#this will get a full talking about because this episode (particularly the Keith scenes) were so delicious

[localfanbaselurker]

if they kill krolia for “plot reasons” im going to dreamworks corp and- [REDACTED]

[lady-griffin]

I Became Engulfed by Desire...

This was a super cute episode and absolutely hilarious. Mary and Maria were the true MVPs of the episode. I loved that these two brilliant and accomplished ladies are absolute dumbasses when it comes to one specific dumbass.

Mary is just comedic gold. She is so goddamn funny and ridiculous. I love her so much.

I’m still laughing at this. Look at this desperate dork who just wants to be with her precious Lady Katarina. 

Maria was also pretty funny, but she was really more of the straight man to Mary being amazing.

Alan was also a great delight. His and Katarina’s scenes were very sweet and endearing and just made me smile. I mean really, how could anyone not smile or have their heart warmed by those two at the end.

ALSO LOOK HOW STUNNING KATARINA WAS!!!!

This episode in general had some stunning scenes. I particularly love this one image.

Beautiful.

Overall, I enjoyed the episode.

-

It is just filler episode, so I will admit a part of me wants to gets back to the actual plot and get to certain scenes. As I am a bit worried that some of favorite scenes will not get the full-attention they deserve.

And I get a bit more concerned when I notice that there is still a sleepover and possible gardening shears extra to be explored in the anime. Based off these images.

While I absolutely love the extra Manga Ch. 17.5 (it’s an absolute delight and just so adorable), I am curious and nervous to see how they will do everything that they have to do in the remaining time they have left.

Though, perhaps the anime isn’t going to adapt the whole Ch. 17.5 plot, but take the essential core of it for a future scene. Similarly, to how the anime adapted Alan’s extra chapter in Vol. 5 (LN) to the last scene of this episode.

I have confidence in the anime, but I’m still a bit nervous.

SPOILERS BELOW

Plot Heavy Future

The anime does have a decent amount to cover in the next four episodes.

Bully Accusation Scene Maria Disappearing Katarina learning about Black Magic/Nightmare Katarina confronting Raphael Infirmary Scene – Everyone upset/why they love Katarina Katarina Revisiting her old life Raphael’s backstory Confronting Raphael Raphael and Katarina talking on her farm Graduation Party

To be fair, some of these scenes won’t take that much time and some could be excluded or combined. But still, it’s a lot.

We’ll have to see how the Gardening Shears and Sleepover Scenes happen and when. But if we only had a choice between the two, I’d picked the former. I really do love Ch. 17. 5 with all my heart and would love to see it adapted into the anime.

Angst

I do hope the next four episodes will do justice for future events. I want my angst and I want it now.

I particularly want Ch. 18 to get so much attention and love from the anime.

It’s one of my favorite chapters. 

I love how everyone is thinking about how much they love Katarina while at the same time are at the horrific realization that Katarina might die and their helpless to stop it. I want that. Give me that angst and more.

I want to suffer.

Alan and Katarina 

If you ship Alan and Katarina, then this episode was a godsend. I personally really enjoyed these two here. 

I loved how the anime  included Alan’s extra POV chapter and Manga chapter from Vol.5 (LN). in this episode. It was well done. 

Their scenes were very sweet and romantic. 

There’s something I quite like about Alan and Katarina. I think it’s because their relationship is based in a genuine friendship.

Alan is really the only one I can see who would take his shoes off and join Katarina up in a tree. So, it’s just nice seeing them interact.

Also, Alan at this point, is the most normal one. And I think to a certain extent he brings that out in Katarina…particularly in this scene. Katarina was just a lovely, normal girl. It was nice.

It was lovely. Absolutely lovely.

Despite no one thinking of him being a real threat in the race for Katarina’s heart, due to him being oblivious of his own feelings, he’s made the most headway.

Also look at him blushing.

Alan x Katarina have certainly moved up in my rankings.

The colors and scenery of the last scene were really stunning. Just gorgeous.  

Katarina’s Desire

She just wants sweets and I love that. Also, she’s like legit eating the Witch’s house from Hansel and Gretel, so that was fun.

I know it’s not that kind of episode, but I would’ve also liked to see Katarina’s deepest desire – avoiding her doomed endings.

While the other characters (and sometimes the narration) believe there is nothing more to Katarina than what’s on the surface, we know that’s not true. Or at least not 100% true.

And I may be looking into this way more deeply than I should.

But since Katarina was essential to everyone else’s desire and she was actually in the book with them, that makes me wonder if Katarina wasn’t there – would they have been satisfied with a fictional Katarina?

Or would they be like Katarina and not be satisfied with their fictional sweets?

The Harem’s Desires

This might be controversial, but I didn’t think their desires for Katarina were honestly that bad as some people have made them out to be. When I had crushes, my ideal situations and fantasies were just as ridiculous and over the top.

That being said, they could’ve definitely improved on how they showed them with one simple fix.

Have Katarina blushing and eyes sparkling, more than what they showed in the episode. That would have easily worked – Katarina is a huge fan of romance. She is so into it (which is why it’s so hilarious she’s oblivious to what’s happening in her life).

I don’t think the desires were awful or even bad, but they were somewhat off-putting for me. And I did feel like they missed the mark.  

Geordo

All I can think about is the weird Matrix moves in his fantasy…what a fucking dork.

But at the core he wants to get married to Katarina and have her all to himself without anyone interrupting them (for one night)…which yeah, I get that. Every time he’s alone with Katarina for more than 3 minutes, Keith breaks down the door.

I have mixed feelings towards Geordo saying he likes the uncomfortable face of Katarina’s. On the one hand, we’re seeing that so-called sadistic side of Geordo that we keep hearing about but never really see. 

But still…bad Geordo. Very bad. I’m rooting for you, don’t make me regret it.

For me, that statement is a darker take on what Geordo’s desire are stated to be in The Light Novels.

There’s a difference between this –

And this- 

It’s the difference between a cabin in the woods vs. a cottage in the forest. Essentially the same concept, but the words make all the difference.

Changing that line from uncomfortable to embarrassed or flustered would’ve been a huge improvement. But there’s nothing we can do about that now and in the end, I did find the overall scene funny.

Though I feel like the anime is a bit of a let down when it comes to Geordo, so there is that. 

Keith

I liked Keith’s desire the least. Surprisingly enough, it really had nothing to do with the pseudo-incest.

It was just the most off-putting for me. I did not like the weird lip-licking thing he did… I wasn’t a fan at all.

Sophia

She’s very bold; I’ll give her that.

But also, poor Sophia. Katarina has no idea that Sophia (or the other gals) has any romantic intention towards her and just thinks it’s fully platonic

…because slamming your friend against a wall is super platonic Katarina…

Nicol

This one was probably the funniest fantasy to me. The sounds Nicol made when he was jumping around the city were so funny to me. It was like they were out of a video game.

Also, Nicol’s desire to be The Devilish Count means that either Katarina or Sophia (definitely Sophia) told him that Katarina sees him being similar to the Count. And I guess after he learned that, Nicol read the entire book series and wants to be that way for Katarina.

He wants to be confident around her and have the freedom (and no guilt) in romantically wooing her.

Which is nice, but also what a dork.

Also, Katarina’s dress in his fantasy is either the same as Katarina’s birthday dress, but in a different color. Or at the very least, very similar.

Possibly because Nicol got to dance with Katarina on her birthday and his fantasy did involve dancing with her. A nice bit of detail.

Mary’s reaction to his fantasy, was a gem among gems.

Alan

He wants to play a recital for Katarina. Which is just so touching. Seriously, Alan is killing me with his sweetness.

If I’m not mistaken, Katarina is wearing the same dress she wore to his recital during their summer break. So, it seems very likely he’s playing “Dedicated to You, My Beloved” to well his beloved.

I’m assuming there was more to his desire, but Mary shutting the book was hilarious.

Also, Alan got pretty damn close to his desire in the real world, so good on him.

-

I feel like it’s safe to say that Mary and Maria’s desire if they were amplified by the book, would be at the same level of everyone else’s’. 

Which is fun to imagine. Especially Mary’s desire for Katarina. 

Also, everyone realizing that not only did Mary and Maria sees their desire for Katarina, but Katarina experienced their desire was so funny. They all just stood up and left. A+ comedy.

The Study Session Growing

It was fun seeing everyone join in on Mary’s alone time with Katarina, one by one, and Mary’s frustration building up.

Evil Harem.

If we ever wanted to see the Harem as “evil,” this is not a bad reference point in terms of visuals.

 Raphael

I love the red herrings surrounding him. It appears he’s just falling for Katarina, which technically he is, but that’s just scratching the surface of what’s actually going on.

-

Overall, it was nice and cute episode and really funny and ridiculous.

We got a bit more of a look into the characters and their desires for Katarina, but really the main development was between Alan and Katarina. Who would’ve thought?

Oh, and Mary being the funniest character alive.

[kcwcommentary]

VLD6x02 – “Razor’s Edge”

6x02 – “Razor’s Edge”

It’s a little weird that the second episode of season six is starting literally right where the fifth episode of season five ended. It’s one thing for an episode to start right where the previous one ended, but this episode is starting right where three episodes ago ended. Keith is still standing there surprised to realize that Krolia is his mother. He has tons of questions he asks her, including “How are you so sure?” And her response: “I’m sure.” That’s not an answer. We know so little about the actual blades the Blades wield, but I guess we’re supposed to interpret all this as the blade is somehow genetically coded to a person, and that’s why both Keith and Krolia can affect the same blade? That would be an easy explanation for the show to give to give Keith an answer here as to how Krolia knows he’s her son, but the dialog instead is written to be cryptic-cliché. She follows up, telling him, “We can talk about this later.”

For all how Krolia’s dialog is supposed to suggest that they don’t have time to talk right now, she is just standing there doing nothing, not working to pilot their craft anywhere, not trying to contact anyone else in the Blades, nothing. (Also, can’t they talk as they travel to their next location?) Having the two of them standing there doing nothing, if we’re to believe they don’t have time to discuss this, then makes the scene feel like they forgot to choose any action to animate.

There’s a bit of flashback to explain how Krolia has information that Kolivan and Keith don’t about the unexpected transport lines of quintessence. Krolia apparently studied the ship from which Ranveig got the quintessence he used to make his “weapon,” and she determined that the ship had passed through the “quantum abyss.” That she never bothered transmitting that information to Kolivan/the Blades is baffling.

The description of the quantum abyss is science-sounding nonsense. Neutron stars are real, they’re the core left over when a relatively large star (though not the largest) goes supernova. Despite the name, neutron stars are not exactly stars since they’re no longer undergoing fusion They’re essentially a stellar corpse. A neutron star is small, having a typical radius of just 10 kilometers (for comparison, Earth has a radius of a bit over 6000 kilometers, and Pluto has a radius of a bit over 1000 kilometers). So, Krolia then saying that in this quantum abyss, neutron stars “orbit even larger, dark stars” sounds really silly to me. If her statement is trying to refer to mass instead of volume, neutron stars aren’t particularly massive either, with average masses somewhere between 1.5 and 2 times the mass of our sun. What makes their mass-volume relation interesting is that that much mass fits in such little volume, which Krolia does accurately reference the objects’ high density. You wouldn’t want to get close to a neutron star, but Galra technology should be more than enough to let them maneuver past neutron stars unbothered.

As for “dark stars,” I’ve never heard that term before, and the best I can tell it is either effectively another name for black holes or a name for a theoretical object involving dark matter that could only have existed in the earliest days of the universe. I imagine the word was used in writing this episode because the word “dark star” sounds ominous. So basically, this “quantum abyss” is just a stellar graveyard. Krolia says that the area has “unusual effects on gravitational waves and space-time itself.” The gravity of such an environment might be complicated to calculate and map, but it’s not “unusual.” If the Galra are a technologically advanced civilization such that they can dominate the whole universe, then they should be able to understand gravity of neutron stars and black holes that, while it might not be Krolia’s area of expertise, it wouldn’t be something she would think of as “unusual.”

Finally, the term “quantum abyss” seems so inaccurate, even if the show is trying to make up a name for the area Krolia describes. Nothing about her description makes me think of quantum mechanics, nor is an area full of neutron stars and black holes appropriately described by the word abyss, which is by definition a large, empty area.

Moving on.

Lotor is still talking up Allura, connecting her increasing her abilities to the achievements of Alfor. She’s standing there doing this show’s typical hand-touch-and-glow method of not actually doing anything but pretending something is actually happening. “Our visit to Oriande has taught me more than I ever thought possible,” Allura says. Since the show’s magic system is so undefined and opaque, and she’s doing no differently than we’ve seen her do before – touching something and glow – it doesn’t really feel like she’s learned anything. She thanks Lotor, and he thanks her, saying that she’s the “key to bringing peace to the universe.” I guess all this is supposed to be him still just being manipulative and secretly villainous.

Lotor and Allura nearly kiss before Pidge, Hunk, and Lance interrupt them. Pidge and Hunk are upset that they’ve been left out since they both like technology. Lance, meanwhile, of course is jealous, but his typical aggressive manifestation of his jealousy is interrupted by him accidentally knocking over some tools, which was funny. Allura tells them there’s nothing really for them to do, and Lotor points out that what Allura’s doing is infusing the ship, not building it. Pidge and Hunk are okay not being involved when they realize it’s all just “magic.” Lance, however, still wants to help. As much as I find Lance’s angry, entitled jealousy infuriating, how he ends this scene feeling sad, dejected, and lonely is something I can totally understand and makes me feels sympathetic.

Krolia and Keith arrive at the quantum abyss. The music in this episode is fantastic. It’s some of my favorite in the entire series, and I listen to it often.

Krolia says that Ranveig sent a lot of probes into the quantum abyss trying to track where the quintessence came from. (So, Krolia has known for a long time about this quantum abyss as being the origin point for the quintessence in the unexpected shipments the Blades of Marmora had been tracking. If Ranveig had time to send multiple probes into the area, then Krolia had time to relay information about all this to Kolivan.) “The probes picked up a path that was relatively unaffected by space-time,” Krolia says. This statement is more bad science. Space-time is not some external force that affects you. This situation would be more the opposite of what Krolia says; instead, all the objects in the quantum abyss would affect space-time significantly, and difficulty navigating would be the result of that effect on space-time. In other words, space-time would not affect things, things affect space-time.

She says that they never found out where the path these probes mapped went because the probes were all destroyed by something, and they never identified what. It’s a little noticeable that the dialog was written to try to create tension at the idea of something threatening and destroying the probes, whereas the most likely answer would just be that the path the probes mapped was simply a dead-end. So, this dialog is kind of written to jump to a conclusion.

They are attacked by weird, spiky creatures as they begin their journey into the quantum abyss. After they start being attacked, Keith says, “Krolia, we’ve got trouble.” What a useless line of dialog; she already knows since she’s in the same small ship Keith’s in and could feel the impacts and has all the warning alarms sounding off. The creatures can phase through the matter of the ship and come inside, though Krolia can blow them up with her gun. Krolia asks Keith for ship’s status, and he initially replies, “The ship’s damaged.” You think? The thrusters are offline, and they’re starting to drift because of gravitational pull. Keith and Krolia jettison from the fighter and are left floating in space.

Keith points out that the ship had the necessary coordinates to navigate through the quantum abyss, and Krolia responds, “We’ll have to make do.” Sigh. The idea of making do regarding something this complex is absurd. She continues, “As long as we stay inside the borders of the space-time drop-offs, we should be safe.” This sentence sounds silly to me since space-time is literally everywhere. I guess “space-time drop-offs” are supposed to be areas of space-time where gravity of the nearby objects strongly warps space-time? I think it’s just the wording “drop-off” that’s odd, which has a connotation of something ceasing to be. The writing didn’t need to name it, they could have just described the gravitational affect they were moving to avoid.

Some large object in the quantum abyss explodes or something, sending out a giant blast of light. This made me realize until this point I didn’t notice that the visual depiction of this area that’s supposedly made up of neutron stars and black holes doesn’t look like it. Neutron stars, though they cease fusion, are still bright. A black hole would only be visible as a dark relief against the light of other objects. Given the closeness of these objects and the gravity in the quantum abyss tearing objects apart, there would be a lot of objects with accretion discs, which are also bright. This area is animated as incorrectly dark. Most everything here looks like just shadowy chunks of rock.

Krolia jumps between Keith and the energy radiating out from whatever exploded. I honestly have no idea what’s happening, what these explosions are supposed to be.

Keith opens his eyes to find himself in some endlessly white area that dims enough to show Krolia and his father naming him in front of Keith’s house back on Earth. He then sees a premonition of his upcoming fight with the Shiro-clone. Back to relative normal in the quantum abyss, Krolia tells Keith, “Time collapses this close to dark stars. Going through the light triggers glimpses of the past and the future.” Absolutely not. If the show wants to have Keith have visions of the past and future, that’s fine, but don’t try to give it a science-violating, half-assed explanation. The episode could have just had Keith knocked unconscious, and while unconscious, his metaphysical bond to people could have magically given him visions. But for the show to have spent so much of this episode going space-time this and space-time that to now severe time from space-time and pretend that it functions differently, when the whole point of the concept of space-time is that space and time are actually different dimensions of the same thing, this just does not work whatsoever. I don’t mind the fiction part of science fiction, but I do expect anything science-like included in science fiction to at least somewhat match up with what we know scientifically.

Meanwhile, Lance is still sad. Pidge and Hunk see him upset, and instead of being friends who care about a sad friend, they mock and bully him. I don’t think I could ever be friends with the EPs and writers of this show since this sort of behavior is what they apparently think friendship is. They want us to think that these characters care about each other, but scenes like this show that they don’t.

Things continue to happen with Keith and Krolia, and it’s staring to be uninteresting. Keith is almost spaghettified (that’s a real term for the effect of super high gravity, by the way), but he throws his blade, attached to a rope, into a rock, and Krolia pulls him out of the area where gravity was starting to spaghettify him. Absolutely not. Their muscle strength is no where even slightly close to the amount of force needed to escape that kind of gravity.

There’s another light blast, so we get to see Krolia’s past of her as part of a two-man team looking for the Lions. Her partner orders her to “call it in,” and I can’t help thinking why doesn’t he just call it in then? It’s cheap (supposed) drama. She turns on him and starts trying to blast him. She destroys his fighter, but not before hers gets hit. She crashes on Earth, conveniently right at Keith’s dad’s house. He pulls her out of the wreckage. And we’re then back in the quantum abyss, Keith now having seen that vision.

