#s7 salt

[shiroallura]

also, probably the last time i’ll actually talk about a11urance myself, but

it sucks because the thing is, where allura and lance ‘are’ in s7 is where they should’ve been seasons ago. like, by season four. imagine, what their relationship would have been like if lance had decided to just accept friendship, and hadn’t been wrongly jealous at any man who so much made any flirty comment towards allura (and flirty comments that were always much more well received than any of lance’s ever had been).

because then the times when lance supported her wouldn’t have been tainted by the knowledge he was also always hoping, rather loudly and obviously, that she’d also fall for him, wouldn’t be tainted by him constantly trying to ‘win’ her in some sort of competition against a rival (keith, matt, lotor). and then the affection allura developed for him, affection we’re now supposed to believe now means romantic feelings, could feel somewhat earned.

it still wouldn’t have perhaps been the best message, nor would i think that they’re well suited to each other, however... it would be a relationship in a much better state with a much, much less harmful message and degradation it’s giving to both its characters right now

[thestarmaptoyou]

this is the worst season.

Since when did we call it “Altean magic” instead of “Altean Alchemy?”

Why are we shown just how many problems the Paladins are still having with their Lions? (I’ve got an answer to that: because more than half of them are not in the right ones.) After seven seasons, why aren’t they more of a team? After seven seasons, why haven’t they bonded more with their lions? (that last one is easy too: because the EPs, for some unknown reason, basically forgot about/trashed their own established Lion bond lore until it was convenient again)

if Allura doesn’t get put back in a position of command and on a throne in s8, I will lose my mind istg

[shiroallura]

(1/2) You know why I would haved love Shallura even more to be endgame now? Because it think it would wonderful to show that bi/pan people don't stop being lgbt just because they're in a hetero relationship, and that not everyone in a hetero relationship is automatically straight. Given how much bi/pan erasure there is, I think that's an important message that needs to be conveyed. Unfortunately at this point if they were to make it endgame, we would have to deal with a bunch of obnoxious

(2/2) “children” (and i call them children because these toxic fans don’t deserve to be called anything else with the way they act), will see it as Adam being killed off to put Shiro with a woman, and will throw tantrums about it being homophobic. The EPs really backed themselves into a corner.

I also think it shows, in many ways, just how much s7 really damaged VLD beyond repair. Even if Shallura was canon, although I would be thrilled for a multitude of reasons, it still wouldn’t sit quite right with me that there were no other canon MLM relationships and none that ended happily. There was no universe my head where Shallura was endgame where Adam and Shiro didn’t get closure; I never thought VLD would be vile enough to just kill Adam off point blank, without at least a reunion or something, with the way they were hamming it up. And yet, here we are, because that’s the sort of thing VLD does.

Like how even if Shiro became BP again, it wouldn’t erase his mistreatment in s7, and Allura having the ATLAS would feel hollow because altho it would fit her narratively, the time for it to feel earned is already gone.

VLD has already burned too many bridges narratively to suddenly go back to being on the right track and have even that feel somewhat coherent. S7 was the make it or break it point for a lot of things (end of Allur@nce, set up for endgame Kl@nce + Shallura, OG lion lineup, etc) that simply aren’t  possible now. Like really the only way endgame Allur@nce isn’t happening now that Allura ‘apparently’ feels the same out of nowhere is Lance turning her down for whatever reason, but then she would have been heartbroken for a second time and there’s no way any other romantic partner wouldn’t be a rebound.

And even if we had gotten everything we’d wanted from s7 (mostly BP Shiro and well developed ships, or at least giving Allur@nce a turning point or something) it wouldn’t have fixed the wide array of the show’s issues. Things or plot points that are nonsensical, the lack of a consistent narrative or goal so that progress never feels real, power lion upgrades > actual character development, the fact that Pidge and Hunk have both had completely stagnant character arcs since s2, Keith’s half-assed leadership arc that didn’t look good even when it wasn’t necessarily permanent, all of the dropped points of Lance’s possible arc + undoing any good the show actually did by having him end up with Allura anyway, Allura’s treatment seasons one through six, how Shiro was treated, how Kuron was treated as an extension of Shiro, etc etc.

In regards to your last point, as much as the crew fears fan vitriol, they also very clearly don’t give a shit about what their ‘fans’ want as I’ve never seen a team of writers more out of the loop with fandom than VLD; like holy shit, is it disparate. 

This show is a steaming pile of garbage and s7 only showed how in all the worse ways. I’d been putting up with it since s4 because what was happening in show was entertaining and somewhat coherent with the narrative s1/2 had laid down, but once s7 showed that narrative does not matter (and hence that they can pull absolutely whatever they want out of their asses with complete disregard for their audience / characters) I’m not giving it that mercy anymore. 

