#there's also the longstanding complaint about how seasons used to not really be relevant to the plot that much

[thefirstknife]

Is the Witness cutscene viewable to people who did not pay for access to the season (or will it be post-year)? Like people who only bought the expansion and not the season pass? I know they shove important story and lore info behind timegated paywalls constantly (reason I hate the season model), but that seems like a really especially vital scene I would hope would be viewable in-game by everyone

Right now, it's only a part of the season. Obviously it's available for free online on their official and non-official channels, but in-game it's only for those that have Season of the Deep, for now, since it's a part of this season.

As for the future, honestly no clue. I will assume yes because of one simple fact: you will no longer be able to buy the past seasons when Lightfall year ends. That would mean that only people who bought the season during this year would continue to have access to the cutscene going forward, but no new players would have the same access, which kinda defeats the purpose of having it accessible in the game later.

So I can assume that they might be working on some universally accessible cutscene viewer that will allow all players to see cutscenes from content no longer in the game, regardless of whether they've previously purchased it or not. That's the best scenario because it would mean we'd get all other cutscenes in the game too. The middle scenario is that only the Witness cutscene will be viewable somewhere as part of another mission or some quest, also without having to have purchased Season of the Deep (since you won't be able to once TFS starts: technically you'll be able to purchase Lightfall so maybe it will require you to at least have purchased that, but the season itself will no longer exist).

We'll have to wait for more info on that. As of now, I would assume that once this year is done and the season is no longer purchasable, the cutscene will be a part of content that is available to everyone. While it's still purchasable, it's only in-game for those that bought it, but can be viewed with no problem on their official channel (and elsewhere).

[ganymedesclock]

Mary Sue Keith anon here. What I meant by "special snowflake origin story" is his being a mysterious alien foundling with ties to empire and rebellion. The writers are giving Keith all the toys powers wise AND major story connection wise while Pidge, Hunk, and Lance get barely anything aside from like, befriending one random alien race each (Olkari, Balmera, mermaids). I'm afraid of this becoming the Specialest Boy Keith Show feat. Shiro and Allura

(2/2) Keith and Shiro and Allura absolutely are special snowflakes compared to Pidge, Hunk, and Lance, regular unpowered humans. Pidge at least has the story with her family but oops wait Shiro will be the one to find Matt.

...I’m kind of at a loss here, anon. I feel like we haven’t been watching the same show. So let’s just. Let’s crack out the highlight reel here shall we?

Pidge is an incredible prodigy who not only effortlessly integrated with alien technology, something nobody else on the team, including Keith and Shiro, were able to do and this was explicitly noted and commented on.

She also personally retook the Castle near-singlehandedly while Keith could do nothing but sit on his butt outside the barrier and Shiro was held hostage. Facing career soldiers. How did that go again? “Haxus is dead and you’re next!”

And was integral to reuniting the team after the season one finale and unsubtly saved Coran and Allura from the wormhole loop, where they were completely helpless.

And “this thing with her family” happened to involve repeatedly breaking into a literal military base, at age fourteen, without a whole arsenal of spy gadgetry, and after getting literally banned from being anywhere near said base to try and stop her from getting in, constructed an entire fake identity using stuff around her house and joined as a student, pretty clearly testing ahead of her grade level.

Oh, right, and what was she doing when we first saw her? Just eavesdropping on alien transmissions. It’s okay Galra empire it’s not your encryption, it’s just the fact that Pidge is a terrifying technological wizard and no one can keep her out of anything, ever. Seriously, show me an algorithm in show that Pidge didn’t crack while not being able to read galran or altean.

Also she jailbroke the Green Lion. Let me just reiterate that: Pidge took a piece of ancient magical technology that is probably actually a living creature in a mechanical shell and was like “I’m going to make you turn invisible.” and this was such a goshdanged non-issue we didn’t even see Pidge do it onscreen. Just took a leisurely afternoon and made a giant metal Lion able to completely disappear because she studied one piece of technology with the power to hide itself in one setting. Which has been plot relevant multiple times that the team 

Actively ran the entire show on the Beta Traz mission, she was giving Lance and Shiro the orders.

She’s also basically Voltron’s designated getaway driver even though as she pointed out in episode 1 she’s literally never had a day of pilot training in her life.

Lance was pretty clearly the second best pilot behind Keith. “Clockie,” you might say, “that’s not impressive.” Yeah except Keith seems to be pretty much Spiderman, remember the druid fight in s1e10? Keith can tell where things are relative to him without looking. He has literal superhuman reflexes. Lance competed with this person. And did great. The reason why we see him crash in the simulator is because he misjudges the time it takes for his ship to pull around, it has nothing to do with his sense of the controls. Keith called him the worst pilot at a point where Lance wasn’t doing anything, Blue was just having a nice gallop.

Speaking of which it’s made explicitly clear Blue is totally ignoring both Shiro and Keith. We haven’t even heard a whisper of the Black or Red Lions at that point, just Blue, and Blue is specifically here for Lance and only Lance, can’t give anyone else the time of day.