Keith has another vision of Krolia and his father having found the Blue Lion. His dad suggests the Galaxy Garrison might help them, but Krolia says no. Krolia says that she wouldn’t go back to the Galra even if she could. That she wants to stay and protect Blue.

Lance is alone in the lounge. He’s still sad and upset. The mice come in, and he reacts by saying, “Great. Are you here to make fun of me too?” So, Pidge and Hunk’s behavior earlier most definitely had the effect of bullying on Lance. He has a monologue about his past making fun of people whose hearts have been broken, seemingly taking pride in his having a past of breaking the hearts of others, but then trying to contextualize that behavior as the result of him not knowing what it felt like to truly like someone. His insecurities make a return, as he says, “I don’t have anything to offer [Allura]. I’m just a boy from Cuba, not a space prince like Lotor.” Bringing Lance’s insecurities up again just reminds me how the show does not actually resolve this element of his character. His supposed character growth sort of happens off-screen (if it happens at all). It’s more of the EPs and writers not knowing how to write character growth, so they don’t ever show it. And that’s fundamental to the story this episode is telling about Keith too.

Back to Keith and Krolia in the quantum abyss. Keith points out, “At the rate we’re going, it’s going to take us a lifetime to reach the end.” Yeah, the plot feels aimless, like miscellaneous stuff is happening just to fill time. Keith says they need a new plan, and conveniently giant space whales the two of them should have been able to see from a distance suddenly pop up next to them. Sigh.

There’s another blast of light, and Keith sees Krolia feeding him when he was an infant. Krolia’s blade glows, which alerts her to the very nearby presence of Galra scouts. This is an ability of the blade that comes out of nowhere, so more writing that has things happen just because it’s convenient for the moment. Krolia plans on using some explosives that can’t destroy the fighters, but they can damage their engines (yet said explosions do later destroy a fighter, contradicting the writing here). Keith’s dad goes to do that. Krolia goes to interrogate the scouts, though she doesn’t actually ever interrogate them. A Galra sniper has sight on Keith’s dad from a nearby ridge. He pulls the trigger of his rifle and holds it way too long before the rifle finally fires; it’s unintentionally funny. Keith’s dad is shot, and he falls to the ground.

Krolia attacks two Galra in the Blue Lion cave. The sniper comes in and aims at her, telling her to drop her weapon. She feigns surrendering before attacking them. One Galra escapes her, gets to his fighter, takes off, but then explodes as Keith’s dad finally detonates the bombs.

Back at home, Keith’s dad tucks him in. Krolia says that she has to leave. She now thinks that she can best keep the Galra from getting their hands on the Blue Lion and protect Keith and his dad by returning to the Blades of Marmora and working from the inside to stop the Galra. She gives her blade to Keith’s dad to give to Keith eventually.

Back in the quantum abyss, Keith says that he finally understands why Krolia left, that she “put the mission above all else.” She counters, “That’s not true. I left to protect the person I most love: You.” Another space whale comes by, and they maneuver to get on its back.

The space whale creates its own atmosphere because of course it does. So, Keith and Krolia can breathe on it. We then begin the montage. Out of nowhere a shining object plunges into the back of the whale that turns out to be a sleeping space wolf. There are also giant insect-like creatures on the whale, that they fight off. Keith and Krolia camp. Keith feeds the space wolf. They sleep. More light flashes, letting Krolia see Keith grieving at his father’s grave when he was young. Keith plays fetch with the space wolf. It rains (seriously, the whale has a water cycle?). The space wolf teleports.

Then the montage ends with Keith announcing that it’s been two years.

It’s really all pretty ridiculous. Yes, relativity would have an affect on time that differentiates time passing for Keith and Krolia from the time experienced by people outside of the quantum abyss (the show has never cared about temporal relativity before). The show is using this time-lapse montage to again have character growth occur off-screen. The idea that this experience causes Keith to become a better leader, as the EPs have suggested, is absolutely ridiculous. As I’ve said before, leadership is a set of skills. Like all skills, you have to practice them to get better at them. Keith living with his mom and a space wolf and having no other contact with anyone for two years is not going to improve his leadership skills. Also, the space wolf is pointless. His introduction does not have any narrative weight. It’s just part of the cliché that so many stories have that the ideal life is a boy growing up with his parents and a dog. Don’t get me wrong, I like dogs, but the space wolf’s introduction and effect on the story is so nebulous. It just feels thrown in, not like it’s something necessary for the story.

Allura collapses after having exhausted herself from touching the ship and glowing. Lotor continues to speak supportively to Allura. She then goes to her room, where she finds the mice, who’ve been given a bath by Lance. They tell Allura that Lance loves her, and Allura’s face drops. She’s clearly bothered, in a sad way, not elated by the idea. It makes her eventually ending up in a relationship with Lance seem not like the inevitable outcome of their respective character arcs because she’s not shown being interested in him. It makes that relationship when it happens feel like forced narrative.

The space whale finally makes its way to a red planet. Krolia can detect the type of quintessence Ranveig found from relatively far distant from the planet with just the computer in her arm. Technological capability really is based on whatever the writers want to happen at any given moment. It leaves me feeling unable to anticipate how the world-building of the story can be applied to the development of the plot.

Completely off-screen, Krolia, Keith, and the space wolf somehow make it off the space whale and down onto the planet’s surface. There’s a building there that looks like Galra tech and architecture. Inside, they find a door that opens to what looks like a bright, colorful planet, and in that room, they come across a blond Altean at a stream of water. Romelle.

This time at least, watching this episode doesn’t feel balanced. A lot of the time spent progressing through the quantum abyss ended up feeling like the story was idling, stuck in neutral, just waiting to finally go somewhere. I am not a fan of the time-vision, not just because it has a science-illiterate veneer, but also because it doesn’t do character work as strongly as it could have. It makes the revelations Keith has be a passive thing. He just stands there and has visions. The same content of events – Krolia coming to Earth, her relationship with Keith’s dad, why she left Earth – could have been revealed through having Keith and Krolia talking to one another, having her do the uncomfortable thing of having to tell Keith the story of her past.

The two-year time jump exists for no other reason than to allow them to have Keith’s character development happen off-screen. By scripting it to take two years, the EPs and writers know that character development takes time, but they were unwilling to give it the time it needs. The time jump is a total storytelling cheat used because they didn’t want to do the hard work of writing character development.

It is nice to have the story thread introduced seasons ago of the Blades’ tracking the unexpected shipping lines of quintessence paid off now by having Keith find where that quintessence is coming from. Unfortunately, it means the story is introducing Lotor’s Altean colony, introducing Romelle, and prepping the show to have the “surprise” revelation that Lotor’s a villain all along. I am not a fan of this plotline because it makes me feel the EPs and writers did not fully think through the implications of their writing choices. They were so narrowly focused on wanting to pull off a “surprise” twist of Lotor-is-a-villain-all-along that they didn’t care about that twist nullifying the past storytelling and character work they’ve done. Ultimately, the whole colony story and Lotor-is-a-villain is the result of the EPs and writers wanting to manipulate the audience. The problem is, most of us don’t like being manipulated.

[tartantardis]

The Four Doctors in Fiona Cumming’s Who career

(This interview was conducted in October 2013, for the Daily Record's Tartan TARDIS supplement. At the time she was retired and living with her husband Ian Fraser - another Doctor Who alumni - in Dumfries and Galloway, in the south of Scotland. Sadly, Fiona passed away in 2015. This interview is presented in full, with quite a lot that was cut from the print original)

FIONA Cumming has a Doctor Who CV to be proud of, boasting credits with the First, Second, Third and Fifth Doctors.

Indeed, when Peter Davison made his debut as the Fifth Doctor in 1981, it was Fiona, who grew up in Glasgow and Edinburgh, who was directing the story. She went on to direct three more stories with him.

But Fiona's involvement goes further back than the 1980s, having first worked on the show in 1965 as an assistant floor manager on William Hartnell tale The Massacre.

Fiona, said:"I had applied to the BBC in 1964 when they were getting ready for BBC2, and I had been accepted - but they lost my file and because I had a teaching degree, I came back up to Glasgow and started teaching at Bellahouston Academy. I can remember in 1963 when the kids came in, talking about this brilliant TV show they had seen the Saturday night before, and I said, 'What do you mean, it's set in a police box?'

"Then in 1964 I went to the BBC as a relief assistant floor manager, where you were slotted into various programmes. I was doing the twice-weekly soaps Compact and Swizzlewick, and the first time I was moved on to something different it was Doctor Who.

"I was put onto The Massacre in 1965 - so it's now 48 years since I first worked on Doctor Who. Peter Purves was William  Hartnell's assistant at that time and the director was Paddy Russell, who had such a great reputation.

"In those days, working in television was like working in a teaching hospital - you learned from the person above you, and in turn you passed it on to the person below you when you moved up the ladder

"There was a feeling of passing on knowledge, but I think now that's not that way, because people are too busy looking after their own backs, and keeping their cards very close to their chest. In those days, there was a generosity of spirit, which was quite remarkable."

A couple of years later, Fiona worked on Patrick Troughton's second adventure after succeeding William Hartnell.

She said: "By 1967 I became a Production Assistant on The Highlanders with Pat Troughton which was one of the lost stories but there is a relic which I think I've still got. It was a piece of film in a tin and in the BBC, you get moved arond from office to office, and then one day someone forwarded this to me, along with a note, saying it was ridiculous I was leaving archive material behind! What they didn't realise was that it was just me with the clapperboard!

"I loved working with Pat Troughton and teamed up again in 1969 with The Seeds of Death. I had worked on Dr Findlays Casebook with him and admired him as an actor greatly.

"In 1972 I worked on my next Who, when Jon Pertwee was the Doctor in a story called The Mutants. That was around the time they had started using CSO, and I remember Katy Manning, who played the assistant, sitting in the middle of what seemed like a lot of custard, with the yellow colour they were using. She was pretending she could see all sorts of things, but really, it was just in the middle of this yellow part of the studio."

"The next years were varied but I'd started Directing and after cutting my teeth on Z Cars, Angels and other programmes in the Drama Serials department."

Fiona was delighted when she returned to the worlds of Doctor Who, launching Peter Davison as the Doctor in 1982 story Castrovalva.

But she didn't think that the show's new star was bothered with the level of expectation being thrust upon him after succeeding Tom Baker.

She said: "With Castrovalva, I think the pressure was on me because until then, I had been doing an awful lot of classical stuff - I was used to directing people in crinolines and long skirts.

"David Maloney had offered me an episode of Blake's 7 and I felt the writer Tanith Lee had done a great script, Sarcophagus, and I thought she was a writer who  could work beautifully on Doctor Who. I sent a copy of the completed tape to John, and he did try her but it didn't work out, but out of that came his offer to direct Castrovalva.

"Because it was the first story of a new Doctor, and because it was an area that I hadn't really worked in for so long, not having done a Doctor Who since 1972, that was quite a long period of time.

"The other thing was that by that point, in 1980, the cult that had developed around Doctor Who was underway, so you were quite aware of the mantle of Doctor Who by that time.

"It wasn't so much being the first story of a new Doctor, but the pressure, I felt, was on me coming back to it.

"Peter was absolutely terrific, a real joy to work with, and we kept the feeling of family on the show, which was extremely important as well.

"I thought at that stage, and at all the times I worked with him afterwards, that Peter would have made an excellent director. He had an eye for the right kind of things and knew what was right for the programme. I thought he might go behind the scenes, but instead he perfered to stay as a performer.

"He had been doing particularly well on All Creatures Great and Small, and he already had a big following, and I thought it was a brilliant piece of casting to take a younger man and make him the Doctor.

"Nowadays, it's far more common with the likes of David Tennant and Matt Smith as the Doctor, but back then it was very unusual to have a younger Doctor. Until then he had always been an older man, with Bill Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.

"He showed it worked.

"I was very lucky with my scripts - it was nice to be able to delve into them.

"I actually got a letter from a man who had not allowed his children to watch Doctor Who, but for some reason he let them see Castrovalva and he jumped on to the fact we had featured the art of MC Escher. He found it so interesting that a children's programme like Doctor Who was looking at Escher.

"JNT (producer John Nathan-Turner) was always very good about casting his crew, as it were. He always good a good combination - he rated me as a director, but he wouldn't have put me onto something that had metal monsters - he worked to the strengths of the crew."

Fiona was back directing two stories in the show's 20th season, the first being Snakedance, which featured the TV debut of Martin Clunes. She laughed: "Doing Snakedance was lovely - I had been to Morocco and was very aware of the scenes we had in the souks, as I wanted to get the Moroccan feel for them.

"I was very lucky as John would give me carte blanche for casting, although he always kept an eye on things, but I was able to bring in people like Collette O'Neil and John Carson and leave them to do their thing as I've worked with them before and knew I can trust them, and that would leave me more time to spend with people like Jonathon Morris and Martin Clunes who were both working in television for the first time.

"I had found Martin just by flicking through the pages of The Spotlight. They used to have a dedicated to students who were just leaving their various courses, and I saw his face looking back at me. I knew the character of Lon would only work if you could equate him with being a spoiled brat who was totally self-centred, because of his extreme youth. You didn't want to dislike him, but he was totally objectionable! And Martin hit the spot, beautifully!

"The other performance I really liked was Brian Miller - I don't think I could have got anyone better."

Later that year, Fiona directed another story, Enlightenment

She said: "When I did Enlightenment, I think, at the time it was the only Doctor Who which had been written solely by a woman.

"I had originally cast Peter Sallis, but we lost him when we had to remount the story after a strike, and I brought in Keith Barron, who played it very differently.

"Peter arrived and asked, 'Where do I sit?' I told him he was the master of the ship so he would have to stand, but he said, 'No, I only do sitting parts!' I eventually convinced him the master of the ship was a standing part - but I think he was sending me up rotten!

"As a director, you have a company of actors you use regularly, and you develop a shorthand in terms of working, but if they've never done a telly before, they need to be led into it.

"When I did the remake of Enlightenment for DVD, I was able to take out what was the best in the original with the story, the acting and plot, and then go forward. I felt the model shots we had done back then really creaked and groaned to such an extent that I wanted to update them with computer graphics. I had the full box of tricks at my disposal, some 25 years on, and I was really pleased as I felt I was able to get the best out of it."

Fiona's next outing took the Doctor overseas for 1984's Planet of Fire, which was shot in Lanzarote. The location came about by chance after Fiona sent producer John Nathan-Turner a postcard from a family holiday.

"We were on holiday in Lanzarote and had the children with us. I sent JNT a postcard saying, 'Location fabulous, troglodytes willing - how about it?' I took some pictures without the children in them, just vistas, and out of that came Planet of Fire.

"In the heat, it was quite punishing, and we were trying to make sure everybody was drinking enough weather. It was not the most comfortable shoot!

"Poor Nicola (Bryant) was rolling down the jaggy rocks, and it was her first job straight out of drama school - I think she learned pretty quickly that it wasn't all glamour when you were making TV!

"But we all had a fantastic time - because we were there on a package deal, everyone was there together.

"On the days he wasn't filming, Peter Wyngarde would spread himself out on the beach, and I noticed he was always listening to music. I said to him one night, 'What's your choice of music?' He looked at me and asked what I meant. When I explained I'd seen him with his earphones on, he said: 'I'm not listening to anything - I just put the plugs in my ears so no-one disturbs me!' It's now something that I do myself if I'm on planes or whatever, if I don't want someone disturbing me.

"I went back and did a remake of Planet of Fire for the DVD release - it was interesting because I realised that they wouldn't let me into any of the areas which I'd previously worked on.

"We couldn't make it in the same way now, as the footpaths we had used back then were now just for the scientists working there.

"I liked being able to add volcanoes and fire to the long shots and to get rid of the music and just get the sound of the fire in - I appreciate it, but I think some of the fans didn't."

[mad-madam-m]

Everbody seems to be *hating* the Voltron finale, so I wanted to ask your thoughts on it.

First off, I am sorry this took so long to answer, but I’ve been stupidly, stupidly busy since even before the season aired, so I haven’t had much time to respond.

A very short version: I didn’t hate the final season. Although there are many aspects of it that disappointed me or that I wasn’t happy with, there were also many aspects that I really liked or even loved, so my feelings are mixed and bittersweet.

I think I wanted to like it more than I did, but I also didn’t hate it as much as most people did, and processing all those feelings has taken me a while and I’ve mostly stayed off social media to do it. I can handle hearing disappointment/hurt one-on-one from friends, but I absolutely cannot deal with the unfiltered wave of emotion on places like Twitter and Tumblr right now. What little of it I did see was enough to stress me out badly (and the holidays are stressful enough already, oof), so I’ve mostly been hanging out on Dreamwidth, playing a 3-sentence ficathon, or searching for Tiger & Bunny art because it’s my happy place.

So, yeah, that’s kind of my brief thoughts on season 8. If you want the (much) longer version, including a more detailed breakdown of what I liked and what I didn’t, read on:

Things I loved:

- Hunk. Y’all. I loved Hunk. My headcanon for him has always been that he either ends up opening a restaurant, or that he becomes a diplomat who uses food to help bridge the differences between alien races. To actually see that happen in canon brought me so much joy, you have no idea.

- Pidge, particularly Pidge and her mom. Every scene they had together was fantastic. I especially loved their bargaining in the Clear Day episode. The Olkraion episode was also heartbreaking.

- The entire first episode. Oh my God, I thought the first episode was hilarious. The references to the previous series had me burying my face in my pillow so I wouldn’t wake anybody up with my laughter. The mall trip was absolutely fantastic, and I adored getting to see all the girls hang out together. And the scene with Coran and Lance? Hysterical. (Also, had to love that painting of Coran and Alfor; Coran, you are not subtle at all.)

- Lance and Allura. They were fucking adorable, which still astounds me because I wouldn’t have even been close to liking this ship in seasons 1 and 2. But they were super cute together and all of their scenes were very sweet.  

- Lance and Keith having a couple of surprisingly nice conversations? I missed their bickering, but I did like getting to see them actually being friendly with each other.

- The theme that people can change and find redemption, although I don’t know that it was handled as well here as I would’ve liked (see below), it is one of my favorite themes and I do think some of the .

- Zethrid and Ezor! Alien girlfriends reunited!

