call out Dudeblade in the exact same manner as this person, group him in with the “you people” and talk about him with the others and in fact most of my ange ron him...and he’s straight. Now what do they actually have in common? Being RWDE posters. So either you’re an idiot or you are willfully misrepresenting what I say.

there you go with that "you peopleâ€ bs again. 1. calling the lgbt community â€œtoxicâ€ is literal homophobic rhetoric. 2. you say blame rt like itâ€™s not their faultâ€¦. are they not to blame for making the conscious decision to not include even one (1) lgbt character in 5 years/4 volumes lmao?

1. Look at the point above: You just look homophobic for thinking that the LGBT community is a hivemind.

2. Did they ever SAY when the character was coming? No? Then they don’t have a deadline to meet ergo they can take their sweet ass time doing it, as creators are entitled to do.

1. itâ€™s been five (5) years, my dude. weâ€™re way past â€œnot immediately. 2. lgbt characters are not something lgbt viewers should have to sit and wait for, or â€â€œdeserveâ€â€œ (in I believe Montyâ€™s wordsâ€). they are not prizes.

And you are not LGBT viewers: You are RWDE viewers which is not wholely made of LGBT people. Funny how most of your arguments fall apart by looking at the context huh?

this is so homophobic lmao i canâ€™t believe im reading it with my own two fucking eyes. 1. â€œeveryone blames the lgbt communityâ€ everyone does that anyway 2. â€œyou are that insecure about yourselves that everything must mirror youâ€ youâ€™re the one witting a fucking essay about how shows donâ€™t need to have an lgbt character and can be filled to the brim with cishets, my dude. it looks like one of us is the insecure one, and itâ€™s not the lesbian lmao 3. also nice blaming the lgbt community for homophobia. like, thanks homophobe, never heard that one before

1. Actually, a few of your members (read: RWDE) have said that being straight is dragging the show down so that’s a lie.

2. Well, I'm not the one taking your words out of context and making everything fall apart simply by existsing and context. If you were so secure about yourself, you wouldn’t NEED an LGBT character in your show. I usually don’t give a shit about a person or character’s sexuality unless it has massively creepy undertones (like Puri Puri Prisoner from One Punch Man. Seriously, fuck that guy, going around attacking and molesting people just because he’s stronger. Hero my fucking ass.)

3. Once again, you are displaying the thought process of “Every LGBT person MUST think like em or else they are not LGBT.” AKA LGBT people are not like normal people and are a hivemind. Which, like I have said in this very post, is homophobic.

1. MILES also made this promise, you dumb fuck 2. they do have the obligation to include an lgbt character lmao 3. no they donâ€™t. 4. calling lgbt people abusers lmao. love that Homophobiaâ„¢ 5. what actions and how are they irredeemableâ€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦.. ?????? calling rt out on not including an lgbt character in 5 years despite promising us and then making me sit thru the â€˜Life and Times of Jaune Arc, Sad Heterosexual Boyâ€™? get fucked

1. Proof. 2. Not anymore: You people (read; RWDE) have pretty much shown that if you are given anything, you will tear everything to shreds so if they never do it: You have only your selves to blame. 3. Ah so they are not allowed to do anything you don’t want them to do. Sounds familiar... (https://helpguide.org/articles/abuse/domestic-violence-and-abuse.htm) 4. Nope, calling RWDE absuers: Glad to see you cannot comprehend that LGBT people are, shock, people with different ideas because sexuality is mostly a non factor in how a person is. 5. Give me a minute: https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163768158700/hey-remember-what-a-mirror-is (A gleeful assortment of what just one person has done.) https://bluepulserjaime.tumblr.com/post/163547055676/so-just-because-jaune-was-in-a-dress-and-camp (trying ti remove freedom of speech. Also he said that the CRWBY are only being praised because they are white. http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/163589308451/just-because-jaune-was-in-a-dress-and-camp-camp#notes Oh hey, you’re in there too!) https://sokumotanaka.tumblr.com/post/163181907124/okay-so (Supporting a guy who outright insulted Monty) https://rwby-analysis.tumblr.com/post/162751186437/ejladybug-its-pretty-low-to-accuse-someone-of (ATTACKING an LGBT person because, get this, they didn’t insult Miles and Kerry) That enough because I can go into the harassment, the bigotry, the double standard, the attacks against other LGBT people, the devaluing of human life and so on.