(and it’s not like Blue made a wormhole when none of the other Lions did. Good thing THAT’S not going to be plot relevant ever, clearly)

I’m a little intrigued by your claim that Lance “made friends with” the mermaids and that it’s just comparable to the Balmera or Olkari. Because that’s sure not how I remember that episode. I seem to remember Lance saving their entire civilization nearly alone (just him and the rebels), figuring out that their enemy wasn’t who they thought it was, making the right decision to hear Luxia out at a key moment, and having to outmaneuver Hunk, who was holding absolutely nothing back, and defeat him without injuring him. Cause... y’know... on the Balmera and Olkarion, there was a minor thing of Pidge and Hunk had the whole rest of the team right there backing them up.

It is not remotely an exaggeration to say Lance can hit a target the size of a dime while falling backwards in zero gravity when the person he’s shooting at has a thrashing hostage and if Lance shoots wrong he could easily kill said hostage and doom the entire mission and Lance said “I’ve got this” with zero hesitation, took a breath and went for it in a way that suggests Lance, the chronically insecure, is so unbelievably good at this it didn’t even occur to him to hesitate. This is the gunslinging equivalent of “could hit a perfect bullseye and then split the arrow with your next shot and then split that arrow with the shot after that.” Just “I’ve got this.” and he did. 

Earth means the most to Lance as it’s his home and pretty inevitably the conflict is going to go there.

Also, minor technicality but he saved Coran’s life and the team’s darkest, most desperate hour, the fall of the Castle, was centered around Lance being in critical condition, which doesn’t exactly make sense as a writing decision unless he’s sort of completely integral to how things operate.

Which happened because he was able to in less than five seconds tell two identical robots apart from each other because one was acting the wrong way. And then he woke up during his own rescue and hit Sendak square in center mass while so heavily injured he could barely stay conscious. 

Hunk is pretty blatantly Alfor’s successor and there’s no way in hell that isn’t going to be a plot point, just for starters.

He’s also a brilliant engineer who has brought us quality moments such as “well there’s an element that doesn’t exist on Earth and I have absolutely no possible experience with it and we’re in a desert shack with limited tools but I could totally just build a machine to find it no problem,” and “hotwiring this alien mine elevator while under fire is so trivial that I won’t even stop complaining or look at what I’m doing more than the occasional sidelong glance. And I’m done, about that quickly.”

And a world-class chef that has been shown that with a single exception where he accidentally used an inedible ingredient (and ended up saving everyone’s lives because of it) on account of not being able to read any of the packaging, everything he makes is delicious and in Space Mall he was such an instant hit that practically everyone shopping wanted to eat there. And incidentally, one of those wild cooking successes he just barged out into an alien planet and was able to successfully identify and classify what was edible. But clearly that doesn’t take any talent or effort at all right, I’m sure any rube could do the same. 

Hunk was the main man rescuing the Balmera, and it’s not like the Balmerans are longstanding allies or were integral to the plan in season 2. Or like in Ark of Taujeer, he held up that colossal thing singlehandedly several times to the point that he awakened a new ability doing it.

His weapon is a colossal artillery piece that probably weighs about as much as a good-sized dairy calf and he can and has held it one-handed with a relaxed arm.

He was the main person rescuing Allura in s1e11 and they then bailed out Shiro.

On that note: the list of things Hunk has stared down and picked a fight with includes Haggar, and a literal gigantic planet-eating monster with a death laser. The latter he volunteered to fight, utterly unprompted, and got mad at it for ignoring him.

The same episode Keith specifically stated that Hunk’s intelligence was integral to their survival. Hunk also figured out basically everything about how the Weblum worked. 

During the mermaid arc it was made pretty dang clear that a Hunk not holding back could probably destroy each of the other paladins in single combat. If Lance hadn’t had that antidote fish with him he would have been dead, and he was just lucky Hunk kept it to close combat and didn’t pull out his bayard. As it was he just bodily threw Lance around like the guy was made of tissue paper.

And just as a followup I’ll say: This show has seven protagonists. Are we really forgetting this quickly that in season 1 Keith was very much on the back burner and didn’t get a single episode centered on him except maybe s1e10 which he was actively splitting with Shiro and Allura? 

Can we maybe trust Dreamworks and Studio Mir of all people to know how to balance a dang cast?

Especially when you’re sorting Pidge with the “people who got utterly shafted” and Allura with the “people who have everything” but I’ve heard the exact same complaint talking about how Shiro, Keith, and Pidge get all the plots and Allura is someone who gets sold short.

I really can never... get complaints like this. There’s plenty to work with for all the core team, and if you want someone who really hasn’t been developed and remains pretty dang mysterious to us throughout seasons 1 and 2 both, I’d say Coran is a huge candidate in that regard considering dude’s a 600-year-old magical alien and we’ve got peanuts on his history at this point, but almost nobody even mentions him in their diatribes that Lance isn’t getting enough love.

(Which, frankly, my sympathy’s a little dry at this point considering Lance is the fandom darling and you can’t walk five steps into most fanwork without tripping on the kid. But, sure, tell me there’s not nearly enough there for him.)