- Veronica being unendingly sweet and friendly to Acxa and Acxa being awkward and not knowing how to handle that is my fucking jam, you guys. I could’ve watched another 3 episodes of that easily.

- How much Keith has grown since season 1 and him acknowledging that growth. My chest actually clenched.

- I thought the documentary episode was cute. (Although admittedly, the scenes where the dog carried the camera, I had to stop watching because they were giving me motion sickness.) And I adored Hunk making the Altean dessert for the Alteans they’d recovered.

- The Clear Day episode. Really, the light-hearted funny episodes have always been my favorites, so I liked that we got more than one this season.

- Pidge and Allura having some truly great scenes together. We don’t see the two of them together very often, and the shopping in the first episode and the episode on Olkarion were both great for that. (And Pidge helping Lance get something shiny for Allura the way he helped her get the game system in Space Mall was just wonderful.)

- Everybody getting to talk to the previous Paladins. God, my heart. Even if I wasn’t particularly happy with that part of the plot, I really did like getting to see more of all the original Paladins, and the way it felt like the story was really coming full circle.

- I choked up when Atlas and Voltron combined to form one giant dual robot. I thought they were going to leave Shiro behind for the final confrontation with Honerva, but no. I loved getting to see the six of them fighting together, side-by-side, and that Shiro was there with them for the end of it.

- The final shot of the five of them watching their Lions fly away, with the focus on Keith and Shiro together as Black’s Paladins.

- And the final final shot of the Lions and Allura in the nebula. In the original Beast King GoLion series (the Japanese series that Voltron was cribbed from), there was a goddess at the center of the universe responsible for all creation (if I’m remembering it correctly), and that’s what this reminded me of. I don’t know if that’s the implication they intended—that Allura had become the goddess—but that’s what I took from it.

Things I didn’t love:

- Not enough Shiro, and I missed the little moments with him and Keith that we’ve seen sprinkled throughout most of the seasons. (I don’t expect The Black Paladins every episode, but good lord, would it have killed them to just have a couple of minutes of Shiro and Keith walking around the Clear Day carnival together? Hanging out on the night before launch day? Hell, just put Shiro on Black with Keith and Kosmo and give them a couple of lines of conversation before Lance comes up. It wouldn’t have been hard.)

- Allura actually letting the tiny evil creature inside her and then…nothing really happens? Like?? I really thought there was going to be more of a consequence for her taking that inside her because it’s pretty clear it can’t be controlled and I was seriously thinking she was not far away from going full darkside for at least an episode. But it just…did exactly what they wanted to do and that was that?

- Where the hell did Ezor even come from?! Like, I’m a-okay that she lived, but. Uh. What? I really wish that had been better explained, especially because she apparently had a pretty significant come-to-Jesus moment sometime between season 7 and season 8. (There were several moments like this, where like…I thought someone was dead, and they turned out to be alive, or they just randomly showed up somewhere after I thought they were somewhere else. It was confusing and a little bit annoying.)

- Much as I like to see villains getting redemption, by the end of the season, it felt…overdone? Like, they brought back a lot of previous villains and almost all of them either had reformed (the Warden and Ezor, for example) or were reformed by their interactions with the heroes (Zethrid, Honerva). Redemption arcs are hard to do well and I think the problem here was that there wasn’t enough time in 13 episodes to do that many proper justice, especially for someone like Honerva, who, uh…yeah. When your main villain for the season has literally destroyed almost all of reality and gets redeemed in less time than it took me to write this sentence, it doesn’t really give that arc the importance it needs.

- I really wish they’d left all the epilogues out entirely and just had the show end with the Lions flying off at the end and our original five Paladins standing together, watching them go. The epilogues felt a little hasty and last-minute, and I have to wonder if Shiro’s in particular was added only to deal with some of the backlash they got after season 7. Which, while I can appreciate that it’s a huge deal to actually show a same-sex kiss in a children’s animated series like this, it really does come across like it was just done for the sake of scoring diversity points/dealing with the aforementioned backlash, instead of allowing Shiro to have an actual on-screen romance like Lance and Allura.

- I’m still not sure how I feel about Allura’s ending. On the one hand, I don’t hate that there was a sacrifice like that that needed to be made, and I kind of wondered if they’d do something like that since, you know, series finale, saving all realities, etc. etc. But on the other hand, I feel like it could’ve been executed/explained much better (e.g., giving Coran a chance to say good-bye to her, at the very least), and I mean. Come on. I would’ve by far preferred it if Allura lived and got to go back to help rebuild her planet/people.

So yeah. Like I said, mixed feelings overall. I had intended to rewatch the whole thing before s8 came out, but I didn’t have time, so I may do that later, once the holidays are over and I’ve binged some of the other stuff I have on my list. I’m also sure rewatching will give me a different feeling on season 8 once I see it in context with everything else, so you know. We’ll see how that goes. XD

[icypantherwrites]

Voltron Season Seven: Thoughts and Reactions

As you can see, I am out of hibernation mode ;p Just finished up a bit ago.

My thoughts in no particular order on season seven. Prepare for a few unintelligible spazzes and random questions that like, why were these not answered? Oh Voltron writers, you and your plot holes. Tagged with all of my previously mentioned ones so here goes!

Okay, so Adam? As much as I didn’t care for how he wasn’t supporting Shiro, I was excited by his role and inclusion in the story! Also, haha, I laughed because I named the one character in my Keith and Shiro backstory Adam and he’s a pilot too, haha. They definitely aren’t the same one because mine was a jerk, but I love that somehow I still got that name. (or maybe that’s how he and Shiro got to talking after Shiro confronts him for what he said to Keith? hehe. Look at me ;p)

But then. When they were mobilizing to fight the first wave I’m like, is Adam a pilot? And then we saw him and then his ship blinked out… gosh. Shiro at the wall with his name broke my heart. There’s a lot of regret there. Definitely something I wish had been further explored, but I’m not surprised they didn’t. There’s a lot that has been skipped over already.

So… Shiro has a disease that gets brought up once, never impacted him at all in the first six seasons and… never mentioned again? Er… what was the point of that exactly? (clone body not have the illness?)

Oh baby Keef. I cheered when he punched Griffin. Glad to see Griffin has grown up since then. But uh, can someone confirm for me the new cadet pilot with the glasses. Is her name… Wasabi? Usagi? And while I adore my Keith backstory this one was endearing too. And his dad died in a fire? Gosh. I had a feeling after the fireman refs but to hear it confirmed. Sad.

Where did Axca go? Like, she left the base with the Paladins and they have no resources to provide her a ship. So…? I’m curious with her popping up at the end behind Krolia and Keith at the grave… interesting. Once it was disproved that she wasn’t Keith’s twin I thought she might be Krolia’s sister but no mention when they met so… hmm. Curious and curioser. (does she like Keith? Hehe ♥ I admit I think they’re pretty asthecially pleasing together and I love Axca’s new design.)

Veronica is a fucking badass. As soon as she showed up on screen I’m like, that’s Lance’s sister. My sister was like, no, and I’m like, uh, her name is Veronica, coloring is the same including the blue eyes and in that really crappy family projection photo from season one there was a relative in a military uniform. Damn, I love her so much. Almost cried when I thought she died (twice xD). Also, her teasing Lance about Allura and her little smirk smile there? I died. So fucking cute.

This is my personal preference but I did not care for the game show episode at all, nor the “reason” behind it. There were a couple cute moments in it (all of them choosing each other to leave and I winced when Lance kept being called the dumb one and could taste the angst) but overall, my least favorite filler. And this coming from someone who adores game shows xD

The “lost in space” episode also wasn’t high on my list. I loved the idea of it and them forming a circle (that was so flipping cute) to stay together with the check ins (and a note to Keith and Krolia’s time together) but the words exchanged? I get it and didn’t mind but they never *really* resolved it. Not really. And some pretty hurtful things were said. Also, the fact they have almost fatal oxygen depletion based upon Keith’s indicator and their weary lines under their eyes, but then they literally bounce back full power to fight? Just throw the realism out the window. Just like the castle of lions losing all oxygen in a matter of hours two seasons ago xDD

How have we ever survived without the space wolf? Seriously? I’m bummed his name is not Yorak but I’ll take Cosmo. Very cute! Love how keith is waiting for the wolf to name himself. Oh, sweetie.

The Blade of Marmora luring with the Druids was delicious. Loved that bit. Glad Kolivan made it out. Wasn’t surprised when Krolia left the main cast; it was getting crowded and given that the writers have difficulty managing characters on a regular basis at times the more the less merrier.

On that note, loved Romelle in the first episode but she practically disappeared for the rest of the season. Disappointed. Thought her and Hunk were hilarious.

Same token bummed Matt was offscreen for most of it. But again, see above.

The three year time gap was interesting. Never really explained well either; pretty much I think a way for earth to get completely overrun by Galra. On that note, loved all of the Sam episodes, think the new pilots are pretty neat additions. Particularly love… Usagi? Wasabi? Kinkade too; a man of few words and I adore his name. Iverson too was a pleasant surprise and I loved his apology to Keith later and his constant backing of Sam. Also, Collen is a badass too. I do have to give credit to the writers; they make some amazingly strong female characters and it’s such a breath of fresh air (from watching YYH it was a stark reminder how things have changed over the years in terms of representation across the board on many things).

But one woman I did not care for was the Admiral. Boo hiss. I also hate that I called her turning on them as she was adamant throughout the entire thing about protecting earth in “her way” and I was waiting for this move. She did save the Paladins lives but she endangered them in the first place so… I acknowledge her desire to protect earth but am disappointed in how her character was played out. (and honestly, why the fuck would she trust Sendak to keep up his end of the deal? Why? Bit of weaker writing there).

Speaking of characters… where’s Haggar? At the end with the giant robot my sister and I were arguing who was driving it; I was Team Lotor and she was Team Haggar. Nada to both of us. Very interesting with that result too;  how was one Altean doing all that? Hmmm. And with the colony missing something is definitely up.

The Hunk family feels I was not expecting and loved them. I was glad he didn’t endanger the team anymore after he found his parents were not accessible, but dios I felt so bad. It’s hard especially to see Lnace and Pidge with their families and he with none. Loved his and Keith’s moment too. ♥ Keith was particularly awkwardly sweet and I loved it.

And Lance’s family! Gosh. Him hugging his niece and nephew broke my heart and then his being mobbed by his family stomped it into the ground with love. So. Beautiful. My boy has his family and I am so so happy.

Speaking of the families! Haha, I’m excited that I was write in that both Lance and Hunk’s families are stateside and I am going with my headcanon of Arizona (Garrison location) given how they were *right there* to be rescued. My childhood besties idea for Lance and Hunk when Lance immigrated over is still well and strong!!!

Back to Lance. I was so so so excited to see him getting some really nice shots and pieces in this season. The sword (c’mon broadsword, let’s see you come back too), the giant cannon gun, the amazing sniper shots (hoshit don’t get me started on that part, I love good sniper cover and damnnn ♥) his attempts to seat everyone in Lions (whoops xD), his stepping up to really support Keith and be second in command... just so much good stuff for my boy ♥ I was freaking out when Red didn’t come right away in the summoning thing after he and Veronica went under fire, but I’m like, Red always does things differently. And then she came in like ajdfkajfklda right when Lance was closing his eyes and thinking it was the end and just, so good. Great timing on that part.

Shiro’s new arm… loved the angst and pain as first one didn’t calibrate xD I’m terrible. I will admit I’m not sold on the design; very bulky and I dislike that it’s not attached; that’s not a proper hug! But I am happy he has one so will go with that.

Er, this is getting long. Last few.

How was Shiro breathing in space in fight against sendak? Someone, please tell me. But also yesss, loved that the two of them had a final fight. Brings back memories. When Keith saved him I really wanted a throwback to the “as many times as it takes” but alas, no go.

On Sendak… is he the main big bad? He sure has quite the Galra fleet. How do Ezor and Zethrid’s turn to piracy factor in? Was expecting something else with Lotor given their mentions of him early on. Is space just one giant war out there right now? We never really found out any details and here I was expecting Axca to fill us in.

The Atlas turning into its own Voltron was super cool. Loved all of the fight scenes although I admit I get bored with all the constant blasts so would have liked those shortened down and more character stuff, but it is a show geared for little kids so… boom boom pow.

The very end speech via Shiro had me on my toes as I didn’t think any of our team died but I was legit slowly starting to panic that somehow the new cadets were going to be the new Voltron pilots because ours were unavailable Phew, not the case! Loved the little hospital scenes popping around, particularly Lance’s nephew wearing his helmet and then Keith waking up to Krolia there. Oh, and Matt getting a hug from his mom! (and that ponytail! ♥ I love guys with a nice ponytail, mm, weakness).

Overall giving this season a 7/10 rating. Not my lowest, definitely not my highest. Very much appreciated though having a longer season to watch.

If you have thoughts feel free to comment on the post! I will not be posting any asks with spoilers in the ask until next Saturday though so best way to get a response is comment here. What did you all think of the season?

[ganymedesclock]

Something I’ve been thinking of for a while is s5e5, an episode very much Heavily About Family, opens with Sam Holt leaving for Earth and saying goodbye to Pidge and Matt, and then Hunk gives him something to give to all of their families, and basically, it tells us more than we heard before about the paladins.

Most of the new information is from Lance and Hunk, because we already know Pidge���s family situation and Keith isn’t present- Hunk suggests he has a single mother (“so that’s for mom’s eyes only”) and Lance gives us the names of his three older siblings (Marco, Luis, and Veronica).

But interestingly enough, who does Shiro mention, but Commander Iverson. And yes, the specific mention is “tell Iverson I’m gonna punch him for tying me to that table” but that in and of itself caught my attention because... since when does Shiro address superior officers like that? He’s known Allura for something like a year now and still mostly calls her “Princess” respectfully.

But he doesn’t even put a “commander” in there for Iverson the way he does for Sam.

And that occurred to me that...

We know Iverson was one of the people in the unit- the dialogue at the bottom of the screen is him. And there’s a few interesting things here:

I’m pretty sure actually suiting up like a med tech and personally being in the unit is pretty not Iverson’s actual standing and job description. He’s a piloting teacher, which would suggest his credentials are a pilot, and he’s not handling any medical equipment here.

The complete lack of formality goes both ways- Iverson very pointedly calls him “Shiro”- not his full first or last name, but a nickname. Nickname specifically used by Shiro’s friends.

Iverson is the guy on the left here- the guy who Shiro is looking straight at, and who has his hand on Shiro’s arm. Seconds later, one of the other med techs has to point out the arm Iverson is holding right there in that picture was replaced with an alien mechanism. Even though he has his hand on Shiro’s elbow. And would logically notice that this doesn’t feel like an arm.

So I have to wonder if Shiro and Iverson were particularly close? Keaton’s said in interviews his headcanon was Shiro was raised only by a grandparent and probably lost that person a while before meeting Keith, but while the scene in the unit looks kind of bad...

You have to remember the Garrison pretty clearly doesn’t hate Shiro at all. He’s never singled out with the Kerberos mission, and Lance, who’s only heard the Garrison side of things, says that Shiro is his personal hero. Furthermore the disappearance announcement shows both Sam and Matt in space suits- but Shiro in his Garrison uniform, almost definitely to show off that medal pinned to his chest.

Pidge in s3e1 states that Shiro was a “legend” in her house, so we have at least one Garrison Commander that thought the world of Shiro.

And Iverson? Iverson’s cold and snappy, but he also blows up about Kerberos. When Pidge doing the same thing is supposed to tell us she lost people she cared deeply about to the mission, Iverson matches her snarl for snarl in that scene, even when, in other scenes, we see that he’s not as temperamental as his drill sergeant antics suggest.

If anything, the flashback shows us that Iverson obviously hesitated to throw the book at Pidge even when she was compromising sensitive government information with her search for her family. She was, y’know, banned from the Garrison, rather than arrested.

In s1e1, while he’s looking at the Blue Lion with a colleague, the other person gives him a very blatantly smart-aleck answer and Iverson just sort of puts his hands on his hips indifferently.

Even chewing out the team, he’s snappy, but doesn’t have any real heat or venom to it until Pidge sets him off about Kerberos, and once Lance redirects it, that’s when Iverson rounds on him.

So the obvious question is why wasn’t Shiro reassured by him in the unit, if they were that close? And why wouldn’t Iverson listen to him?

Well, you have to consider the way Shiro’s acting in this scene is wildly unlike him. This is something I’ve said before, but Shiro doesn’t exactly put a good foot forwards for the team working on him to drop everything, especially quarantine protocols that are there to protect him and others, to go looking for something on his behest.

This is someone who is usually levelheaded, calm, and approachable. He is currently screaming, admits to being heavily disoriented (he has no idea how much time has passed since his disappearance) has the scars from one or two healed head injuries and is bodily fastened to an unknown piece of technology.

Considering they likely didn’t tie Shiro down to the gurney when he was awake, he was probably unconscious when the team pulled him out of the pod in the first place- which, if you pulled an unconscious person out of a car crash and they woke up screaming and thrashing enough that without intervention they’d slam their head on the gurney and hurt themselves, you’re not going to put much stock into them yelling about aliens.

Yes, Shiro has more things to make the specific aliens thing sound more credible, but Iverson has no reason to believe that Shiro’s claim that they have no time is his usual prudent thinking. If anything, knowing Shiro personally would probably make him more likely to make that call- Shiro is so upset and so panicked that anything that can make the quarantine less awful on him has to be a good idea, especially if, by Iverson’s own explicit reasoning, Shiro’s potentially a danger to himself and others.

I’m surprised at how much people discredit “Put him under until we know what that thing is capable of” if we consider the second time in s1e1 someone pushes Shiro near a panic attack threshold, ‘that thing’ lights up and proves to be a devastating strength laser cutter that’s also able to hurt Shiro himself.

Iverson was completely right about the prosthetic. That doesn’t mean he was endeavoring to lock Shiro in a basement and unperson him. If the gang hadn’t broken Shiro out, it’s almost a definite bet they would’ve cleared quarantine, got Shiro into a more comfortable, livable environment, and wait for him to sleep off the sedative before having a more organized debriefing.

Because, again, Shiro flat-out said he had no idea how much time had passed and was screaming about aliens. This isn’t an environment where literally anyone concerned with the clarity of the ensuing report would ask for one.

And again, Shiro’s awfully cavalier about bringing it up to Iverson, even through Sam as a proxy, which, if Shiro feels like someone has been seriously morally wronged here he tends to be a lot less in good humor about it.