how are you even comparing critiquing a show and itâ€™s writing to actual, real life ABUSE, you disgusting human being?

also, who the fuck is the victim in this? rt??????

Ah yes, critique...that consists of lying, msirepresneting and cheating...and attacking the writers while trying to get them fired so a woman can take over...constantly insulting them while saying you are their fans...then trying to humiliate them by making a spectacle and then blaming them...while treating them as a factory for LGBT characters or as robots that should only do as they say instead of people...Making the CRWBY hesitant to answer any and all questions that might set you off...as you control what they do, when they do it...Like an abuser (https://helpguide.org/articles/abuse/domestic-violence-and-abuse.htm)

So yes, yes they are.

1. jaune asking weiss to the dance 2. weiss giving neptune Sad Heterosexual Looks bc she had a crush on him 3. pyrrha being a Sad Heterosexual bc she has an ~unrequited love~ for jaune 4. pyrrha literally kissing jaune 5. ren and noraâ€™s background and Meaningful Heterosexual Looks, all but confirming renora 6. not to mention all the more one liners about how many characters are SO attracted to the 'opposite genderâ€™ (ie qrow with the waitress)

1. ah yes, because t’s bad if a heterosexual is having love woes. Doesn’t TAHT sound bigoted?

2. Ship sank and was sued for character development. 3. Ship also sank and was used for character development. 4. Ship sank. 5. Because Asexuals, demisexuals and bisexuals don’t exist apparently (and both Ren and Nora have aspects of the first two.) 6. Look at 5

yes, 'tis was I, the Homosexual, that was the homophobe all along! anyway, calling out homophobic/transphobic jokes is not homophobic, I canâ€™t believe i actually have to say that.

Yes...except those jokes are not what you call them. By this logic, every joke ever made is some kind of phobic and thus humor as a whole shouldn’t exist. And since people make jokes about straight and cisgender people, logically they are allowed to make the same jokes for LGBT people. That IS what equality means.

â€œthe lgbt community doesnâ€™t deserve anythingâ€ ohhhhhh my god

“Only people who think like me are LGBT” Really, whose the homophobe here?

1. itâ€™s probably because bumbleby is? the most popular? lgbt ship? in? the fandom?????? 2. im not even gonna TOUCH on asexuality and the lgbt community lmao 3. also like Bumbleby can, in fact, be a ship made up of not only two lesbians, but two bisexual women, a bisexual woman and a lesbian, a pansexual woman and a lesbian, or a bisexual woman and a pansexual woman. 4. just say you hate wlw and go!

1. And what about the people who don’t like Bumbleby and are LGBT? Like this person (https://darkvioletcloud.tumblr.com/post/163803510478/rwde-and-rwby-critical-is-making-me-hate-bumblebee) 2. Because if you don’t consider them LGBT because they aren’t you. 3. And you can have two gay men, one bisexual man and one gay man, one bisexual man and one pansexual man, one pansexual woman and one bisexual man, two pansexual men or woman, one pansexual man and woman, one bisexual man and woman. Bumbleby is not your only option for LGBT representation. Or are you just using the guise of representation to force your ship? Seems that way to me. 4. I don’t: I’m a White Rose Shipper. You’re the one who hates anything not wlw from your attitude.

1. im not going to comment about the suicide baiting bc i honestly know nothing about it so 2. didnâ€™t you, earlier, in this very post, say treating the lgbt community like it was a hive mind is homophobic? and yet.