Voltron: Legendary Disappointment has never been a more accurate title.

[shiroallura]

LIKE I'm so ticked off that they killed Adam offscreen, having Shiro's ex-fiance around would have been SO GOOD and awkward and angsty and, hey, maybe we would have gotten a Shiro-centric flashback that doesn't involve Keith? (And, not important, but imagine the Shallura tension!) But no, the show's too boring to let a gay man live

Adam deserved so much better than to be in one flashback that was undoubtedly one of the worst moments of his life, and then have Lance’s sister be one of the cadets that gets a multiple episode focus, some random rival from Keith’s past that was introduced in s6 that basically amounts to nothing, and then a bunch of random extras and not have Adam survive and be important. The EPs just wanted there to be rep and for Shiro to simultaneously suffer for it, and not have to give Shiro more screentime than they were absolutely forced to. It’s abhorrent, really. EDIT bc I forgot to mention: That, and when Adam dies on screen it’s a blink and you miss it situation.

Adam is my son and deserved the world and a happy ending, so I’m taking him and running, the way I am with every other cool concept absolutely killed by Voltron’s shitty writing

[shiroallura]

Who do you think shiro’s hair is grey instead of white? his floof was white so it’d only make sense to make it all white to ‘show how much he’s changed’ (showrunners’ words) Did they make it grey just to make him look old?

yeah, my bet is that they did it to make him look old, too

[shiroallura]

Do you really think that vld will ever have Shiro as the Black Paladin again? I hope they will but after seeing season 7 and how Keith-centric it was, I'm worried that they're going to leave Shiro on earth while the paladins go and save the day.

honestly? no. but that’s what @voltron-fix-it-fic is for

[shiroallura]

Hey, why don't you like Veronica? Just curious, that's all :)

simply put: i’m indifferent to her, as i am to all the earth cadets, and any officials other than iverson and sam. “the last stand” parts one and two were some of the worst and most boring portions of the season for me, even before adam went up in flames. i wasn’t invested in any of them, and because i’ve never had a particular investment in lance, i was happy to see him reunite with his family, but it didn’t do anything for me. same with pidge, as it left a bitter taste in my mouth to see that shiro lost the only person we know he has, meanwhile both of pidge’s family members who had been separated across the galaxy in work camps and war, including herself, both made it home safe, so…

the only cadet i had any interest in was kinkade and that’s bc he’s beautiful, but the rest? boring as hell, but that’s just my personal opinion. also, seeing her be used to push requited allur@nce in our faces as though the audience wouldn’t put it together ourselves was just… bad

[shiroallura]

You keep posting stuff about a s8 wishlist - are you going to watch s8?

honestly, i don’t know. watching s7 was pretty painful, in some places (i was fine mostly thru the first three eps, and then everything else was a… struggle, save for 7x09 mostly) and i couldn’t even bring myself to watch the last three episodes and barely skimmed through them. 

so only two things could make me watch s8 and be happy about it: shiro being black paladin again, and/or endgame shallura. i’d tune in for either of those things – and i might watch however much of the season i can handle just to see what’s canon and how it ends, but i definitely will be waiting to hear back from other shallura fam to see how they feel first. i don’t want to waste my time and i know there are still ways vld could seriously piss me off (one of them is having shiro stay on earth even when everyone else doesn’t, as his series endgame) and i don’t want to put myself through that. if there’s some good shallura i might, but yeah…

so anything under a s8 wishlist is what i wish could happen, if vld suddenly decided to be good, again.

[shiroallura]

also, apparently 4 months have passed since their fight with sendak? but you should also add the year (was it really even a year) they spent going to earth. and she looked kinda distressed when acxa mentioned lotor at the end of s7e3. that's the only sign we can see of her "healing". it's been a long time for all of them, but for the audience it was just a season ago, that's why it's hard to believe she's over him. i'm so tired of these timeskips, what is even pacing anymore?

they spent a year in space (which, all of the events of s1-s6 happening in a single year? i’m calling bullshit) and then a year and a half of them travelling back to earth and voltron’s pacing is just… bad, and if there was a scene of allura maybe looking at a picture of lotor, or something, and then turning the holograph off, SOMETHING beyond a one line mention to acxa who HAS HAD the three years to figure things out, NONE OF WHICH WE SEE EITHER, it might feel a lot less half assed. but that’s not vld’s skill set, now is it?