But this leads to something interesting: Iverson and Keith.

Because Keith is a subject Iverson seems to take personally. He’s quick to talk up Keith as a very promising candidate and someone whose “discipline issue” he’s still mad about- and if there’s something to the writer comment that Iverson’s closed eye was part of that discipline issue...

It’s noteworthy that I don’t think we’ve ever seen Keith physically lash out at someone out of anger. He’s pretty easily set off verbally, but- we haven’t seen him even come close to punching someone.

Which would suggest, if Keith argued with Iverson over Shiro, not only was he already incredibly cut up about it, but, this was probably a pretty intense argument. Not something someone being a callous drill sergeant type would be able to set off.

But then I remembered s3e1- and Keith specifically being angry at the rest of the team because he felt like none of them were missing Shiro.

Why?

Because they were acting on other responsibilities.

Iverson is the highest-ranking person we’ve seen in the Garrison. There are probably ranks above Commander (possibly that woman Lance spotted leaving the unit) but Iverson’s still pretty high up the chain of command. He has a lot of responsibilities... and his overall gruffness and distant high standards suggest he’s not someone who wears his hurt on his sleeve.

There’s an easy setup here where Keith tends to be kind of socially oblivious, and especially he tends to be, again, sometimes blind to how much other people care about something. So if Iverson and Keith were both close to Shiro, I can see Keith feeling like Iverson doesn’t care afterwards.

And Iverson... If Iverson’s close to Shiro, it’s very likely that part of the reason Iverson was focused on Keith enough to potentially confront him after Kerberos was because it may well have been Shiro who got Iverson to give Keith a chance. Shiro who put the bug in his ear about this guy. And Keith definitely seems to have been floundering, hard, once he lost Shiro.

I can see Iverson losing patience with this kid because it feels like right after losing Shiro he’s throwing away everything Shiro tried to give him- especially if Iverson was grieving himself and Keith didn’t. recognize that. It’d be a perfect storm kind of situation.

(And again, if Keith hit Iverson hard enough to damage one of his eyes... much like with Pidge, there’s got to be a reason Iverson didn’t, y’know, get Keith arrested for assault)

[lady-d-ac]

Voltron Legendary Defender Deserved Bette

Dear Voltron Fans Voltron Legendary Defender Deserved Better now I say it's the writer's fault or that it's DreamWorks because frankly, I have no idea at this point.

But I will say is that starting Voltron with the very first season I thought it was tremendous, but I slowly watched it go from third to two thirds from bad to worse.  In the beginning, you could tell that the writing was focused clear and neat and you could feel the rush after us being more rushed after season three. And yes after reading, ... Comment link in the description below that they did lose some decent writers for the series and they were also rushing it out towards the middle to final parts of the seasons. I particularly felt they were out of ideas by season seven, That was the worst season for so many other reasons than killing off Adem, But I'll get to that further on. In the meantime, the big disappointments I feel happened, are the many missed opportunities they could talk but didn't, lack of world building and lack of character development and relationships.

Particularly in lance's character development, in the beginning, he was going to laugh more a lot more but that was left out.  I just shame because he really had some good foundations for a strong character. Lance acts arrogant and cocky but beneath that he's insecure, scared but is brave and willing to sacrifice his life for others, Lance is the kind of person who put aside his fears it and wants for the good of others and frankly I just feel like his character potential was wasted throughout the series. Not to mention how his" friends" Pidge and Hunk treated him but that's a topic on the whole other level.

Mainly the character relationships between the teammates, Season 1&2 were all we really got with development between the characters and their relationships, and really was a light touch on the subject but not much.

Of course, we were all curious what was Keith's relationship with Shiro?

What was Lance's rivalry with Keith really about?

Would Pidge and Lance developer brotherly-sisterly relationship with one another and the loss and separation of their family members, and what kind of relationship with the be like?  Would blossom into a small romance?

Would lone Wolf Keith eventually become comfortable with his teammates and open up about his traumatic past with the other members about his life and becoming a better team player?

Would they ever find Matt Prof. Holt alive, and if so what with their feelings beyond the aliens after being violently abducted versus their dreams of meeting intelligent life, how would this affect professor holds you on the universe after this?

Who's Keith's mother and whatever happened to his father? This is disappearance have something to do with the galaxy Garrison? Where is Shiro? And what happened to him? would Shiro and Allura have a relationship with what few tender moments they had on-screen? We ever get to see Allura is passed on Altea?

And what happened to Shiro during his time as a Galra prisoner. Why was Hagger trying to make and so strong, and how much experimenting did she do? Was he so similar to Altans was she trying to infuse his genetics with what Altan DNA she had left? Why Shira going to be an experimental hybrid between human and Altan DNA?

Did King Alfor secretly build a six lion, the white lion?

What was the galaxy Garrison really up to, especially Commander Irvington and he seemed to have so many secrets and want to keep a lid on them?

Did the galaxy Garrison had ulterior motives? Was there something more nefarious going on there? And how much do they really know about alien life? Was there it a secret organization behind the whole thing. Was Dare I say, the ancient villains Galactor somehow involved in the now globalized government military system, pushing things forward for their own benefit behind-the-scenes, and with this lead to the legendary team-up of GForce with Voltron, and somehow the Macross consortium.

(Though I know this last paragraph is fan wishing)

All these questions were answered never because most of them never happened. Yes, we got Shiro and Keith's backstory. We got to meet Keith's mother and find out the fate of his father which in my opinion was sad but not really what I was led to believe based on the episode the Blade of Mamora, in which keep this up to see his father, but is not shot that he's alive again considering he's compound dead in the later seasons. We also at least get to see how case parents met but it just doesn't go into too much detail about that either. For instance we seek will only as reaction was she being saved from the shuttle that's good, but what about a reaction after she regained full consciousness, her reaction to her pregnancy, her spending more than just a few minutes of screen time with baby Keith, all this would have a lot more depth to the relationship between Krolya and Keith's father's as well as their son. I'm not saying they should have done a whole relationship thing throughout the episode, but a bit more than what they gave us would've been nice.

As for Lance and  Pidge's relationship, it completely disappears after season three. We seen Pidge still getting jealous over Lance is flirting and self-idolization with beautiful girls in the first episode of season three, but after this, we really don't see much more of it leaving the question what happened. We know that Jaquam De Santos and Lauren Montgomery of specified that while all more rise the girl Lance wants she's not exactly the girl Lance needs and with the way the relationships were going we could assume that Implied the back girl could be Pidge. Yet after all of this, we just see them growing more and more a part as the series progresses and not in a good way. Later in the season it's obvious he feels bad the Laura's going after load tour despite the fact he claimed in his “ unquote” interview” that there are plenty of fish in the sea and that is by not settling for one girl, (yes I know there are many inconsistencies in the script) yet here he is moping and clearly upset about it, while Pidge and His Best Friend, Hunk Rob into his face that the Prince and Princess will be getting into a relationship together. And they do nothing to lighten his mood a little bit about it, that just basically making fun of him without any remorse or empathy for how he feels. And this is supposed to be the team that is supposed to have such a strong team bonding can take five mystical lion robots and combine them form a super giant robot? What the heck!

Of course, Keith gets more distant from the team instead of getting close to them. While yes it was the fault of a fake Shiro, Wouldn't he have a stronger bond with Shiro after the years he's known him to know that there was something off about this Shiro? I'm just saying the relationships for a long time tend to notice problems even small ones. But then again the two producers have shown they can't really write relationships well. 

That aside, I really think that during Shiro's disappearance this was a great opportunity for the team to get know each other better and bond more, 

Allura could have gotten to know Pidge better than what her life on Earth was like. Her past experiences with her not so great male classmates and teachers. How page feels about herself, what she likes what she dislikes, and in turn, she could learn a lot about a Laura and how she had to deal with things, what life is like to be the Princess of the entire planet and the responsibilities that came with it. How they dealt with things and how they could learn from each other how they could handle it in the future.

Lance hunk and Keith could've all gotten to know each other a little better. Lance could've learned Keith despite being the best in his class did not come from perfect life. He lost his only family member at a young age and had basically lived from foster home to foster home, dating a distrust of people and a cold distant Attitude because of it. Keith could've learned about both Lance and hunks families, how even though they came from big families they still have their difficulties as well as their joys. How being the younger sibling can be somewhat adult indulging but being the uncles that they are, is a big responsibility. And it could warm up to Keith by offering him to come to spend not next holiday with their family when they return to Earth. This would also really be a great opportunity for Lance because despite his rivalry with Keith he sees a twice been hard for him and he reveals that he's insecure about his status at the Garrison because his older siblings are much more accomplished than he is. And he Felt he should be just as good as Keith, in order to prove that he was worth something not just everyone but himself. And this helped break down a lot of barriers between him and Keith's cold relationship. As well as hunk having a better time understanding Keith knows how to relate to him better and is able to form a better bond.

Keith and then Pidge could have a bonding moment because they were both disrespected by their teachers one for being a bit too smart and the other for being a bit too brash. It also would've helped that they had a bonding moment with a Laura over the missing she wrote as a Laura had obviously befriended him, and page knew him as a friend of the family and how we both meant something to each of them.

Instead, most of these potential ideas were pushed to the sidelines in favor of moving on for Rush plot with some not so good episodes will step away from that for now and explain what happened to Shiro in the meantime. What we don't learn much about the experiments that were done to Shiro, we do know that his owner was used to make clones of him. How when why was this done? we have yet to get an answer!

We also learn that Shiro was, in fact, gay, and a former lover on earth but broken off because of his drive for the stars which is understandable, but we also learn that he has a terminal illness that is slowly shutting down his muscles and going to eventually kill him at the beginning of the seventh season. And it would great if we had this all the way back in the know the second season when he disappeared and apparently DIED! But also apparently there were three more episodes edited each season that were cut after certain riders left the show makes you wonder doesn't it, what they really did have a plan for the reveal. And it's not that I don't have anything against Shiro being gay it's just I like I said earlier, I would have loved for them to show signs of that earlier. according to what I've heard from the writers they had planned to make him gay and kill him off before the execs told them it wasn't a good idea. And frankly I agree with that, as it was not obviously the best writing idea to kill off a gay character in a supposedly positive modern action cartoon, if anything that shows that you're still stuck in the 70s and you're not with the times if you're going to be killing off the LBGT characters.

Frankly, I would've loved that Shiro is bisexual, and have a lightly explored relationship between his love for Allura in his former fiancé Adam. Heck even a Laura Adam having a conversation about top issues behavior is a leader and how I felt it was just too rash for him but that's what Allura loves about Shiro, how she's not so different from him herself and how need this strength from each other to push forward for the better.

But I think the biggest missed opportunity, especially from how they set it up, was not making the galaxy Garrison and enemy or at least a threat. There were hints in the first season that they were hiding something, they knew something was wrong on the Kerberos mission and it wasn't the pilot error. And it went through great lengths to hide it, even going so far as to ban the future grapevine that would've been a great asset to them from the base merely because she wanted to find out what happened to her family. They could have secret ulterior motives to try to steal some of the alien technology to push their own to make later expansions to the universe for the human race. Maybe they could've had their own ideas for Galactic conquest, or better yet had a secret agreement with the Galra military or possibly even connections thought Price Lotor himself. True there could've been some who wish to just protect the planet but it was so much more interesting having them as the bad guys. That's why was hoping the Gallactor was secretly running the Galaxy Garrison. I mean what else would you have a militarizing space program conveniently located all over the world. Conveniently making the galaxy Garrison the only world defense it's very suspicious.

All and all there was so much room for this kind of development but in the end of for one reason or another, they just didn't do it. I don't know why they did it this way and not 100% sure if it was the rush, executive pushing deadlines, saying some things were unnecessary, but what I do know is that the show could have been great. The show could really been something amazing, something different from all its predecessors,  something unique, something special. But in the end all it seems to me is that it's going to be a spectacular flop. Season eight debuts tomorrow and I don't know if any of you viewers will have the strength to read this beforehand as I know some of you will stay up late watching midnight (me I'm waiting till the morning). But I just hope your first and final viewing experience of this series isn't total garbage. But if it is, there is one solution find out all we can about the series before and after it was written, and do a rewrite of the series. We can do a crowd funder, signed petitions, right our own fan fiction and make our own comics of the series. Let's just remember even if it's not what we wanted we still have the fanscape to express how we feel about the series and how it made us feel. Happy viewing to a season eight

[cait-el]

Keith Analysis - Season 3

Pre S1E1 + Introduction / Season One / Season Two / Season Three / Season Four / Season Five

I highly recommend reading the rest of the posts in this series to get the most out of this! But here’s my take on Keith’s role in VLD Season three!

Season Three

Boy oh boy, does S3e1 have a lot to unpack. Let’s start at the very end of S2/ the beginning of S3 where we see Keith up in arms about the fact that Shiro is gone. By this point, I’ve already established that Shiro is as close to an actual family that Keith’s got, so of course he’s upset. Also, this upset of normal is just another nail in the coffin that is Keith’s sense of safety. He was finally feeling like he had a place on Voltron, then the whole half-Galra thing happened, and that was sort of solved in Allura’s apology, but with losing Shiro, Keith is losing his own sense of validity. Season 3 will be about re-establishing that in his own way, without Shiro there to back him. It’s a huge opportunity for character growth.

Brief Lance Note

Another really good scene in S3e1 is during the fight on Planet Puig with Lance, Hunk, and the Blade of Marmora. Firstly, we have Lance starting to feel the pressure of being the face of a team that’s falling apart at the seams. He’s supposed to be the glue of Voltron or the light-spirited one that keeps things happy. Now that Voltron can’t really form, he’s starting to feel that pressure now more than ever.

We also have discrimination against the Blade for being Galra, which is understandable, but demonstrative of systematic racism/oppression. No wonder Keith feels so lost; he’s literally at the center of all of that!

Back to Keith

This is the instance that I referenced at the very beginning of this whole thing where Keith says that he won’t give up on Shiro because Shiro was one of the only people that never gave up on him. I think that startles the other paladins a little bit because they’re finally realizing that Keith isn’t just some “lone wolf” who’s full of shit. Yes, he can be volatile, but he’s really hurting now, which is demonstrated when he blows up at the diplomacy dinner.

The most important part about Keith’s outburst is what happens afterwards – this will draw on a little bit of Lance’s development as well, so bear with me. At the very end of the episode, we have Keith staring at the black lion, with the other paladins standing awkwardly in the background. They all look to Lance, who is the first to step forward and tell Keith it’s alright to be hurting.

Pidge, Hunk, Allura, and Coran jump in with their own anecdotes about how they feel about suggesting to replace someone who seems irreplaceable, but it’s Lance tying everything together that makes Keith take a deep breath and decide that he’s being irrational. This is the first in a long arc in season three that establishes Lance and Keith’s relationship in a way that goes beyond just a romantic ship. I’m going to return to what I talked about in season one with Keith having a borderline crush on Lance, which I still stand by. In season one, it was all fun and games. In season two, Keith had a lot of his own stuff to worry about with the Blade, but he had Shiro to talk to about it, both the Galra stuff and the Lance stuff, so it didn’t seem as overwhelming.

Now that Shiro’s gone, Keith is looking for something to fill the rapidly growing void that’s sucking away his sense of validation and trust, and he’ll find it in Lance, but most importantly, in himself, and I’ll prove that with my analysis of the rest of S3.

And just for fun, here are my two cents on Lotor’s introduction

Lotor is one of my favorite characters for a few different reasons that are established in this episode. Firstly, he’s crafty. He had Ezor watch Throk, and then used that to call him out in front of the whole crowd. He’s the embodiment of the honest and martyr-like villain (which will play into his romance line with Allura later, but that’s not for a while) in that he preaches that what he does will be good for the universe because it fosters loyalty rather than fear. Secondly, he’s charismatic as all fuck. He’s the villain that says “okay, I’m going to write down everything I’m about to do on a piece of paper and give it to you. You’ll know my entire plan. Will that stop me from completing it? You can bet the fuck not.” And he’s right. Even I believed him! When I first watched it, I was like “yeah, okay, this guy could actually be a good king.”

And then, the kicker, he gives all this confidence to Throk, and then demotes him to the farthest reaches of the empire under the impression that he just got this huge promotion. That’s savage. Lotor is so good at what he does. I’m thrilled to see what he does next for the sheer cleverness of it.

Back to Keith/Lance – I’m just going to start referring to them jointly for now because here’s where they start to become super intertwined

Man, S3 literally has so much in the way of character development that I’m only on the second episode and I already have so much to say. Let’s start with the discussion of who should pilot the black lion while in the lounge of the Castle. Pidge points out that everyone has their “thing,” and she calls Lance the goofball, which he doesn’t take well to (remember S2e10). He calls himself a ninja sharpshooter, to which Keith responds with “is that a joke?” Honestly he probably shouldn’t have poked the dragon, but I do believe he meant it in a good way. His eyes were nice and he was smiling. Lance was just feeling particularly insecure at that moment. Payback for S1e6 when Lance totally invalidated Keith’s tiny advance. Ugh, boys.

Anyways, Lance says that he would never follow Keith as a leader in retaliation, which sparks an argument and triggers Keith to say “that’s just what Shiro wanted.” This puts Keith in kind of a tough spot; it’s not that he’s against piloting the black lion, he just doesn’t want to 1) undermine Shiro, who is his idol, and 2) he’s afraid he can’t be what everyone needs him to be – he can hardly be what he needs for himself. This is reflected in the moment where he actually enters the black lion. While everyone else was thinking of themselves (except Lance, but I’ll get to that in a second), what caused the lion to awaken for Keith was Keith saying (about Shiro) “I can’t lead them like you.” This is the beginning of Keith learning to respect himself outside of what others project on to him.

However, he still doesn’t want to accept it. This is where Lance comes in. Lance literally tried so hard to be the one to take up responsibility of the black lion, but not for himself. This becomes apparent when he yields to Keith. Everyone is appalled at Keith’s objection to the lion even though it chose him, except Lance. Lance steps up, puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder, and tells Keith he can do it. And Keith actually listens. This shows that Keith responds well to respect; he just doesn’t have a lot of it for himself yet.

When Keith actually goes to fly the lion for the first time, he does so by saying “this one’s for you, Shiro.” This hearkens back to the idea of Keith being a self-imposed martyr – he justifies doing things for himself through the lens of doing things for others. This will be the season that subverts that, though, which I will discuss once I get to the end of the episode.