1. Another example of irredeemable shit. 2. I know one would because one HAS done it. My friends in this fandom are all LGBT and they have called this out too. Hell, the guy I linked to is bi AND trans. No one likes being used for another’s agenda. Also, you have been acting LIKE the LGBT community is a hivemind. 3. Dudeblade is straight and talking over LGBT people: He’s doing what you accused me of. And yet not a word against him. Double Standard much?

1. renora was suggested from the beginning 2. pyrrha and jaune literally kissed on the mouth in literally the most cliche, heterosexual way possible

1. And by your logic, so was WHite Rose and Bumbleby: Not a counter 2. Ah yes because hetersosexuality Is inherently bad like a cliché. Because homosexuality and it’s kin should just be marketing ploys to make something look good and original when it’s actually shit. That’s not homophobic at all.

1. i canâ€™t believe one (1) man is doing all this! by just criticizing an internet show on a micro-blogging website. amazing. 2. this is now a joke post bc heterophobia ISNT REAL aldjajdjahskshh im literally close to tears rn fuck oh my god

1. More like a group of people encouraging a dangerous mindset and being toxic as shit by encouraging an abusive relationship between fans and creators. 2. Considering you used “cishet” which is a deragitory word used to devalue heterosexuals and cisgender people as if they are beneath you: You are a perfect example of heterophobia. Also: If heterophobia isn’t real then it’s counterpart isn’t real. That’s right. you just insinuated that HOMOPHOBIA isn’t real. Good job there. 3. What abouyt the homophobia argument? The sexism argument? The racism argument? Are those just accepted as truth? Well then: Glad to see you admit it.

not very logically indeed, kob

That’s a mirror you’re talking to dumbass.

#rwde bullshit #rwbycrit

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ironinkpen · 8 years

Text

“The Leader That You’ve Become”: Allura and the Blue Lion

Alternatively Titled: Dreamworks Let This Poor Girl Have Fun For Once In Her God Damn Life

I already wrote a long ass meta about putting Lance in the Black Lion and talked about Allura in it, but fuck it. I have free time (ie homework I don’t want to do) so let’s write another one about just Allura. This is gonna be long so like, in summary, my argument is that I think that: 1. Allura’s personality and quintessence match the Blue Lion pretty well, and 2. Putting Allura in the Blue Lion might allow for interesting character growth.

But yeah okay let’s go:

So I’ll be the first to say that Black Paladin Allura would make me shit myself out of pure joy. And scenes like the above definitely point in that direction. Coran says it himself, Allura’s a leader. She’s been running this universe saving thing since day one. Sure, Shiro leads the team, but he’s Allura’s second in command. She’s the one who owns the lions, chooses the missions, makes everyone train, builds alliances, gets the team to safety, organizes resistance efforts, and operates the castle. Shiro might be the head of Voltron, but Allura is and always has been Voltron’s leader.

Alright then, I’m sold. Let’s put her in Black!!

But… would that really be the best move, narratively?

For one thing, if the purpose of removing Shiro from the equation (for at least a little while) is to shake up the team, then putting Allura in as Black (at least immediately) is a very strange move. None of the team dynamics get challenged at all, really, because just be swapping out one stable leader for another. It would make sense, but it would kind of be a cop out to the whole big “ooh, what’s the team going to do without Shiro” build up.

Plus, the idea of consolidating the two roles of Leader of Voltron and Head of Voltron kind of stresses me out. That might just be a personal thing, but I feel like it’s really critical for these roles to be kept separate, and what happened to Shiro is proof as to why. If something happens to one of the leaders, the other is still there to handle things. But like, if Allura gets both jobs, and god forbid something happens to her, the team is left with two vacancies and no leaders at all. Then they’d really be screwed.