[shiroallura]

to everyone saying, “don’t be mad about voltron, don’t judge the show until it’s over uwu!!” shut up. i’m allowed to be mad about the show’s ableism that has existed since s3 and that every other season since then has hammered in. if the show, by some miracle, puts shiro back as black paladin, it doesn’t change the fact they made us sit through s7 and watch him be sidelined, suffer, and be tortured and humiliated by the narrative of the show, and see the terrible after effects of the show writing him out of his own narrative. what s8 does no longer matters. s7 was the last straw. i’ll be as angry and judgemental about a show as i like; i don’t owe it shit.

yes, the creators worked to make a show that people would enjoy, and you know what? in a lot of ways, they failed. and that’s on them. not us.

[shiroallura]

I 100% Agree with that man. Like OUCH. it feels like salt on the wound. i'm still mad that we never get a reason for why Shiro doesn't fly Black. If i had never heard of the interview things i wouldn't have even known the reason and i hate it! I've always known that if you have to have Outside Information (from comics, interviews, other materials) to get the full story of a show, then you are NOT A GOOD WRITER.

like s7 literally failed on every level like did LM and JDS just flat out give up i don’t understand how is it THIS BAD

[shiroallura]

THANK YOU! I’m a low-key shallura shipper, but I was actually a huge sheith stan and then s7 fucking destroyed everything for me. I kept watching because I had hope and then s7 crushed that hope and the worst thing is that my tl screams that if I don’t like s7 I’m overreacting and I’m only in for ships when EXCUSE ME you’re all defending all that shit because it’s sheith moments while I’m angry about SHIRO as a character???? Thank you I’m feeling better now that I’m not alone in my fury

like, honestly, my list of problems with s7 goes like this:

shiro not being black paladin and invalidating his entire arc and character

shiro not being able to face either of his abusers (the druid, because the druids fucking experimented on him, but no keith has some bullshit excuse and can suddenly sense them / keith swooping in to kill sendak and prove sendak’s “you think a monster like you could ever be a voltron paladin” right)

adam’s death contributing to the “bury your gays” trope and that he was not a remotely developed character / all of the backstory we got for shiro still ultimately revolved around fucking keith

shiro not being with the rest of the team in 7x06 even though he was wearing the same armour that protected them / him not being in the game show ep even though it supposedly judged “great warriors” and clearly since he doesn’t have an arm/prosthetic he can’t be a great warrior!! lol isn’t ableism great

major plot and character points (ie. why keith and shiro suddenly don’t want him to pilot black, shiro’s disease, etc.) never being brought up or addressed

shoddy placement of the game show ep where i was mostly annoyed bc i just wanted to get back to the main plot

everyone’s eye glow moments being lumped in together, rather than a mark of individual paladin-lion bonding or growth

seemingly killing ezor and zethrid after they both become disabled and queer coded, and undeniably villainous whereas before they were just very morally grey

removing the paladins from a post-apocalyptic earth was bad writing, too. it would have been far more emotionally dramatic for the paladins to be there and be unable to stop things at first, and watch their home fall around them

allura suddenly showing interest in lance with no buildup or clear spot to show her feelings were changing

[shiroallura]

one character doing all the work, and then another character having all the rewards of that hard work offered up to them on a silver platter, is not good writing

[shiroallura]

it's just real unfortunate the way vld went b/c, sure, nothing's going to be Perfect. everything is flawed in some way. but vld isn't just flawed as a show. it's just bad writing. it's bad writing that other people looked at before production and decided "yeah this is good" and then put out there. like the fuck

listen the more i think about s7 i’m like how did anyone think this was good writing. how did grown adults who get paid to do this for a living produce something that was such a steaming pile of shit. it’s baffling.

also there there, i’m gonna have my @voltron-fix-it-fic and write the show we deserved to have

[shiroallura]

you know, i want to know how much of the audience dropped for season 7.

my guess is at least 70% of the fandom is gonna be gone bc:

keith stans (whether bp keith stans or not) are apparently pissed he was turned into a discount bp shiro, so they’re out

most shiro stans are gone

sh3ith shippers who care about those two things will be gone, too

kl@nce shippers are mostly gone

from what i’ve seen, most allur@nce shippers weren’t happy with the way her apparent feelings for lance came out of nowhere

shallura shippers are gone

and casual viewers are also going to be confused as hell with how inconsistent the season was in just… not explaining or addressing big character or plot concerns from s6, soo… there’s that

[shiroallura]

vld is actually the first kids show to kill gay ppl on screen and some still have the audacity to say we have nothing to be mad about? ok becky

that being if kids or casual viewers could even tell if anyone was gay given how vague it was, lmao