Now back to Lance for a moment. Blue shuts him out (quick interlude for some cute headcanon: Lance has referred to his lion as male in the past, but in order to get Blue to open up, he hits on the lion like he would presumably hit on a girl, as he is so famous for. Does this provide evidence that Lance is bi? Maybe if you squint and tilt your head to one side. It’s something to think about anyways). Then, which lion calls to him? Red, of course! Lance being Keith’s right hand is really elevating their relationship – it plays perfectly into all of their other interactions. They’re a messy team, but a team all the same, and they each need the other to properly function.

Also, something that starts in this episode and will continue through S5 is Lance’s reflection of Alfor and Altean values. Keith is a reflection of Galran values; this has already been made abundantly clear. We’re just setting up another parallel between the two and further entwining their paths in some way. Also, more of Lance’s insecurities show when he’s actually considering that he may not even have a contribution to the team as he originally thought, that he might just be “the goofball.” This starts to show a self confidence issue that is far from being resolved. He’ll definitely need a little help with that one. Luckily, he’s just starting to form a relationship with a little emo boy who is legitimately built out of insecurities and MCR. It’s beautiful. One last thing about Lance in S3E2 is that he says at the end “sometimes what you want is not necessarily what you get,” and I think this is starting to reference his shift in viewing Allura as an object for romance to a friend and true teammate, which is something we’ll see more of in S4 and 5.

And finally, Keith grows a lot during that battle, especially towards the end when he makes that terrible decision and rockets off to track Lotor without consulting the team. But here’s the thing about that scene: Keith made that decision of his own accord and not because he was trying to emulate Shiro. His whole arc in S3 is learning how to accept himself as a valid leader, and this is just the beginning of that. While I want to whack him over the head with a stick for putting everyone else in danger, at least he’s trying.

And now, a word on Lotor in S3E2

Lotor, you mother fucker. First, he says “mercy has never been the way of the galra…until now.” Again with the craftiness! And his whole role in S3E2 was just to gather intel on Voltron by using their need to protect to draw them out and force them to work as a team. What he doesn’t realize, though, is in forcing the paladins to make up for their shortcomings, he’s acting as a foil to the whole team. Without being pressed by Lotor, Allura and Lance would have never figured out that they needed to pilot different lions. This is the beginning to a long storyline of Lotor and Voltron working together that doesn’t actually get played out until S5.

Back to Keith/Lance

S3E3 takes us to the first real instance of the new team of paladins working under Keith’s leadership, and it’s pretty much a mess from the beginning. What I appreciate about this episode is that it further develops the bond between Lance and Keith as a team and as people, starting with Lance’s immediate opposition to entering Thaeserix (the gas planet that fucks up everyone’s sensors.) We have Keith barreling through and getting everyone lost until Allura finally can’t keep up and gets separated. Everyone’s freaking out, and Lance is the one to tell Keith they need to go back, and he finally does. As demonstrated before, Keith listens to Lance before he listens to the others. This shows that Keith has some measure of respect for Lance.

They rescue Allura, but Keith is still all hot for battle and continues forward, getting the team separated even further until it’s just him and Lance. This is the first time where Keith actually admits that he messed up, and he hits a low point for a second. He voices his concern to Lance, who responds perfectly, saying “yeah, you fucked up. But hey, we’ll fix it together.” This is what inspires Keith to keep going, and the team can eventually form Voltron because Keith is actually starting to think like a leader, and not just because of the leader Shiro was. He’s starting to become his own leader. He couldn’t have done it without Lance.

My favorite part is the cute line at the end where everyone is ragging on Lance for being dumb (not true btw, Lance is very intelligent and kind, he just has some self confidence issues, so shame on the other paladins for taking advantage of that), and Keith says “I’m glad we’re all making fun of Lance, but we have a job to do,” or something along those lines. It’s the look in Keith’s eyes that gets me; he’s teasing Lance, but not in the same way as the others. He’s really grateful to have the blue paladin there for support. It’s a different type of support than he’s received in the past; from Shiro it was support of an upper, someone he idolizes and thus tries to emulate. From Lance, it’s support from an equal, so it’s an even stronger sense of self-validation, which is something that Keith really needs at this point.

A quick note: in the episode where they enter the alternate reality and find Sven and Slav, Keith all of the sudden has the black bayard and Lance has the red bayard. When did that happen? That seemed to come out of nowhere, but I think it’s an important thing to note, especially when we get to some of the symbolism in terms of the past paladins at the end of this season. This episode also has good evidence of Keith stepping into the leadership role, which he will continue to develop over the next few episodes. I’m also glad that Keith was able to find Shiro, but as I’ll discuss in the next few paragraphs, I think he senses that something is not quite right.

The Symbolism of 6

I’m about to discuss S3E6, but begore I get into that, I’d like to talk a little bit about the symbolism of the number six as it relates to Keith and Lance’s relationship. Coran says pretty early on that he’s ordered the paladins by height, most notably calling Pidge “number five.” He doesn’t ever refer to the other paladins by these number names, but that implies that they all have a number (and they all have pretty distinguishing heights). Shiro is the tallest and the leader; he’s number one. Lance is the next tallest; he’s number two. Then comes Hunk, then Keith. Keith is number four. What’s four plus two? Six.

I already talked at length about the importance of S1E6 to Keith and Lance, with this being the first instance where Keith realizes he may have feelings for Lance (the “I cradled you in my arms!” moment). In season two, the distinction isn’t quite as obvious, but we see Lance questioning Keith running off with Allura. Granted, this is probably canonically related to Lance’s “crush” on Allura (which I’ll discuss a little more come season four and five), but the fact that he’s asking if the two of them are together and he’s so bent up about Keith doing anything with Allura could be in reference to his conflicted rivalry feelings towards Keith in the first place. He probably doesn’t realize it, but he’s just as annoyed at the idea of Keith being with someone as he is at the idea of Allura being with someone (hint: he’s bi /like meeeee!/).

Anyways, now we have S3E6, which has, in my opinion, one of the most important Klance scenes so far (save maybe the pool scene, but that was just too too cute so does it really count?).

Season Three, Episode Six

We open from Lance’s POV as he’s acting sniper for the rest of the team. He’s about to take someone out when Keith rushes in with some sword badassery (“Hey, Keith! I had that guy!”). He keeps the scope on Keith for a little while, then watches Allura do some crazy stunts with her whip, to be met with “Well, that was awesome!” Similar to what I was talking about back in S2E6, this is a neat parallel drawn between Lance’s feelings for both the red paladin and the pink paladin. This, in conjunction with the sheer symbolism of colors (red/blue/pink), practically seeps with Lance being bisexual.

Anyways, now that we have Shiro back, this episode throws a wrench into the leadership dynamic that Keith has built for himself. Throwback to season two where everything was going fine until he found out about his Galra blood, this is another instance of regression for Keith. He spent all that time building up his confidence and leadership skills, only to now butt heads with Shiro. Actually, he doesn’t even really butt heads; he yields. He completely yields the black lion to Shiro. Coincidentally, Shiro can’t use the black lion right away, and I think that might have something to do with the whole Clone Shiro arc (which I honestly still don’t understand completely, so I’m going to keep my theorizing about that to a minimum). It’s a complete back swing to his seeing himself as an invalid leader (“they need you, you know” – Keith is once again isolating himself from the other paladins in favor of doing what he thinks is right for the team and placing himself at a disadvantage).

This is interesting when we get to the major Klance scene, and I’m pretty sure you know where I’m going with this: Lance voicing his concern to Keith. Initiall, Keith is surprised at Lance’s advance, but he’s very accepting of it. It’s an interesting side to keith’s character that we haven’t necessarily seen yet. He’s soft and kind of flustered at the whole thing, which is sO cute.

Lance, on the other hand, is being so brave by voicing these concerns in the first place. We’ve seen multiple occasions of him wanting to be on team Voltron (for glory, for recognition, for the universe, etc – we saw this when he tried to pilot the black lion), but he’s willing to give all of it up if it’s what’s best for the team. Remind you of anyone? Yes, Keith!

Keith is appalled by this and instantly shuts it down, telling Lance not to worry about who pilots what. I think he’s surprised that Lance trusts him so much, but that trust gives Keith confidence. As we’ve seen, Keith responds to trust very well, even enough to make a joke (leave the math to Pidge + a bonus Klance smile). I also believe that he’s telling Lance these things just as much to comfort him as it is to comfort himself; he cares about Lance, and he doesn’t want him to leave. We see that in Keith’s initially reaction (“What are you talking about?!”). Another important line in this scene is Lance’s “this isn’t a participation game. This is war and you want you best soldiers on the front line.” Judging from Keith’s reaction, Keith honestly believes that Lance is one of their best warriors; he values Lance’s place on the team and wouldn’t think of jeopardizing that for a second. Overall, this scene was great. It had Lance’s vulnerability, and it’s the first time another member of the team has recognized that and actively comforted him for it. This will be important to remember once Keith leaves and Lance doesn’t have anyone to talk to about it anymore.

Also, when the Paladins are fighting Lotor’s generals, Keith is blindsided by Acxa, but then he is saved by a good shot from Lance and a reassuring “I’ve got you, buddy!” They really have bonded trust-wise. If romance does come out of this, it will definitely be a slow burn, built on a strong bond of vulnerability and trust. And the smile Keith gives Lance after that interaction! I headcanon that at this point he’s over his initial crush and is instead seeing Lance as a real person and teammate that he cares for deeply. Lance’s faith in him is a beacon of strength and light in a particularly dark time. And Keith switching hands with the bayard? That’s some cool shit. He just keeps getting better and better.

Side note for Keith and Acxa: I’ve seen the theories where they are siblings, but I don’t know if I buy it. We know virtually nothing about Acxa’s past except that she somehow got trapped in the stomach of a weblum for who knows how long until Keith rescued her. It’s just not enough for me to see them as related. If ANYTHING, they could be half siblings since we don’t know anything about Krolia yet either except that she’s a deep cover agent for the Blade. This versus the literal ten pages I’ve written on Klance thus far.

Okay, now back to Keith’s leadership conflict. It’s especially apparent when he starts arguing with Shiro about taking out Lotor on the recon mission. He shows off some of his old colors by wanting to run off on his own, but then listens when the team tells him to stick together. What’s important, though, is that Keith doesn’t completely give in to Shiro. In choosing between taking out Lotor’s ship and taking out the cargo ship, Keith makes a snap choice, against Shiro’s wishes, that targets both. He’s a good leader, and he’s making good decisions. The rest of the team just invalidates that, bringing back the doubt that has brought him so much trouble in the past, which we see in Keith and Shiro’s exchange at the end of the episode.

Final note on season three: past parallels

In the last episode of the season, we get some back story on Alfor and Zarkon’s relationship as well as some of the other past paladins. There’s the potential to see Alfor and Zarkon as a parallel to Shiro and Keith, but there’s also the potential to see it as a note on Lance and Keith, seeing as Lance is showing Altean traits vs Keith’s Galran traits. I’m about to try to debunk that with my own theory: there was also a scene in that episode where Alfor, in the red lion, saved Blades, the pilot of the blue lion. The connections between red and blue just keep being dredged up. There are red and blue stars in the astral plane. Red and blue are everywhere. Keith and Lance are literally written in the stars.

[dent-de-leon]

What do you think of nobody questioning Shiro's relationship with Keith? To me it's odd? Shiro is Lance's hero. Keith is his rival. He wanted so badly to save Shiro in the 1st episode, beating out Keith, but when Shiro and Keith were shown to be close, Lance didn't say ANYTHING? He doesn't seem to be the type to be quiet when he's jealous. When Allura and Keith went off on their own, he mentioned it, and that's just a small crush. So it seems out of character for him to not bring up Keith/Shiro?

To be honest I think a part of is that the others just…don’t seem to know how to define it?? A lot of Shiro and Keith’s closest moments were in private, though the others do see glimpses of what’s between them here and there. For instance, after Lance calls out Keith because he’s not willing to risk rescuing Allura, Lance is the only one that sees Keith going back for Shiro even though it means putting the mission and everyone else at risk. This despite how clear he’s already made it that he doesn’t put everything on the line for rescue missions. Before that, Hunk asked, “What if it was one of us?” and in a sense, Lance kinda gets the answer to that. So he’s seen that Shiro at least means more to Keith than the rest of the team:

There are other things here and there. Keith is adamant about Shiro being the head. They do that exercise where they all fight the castleship droid, and everyone else is there to see Keith run in and save Shiro. They fight Haggar’s robeast of Miyzax, and again, Shiro has a flashback and Keith snaps him out of it. And it’s a very small detail but, Hunk’s battle plan just assumes Keith and Shiro would be fighting together, like them teaming up is the most natural thing

The whole team was there to hear Keith yell that they have to protect Shiro in the season 2 finale, and he makes that their top priority. He’s also the one running out to the Black lion first screaming Shiro’s name, and they’re all there to witness that. Not to mention how they saw him grieve Shiro for who knows how long. I think it’s also important to note that there’s this definite distance between Keith and the rest of the team after BOM–but its probably pretty obvious to the other paladins that, despite how aloof they’re being around Keith, Shiro is acting even closer and more overtly affectionate. No one else even says goodbye, but Shiro holds him in a tender embrace 

But even still, all that being said–regardless of what hints they’ve seen here and there, I don’t think anyone really understands the full extent of Keith’s attachment to Shiro. The scene where the team consoles Keith at the start of season 3 is really telling, because all the other paladins talk about their connections with Shiro. And I think the way they express that is…kinda presumptuous and insensitive. 

Lance says they all miss Shiro just as much, but we as the audience can see this sure isn’t the case. Everyone else has moved on, they’re all going right back to work. Keith is the only one still searching for Shiro, the only one adamant about not replace him 

Lance also says “I remember what a thrill it was to meet him for the first time when the two of us carried him out of that garrison hospital.” I’m sorry, but if the most important thing about meeting Shiro was that it was just a “thrill” to him, then he obviously doesn’t feel the same way about Shiro that Keith does. I mean, compare that line to Keith’s heartfelt, “If it wasn’t for you, my life would’ve been a lot different,” and “Shiro was the only person who never gave up on me, I won’t give up on him!”  

I don’t mean that in the sense that Lance doesn’t genuinely care about Shiro either. Lance is obviously someone who looks up to and highly respects Shiro the star garrison pilot. But he hardly knows Takashi the person. This isn’t unexpected, as we know Shiro often puts on his leader persona in front of others and distances himself from close relationships. The other paladins just don’t have the same connection with him. 

Pidge moves on to say “He was a legend at our house,” and, like Lance, first heard of him secondhand through these stories about what a hero he was. And Hunk chimes in with, “The guy taught me everything I know about being a pilot.” Referring to Shiro as his flight instructor also sounds impersonal in that he knows Shiro the pilot, the paladin, but really isn’t saying anything about him as his own person. Now, of course, they mean well. The thing is, it’s okay to try and relate to the person who’s grieving. But when you make it entirely about yourself and your feelings instead, particularly when you don’t know the other person very well, I really don’t think that helps. An important thing to note is–none of them are defining Keith’s relationship with Shiro here, they’re just describing their own. 

The only one who I feel really understood where Keith was coming from and took the time to try and grasp what Shiro really meant to him is Allura. She describes Shiro as someone “completely irreplaceable,” and that is who he is to Keith. Not his hero. Not a legend. Not a mentor. He’s Keith’s one constant, his anchor, his brother-in-arms, the one person who’s never abandoned him, who’s still loved and supported him all this time. He’s just an indisputable part of Keith’s life. Irreplaceable. 

So honestly, I don’t think many of the paladins really understand what Keith meant to Shiro in the first place?? For Lance especially I think any interest in Shiro at this point is almost superficial? Simply because they aren’t as close. Lance doesn’t want Keith rescuing Shiro because he doesn’t want his rival “one-upping” him. He wants to save the day, so he does. He later calls meeting Shiro a “thrill.” 

He’s annoyed when Shiro chooses Keith for a mission over him despite his very logical, well thought out reason as to why Keith was objectively the better choice. And it’s not because he’s jealous of Shiro really, I think it’s more to do with how he’s angry he was passed up for Keith, as if he’s an inferior pilot. They’re just two very different paladins with very different skill sets, and Keith’s were more suited for the job. But Lance takes it as a personal offense; it’s not so much about Shiro as it is about him. 

Don’t get me wrong, Lance definitely cares about Shiro. He looks really genuinely touched when he reaches out to shake Shiro’s hand, and when Shiro compliments him he immediately cheers up. But I just don’t think he’s as infatuated with Shiro as he is with Allura, and he’s more likely to get upset about Shiro choosing Keith over Lance for missions than he is about the two of them just spending time together. I mean, one is just Keith and Shiro bonding with the person they’re closest to, and the other makes Lance feel singled out and second-rate, which is why that’s what really gets a reaction 

[sol1056]

the consequences of unexplored implications

One of the hardest things to do in writing (above and beyond all the regular hard things) is recognizing the unexplored implications. Some of these can be more obvious with some simple stats: how many characters are male vs female? how many white characters get speaking parts or are named, vs how many non-white? 

Others take a bit more thought, like realizing the only female characters are unnamed prostitutes, or the only Hispanic characters are janitors. Sometimes it means untangling a well-meaning attempt to subvert a racist trope (ie uncivilized/inferior primitives) that actually ended up unwittingly in a completely different but equally racist trope (ie the noble savage). 

And then there’s a really tricky one to realize, that at least in my experience needs a big-picture view of the entire story. Only then can you see how seemingly independent parts, when overlapped, result in unfortunate implications. 

It’s this last one that I’m starting to twig on, in VLD. And it comes from a combination of a particularly pernicious trope in American media, the canonical relationship between Keith and Shiro, and the purpose of repetition in stories.

the bury your gays trope

Basically, this trope shows up when a story establishes a happy queer relationship, and immediately decides one of the two must die. 

Often, especially in older works (to the extent that they are found in older works, of course), gay characters just aren't allowed happy endings. Even if they do end up having some kind of relationship, at least one half of the couple, often the one who was more aggressive in pursuing a relationship, thus "perverting" the other one, has to die at the end. ... Nowadays, when opinions on sexuality have shifted somewhat, this justification will often be attempted via Too Good for This Sinful Earth. Sometimes it's because the Magical Queer has died in a Heroic Sacrifice so that the straights may live. 