And on that note, we need two leaders to question each other’s judgement and decisions. We see this dynamic play out between Shiro and Allura frequently. When Shiro says “yeah let’s trust Ulaz,” Allura’s the one to step back and be like “what.” Shiro ends up being right to do so, but Allura’s questions are completely valid. How do we know this isn’t a trap? What have these guys been doing for the past 10000 years? Shiro was ready to trust Ulaz kinda just… ‘cause, while Allura brought the more realistic concerns onto the table.

And when Allura and Keith leave the castle-

-Shiro’s the one to be like, uh, we kind of need you guys here. He and Allura balance each other out. If you combine the two roles, the only judgement the team will follow is Allura’s, because no one else would have the authority to really challenge her. And while she is, again, a brilliant leader, that doesn’t mean she’s always right. Like, specifically in this whole “Keith and Allura run away” thing, they could have tested whether or not it was them being tracked in a different, safer way. Ditching the team and leaving them open to attack in the middle of the night was not the wisest move. This is why we need two leaders, so that one can point out when the other is being too brash or too trusting.

The final issue is:

It’s been emphasized by Coran time and time again that Allura’s quintessence is needed to operate the castle (specifically the wormholes, so that the team can escape if need be). Who would be able to do it in her absence? Can Allura even pilot a lion at all?

Alright so that lays out all of the potential issues with Allura being Black Paladin (and I want to reiterate: I could be completely wrong about all of this lmao, I’m but a mere teenager overanalyzing a children’s tv show). But how would her being the Blue Paladin instead solve any of them?

Well, for one:

This is the same episode where Keith and Allura run off together. Coran is shown to be capable of operating the castle (to an extent) without Allura!! We don’t know the full extent of the castle’s reliance on Allura, and I’m sure that’ll be relevant / explained in season 3, but one thing she’s definitely needed in the castle for is wormholing. It’s a pretty well-established fact that Allura’s the only one who can activate the wormholes.

But that could change soon.

Like Slav points out, the castle is outdated. There’s a chance that someone (maybe him, maybe Coran, maybe someone else) might fix it up to solve that problem.

So, who’s to say that they might not be able to fix things so that Coran might be able to make wormholes instead?

If that happens, Allura could pilot blue, since the team would still be able to wormhole away (assuming that’s really the main thing they need Allura in the castle for).

On another note:

Allura’s quintessence seems to be blue (it was pink at the end of season two but that was probably because of Haggar I think). I’m still kind of unsure on the whole quintessence thing because the only people on Team Voltron that we see actually using quintessence are Allura (seen above) and Shiro (seen with his arm), so there’s no proof that the color of the quintessence matters when it comes to piloting, but Allura does say:

And if Allura has blue quintessence… Hm.

We’re never told in the series what the traits of the Blue Lion are because Lance cuts Allura off, but a look on the Voltron website tells us that it’s “the friendliest of the lions and the most accepting of new pilots” along with having a confidence that “comes in handy in tough battles against bigger and better opponents.” Allura is undoubtedly friendly, as the Alteans are a diplomatic race. We see the extent of her friendliness when she’s willing to work with the Galra despite the fact that they killed her entire civilization (which, in her mind, happened like a few weeks ago thanks to the whole cyro freeze thing). She’s also quite confident in her abilities and judgement– like I’ve said, she’s a leader.

Additionally, the Blue Lion is the Guardian of Water, and water is typically tied to traits like adaptability and healing. We see Allura healing the Balmera, and we see her being adaptable when she… does anything tbh. Allura is frighteningly well-adjusted. As soon as she comes out of the healing pod she basically accepts that she’s been frozen for ten thousand years off the bat. She’s really good at going with the flow. She throws together a resistance between the Marmora, Balmerans, and the Olkari, works to train the team despite them being young and inexperienced because hey, they’re all we’ve got, and agrees to work with the Marmora (again, despite the fact that the Galra killed everyone she knew like a month ago).

And then there’s the whole “most accepting of new pilots” thing. The fact that that information is purposefully kept from the audience makes it seem to me that the writers are setting things up so that someone new is going to pilot the Blue Lion next season. And Allura’s a good bet for who it might be.