(Also, for some reason, it’s a particular favorite to have one-half of a lesbian couple killed by a stray bullet. Google it.)

Honestly, this trope is so pervasive, it’s damn hard watching popular media. You end up constantly braced for the inevitable death (sometimes followed by the surviving partner going totally evil, a la Willow in BtVS). Well, unless the relationship is toxic or controlling, and then the implication is that het relationships are the only healthy ones, but that’s a slightly different trope. 

In short: if you’re queer, happy endings are not for you. And if you do manage to get a happy ending (ie Bill in Dr Who), you had to suffer ten times as much as anyone else to get there. Compared to het relationships in the same story, it’s always the queer couples that suffer the most. One way or another.

canonical and word-of-god Shiro/Keith

Assumption: Keith and Shiro have an emotional bond much deeper than any couple we’ve seen on-screen. The very least one could say is that they have a deep relationship, albeit presumably platonic. (I should also note that I do consider ‘platonic’ love to be an equal to ‘romantic’ love; it’s just a different type of consummation.) 

Apart from that, there’s word-of-god: the EPs’ comments (ie “beloved mentor”), VA interviews, and various directors/artists posting sheith images with romantic vibes. Yes, that’s all non-canonical, but the message is: if you read this platonic as simply pre-romantic, well, the series’ creators are there with you. 

I will note, I don’t consider this as representation. In canon or it doesn’t count! (Looking at you, Rowling.) Still, word-of-god is clearly impacting the fandom’s interpretations of the relationship.  

using repetition in stories

The try/fail cycle and repetition have a core element in common: an event repeats until the character learns what they need to achieve victory/resolution. The difference is that in try/fail, the character should move up each time. In repetition, the character must re-experience a lesson they failed the first time.

To compare: 

try/fail: the antagonist has a black belt! get white belt, challenge antagonist, fail. okay, green belt! challenge antagonist, fail. next belt!

repetition: the antagonist has a black belt! test for white belt, fail. test for white belt again, fail. test for white belt again... 

When the overall plot’s try/fail is too similar, readers will see the protagonist as too stupid to quit (or change tactics). Repetition works best as a recurring motif: event A, parallel event B, character learns and changes, we have development, and this happens in support of, or alongside, the plot’s try/fail cycle.

Example: if Lance were to flirt with ten different girls and they all shot him down, that’s try/fail. His development is via repetition: it’s a repeating pattern with Allura, until he learns to take a different approach.

Here’s the important thing: like try/fail, repetition is a lesson to be learned. Most readers assume repetition means the previous instances were failures. If the character does the exact same thing and this time it goes beautifully, expect some side-eying from your more astute readers. 

But at the same time, if the character had no control over the outcome in previous instances, expect frustration instead. Readers will intuit the story is indulging in a kind of victim-blaming: the character had no power to ‘do it right’ before, yet the repetition implies that failure was their fault.

And that brings us to how these three parts, combined, make me see some seriously unfortunate implications in VLD.

all three together

So we have sort of this gray-area kinetic-platonic, potential-romantic, relationship. And twice now, one-half of that relationship has been, well, not killed, but sort of killed. Gone, vanished. The other half is left behind, grieving. It’s implied Keith fell apart the first time, and then we got to see it on-screen, the second time. 

It doesn’t actually matter whether S3/S4 Shiro is the ‘real’ one. If he’s not, then we have a third loss. If he is -- but compromised as a tool of the empire -- then it’s still a loss, if a psychological one. He’s there, it’s just not... him, anymore.

In other words, three times that a potential-queer relationship has been put through a Kill Your Gays maneuver that ended up being just a ploy. 

Done once, it could’ve been a subversion of the trope. Aha, the writers could say, we didn’t kill anyone, instead, we brought him back! Yes, one-half of the couple (and later, we find out, both halves) suffered during the separation, but since that’s mostly backstory, it’s all good, they’re happy now. Carry on, Jeeves.

Done twice, the writers not only re-triggered a possible KYG interpretation, they also tripped over the issue of repetition. Remember, the repetition is a lesson -- something must be learned, to prevent its recurrence. 

The problem is removing Shiro leaves Keith to experience the aftermath. By default, he takes the protagonist’s role, and according to the literary convention, he has to learn something to prevent a repeat. But in neither instance -- the Kerberos mission, or Shiro’s disappearance from Black -- does the story give any indication that Keith had a direct impact on the outcome. He did nothing to cause either, therefore there’s nothing he could feasibly do to fix either. 

That makes it especially infuriating that the third time around, one could conceivably say: gee, Keith kept looking, until he found this not-Shiro. If not-Shiro does any damage, that can be traced back to Keith. 

On its own, that could be an interesting dilemma. Taken in light of repetition, not so good. The unfortunate implication is he should’ve learned from the previous two times, and his failure to do so is the reason he ended up here.   

what’s the lesson, then?

Is it: stop caring for this person? Is it: loving someone that much means you have to suffer? Is it: you can’t just be happy? Is it: if you want to try for happiness, you have to earn the right to it? 

How is it that Lance can just flirt, make peace, and develop a deep friendship with Allura -- and neither are forced to undergo repeated trauma in the process? Or that Pidge has just one scene of implied loss, and it’s over and resolved in the same episode? Yet meanwhile Keith -- the only one with a same-sex relationship of significant depth -- has to lose, and lose, and lose? 

Maybe the writers figured: well, it’s not really death, it doesn’t count, let’s go ahead and yank that chain a second and third time. The story is blind to how their plot-twists aren’t all that better. It's still the same old bullshit: if you’re queer, you don’t get the happy ending. And if you do, it can’t be the simple meet-like-love of a het relationship. You’ve got to suffer for it.  

But the story they’ve written, and the choices they’ve made, tell me: these implications are not on their radar. Worse, I end up feeling like they don’t care enough to even put it on their radar.

That’s why it really bothers me when the EPs say they’re pushing for queer representation. Because if the writers can’t even see the implications of doing this to a deeply caring platonic relationship between two people of the same gender, like hell if I want to see what they’d do to an actual, onscreen, queer relationship. 

If you are rising up right now to insist ‘this is what the story demanded!’, I strongly recommend you go read this post: this is a jar full of major characters. Yes, that post is talking about black characters vs white, but it goes for any marginalized group, including lgbtqia.

Bottom line: no story demands anything. You’re the goddamn writer; you control the story. If you write shit, you’re a shitty writer. 

Think harder. Dig deeper. Do better. 

[bi-dazai]

okay here’s the 3 roots to all the problems in the writing in vld s4:

hi so right from the bat i was realising all these problems with uh. everything (including the art style?? who the fuck was in charge of drawing keith?? he has the same inaccuracy as fucking clone!shiro lmao). anyway if there are problems in writing, then you can actually trace it back to its roots and address the problem there, instead of just judging the outcome of the roots. 

there are also other tinier aspects of the show’s writing - like some moments of complete tonal whiplash (watch this video on star wars rebels if you’re curious about tonal whiplash) - which are just simply bad writing. but if you were wondering exactly what the fuck the vld writers’ deal is with s4, then this post will tell you. 

anyway, take this as a guide in how to critique s4, and how to not make these mistakes in your own writing.

1. loss of balance as the writers divert all writing to plot writing. 

so when you write a story, there’s a balance you have to find between character writing, relationship writing, and plot writing. depending on your story and your style, you’ll have more focus on one or two and less on another, but for a good story it won’t go to massive extremes and it will have a reasonable amount on each. for example, boku no hero academia is pretty much almost completely character writing, with a large focus on relationship writing from about the sports carnival arc onwards, but the plot is still really good because it isn’t forgotten about. avatar: the last airbender is character and plot-driven, but there’s still relationships built up and not forgotten about. 

so what is voltron: legendary defender? across s1-3, it had a HUGE focus on plot, a focus to the point that it was uh. risky. that focus is so much that you should only approach it if you know how to maintain that balance. vld’s focus on plot was toeing the line of too much - to the point that character writing was almost completely void, and relationship writing was extremely subtle. however, with keith’s arc in s2 and 3 and the developing relationships between keith and lance and lance and allura coupling in with subtle character development which allowed these relationships to develop and fuel the plot, vld actually handled it quite well. it’s why ive been saying this whole time to stop railing on the writers so hard because they chose a balance that’s extremely hard to keep and they actually pulled it off in a pretty impressive way when you factor in that difficulty. i regard s3 as a masterpiece - in 7 episodes the pacing was perfect despite plot accelerating massively and character relationships and development proceeding at a similar fast pace. 

where did s4 go wrong, then? well,  the writers forgot about that balance. they had plot points in mind, and they were sidetracked by these grand plans for t h e p l o t. pidge finding her brother, the introduction of the rebel alliance, keith leaving voltron, lotor being exiled, naxzala being attacked. all these plot points are really good!! and the plot was actually really good. but what went wrong is (mainly) the writers forgetting that they need that equilibrium, that balance (other reasons to do with plot are described below). they chose a balance that is much more delicate than many other stories, and this season they dumped a ten tonne weight on it because they forgot how fucking delicate it is. (i actually have a feeling this has to do with the way lok was written and i think they got used to that, send me an ask if you want me to talk about it more).

2. too much crammed into 6 episodes = destruction of pacing. 

i mentioned that the plot was good. it is. but it doesn’t feel that way, right? right. that’s because the ideas and the progression is good. but there is too much for this little screentime. lotor went from villain to “zuko” within 13 episodes, no, two episodes. that’s shit. do you remember actual zuko? that arc took years, and it began from the first episode. lotor? the redemption arc has taking uh. 40 minutes. and honestly, that is shit writing. 

another thing i had massive problems with - pidge’s episode. and that was my favourite episode for this season. this episode’s first bit is pidge finding and reuniting with her brother. and it’s really good! but i was watching it and thinking, “wow this is uh. this is moving a bit fast. we’re cutting away too soon on all of the scenes and shots. everything feels kinda cramped, time-wise.” well guess why!!??!!!?! the writers want to move the goddamn plot forward again!! the best episode of the season is completely ruined because instead of taking the entire episode to really dwell on pidge’s emotions and make us properly root for pidge’s journey (a la s3e5 - “the journey”), we take half the episode so that pidge and matt can reunite in two minutes and we can come back and do. PLOT RELATED STUFF. FUCKING CHRIST!!!! this is the episode that we have literally been waiting for since the first episode. and it’s fucking cut off by OTHER PLOTS. can someone please get briyan konietzko in here and explain to lm and jds what the fucking fuck CHARACTER AND RELATIONSHIP EPISODES ARE??!!?!!! HOLY SHIT!!! 

every shot in every scene in every episode of s4 isnt the full fucking thing!! listen - part of film language is how long you dwell on each shot, and how these shots are edited together. let me put this into layman’s terms - all the scenes and shots in s4 are just very vague, understandable descriptions of the actual scenes and shots. this aspect of the language of film is the difference between, “can i have water?” and “could I please get a glass of water?”/ “get me a glass of water now!”. you don’t get the emotion. you dont get the full effect. it’s just a summary of what happened. that was the entirety of how s4 was edited and put together, and it’s like that so that the writers could fit at least 13 episodes of plot into 6. with shortened, half-assed shots put together with cuts as transitions. i dont think i saw a single fade in/out/to in the entire season. all that i’ve described - it ruins pacing when it’s half-assed, and this was no-assed. the editing, the pacing - it’s close to fucking terrible b-movie standard. this is coming out of fucking dreamworks, out of tim hendrick, out of people from motherfucking legend of korra and avatar: the last airbender. the pacing of s4 is embarrassing.

3. getting too much into the current situation of the show, and forgetting about set-up.

after s1, 2, and 3, (particularly 2 and 3) people were making up theories, pulling from shot composition, pulling from hints. and guess what?! a lot of it paid off, or started to pay off! you know why? when writing s1, 2, and 3, every aspect of the writing (characters, plot, dialogue, etc) and even the film language referenced each other. voltron: legendary defender, across its first two seasons, established a subset of film language of its own. it’s because of that devotion to referencing past events and aspects of the show that things like @koganya​ ‘s massive klance masterposts could be made and believed. s4 is fundamentally not a vld season because it forgot its own fucking language. there’s no clever shot composition, no clever reference to past events or episodes, nothing. it’s so fucking flat. i don’t know what happened, but we got s3 - which spent the entire time pretty much worshipping its own film language to hint at stuff and then we got s4 - where the writers got tunnel vision of their own plot-related visions of grandeur that they forgot to write a season of voltron: legendary defender. this is so fucking ignorant of their own fucking show. fuck!!!

okay thanks for reading and please share!! this guide can help when critiquing the show and since there’s gonna be a lot of that then i feel it’s super important to have these posts!!

[lady-griffin]

Things Got Crazy at a Slumber Party...

I would just like to say the title of this episode is so misleading…nothing crazy happened. False Advertising!

Eat the Rich

Seeing Anne’s room made me want to talk to her and urge her to revolt against the rich and distribute their wealth.

Spare Katarina, but rise up and revolt.

When I first saw her room, I legit thought Katarina was going to be surprised by Anne’s room and maybe (somehow by the end of the episode) was going to redecorate it and upgrade it for Anne…but nope. That idea quickly faded the second it went into my head.

Revolt against the aristocrats, Anne. 

Spare Katarina, but rise up and fight.

Eat the rich!

No, but in all seriousness, sometimes I have problems with anime (stories in general) where the affluent and opulent wealth of characters is just the background and it’s never going to be address in all seriousness. Particularly when they show that not everyone is as wealthy…

Why show Anne’s room to be like, if you’re never going to actually talk about it nor resolve the wealth gap. Why show her room to be depressing looking? Why not just give her a nice room? It doesn’t have to be Katarina’s room’s level of finery, but something.

That aside, let’s continue onward to the rest of the episode.

Katarina running off to tell everyone (and to thank them) for her making it to the second year, was adorable. Katarina throughout this episode was so goddamn precious.

LOOK AT HER!

LOOK AT HER!

JUST LOOK AT HER!

I just…Katarina must be protected at all costs. She is the best girl that ever existed.

I love this beautiful, bisexual-mess of an idiot. She’s perfection.

I’m still mad at Anne for denying Katarina’s original PJ choices. How dare you Anne! How dare you deprive me of that. How dare you!

I’m going to discuss the episode in more detail further down, so we’re going to get into some spoiler territory (I guess?). So, you’ve been warned.

Potential Spoilers Below

--

Anne’s view on each of the character’s feelings for Katarina was fantastic.

Geordo’s Feelings 

While we didn’t actually get to see it, which was disappointing, Anne being scared of Geordo for initially telling Katarina that her scar was gone was hilarious. I am disappointed we haven’t seen Geordo at his true level of horrifying, but still…

Just his eyes narrowing may have cut a few years off of Anne’s life alone.

Keith’s Feelings

Poor Keith. Again, I don’t ship them, but still you still gotta feel bad for him.

What is the purpose of others thinking you’re good-looking, if the one person you want doesn’t?

I love Keith and his mother. They’re hilarious.

Alan’s Feelings

OMG Alan, how have you not figured it out, yet. You’re playing the violin for vegetation at the request of Katarina…I just.

Alan sweetheart, you are in love with this woman.

I do like how he actually did it for Katarina. That’s so fucking funny.

But also, just look at this face, how could he not.

It’s a good thing Katarina doesn’t want any actual political power or anything like that, she would be unstoppable.

Mary’s Feelings

Mary is several levels above everyone else. No comparison. 

She is subtly convincing Katarina that Katarina won’t do well as a Princess-Consort and has already figured out a way for them to leave and probably already has a manor set up by the sea, with a field already to go for the two of them (and Anne).

Mary is a bit scary in all honesty.

Nicol’s Feelings

Nicol’s cute smile was just adorable. Nicol x Katarina aren’t really one of my main ships, but I do love the contrast between these two.

Katarina this bright and bubbly ball of energy and sunshine and Nicol, a stoic statue who has trouble expressing himself, but can’t help but smile when he’s in Katarina’s presence.

Sophia’s Feelings

Sophia wanting Katarina to get with Nicol, even though she also loves Katarina is everything. Her listing off her brother’s good qualities (at random times) is hilarious to me. Always has been.

Sophia is just so damn cute.

Maria’s Feelings

Maria is giving Katarina all the treats. Smart Lady! She may have come late into the race for Katarina’s heart, but she’s playing to win.

In general, I like how we got quick snippets of everyone’s feelings for Katarina. I also love how the anime, legit just says the girls are in love with Katarina. I’ll always appreciate that.

--

Anne and Katarina

Anne’s POV in this episode was just everything. I’m so glad the anime adapted it from the Light Novel, seeing as the Manga just ignored it. I’m so very happy.

When she lifted up her sleeve to reveal the burn marks, I gasped.

I wasn’t sure if the Anime was going to actually include that part (the Manga did skip over it), so I’m very happy the anime chose to include Anne’s full backstory. 

It makes me sad, but it’s good angst.

It’s not the same as the Light Novel, but Anne’s backstory and her relationship with Katarina was everything. That little montage of Anne and Katarina… my heart can’t handle such cuteness.

Also, I genuinely really love how when Katarina asked Anne’s father to not take Anne away, she had a bit of a bratty vibe to her. Very similar to Katarina before she regained her memories.

Even though she has her memories, Katarina is still a kid. And I just love that.

Anne refusing her father’s order. Mwah!

I really appreciate how the anime changed that scene from the Light Novel to Anne standing up for herself and actually speaking up.

Well Done! Good Choice!

Also, Luigi Claes stepping in to talk to the Baron himself was just nice to see. 

It was great seeing him being intimidating and such. While Katarina sees him as her dopey, doting father, there is more to him.

In the LN, it’s made clear that he learned about the man Anne’s father wanted to marry her off to and was not happy with that and came to Anne’s defense. 

But I also just like how a part of it, is probably because Katarina wanted Anne to stay with her (and Anne wanted the same thing) and Luigi can’t deny his daughter anything.

Luigi Claes doing the right thing (because it’s the right thing) but also, because he’s the kind of father, who will give his daughter anything. There’s a reason why OG Katarina was so spoiled. 

The fact that Katarina knew Anne would come into her room in the middle of the night to put her covers back on her, was just so sweet. 

Because Anne probably thought Katarina never knew she even did that, but of course Katarina knew.

Katarina giving gifts to Anne and being the first person to ever give her a birthday present…I swear I’m not crying, you’re crying.

I LOVE THESE TWO!

I guess while it’s never stated, I presume all the other stuff in the box were gifts from Katarina or objects related to a fond memory Anne has of Katarina.

Which gives me a headcanon.

Headcanon – Everyone has kept all the gifts they’ve ever received from Katarina as well as certain items they associate with a specific time or event they shared with Katarina.

We know from the Light Novels, that Keith has kept all the birthday presents he’s ever received from Katarina. And I thought it was said he kept the remnants of the door Katarina broke down, but I couldn’t confirm that. But now that’s a headcanon of mine as well.

More specifically, I now have the headcanon that either Geordo or Alan kept the snake toy that Katarina first threw at Geordo all those years ago. 

Probably Alan, as that memory is 100% positive one for him. While for Geordo, that memory probably mixed at best.

There is something cute about Geordo being scared of that toy, telling on Katarina and getting her in trouble, but nonetheless keeping that dreaded fake snake.

Anne and Katarina and their whole relationship was just everything. They were truly and absolutely the highlight of this episode. My heart was ready to burst.

--

Sleepover

Overall, it was very cute. It was nice seeing the girl’s hang out and be in their pajamas. 

Katarina saving Anne from the girls’ question about marriage, was just very nice and does show Katarina is not as dense as we may think. She’s aware.

I will say, though, it was a bit lacking in comparison to the bonus Manga chapter in Vol. 5 (LN).

Particularly in regards to Mary. I mean just look at Mary in the Light Novel for comparison. It almost feels like a different scene. 

Also, while I did realize this last week. 

Sophia’s wish in romance and how over-the-top, pure fantasy, based on romance novels her ideas actually are, really makes her fantasy in last week’s episode (I became Engulfed by Desire) feel way more off. 

And just not accurate to Sophia’s character.

You’re telling me that Nicol in his amplified fantasy is basically Tuxedo Mask jumping around Venice with Katarina, but Sophia’s amplified fantasy is just her being in her family’s library with Katarina.

I call bullshit.

Sophia’s desire book fantasy, should’ve been the most crazy and over top thing ever. 100%. And this episode confirms that.

Both Maria and Katarina wanting to cook for their partner is very lovely and shows their compatibility.

I am a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see the boys’ sleepover, but Nicol’s eyes sparkling when he heard that the sleepover would include boy’s talk was just too precious.

His thoughts are definitely much more innocent in comparison to what Sophia was thinking when she heard about Boy’s Talk…I love Sophia.

--

Geordo and Katarina

I was really looking forward to seeing Ch.17.5 be adapted to the anime, but unfortunately, I was thoroughly disappointed by it.

It was much less sweet, cute and funny then it was in the Manga. Seeing the scene in the anime just made me want to read the Manga chapter again. 

Seriously, you don’t have to read the whole Manga (you should though), but do yourself a favor and read Ch. 17.5. It’s amazing!

Just look at this dork

This was a golden opportunity for the anime, to really show Geordo’s feelings and relationship with Katarina from his perspective. And just endear the audience to him. 

They completely dropped the ball.

I feel like the anime doesn’t understand or even like Geordo’s character. He seems less dynamic, engaging and interesting in the anime. And the aspects that make very endearing and heartfelt, are basically taken out.

He hardly comes across as the leading male…which is disappointing for me, since I really love Geordo and Geordo x Katarina.

I am very disappointed with the treatment of Geordo. The anime is doing a disservice to him, in my opinion. Especially in comparison to Alan who the anime has added extra moments for.

I do appreciate those extra Alan moments, but I would appreciate them a lot more if it didn’t feel like Geordo was being left out. 

Nonetheless, Geordo’s face when he saw everyone else and when saw that they all got Katarina gardening shears as well was fantastic!

--

Katarina Speaks Two Languages Headcanon

I mean this episode basically confirmed that. With Katarina writing the letter to Geordo, but writing everyone’s name in Kanji (?) on their gardening uniforms.

While we do have Keith’s and Duchess Claes’ signs not being written in the country’s language, that’s more for comedy sake as those signs don’t exist in reality.

But did anyone in the Harem wonder, why Katarina wrote their names in an entirely different language? I just love the idea of everyone being shocked to learn that Katarina can speak and write fluently in two languages.

--

Conclusion

I overall enjoyed this episode. 

Some scenes I found a bit lacking (or more than a bit) in comparison to what they were based off of from the Manga or Light Novel. I will say I liked how this episode did take its material from the Light Novels and the bonus chapter in the Manga, as well as adding their own bits and pieces.

It was well done.

I’m definitely salty over how wrong they got Ch. 17.5. I just…at times it feels like the anime gets the core of certain scenes and characters (without doing the exact same thing from the LN or Manga or adding their own scenes) just right, but for Geordo they just seem to miss the mark.

Also, the material from Ch. 17.5 just felt like it was added onto the end, it didn’t really go with the rest of the episode…

And in relation to that, Mary being subdued in the sleepover scene was disappointing as well.

I understand there are budgets and restrictions, so I’m hoping they’re saving it for the last three episodes.

Anne and Katarina were the clear highlight of this episode. Without them being the focus of the episode, I would’ve found it less enjoyable, even with all the cute and precious moments we got to see.

But overall, a lovely episode with so many precious moments and it gave me so many feels in regards to Anne and her relationship with Katarina. So many!

[sage-nebula]

I want to talk about the scene at the very end of season three, episode one for a second.

At the end of season three, episode one, Keith is standing before the Black Lion, staring up at it. This is sometime after he stormed out of the diplomacy meeting because he became so upset at the alien council asking after Voltron that he couldn’t take it anymore. Of course, this behavior wasn’t very diplomatic of him; everyone on Team Voltron was left feeling awkward, even as Hunk tried to smooth things over by offering homemade pizza rolls and pigs-in-a-blanket (which seemed to work, hilariously enough). But at the same time, we can’t really blame Keith for this. No, it wasn’t very diplomatic, but Shiro’s loss is still raw and recent, and he’s grieving. He’s taking Shiro’s loss very hard, as we all knew he would (and as the other Paladins + Allura and Coran understand).

And that brings us to the scene at the end of the episode.

Keith is standing with the Black Lion, and everyone else enters the room. They all look at each other, unsure of who should speak first, and in a non-verbal game of “not it” everyone ends up looking at Lance. Lance takes the cue, and tries to comfort Keith. He tells Keith that they all miss Shiro, and that he in particular remembers how amazing it was just to meet him for the first time back in the first episode. This prompts Pidge and Hunk to join in with their own stories; Pidge talks about how she “grew up” hearing stories about Shiro, how he was “a legend” at their house, and Hunk says that Shiro taught him everything about what it means to be a pilot. And that leads Lance to say this:

But here’s the thing . . . they’re not.

I’m not faulting Lance for this. Lance is sincerely, earnestly trying to do his best to offer Keith some comfort, to make Keith feel that he’s not alone in his grief. And I don’t believe he’s doing this in a “you’re being selfish” way, but rather in a “you’re not alone” way, particularly since earlier in the episode Keith---quite obviously hurting---snapped that “we also don’t have Shiro, but everyone seems to have forgotten that” when they were talking about how they didn’t have Voltron anymore. Lance is trying to show Keith that, well, they do all care about Shiro, they really do. Keith’s not alone in his suffering.

But the thing is . . . he kind of is.

Because yes, everyone in that castle cares about Shiro as a fellow Paladin and friend. Lance hero worshiped the guy, even before the first episode started. Pidge grew up hearing about him as a hero and legend. Hunk looks to him as a mentor and teacher, at least when it comes to being a pilot. All three of them care about Shiro in their own ways. They all either had some image of him before meeting him (Lance, Pidge), or at the very least formed a relationship with him once they all became Paladins of Voltron (the Garrison trio as a whole, but also Allura and Coran).

But the thing is, Keith doesn’t fit into that category. Keith knew Shiro before the series started, and he knew him on a personal level. We don’t know the precise nature of their relationship, but as much as some of us (i.e. me) want to, we don’t have to know it in order to understand the fact that the relationship Keith and Shiro has extends beyond the confines of the Paladin relationships. Keith tells Shiro in S1E1, “If it wasn’t for you, my life would have been a lot different.” That alone clues us into the significance of their relationship. That isn’t something that Lance, Pidge, or Hunk could earnestly say to Shiro, but it is something that Keith can. Even in this very episode, Keith says, “Shiro is the only one who never gave up on me. I’m not going to give up on him.” Do you understand the weight of that statement? Keith is saying that, out of all of the people in his life, and this includes the people he was snapping at, Shiro is the only one who never gave up on him. Now, you might call that unfair to lob at the rest of the team, but thinking of it from his perspective---from the perspective of an orphan, from the perspective of someone who was chucked out of his home (the Garrison) shortly after Shiro’s assumed death---that just speaks volumes to exactly how significant his relationship with Shiro is.

What I’m getting at here, the loss of Shiro hits Keith harder than most not because Keith just naturally cares more than the rest of the team (that’s nonsense), but rather, because Keith’s and Shiro’s relationship is beyond what the rest of the team had. Out of everyone, Keith knew Shiro best. Keith was closest to Shiro. And thus, it is understandable and expected for Keith to be hit the hardest by this, in ways that others weren’t. The others look at Shiro as a hero, or teacher, or teammate, or friend. Keith looks at Shiro as family. So, just like Allura would be the most affected if Coran went missing or was killed, of course Keith is going to grieve Shiro in a much more pained, personal way than the rest of the Paladins.

So when Lance says this:

It’s no wonder that Keith glares at him like this:

That’s a “don’t you dare tell me what he would want” glare if I’ve ever seen one. It doesn’t matter if Shiro would want them to move on or not; Keith, in his space of grieving, isn’t ready to hear that from someone who just went on about how he saw Shiro as a hero, when Keith himself has known Shiro as (found) family.

But then . . . but then someone else speaks up:

And that’s when Keith says this:

Notice that Keith says “I know you’re right,” and not “I know you’re all right.” One could say that his “you’re” was still meant to encompass everyone, but I don’t think it was. I think he was speaking directly to Allura right there, and let me tell you why.

First, Keith did turn his full attention to her when she started talking. When Lance, Hunk, and Pidge were speaking to him before, Keith didn’t look at any of them until he glared at Lance in that last shot. He was still listening, of course, but he stared at the floor rather than looking at them. He was listening, but he wasn’t really open to what they were saying. He heard it, but he didn’t take it to heart. But when Allura speaks up, and says that she knows exactly how he feels, he turns and looks directly at her. He opens his body language so that he can be open and receptive to what she’s saying. And what does she say? She says that:

She knows exactly how he’s feeling.

That their mission is bigger than any one person.

Including those that are completely irreplaceable. 

And those three things are what get through to Keith, and let me tell you why.

“I know exactly how you feel.”

Keith is grieving the loss of Shiro, someone who is, as far as we know, the only family he has ever known. (No, they are not blood related, but family doesn’t end at blood. Found family exists, and as far as we know, this is how Keith feels about Shiro.) As I just got through explaining above, this is what makes his grief over Shiro’s loss so much deeper and more raw than what the others are experiencing. But the thing is . . . Allura does know how that feels. Not with Shiro specifically, but Allura lost her entire race (er, most of her entire race) in the war. And, more specifically, she had to say goodbye to the A.I. of her father, King Alfor, back when Sendak infected the castle in season one. Keith knows this. He witnessed it. And so when Allura tells him that she knows exactly how he feels, he knows she is being sincere and that she is correct, because she, too, has lost family due to this war.

(There’s also the fact that Allura saying goodbye to Alfor’s A.I. is mirrored to Keith saying goodbye to the hallucination of his father that he faced in the Trials of Marmora, but since it’s the loss of Shiro that Keith is grieving here, we don’t need those screencaps. Still, Keith is aware that Allura has experienced loss and pain like what he is feeling now, which I think makes her words hold more weight and validity to him.)

“But our mission is bigger than any one individual.”

This, too, is something Keith feels deeply, something that he has always felt deeply. Remember 1x04? Keith and Pidge got into a fight because Pidge wanted to run off and find her family, but if she did that, they wouldn’t be able to form Voltron to defend the universe. Keith yelled at her for this. Then, in 1x11, Keith was the only one who suggested they not go after Allura, because he didn’t want to hand Voltron to Zarkon on a silver platter. (Note: This was something Allura herself agreed with, she was on his side.) Later still, in 2x06, Keith considered leaving the team indefinitely if Zarkon was using him to track them, because he didn’t want to put the rest of the team in danger. (Again, this was something Allura was on board with, only she believed she was the one Zarkon was tracking.) Again and again we have seen that Keith places the lives of billions above the lives of individuals. He values the mission first, individual feelings second. And Allura, as Keith well knows due to the incidents recounted in this very paragraph, feels very much the same way. This is something they have always agreed on.

Of course, grief can make people act irrationally; when you’re grieving, you’re deep in your emotions, and logic doesn’t have much of a place. Even if you know something in your head, your heart tells a different story. So Keith, in his grief over losing Shiro and his rage that others could even think about replacing him, temporarily put the mission at bay while he focused on how he felt over Shiro’s loss. It’s not that he suddenly valued one individual over billions, it’s just that he honestly wasn’t thinking about the billions at the moment because he was so deep in grieving Shiro. But here, Allura reminds him of the mission. She reminds him of a core value they both share, one that Allura knows Keith agrees with her on. (Because remember, it’s not just that Keith knows Allura is on the same page as him; Allura knows they share this value, too.) She does so gently, but it’s still a plain enough reminder that it gets through to him. Keith cannot argue with this, because it is something he has always believed.

But then, the final piece:

“Even those who are completely irreplaceable.”

At several points throughout the episode, Keith expresses fury that the others seem to be blasé at the idea of replacing Shiro. To him, Shiro is someone who could never be replaced, and the Black Lion could never have another pilot so easily. So the fact that the others seemed intent on doing so enraged him. But here, Allura gently---and sincerely---agrees with him that Shiro is irreplaceable. It’s not that they want to replace Shiro, but that they have to do what they must for the sake of the mission. And that’s the final piece to get through to Keith, because it tells him that Allura truly does understand. She knows what it’s like to lose family. She knows what it is to lose someone irreplaceable. She agrees that Shiro is irreplaceable . . . but she also knows that sometimes they have to keep moving forward for the sake of the mission, regardless of personal feelings. And that is what gets Keith to agree, what makes him say she’s right, what makes him say they have to find a new way to form Voltron. Allura is the one who gets through to him, because she is the one who truly understands what he’s feeling, and is the one able to communicate that in a way that gets through his grief and helps him calm down.

And I think that’s pretty goddamn significant.

[snowgoldwords-blog]

The scene in Keith’s bedroom

Okay, can I just talk about why I love the dialogue in this scene and think it’s so perfectly crafted? How it does so much for Keith and Lance’s growing bond and Keith’s budding leadership? Apologies if anyone has already made this same analysis, but I haven’t seen one!

OKAY. So we have Lance knocking on Keith’s door because he wants to talk about something he’s worried about, and Keith is kind of amused by this at at first, because, like, yeah they’re not “rivals” like they used to be, but what could Lance have to consult him about when he could go to anyone else?? Probably nothing that serious when he’d take his bigger problems to someone like Hunk, his best friend, right? But then Lance basically says, “I’m here because I want your advice as a leader, because you’re my leader, right?” and he sobers up fast. 

I love the “I guess” because it shows Keith is still accepting his role as leader and is exposing a bit of his own insecurity before Lance even says anything about his own. And Lance knows that, he gets it, he’s been helping Keith out with that since episode 1 of this season. Maybe that’s what makes it a bit easier for him to go to Keith about his own worries now, knowing Keith’s, but also having confidence in Keith’s skills as a leader, as he’s had from the start. The fact that he says “I’m here because you’re my leader” sets a tone for the conversation, and I think Keith immediately adapts to it once Lance starts expressing his worries. We see Lance’s body language fluctuate throughout this conversation - hands in front of him, arms at his sides, arms crossed, arms back at his sides - but Keith’s stays mostly constant - arms crossed. Not open, but calm, steady, serious. Still guarded.

(Can I also talk about how I love the way Lance puts his pinky finger down, not the pointer finger on his right hand? He’s the pinky finger - part of the original five - and Allura (or perhaps even Shiro) is the “outsider” on the right hand. But also- the pinky finger, the smallest). 

So Lance tells Keith what’s been going on in his head, how he’s been calculating the numbers of lions and paladins and where they all fit and who’s going to have to get the boot now that Shiro’s back. The fact that he brings what he’s noticed about Allura’s bonding with Blue and her quickly gained skills shows how deeply he’s been thinking about this, how astute he is for noticing the others’ skills and assets (i.e. the beginning of this episode in the base when he’s keeping an eye on them from up above and watches Allura take out like 6 guards alone with her bayard). It wouldn’t be a stretch to say he’s noticed Allura in particular because she’s with his old lion, or that he’s probably compared how she and Blue work together with how he and Blue worked together. He points Allura’s strengths out to Keith, and Keith is fair and says “that’s true” because it is. 

But of course, Lance goes an extra step and assumes he’s the odd one out, the least valuable asset. That he should probably step aside so the stronger players can fight the fight, and here we see Keith step in and basically say, “hold up, slow down a second” because Keith has never thought this way of Lance, who loves to go on about parades in his honor as a paladin of Voltron, who’s always been full of bravado, and who has also proven his loyalty, his smarts in strategizing, his self-sacrificing nature, his skill as a sharpshooter, and his presence as a real solid backing force particularly to Keith in this season, more so than anyone else.

Basically, Keith sees that Lance thinks - and stresses - a lot. And that Lance has taken this a lot further than he needs to. Now it would make sense for a friend, or a leader, to comfort a distressed teammate with reminders of his strength, of his necessity, but this is Keith- he’s not a wordy guy, he’s not going to sing your praises, and  he can be awkward on the social front. Keith isn’t Shiro. Pep talks don’t come easily to him, or at least, they don’t right now (it took them nearly torn apart in episode 3 on the gas planet before he gave his first real pep talk). In fact, something that has always struck me about Keith is his silence. Often the others will be talking about him right in front of his face -whether it’s Shiro praising his piloting skills or Lance insulting him- and he won’t say a word (for example, when Shiro chooses him to fly to the Marmora base because he’s the best pilot, and Lance is angry and says the whole “shoot first and ask questions later” bit and Keith literally says nothing). Keith’ll argue if something isn’t true, or if he’s not getting his way, but he’s not a fluff talker- he’s a guy that speaks truth, who seeks truth, who gets stuff done.