The main reason people seem to be nervous about about Allura not becoming the Black Paladin is that they feel that if she doesn’t, it means that Dreamworks is shoving her character to the side. But, like I’ve said, Allura is and always has been the leader of Voltron. She’s the Commander of the Castleship! Her not becoming the Head doesn’t invalidate the power she already has within the group. She is and always has been the most powerful member of the team. That first picture I showed, where Coran calls her a leader, comes before she’s ever stepped foot in a lion.

Also, it’s basically impossible for Dreamworks to push Allura aside next season anyway lol. We’ve just found out that there are other Alteans! And that they’re evil!! Plus we’ve got a mini-resistance with the Blade of Marmora and the Balmerans and the Olkari going, and Lotor, who in the OG series basically completely revolved around Allura, is coming to town. Allura’s. Got a lot on her plate, and her plot’s going to be central to the next season anyway. So I wouldn’t consider it too much of a loss if she didn’t pilot Black (or even a Lion at all!).

Okay so anyway I’ve been arguing so far that Allura could be the Blue Paladin, that it would make sense, and that it wouldn’t hurt her character, but to be honest, the biggest reason I feel like Allura should be Blue Paladin if she does become a paladin is that I think it would be good for her character.

We always see Allura as being this very serious person. She’s just lost her people in a war, the man who did it is still out there and is doing the same thing to others, and now she’s gotta deal with a bunch of punkass kids who don’t really know what they’re doing. She’s mourning and stressed. In the Space Mall episode when everyone leaves, she says it herself: “What am I supposed to do now, sit around and worry all day?”

She worries about the paladins, about her duties, about Zarkon. Sure, she handles this all incredibly well, but it’s clear that there’s already a lot on her plate. And she runs a tight castle-ship as a result.

But, on occasion, we get to see another side of her:

She likes having fun! She plays road trip games with the mice and gossips with them, she wants to go out and see pirates, and when she’s left alone in the castle, she plays bumper cars and races down the hallways (god bless the comic tbh).

The Voltron wiki describes the Blue Lion as an energetic and fun-loving lion. And I’d say that’s an accurate assessment. The first thing Blue does it take Lance out on a joy ride!!

The Voltron website describes Allura as “often feeling the weight of the universe on her shoulders.” Putting her in a happy, energetic lion like Blue would allow us to explore the playful, lighter side of her more, which would add a new dimension to her character. Whereas if she’s put in the Black Lion, I can’t see her character changing / getting more depth from the placement. It would be yet another responsibility, which would reinforce Allura’s current feelings of personal responsibility for the successes and failures of Voltron. And, from a writer’s perspective, why would I want to put my character in a role that wouldn’t change them? It’s much more interesting and dynamic to put them in a situation they have to adapt to and learn from.

Plus, we’d get to see Allura bond with the team! She’s sort of removed from the rest of the paladins at this point. We see her try to chat with Pidge in Season 1, but for the most part, the only conversations Allura really has are ones involving training/missions/fighting Zarkon (minus the ones she has with Lance, which are him being thirsty and her shutting him down lmao). Being the Blue Paladin would allow her to integrate herself into the team more fully and just. Be with them. Not as the Serious Leader but as an equal.

Alright I’m gonna wrap this up here before I write another ten paragraphs on why Allura deserves to be happy and have fun and have friends and kick ass without having to worry about that god damn particle barrier. Basically Allura being Blue Paladin would make sense, wouldn’t make her any less of the leader she already is, and would allow us to explore a new side of her! She was Blue Paladin in the OG series, and there’s a possibility that she might in this one, too!

And for one last parting shot:

Everyone else is color coordinated with their lions (minus Lance, kind of). And guess what color Allura wears?

#voltron #voltron meta #allura #god i should really do my homework lmao #if you read this mess i love you #i just really wanna have allura pilot a lion!!! but if she doesn't she's still a badass and I love her

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