So he gives Lance a truth. 

Now, I can see how this may seem like a brushing off of Lance’s concerns, but it’s really, really not. There’s a very important truth we’ve learned this season and Keith says exactly it: Things will work themselves out.

Take Shiro, who was basically a Poster Boy Paladin. A fair, wise, virtuous, brave leader. We saw him take the time to bond with his lion more than any of the others. But in the end- he disappeared. No matter how good or skilled he was, something still happened to him that was out of any of their control. And as we see very clearly in this season, things worked themselves out.  Keith tells Lance to “stop worrying about who flies what” because there is truly no point in worrying about that- they don’t decide who flies the lions. The lions do. Voltron didn’t end when Shiro disappeared- the lions shifted as the paladins shifted. We saw how much Keith didn’t want to pilot Black, but in the end, Black chose him. And that had an effect on Lance, which gave cause for Red to choose him. Which shifted Blue towards Allura. (Notice: the red jacket on the wall behind Lance, the fact that Keith’s only wearing his black shirt).

We saw the others try to pilot Black, we saw Allura try to pilot Red, but no matter how much they wanted to pilot those lions, it didn’t work. Keith knows this, and he knows that Allura can’t just hop out of Blue so Lance can take over again. We saw the way Blue stopped responding to Lance. We saw how the lions - and the paladins - adjusted, and that they were able to form Voltron again. Their dynamic changed, they had struggles, but Voltron wasn’t over. They adapted. They focused on their mission, and things worked themselves out. 

So yeah, Keith could have monologued about Lance’s strengths, and yes, his strengths matter entirely, but Keith gave him the pure and simple truth: we don’t know what’s going to happen, but if we focus on saving the universe, we’ll be successful, no matter what that means for each of our roles. And isn’t that what Lance was asking for? “This isn’t a participation game. This is war.” Keith is agreeing, and he is also giving Lance his truest answer. Things may change again. 

When Keith gives him this answer, Lance does seem a bit affronted- he backs up slightly. His facial expression and his voice express disappointment. It is fair to say that he didn’t want this kind of answer from Keith. 

Probably he was hoping for assurance on his strengths, or a more personal form of encouragement. Or maybe even a part of him expected Keith to agree with him. Whatever it was, he was dissatisfied by the answer Keith gave him, because a part of what Keith said was also, “nope, we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing.” Even though Keith gave him the truth, it’s not much in the way of personal reassurance for self doubts. But I don’t think Lance is supposed to have all his problems and insecurities solved right now, anyway. This is just a start, not only in tackling his insecurities, but in solidifying his growing bond with Keith. 

But I do think Keith softens it in the end:

Here I think we’re seeing Keith’s version of comfort- it’s a little less “leader,” a little more friend (note his open body language), and tinged with a bit of humor specific to the two of them: making digs at each other. Focus on your strengths, he’s telling him, not Pidge’s, not Allura’s, not mine, not any of ours. Focus on your missions. You do your part and we’ll do ours and we’ll work together and it’ll work out because we’re a team and we have each other’s backs. No one of us can do everything. And again the body language, the uncrossed arms, the lack of jacket, the smile, shows us that Keith feels good about this- about the fact that Lance came to him, about their growing friendship. It shows that he’s received Lance’s concerns, and he doesn’t judge him for it, that he’s here for Lance, that he wouldn’t mind if Lance came to him with something like this again. He’s looking confidently at Lance, and he’s is confident in Lance. 

I think it’s safe to say that Lance is comforted. Not completely satisfied with the advice he got, but I do feel confident in saying that he’s  at least a bit pleased with the friendship side of this interaction. I think he can tell that Keith is confident in what he said, and that Keith does believe in him, whatever his role is or may end up being. He knows Keith wants him on his team. And this season Lance has done a lot of comforting, a lot of impulse checking, a lot of helping Keith, and now that he finds himself on the receiving end of it, Keith may not come through in the way Lance wants, but he does come through in his own Keith way. 

Lance wasn’t going to walk out of this room BFFs with Keith- they’re still getting to know each other. Keith doesn’t necessarily know the kind of comfort Lance requires and is receptive to, and Lance may need time to figure out exactly how Keith expresses his. Because Lance could have gone to someone like Hunk, who probably knows exactly how to comfort Lance, because he knows Lance. Keith is still learning, and as we know, Keith isn’t the quickest to pick up on things of a social nature. Keith and Lance have a lot of similarities, but the way the behave - and perceive things - socially is extremely different. They’re navigating that, still learning how the other works- they’re not quite chummy yet. They’re still a little awkward, but they’re trying, and that’s why I think this scene shows a lot of progress in the end. 

I’ve also seen people talking about this scene - where Keith gives up his spot in Voltron so Shiro can take the black lion again - as a response to his conversation with Lance. What I love most about this interpretation is that, again, it’s not Keith being verbose or pointing out Lance specifically, but it is showing that he heard Lance, and that no, it does not have to be Lance who sits out. It can be him, it can be any of them. They’re a team. Providing Coran support in the Castle can be just as important as being out in the field (managing the enormous Castle on your own with only the help of some mice cannot always be easy, I’m assuming). 

And again, it says something about the way Keith communicates. Very often it’s through action, and I think we can expect more through Keith’s actions than his words much of the time. Keith responds in action. We saw the others digging at Keith’s leadership in episode 2, and how does he respond? By sitting them all down and talking about how they’re going to operate before they head out again? No! He charges right into battle to prove himself. And we’ve seen this many times before, but now that we see him becoming a better leader, now that we see him learning, we see the way he responds to Lance. Not by saying, “hey man, we can all take turns sitting out sometimes,” but by doing it. Again, I think it can also go back to Keith’s silence. He listens, then acts in response, and while this can contribute to his impulsive nature, in many ways it can convey such a bigger statement. And again, the difference in language between Keith and Lance- Lance wanted words, but Keith largely responds in action. This particular action shows a lot of maturity on Keith’s part since the beginning of season 3. 

SO, in conclusion, and because I’ve stayed up far too late writing this......................................................I love Keith, I love Lance, I love their differences and the way it has an affect on how they interact. 

I’ve seen other interpretations floating around and I wanted to get my little piece in. Agree? Disagree? I’m open to anything and I’d love to hear your thoughts :) 

[mad-madam-m]

Dear Madam can you please explain this poor soul what exactly is going on in Voltron? I wasn't able to watch the last few seasons and I won't be able to watch for a while too so I'm dying to know what's going on. I wasn't able to escape spoilers even if I can't go online much so I learned Shiro is a part of lgbtq+ community but I keep seeing a ship finally being canon (?) and another ship's fans sending threats at creators. I don't mind spoilers so can you please explain the situation for me?

Okay I’m not sure what you mean by the last few seasons, but I’ll outline (as briefly as I can) what’s happened in the show between season 3-6 and a little bit of what’s happened at SDCC this past weekend. It’s been awhile since I’ve watched season 3 and 4, so some of the details may be a bit sketchy, but you’ll get the general gist of things.

Since this will undoubtedly get long, everything’s under the read more. Spoilers ahoy, fairly be ye warned:

Season 3

As we all know, Shiro disappeared at the end of season 2 during the Big Fight with Zarkon, and so season 3 picks up with the paladins doing their best to free people from the Galra while they can’t form Voltron. Keith is, understandably, distraught that Shiro’s gone, and he’s been spending a lot of time looking for him.

However, since they need to be able to form Voltron and for that, need a new Black Paladin, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Allura, and Keith all try their hands at Black’s controls. Black, unsurprisingly, chooses Keith. Keith, unsurprisingly, is less than thrilled, but does it both because he kind of has to, and because it’s what Shiro wanted. Lance ends up in Red and Allura ends up in Blue, thus beginning the Lion Roulette.

On the Galra side of things, Haggar has summoned Prince Lotor, Zarkon’s son, back to take control of the Galra Empire. Lotor is perfectly happy to do so, but he’s definitely out for his own ends. 

Halfway through the season, we see Shiro wake up on a Galra ship and escape to the planet below, and then hitch a ride back to Voltron. Keith is more than willing to turn Black back over to Shiro, but Black won’t respond to him.

We also got what is quite possibly my favorite Sheith exchange to date:

Shiro: How many times are you going to save me before this is all over? Keith: As many times as it takes.

Other things that happen in this season:

1) Alternate universes are a thing and Voltron has the ability to go between them.

2) This is because the lions were built from a transreality comet.

3) Lotor steals a transreality comet which he then starts using to build the Sincline ships.

4) When Shiro escapes, a Galra watching him declares that Operation Kuron Stage 3 is go.

5) There’s an entire episode dedicated to how Voltron was created, where we learn that Haggar was originally Honerva, an Altean scientist and Zarkon’s wife. Haggar…also learns this, because apparently quintessence poisoning really fucks with your memory.

6) Motherfucking Zarkon wakes back up.

Season 4

(my full rambly thoughts on season 4 here)

Keith starts pulling away from the team and going on more missions with the Blade of Marmora, eventually leaving Team Voltron entirely. In his absence, Shiro bonds again with the Black Lion and is able to pilot it once more.

Team Voltron sets about building the Voltron Coalition, a group of free planets and resistance fighters who have long been rebelling against the Galra Empire. Their goal is to build a force capable of taking down the Galra’s stranglehold on the galaxy.

Pidge gets an entire episode dedicated to finding her brother, Matt. It’s amazing. Please watch it.

With Zarkon back, Lotor is banished again. Lotor is fine with this since he has his own ulterior motives, but his motives are (somewhat) revealed when Haggar is spying on him via one of his generals. This leads to the Zarkon bringing the full force of the empire down on Lotor, who barely manages to escape. When another of Lotor’s plans fails, his generals turn on him to take him to Zarkon to get the bounty for him. Lotor escapes.

The Coalition–Voltron, the Blade of Marmora, and the resistance fighters–set up to take the planet Naxzela for strategic reasons. Turns out Naxzela is a giant fucking bomb that will wipe out the entire system and Haggar activates it from just out of range. Nobody can get through the shield of her ship to stop it. Just as Keith’s about to perform a Heroic Sacrifice in an effort to get through, Lotor shows up, blasts through the shield and the ship, and Haggar gets the hell out of Dodge.

We end the season with Lotor offering himself to Team Voltron as an ally.

Season 5

Lotor’s been giving the Voltron team intelligence to help them take down various Galra installations throughout the galaxy. Shiro wants to trust him more fully, Allura’s not so sure, so Lotor offers them a prize that the team absolutely can’t resist: the whereabouts of Pidge’s father.

They go to the coordinates Lotor gives them. Turns out, Sam Holt isn’t there because Zarkon got there first and wants to trade Sam for Lotor. The team makes the trade, Zarkon betrays them, and there is a truly epic Zarkon vs. Lotor fight while Pidge, Matt, and Shiro try to get Pidge’s dad back from Lotor’s generals. 

The Holt family is reunited and Lotor succeeds in killing Zarkon, much to the shock of everybody watching because holy shit it’s only episode two.

As you might imagine, killing the emperor leaves a little bit of a power vacuum and Lotor wants to be the one to fill it. He tries to talk Team Voltron into helping him do so because it’ll be best for all of them, but the only one willing to listen to him is Shiro.

Shiro’s been acting off since his return in season 3, but this season it goes from “that’s…kind of out of character” to “holy shit something is definitely wrong with Shiro.”

As evidenced by the fact that he just up and takes the Black Lion and Lotor to the Kral Zera, the ceremony where the new emperor will be chosen, without telling literally anybody else. 

We get our first glimpse of Keith all season when he stops in the middle of a goddamn Blades mission to undo what they’ve done the moment he realizes Shiro is there and in danger. We also see that Haggar has somehow found Sendak (remember him from season 1?) and that he’s going to be her pick for emperor.

But Lotor’s the one who wins the fight and becomes emperor and it’s not entirely clear if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Keith gets sent on a mission to extract a Blade of Marmora agent, Krolia, who looks like this:

Surprising absolutely nobody with the reveal that it’s his mother.

Lotor and Allura get closer as he tries to get her to help him discover the way to Oriande, a legendary place that holds the secret to all Altean alchemy. They find it, they go, and while Allura learns more, Lotor’s truly selfish motivations send him back empty-handed.

Unfortunately, by finding the way to Oriande, they let Haggar know exactly where it is. (Did I mention Haggar’s spying on them through Shiro’s eyes? Because Haggar’s totally spying on them through Shiro’s eyes.)

DUN DUN DUNNNNN.

Season 6

(full rambly s6 thoughts here)

Okay, so, Lotor’s officially emperor and starting to work at bringing the empire back together, and the Voltron team is helping him. Allura, specifically, is helping him build another fancy ship. Meanwhile, other factions of Galra are trying to take power, the biggest being Sendak and the Fires of Purification. As the Voltron team is trying to help a Galra outpost repair a radiation shield, Shiro gets flashes of Haggar in Oriande.

Meanwhile, Keith is following his mother to finish the mission she’d originally started: tracking down the source of this ultra-powerful quintessence. They have to make their way through a particularly dangerous area of space where time is distorted and you get glimpses of the past and the future. Keith learns how his mother came to Earth, met his father, and why she really left him behind.

Keith and Krolia hitch a ride on a space whale to safely navigate their way through this area of space, which takes two years thanks to the weird time stuff, and at the end they find…a hidden planet of Alteans?!

TURNS OUT that since the destruction of Altea, Lotor has been going around the galaxy and collecting the Alteans that had been off-planet when Zarkon ordered it destroyed. He built a colony for them and then, after awhile, started taking some of them to another colony. But of course it wasn’t another colony. He was actually taking them to a facility where he was harvesting their quintessence. SUPER GREAT, HUH?

So Keith gets his ass back to Team Voltron, everybody is REALLY SURPRISED because holy shit he’s bulked up, and he and Krolia and their new Altean friend, Romelle, tell everybody just what the fuck Lotor’s been up to.

And that’s precisely the time that Haggar activates her mind control switch on Shiro and takes him over, forcing him to turn on the team, get Lotor, and bring him to her.

(NGL I fucking SCREAMED.)

Anyway, shit happens and Keith ends up on the other side of a wormhole alone, trying to get to Shiro and bring him back. After Shiro drops Lotor with Haggar, he leads Keith away to…a cloning facility filled to the fucking brim with Shiros.

Yup. Shiro’s been a clone since season 3.

What follows is one of the best fight scenes I’ve seen in this series, with Keith desperately trying to get through to Shiro and Shiro, you know, trying to kill him.

A fight scene that culminates with this line:

“Shiro, please! You’re my brother. I love you.”

Seriously, “The Black Paladins” is one of the best episodes in the entire series oh my God.

OKAY SO while Shiro and Keith are having their battle to the death, Lotor’s general turn on Haggar and they all escape to the Sincline ships and head back to Voltron. Lotor tries to charm his way back into Allura’s good graces, but she isn’t having it. Thus, it’s the Lions vs. the Sincline ships.

After his fight with Shiro, Keith wakes up in the astral plane confronted with…Shiro! Apparently he actually died during the fight with Zarkon at the end of s2, but his soul merged with Black and his lion’s been taking care of him the entire time. (Just rip my heart out; I wasn’t using it anyway.)

Now he’s flying as fast as he can to get back to the others so they can form Voltron, but Lotor and his generals are making mincemeat of them. That is, until Lotor lets slip he wants to get rid of all the Galra, and his generals go “…fuck this shit, we’re out.”

Then we find out Lotor can combine the Sincline ships to form his own Voltron so THAT’S FUN.

(You can tell I actually remember what happened in this season, can’t you)

So Keith can hear his team getting clobbered over the comms and literally screams Shiro’s name so loud he projects himself back into the astral plane and Shiro shows him how to bond with Black and fucking teleport.

The greatest “sup, bitch” moment the world has ever seen.

Keith sends clone!Shiro’s body back to the castle while the rest of them form Voltron and set at trying to kick Lotor’s ass. “Trying” being the operative word, there, because holy monkeys Lotor is fast. Also, turns out he can jump in and out of the quintessence field at will.

Anyway, they go in after him, they manage to defeat him in the quintessence field, and then they have to get the hell out of there without Lotor.

BUT (because of course there’s a but), the whole “jumping in and out of the fabric of reality” thing has left a lot of rips in space, basically, and they’ve got about 15 minutes before those rips expand and destroy…well, everything. The only way to stop them is with a very, very powerful explosion.

Which they can only get by overloading the teladuv on the Castle and using the ensuing explosion to seal the rips.

(Watching them evacuate the Castle of Lions and send it into one of the rips is one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the entire series. It kills me.)

So they save the world, lose their home, and set down on the nearest inhabitable planet to get Shiro’s soul back into clone!Shiro’s body. And we get this wonderful scene:

Ah yes, Keith gently cradling Shiro post-resurrection, I’m fine.

So they need a new Castle of the Lions, but the only place they can get the blueprints are with Pidge’s dad, who left for Earth in s5e5. So guess what! They’re going back to Earth!

Now granted, there’s a lot more that happens, but that’s the general gist of where we are with what’s aired so far!

SDCC Panel

They aired the first episode of season 7 at the panel at San Diego Comic Con and it’s a pre-Kerberos episode that confirmed Shiro was in a serious relationship with a guy named Adam before he left for Kerberos. They broke up because Shiro had some kind of chronic, terminal illness that would’ve made it impossible for him to continue flying within a few years, and when Adam gave him an ultimatum of the Kerberos mission or their relationship, Shiro chose the mission.

Some people seem to have misunderstood that they were engaged (they weren’t) or that Shiro is still in a relationship (he isn’t). What we do know is that we’ll meet Adam in season 7, although whether that’s only in flashbacks or when the team returns to Earth remains to be seen.

They haven’t explicitly labeled whether Shiro is gay/bi/pan in canon (and don’t intend to), although the cast/crew has referred to him mostly as gay in their interviews. But the point is, he’s not straight. We have explicit queer rep in the show and it’s SHIRO!!!!

SO ANYWAY. That’s where we are! No ships are canon yet, but with the reveal that Shiro’s not straight, it does open the door for a non-het endgame romance before the show ends. (Not sure if they’ll go that way, but hey! THERE’S A CHANCE.)

Season 7 drops August 10 and I cannot waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait.