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Let’s Voltron Ep 185 - Mitch Iverson Interview: Voltron Legendary Defender Comics Transcript

The following is a complete transcript for episode 185 of Let’s Voltron: the Official Voltron Podcast in which hosts Marc Morrell and Greg Tyler interview VLD writer Mitch Iverson about the comic books, posted July 11, 2019.

The full text is below the cut, or you can read it at https://www.teampurplelion.com/lets-voltron-ep-185-mitch-iverson-interview-voltron-legendary-defender-comics-transcript/

@voltronisruiningmylife @crystal-rebellion @leakinghate @felixazrael

[Intro music: VLD opening theme]

MM: Welcome Voltron fans! This is Marc Morrell, your host for Let’s Voltron, the Official Voltron Podcast. We have another exciting interview with somebody who created content for Voltron, and this time we’re talking about the comics. So, I gotta get my cohost on, Greg Tyler. Welcome, Greg!

GT: Marc, I’m so glad you didn’t call me your comic relief.

[laughter]

GT: That would’ve been a perfect end, but anyway, yes, um, welcome to all of our listeners and fellow Voltron fans. We’re gonna talk comic books in this podcast and, uh, yeah! It’s gonna be a lot of fun. As many of you know, Voltron: Legendary Defender had three five-issue volumes of a comic book, uh, made by LionForge Comics and we’re gonna talk with one of the people who was involved in every single issue.

MM: Awesome! Awesome, so let me get this straight: every single issue?

GT: I believe so.

MM: Yeah. All fifteen. He was.

GT: Yes, all fifteen.

MM: That’s right. So, what kinds of things do you think our listeners would want to know about the comics?

GT: I don’t know! Wha--what are your thoughts?

MM: I think, uh, one of the first things people always ask about is, ‘Are there any easter eggs?’ You know, like references to other types of things like sci-fi shows or fantasy or other types of things like that.

GT: Mm-hm.

MM: So I-I think that one has to be one of our questions.

GT: Sure, th-that’s a great question. I would say that if there’s one thing--now I-I--it’s not something we can ask our guest--but one thing I think tha-that somebody might ask is ‘are they any good’. And I know that sounds silly, but I’ve heard a lot of people just say, “Eh, I don’t wanna read those comics, those are dumb.” [laughter] But you know what? If you give them a try, they’re a lot of fun in their own right. The dialogue is very natural, the characters are saying and thinking and doing things that are very in-tune with the TV series. They are interesting side stories that, uh, fit between different episodes of the show, so they do have, uh, a-a place in the story arcs, and yet they’re not so confined by them that they can’t do their own thing. And the artwork looks great, and the stories are a lot of fun. So to answer that question, if anybody out there has that, in my humble opinion, yeah, they’re good! They’re a lot of fun. What do you think, Marc?

MM: I think it’s just fun to say things like ��fripping bulgogian”.

GT: [laughter] Yes. There are some wonderful sci-fi-ish terms in the comics, just like in the show, and yeah, a lot of fun.

MM: And there’s some wild alien races that you’ve never seen before on the show, and it’s just amazing in how many different wild directions they go with the comics.

GT: Yes, I agree, it, uh, yeah. There’s some really good stuff in there.

MM: Yeah. So, we’d like to bring Mitch Iverson on.

GT: Absolutely.

MM: Alright. So here comes your next guest.

[Mechanical lion roar sound effect, which then turns into Voltron robot noises and the Voltron theme]

MM: Well, Greg, I would like to introduce a former writer of Voltron: Legendary Defender on Netflix, and of course the comics that we’re going to be talking about in this episode. He was also a writer on the up-and-coming Fast and Furious animated show, and he’s working on a top-secret project for Netflix.

GT: Ooh, top secret, sounds awesome!

MM: [laughter] Everybody welcome back to the podcast Mitch Iverson! Welcome, Mitch!

MI: Hello! Thank you for having me on!

GT: Hello, Mitch, welcome back to the podcast.

MI: I’m excited to be back.

GT: Well, we’re excited to have you on. We reread the Voltron: Legendary Defender comics, all three volumes, all fifteen issues, and are--we’re just really excited to talk with you about them.

MI: Awesome. I’m excited to talk to you guys about them.

GT: So what have you been up to in Voltron circles since? We heard that--that there were rumors of a fourth volume, and then that--that fell through or something? Can you tell us anything about that?

MI: We had talked about doing it, but you know, the license… there was something going on with that, and uh, DreamWorks decided, “You know what, let’s just let Voltron: Legendary Defender be what it was.” I think everyone creatively felt like, yeah it’s a--it’s a told story. You know, now that it’s over, going back is just kind of like trying to fill in between lines that don’t necessarily need to be filled in. Like, it is--it’s an awesome story, it’s done.

GT: That’s fair. That’s fair.

MI: I will say, if I were allowed to write Monsters and Mana comics [laughter] forever, I would.

[laughter]

MM: That would be cool.

MI: But I don’t know that those would, uh, would warrant the sales. [laughter]

MM: You also have a history with Dungeons and Dragons, can you tell us about anything you’ve done recently with Dungeons and Dragons?

MI: I’ve played it. [laughter]

MM: Alright.

MI: Yeah, I have a group of friends that meet once a month, uh, every month, on a Saturday. We get together at about noon and we play until about 10 p.m. There’s usually some wine, maybe a little scotch every now and then. It’s really fun, definitely snacks that are really unhealthy for you, lots of laughs.

MM: Nice.

MI: Lots of good storytelling. It’s a, it’s a great group.

GT: I think that’s the best part of roleplaying games, isn’t it? It’s the friendship.

MI: Oh, I thought you were going to say snacks.

[laughter]

GT: Oh, okay.

MI: I mean I would agree.

GT: And the wine.

MM: You can’t have a guy like Hunk as your caterer at every Dungeons and Dragons night, right?

MI: No, you can’t.

[laughter]

MM: So you would love to do Monsters and Mana comics.

MI: I’m being semi-serious. I mean I just love that episode so much and I had so much fun with it, but you know, it did--a lot of its magic was that it was just kind of a one-time adventure, but, uh, I do truly just love that kind of, like, whimsical fantasy element. I thought that was a lot of fun.

MM: Well, the funny thing is that the “Monsters and Mana” episode was one of the few episodes that tied in with the comics.

MI: Right. Yeah.

MM: Because they mentioned the Yalexian pearl.

MI: Right, yeah.

MM: Mm-hm.

MI: You’re, uh, you pay attention.

GT: Yeah! There were a lot of terms that, uh, were expanded upon in the comics, that one being probably the most prominent, but uh, one thing that surprised me a bit in the comics, we had an issue that was told from Lance’s perspective where he is a D&D kind of, sort of sorcery hero. And he rescues the princess, there’s a dragon, the dragon is the princess--spoilers--and, and it’s just--it’s really cool, but one thing that-that kind of surprised me after “Monsters and Mana” is in that episode, Lance acts like he wants nothing to do with th-the game at first, and in the comic world he’s thinking in those terms. So is Lance a closet nerd?

MI: I think he is, and the thi--well, just to--just to make a quick joke, usually you say “spoilers” first, not-not after. [laughter]

GT: Well, yeah, I spoiled the spoiler.

[laughter]

MI: Oh, I’m just messin’ around. But Lance, I mean the reason he’s trying to act like he doesn’t like fantasy is because he wants to seem cool in front of Allura, and then she’s like, “This sounds fun!” and he’s like, “Oh, okay.”

GT: [laughter] Oh, yeah, that’s cool.

MI: And I mean, you know, he’s always playing that video game and he’s got, like, a--a, you know, at the end, he sticks around to play another game. So...

GT: Oh yeah. Yeah, he does.

MM: In that comic, it says, th-the narrator says, “With Lance’s unerring nose for adventure-finding and quest-detection, the lions quickly reached the most likely spot on the planet Krell for a princess rescue.” And of course they chose a picture of a tall tower.

MI: Mm-hm.

MM: Of course, that’s the perfect place for a princess rescue.

GT: Sure!

MM: This particular princess was a little unusual of sorts, wasn’t it?

MI: Yes.

GT: Yeah, I think I already spoiled that, unfortunately.

[laughter]

MI: Whiffed on that one, huh, little button. Yeah, that was, you know in the first two iss--first two books, and then I wrote them together, we broke all the stories together, but we each took a different issue. We were both a lead on a different issue, and that was an issue he took the lead on and I didn’t know that he was gonna do all that Lance narrating stuff, that was totally him, and I remember reading it and laughing and like, “You are a genius, sir.”

[laughter]

MI: I was like, “Wow, man, he--he is awesome.”

GT: Yeah, I-I think what I really like about--one of the things I really like about the comics is that they, you know--Voltron at its core tends to be sort of an action/adventure sort of property, you know, with sci-fi/fantasy elements and all that, but one thing that I really liked is that a lot of the comics were, you know, had unique twists that made them not just, you know, fighting. There were puzzles to solve, there was “Wow, you know, this thing isn’t really a monster. It’s not trying to… It’s just--it’s just hungry, let’s feed it.” Um, you know, there were all these, these twists that make it not just “giant robot punches the crap out of a giant monster”, you know? And at the same, Voltron has formed in almost every single comic which is also cool, so--

MI: Awesome, yeah.

GT: --so was that a conscious effort on your part and Tim’s part for the first two volumes, to shake things up a bit and make them a little different from the show?

MI: Absolutely. And the--and the thing is, though o-our belief in that is-is you watch a show and a giant robot beats the crap out of a giant monster, that’s awesome. But in a comic book, it might not be as fulfilling we thought. We thought, “You know, this is a little more cerebral” because, like, you’re not gonna get to actually see the-the, all the in-between moments, you know. You can get key images of the fighting, but we thought, like, this needs to ha--we need to, like--we need to, like, make this its own kind of fun thing. Not that it isn’t the show, I thought there were lots of awesome elements like that, but you know, the other thing is in the show, it’s--into its--this is me giving a--I just love this about the show--i-it was so… plotty and it wasn’t like “every episode is fighting a monster”, but then--but, like, Tim and I, we love monster-fighting, so we were like, ”How do we get as much of that in without it feeling like every issue is just solved by punching” like you said. So, we put a lot of thought into ways of making that try and be the case.

GT: Well, I love that juxtaposition where the robot is around all the time, I mean in all, like I think thirteen out of fifteen issues--I counted--and I just kept thinking, “Wow, this is so cool, how many times does this happen?” And so you have that, and yes you have the very awesome-looking variety of giant creatures which is really cool, I mean as an old school fan the more the merrier, and yet it’s not repetitive, it’s not formulaic, it’s not just punch, kick, sword, et cetera. There is still a lot of humans, humanities and problem-solving a-and there are enough plot twists to keep it more than robot-on-creature repetitiveness, and so I really enjoyed that juxtaposition.

MI: I think, by the way, if DreamWorks ever makes another Voltron show, they should make it Voltron: Punch, Kick, Sword, Etc.

MM: Ooh.

[laughter]

GT: You heard it here, listeners.

[laughter]

MM: Alright, so going back to what you were saying, Greg, then sometimes those monsters are somebody’s mother or somebody’s baby.

GT: Mm-hm!

MM: And sometimes Voltron ends up getting into a fight with a monster they probably shouldn’t have.

GT: Yeah.

MI: Yeah.

GT: And that’s also cool. And like, at the end of the very first issu--er was it… yeah, the very first issue, I think--they went to planet Krell and uh, defeated this monster and then these little creatures come out and say, “You’ve killed our guardian”. [laughs]

MM: Yeah.

GT: “Huh?!”

MM: “Huh?”

GT: Yeah.

MI: Hm-hm. [laughs]

GT: Yeah, i-it’s just neat. I-I like the-the juxtaposition there. I-I’m using the word “juxtaposition” it’s a new drinking game, everyone. [laughs] But on the subject of the planet Krell, I’m an old-school sci-fi fan as well and Forbidden Planet is one of my favorite films. Was Krell a deliberate tip of the hat to that film or was it just happenstance?

MI: We--please don’t pitchfork me--I have never seen that movie.

GT: No problem.

MI: Now, Tim may have and that may have been, like, a deliberate nod toward that from him.

GT: Okay.

MI: I don’t-I don’t know, though. Sorry. That may not have been satisfying

GT: Yeah, no problem. That’s perfectly satisfying. It’s the right answer. It’s your answer, so [laughs].

MM: So was there anything specifically that you used as a reference in any of these three volumes?

MI: I’m sure there was, it was just so hard to remember. You know, like, I know that we definitely had a section where every--for every issue we would either go out and ha--or for every arc we’d either go out and have drinks or go get, like, go for, like, a meeting session and we would just, like, talk for, like, a long time about, like, you know, sci-fi things we loved or fantasy things we loved. You know, the other thing we have on that, in there, that is--I should mention that I think is just so great--is, like, many elements that we used were things that we had ideas for the show that it was just like, “You know, we’re never gonna get to fit it in there ‘cuz it’s just not gonna, like, fit with all the stuff going on”. So, you know, like, Josh, May, all the writers who contributed on Voltron, we would always have these powwows and we would talk about, like, different elements that could be in the show, and there would be, like, notecards on the wall that would be, like, “planet cracks open--monster”, that was just, like, a notecard sitting on the wall forever. And it was like, “when are we gonna use that?” And it’s like, “I don’t know if we’re ever gonna get around to using that,” so, like, there was all these ideas that had been kind of, you know, in the aether that we then just say, “Hey, you know, we’re never gonna use these for the show, maybe we put ‘em in the comic book.”

MM: Right.

GT: Yeah, I love that idea where the planet was basically an egg. It was cool.

MI: I think that was Josh Hamilton’s idea.

GT: Oh, neat.

MI: He gets no credit and no money, mua-ha-ha-ha.

[laughter]

GT: Your evil plan worked again. [laughs]

MI: No, we asked him. We asked, “Can we take that card down and put it in the comic?” and he was like, “Yeah!” [laughs]

MM: And one of the cool things is in-in the comics, Pidge actually gets to say “Form Voltron”.

MI: Yeah!

MM: And that doesn’t happen in the show.

MI: Does it never happen in the show?

MM: I’d never heard Pidge say, “Form Voltron”.

MI: Oh, wow.

GT: I’ll take your word for it, but yeah, that does sound like something that would not have been said very often. But yeah, very cool.

MI: Now I’m trying to think does anyone that ever say it besides Keith and Shiro, and Allura? Does Lance ever say it, or Hunk?

MM: I don’t think Lance or Hunk have ever done it.

GT: Ooh. Listeners, if you remember any of these things, and we’re not remembering, please let us know.

[laughter]

MM: But that first volume of comics was actually made into motion comics, too.

MI: Yeah! Wasn’t that cool?

MM: That was awesome.

GT: Yeah, how did that--how did that happen? How did you guys find out about that? Were you involved in-in planning that, or was that surpris--a surprise to you guys?

MI: It was a semi-surprise. We were told they were gonna do it, a--uh, you know, later on, and the way we were kind of told was they put on the recording schedule, like, “Oh, we’re gonna get the actors from the show to come in an-and do that.” So it was like, “Oh, cool, that’s really exciting. Like, that’ll be fun.”

GT: Yeah.

MI: And I thought those things turned out really cool.

MM: Yeah, so cool.

GT: Yeah, it gave it a whole different dimension, didn’t it?

MM: Yes.

MI: Yeah.

MM: It was so cool in fact, that many people had asked are we gonna do this with the other volumes as well?

MI: Yeah, that would’ve been fun. There was always, like, um, strategies, and, like, a lot of the stuff we did on the side was to help promote the show, you know?

GT: Yeah.

MM: Mm-hm.

MI: And, you know, enrich brand experience. And so it-it’s not a hundred percent correct, but, you know, like, in a way the--probably shouldn’t say this ‘cuz it’s gonna come out wrong--but, it’s like the comic books were almost like, in a way, like, a form of advertising and engagement. But the--

GT: Well, sure.

MI: --I know that’s not a perfect analogy because it’s, like, you know, people pay for those, but then with the motion comics that was another way to, like, keep fans engaged, you know, because we’re not always going to have new Voltron content coming out, so it was a way to be like, “Yeah, remember? Don’t forget about us, and don’t forget that, like, the show’s gonna come back in a few months.” And so by the time all that stuff had gotten done, I think the show was probably rounding a corner and, you know, like, it wouldn’t have made sense to do that, t-to invest that money, to give away basically a product that was just gonna be advertisement for a show that was, that was, you know, ending.

GT: Yeah, that makes sense.

MI: If that makes any sense.

GT: Yeah that makes perfect sense. Yeah, absolutely.

MI: DreamWorks is very smart, and they did a really awesome job, I thought, you know, getting the word out to the fans and helping us, like, helping us find ways to engage in cool, different, unique ways, so, that was like, you know, that was like a surprise. It was an awesome surprise.

GT: Yeah, it was great. A-and there have been Voltron motion comics in the past. Several years ago, I-I’m trying to remember the publisher now, but there were two different animated comics there--that were adaptations from prior, um, Voltron iterations. Not from a show directly, but kind of a-a more serious bend on the original show.

MM: You’re talking about Devil’s Due Publishing, right?

GT: I think so, yeah.

MM: The Revelations comic?

GT: I think so, there were a couple different, uh, motion comics that came out, and I must tell you, I had a really hard time getting through them when I finally got around to watching them in the last few years. And it’s nothing about the comic, it’s just that the adaptation didn’t have the same quality in terms of dynamic motion. It was much more static. The music was more stock-sounding rather than using the composers from the show, or any show, I mean just felt stock, et cetera. And so the Legendary Defender stuff was a definite cut above what had been made before, and I really think it kind of breathed a different sense of life into the comic story a-and was very exciting in its own way.

MI: Th-thank you, that’s really cool. I mean, you know, when you get, like, Rhys Darby or Jeremy Shada or Bex, er, they’re--you know, Josh, like, they’re all amazing, it’s like--to have them lend themselves to that, it’s just like--it definitely elevates it, too, you know. That was so great.

MM: Yeah, and Pidge in volume one where she establishes that she has this dossier that she’s been building, assessing the strengths and vulnerabilities of her fellow Paladins, that was a really interesting character moment for her.

MI: Yeah, and, uh, I will say--okay, you were looking for things where I got inspiration from. Hopefully I don’t get in trouble for admitting this, but to me, I’ve always thought of Pidge as kind of the “World’s Greatest Detective”, she’s kind of--

MM: Like Batman!

MI: --like a Sherlock Holmes or like Batman, yes. And uh, and Batman, I think at some point, had a dossier on the Justice League, and that was, like, a storyline.

MM: Oh, yeah.

MI: And so, I was like, “You know, that’s just--that rings true.” Like, that’s something that Pidge would do, you know? So… I don’t wanna say “ripped off”, but homaged. [laughs]

GT: Yeah, a-and that’s cool. I really enjoyed it. And then in a later volume--was it volume three? They’re starting to blend together over just two evenings--there was the plot where she wanted to turn o--that was in volume three!--turn off the shield in the SPRAWL, the Galra shield, and she had her memories temporarily wiped. So that was another interesting twist on something you wouldn’t expect. Someone who was as intelligent as she is and the world’s greatest detective, having to figure out not only what to do, who her allies are, but uh, you know, all this while not even knowing who the heck she is.

MI: I had that idea, and I thought it was a really, really cool idea, and then I was terrified about how to pull that off. I was like… it’s… and I hope I did, I still am like, am like, “Is anyone going to understand what’s happening?” Like, “Is this cool?”

MM: Why is she saying “who am I?”

[laughter]

MI: And I was like, “Oh, this could be very… I hope it works!” And so… I’m glad to hear you liked it. That means a lot.

GT: Yeah, it was uber fun. And it also touched on, uh, something she said back in season 1 where Allura is trying to get Pidge to tell her, uh, the secret that Pidge is really a girl, and instead, you know, she says, “I like peanuts, don’t like peanut butter” or whatever that was, and then she says, “I sweat a lot.” [laughs] And in this issue, she sweats off half of her clues that she had written on her arms.

[laughter]

MM: Yep.

MI: Ey, you remembered! Cool! Yeah!

GT: Yeah! You guys did a great job with the continuity. Now obviously, having worked on the show, it was, you know, still fresh on the brain there, but, uh, to work in those references and the character dialogue i-is so spot-on, too. I could hear the actors, you know, reading the dialogue for every single one of the issues, it was really neat.

MM: So did you ever think what it would be like if maybe the show had a longer run, you know, than the two and a half years it was on, and that you would’ve been able to actually take one of these comic issues that you had written, and adapt it back into an episode into the show if you still had those things rolling together like they were?

MI: Yeah, totally. Anytime you get to see stuff be, like, read by actors is fun. [laughs]

MM: Yeah. So you’re taking what was done with the motion comics and you’re taking it to the next level and you’re not only adding motion and voice and sound and all that kind of stuff to it, but the actual animation.

MI: Yeah, that’d be cool.

GT: It would. And so I gotta ask in the, uh, in volume two whose idea was it for Alfor to be a nud? [laughs]

MI: Oh man, that had to be Tim.

[laughter]

GT: Where he takes the, uh, shaman or the healer of the--and I don’t know how to pronounce this word--Davdibal, Davdibaw?

MM: It looks like “Davdabhau”.

GT: Yeah.

MI: I’m gonna go with “Davdabhau”.

GT: Alright.

MI: [laughs]

GT: But the--he takes, you know, he goes into this lab, specimen lab, where Alfor had been keeping all these things he’d gathered over the-the years, and he, uh, I just love how he just calls Alfor basically a nerd, which is hilarious. I mean, Alfor, especially later, you see him as this gallant warrior, the original Paladin, and nah, he’s a nerd.

[laughter]

MM: That was when he picked up the Nomo virus, right?

GT: Uh, yes, yes.

MM: So, another thing that kinda tied into the show, you know, Coran had developed the slipperies on the show. But in the comic he develops the Nomo virus, and it actually ends up saving them in the end.

MI: Uh-huh. [laughs]

GT: Well, the slipperies had, too, right?

MM: Yeah.

MI: Y-yeah.

MM: Yeah.

MI: Yeah, he was getting around.

GT: Yeah.

MI: Moving at an incredible pace.

GT: [laughs] And he lubed up the, uh, teludav lenses or whatever. [laughs]

MI: Yeah.

GT: Yeah, that was funny.

MI: We, uh, loved that slipperies so much, which was a Josh Hamilton episode, I believe, and that was just so funny. We wanted to, you know, sort of repeat that kind of--that kind of tone again.

GT: Yeah, and I-I gotta ask. In volume three, we see some of the Coalition ships, um, and we see on one of them Matt Holt and Captain Olia, and then there’s this Unilu who we see throughout the TV show. Uh, I think it’s a female Unilu, she seemingly only has one eye, a bandana or a heads--like an orange colo-colored, sort of head wrapping--and eventually in the show we see her as a bridge crew member on the Atlas. Does that character have a name? Does anybody behind the scenes have a name for that character? I always thought that that there was a very interesting look. I was very curious about that character.

MI: I know the character does, um, I’m struggling to remember the name, though. Oh man. I would have to look that up for you. I’m sure there’s a name, and I’m sure we had one, but I’d have to look through, you know. One thing that happens--alright, so I don’t work for, uh, DreamWorks anymore, and when I left, I had a DreamWorks email address and like a DreamWorks, uh, like, storage thing, and that’s where all of the scripts I wrote were, and now I’m always like, “Oh, well, let’s look that up and see where that was!” and it’s like, “Oh, I don’t have this anymore.” [laughs]

GT: Oh, bummer!

MI: I’m sure if I were to go, I’m sure someone there would be nice enough to go through with me and find them again and… but it would definitely be troubling.

GT: Yeah.

MI: And it’s on the tip of my tongue, I know there’s a name.

GT: Yeah, I was just curious. I-I-I remember, uh, Lauren Montgomery’s been very kind enough to answer some of the-some of those kind of questions. It’s just--it helps build out that universe just a little more. So, just something I just noticed in one of the panels, and I thought, “Oh, I love that character, even though I know nothing about her.”

MI: Yeah, Lauren would know for sure, I believe L--that was, like, one of Lauren’s favorites. I could be wrong--

GT: Oh, okay.

MI: --you know, the other thing is, it’s been, like, two or three years since I worked on Voltron, so it’s like, you know, the memories get a little hazy over time.

GT: Oh yeah. And so how would you compare your creative freedom in writing one of these comics versus an episode? I mean, were the comics--because they have to be kind of sandwiched between episodes--were they more constrained as a result or were they less constrained because they didn’t necessarily have to fit the overall story arc of the show? How would you compare and contrast that?

MI: We--it-it’s funny, because that constraint of fitting inside of, like, continuity, it’s very similar to when you write an episode to the show anyway because we have it so plotted out it’s like, you know, you know your beginning, you know your end, the whole team works on what it--what the journey’s gonna be like to get between those spots. So that’s, like, that’s kinda similar. Uh, I would actually say there are very, very comparable in terms of the process because, you know, we still had to have a lot of people sign off on it, it was a lot of, like, there’s a lot of collaboration. I had, uh, you know, Tim and I worked on it together, just like on the show, and we even had Josh, I believe, read versions of things. And, uh, it just--it-it felt very seamless as a transition. Now I will say that writing comic books was something Tim and I had never done, so in terms of, like, the formatting and thinking visually, that was totally different and I c--and it was, and it was very challenging. Like, when I write a script, I can see it in my head clearly and if I know what I’m going for, it kinda just flows out a lot of times. Sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it’s very difficult, but it’s like, you know, I hear Pidge’s voice and so I can, like, you know, Tab, P, Enter, line, Enter, move on. Like I know how to, like, just, like-like, fly through a script. But with, uh--and then, you know read it and rewrite it a bunch of times, et cetera. But with the comic, it’s like, so hard to think, like, “Okay, a photo needs to describe everything, and I have to describe it all in detail, and, like, and then--” It was just so--such a different mental muscle that I had to get used to. And I will say, like, honestly, like, when I went back and read the comics, like, Tim and I, when we read the first comic and we were very proud of them, and Lion Forge was so awesome to work with and so helpful. But even after all of that I was still like, “You know, there’s a few things that if I-if I’d really known how this was gonna look, might have written it differently so it might’ve been a little clearer” you know? Or, like, a visual joke could’ve planted, because it was a totally new process to me.

GT: Yeah.

MI: I mean, I still feel very much like a novice in that regard.

GT: Yeah, you were talking about having to describe things visually, with individual panels and all that. Whose-whose idea--since it was introduced in volume one but followed up in volume three, whose idea was it to depict Pidge’s computer-like thought processes as sort of, like, a-a command prompt on the-on the panel?

MI: Yeah, I think that was actually me because I read Tim’s, uh, Lance issue, and I thought and I thought that was so awesome, and I was like, “Oh I’m ripping him off.”

[laughter]

MI: And I was like, “Oh, if Lance is gonna look like that,” hers has to look kinda… it has to be Pidge and I was thinking, you know, Pidge is sort of, like, a techie, and whenever I think “techie” I immediately go to The Matrix, so I ripped off Tim and The Matrix.

MM: And when you have your characters wearing specific outfits, like in the second volume Pilgrimage, Coran gets to go back and wear that, uh, fancy cape outfit--

MI: [laughs] Yeah he does.

MM: --that he wore when he was trying to get to ride Red Lion. So, do you say in the script that he has to be wearing that outfit?

MI: I believe we did call that one out specifically.

MM: Okay.

MI: Honestly, the comic books, one of the things that, you know, when you write a script you can kind of be a little more evocative sometimes. It depends on the situation, it’s always different. But overall you can be a little more, like, you don’t have to fill in all the blanks on things. But with a comic book, they prefer you do. You wanna know, like, the blocking, you wanna know, like, you know, where people are situated. You can-inside the script you can put, like, comp art that you wanna use so the artist has some, like, help because they’re basically gonna go draw--I mean, it--that same thing happens in animation in a way, somebody draws a picture of it. But in animation, there’s like, a whole team, like, you know, and meetings, and there are storyboard artists before it even gets animated. It’s all in motion. But like, with a comic, it is like, you are handing a script off to someone that you might not ever get to talk to, and then they have to, like, read it, and get a pretty clear idea, so the more detail you give the better. And as a very lazy person, that was hard for me.

[laughter]

MM: So you didn’t get to really collaborate with digital art chefs on this?

MI: Not really. I mean, I never got to talk to any of the artists. I mean, I’ve met some people who’ve worked on the comics at cons, just it’s like, you know, and it’s always awesome to see them, it’s like “Yay! You did such an awesome job!” and they’re like, “Aw, thanks!” It’s like, yeah--but yeah, it’s like--they’re always sweet moments, but in terms of the actual collaboration, it was more like we turned in a script and then one day we got to see the comic. Which is, you know, that’s how it is. I know, I mean there’s more to it than that, I’m making it seem… [laughs]

MM: Uh-huh.

MI: But it-but it is, like, you know, we didn’t get to, uh, to talk or-or communicate really directly with the artists.

MM: Okay.

MI: Which is, you know, that’s-that’s not unheard of and-and, um, you know, in writing, you know, oftentimes you write a script and it’s just, like, you know, you get to go watch it on TV and see what happened with everyone else someday.

MM: I was gonna say, that happens with some other professionals, like sometimes the voice actors, they do their thing, and if they didn’t have to do an ADR session on something, they wouldn’t know what was going on, and they find out something happens to their character through--for the first time watching it when everybody else watches it.

MI: Mm-hm. And crea-creating a TV show is such a collaborative effort, and it has got so many moving pieces, and it-so, you know, there can be something that’s changed in boards, changed in, like, so many different aspects of the show where even in ADR it’s like, it’s still shot the same but the dialogue has changed, and that dialogue changes the tenor of everything. And so those moments, like, like the show is always an evolving process, and, like, luckily on Voltron, like, you know, like, I felt like every-every step of the process just got better and better. It was such a great team to be a part of.

MM: So I gotta ask you, uh, we had mentioned at the top when we introduced you that you had done some work with Fast and the Furious and you have left that since then and you’re now working on a top-secret project for Netflix. Has your position changed at all?

MI: I have, um, I have gotten a title bump from that. That’s one of the reasons I, uh, de-decided to-to take a new job, um, and so yeah. [laughs]

GT: Well, good for you. Congratulations! That’s great.

MM: Yes, congratulations on your promotion!

MI: Thank you, thank you. It was fun working on Fast, that was a great scene, and, uh, that show is gonna be so awesome. [laughs]

MM: And that comes out soon, right?

MI: No, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say what the release date is or not. I don’t even know if I know the release date for sure, I ha-ha-I have something in my head, but I could be wrong about it. I know a teaser recently was released and, uh, it’s like, woo yeah.

MM: Right. Yeah, that was a pretty cool teaser.

MI: Mm-hm. I don’t know if you guys know this, but Tim is, uh, the showrunner of that.

MM: Yes! Yes he is.

GT: Very cool.

MI: Yeah.

MM: We do know that. [laughs] So, if you had had the chance on this Voltron story that you had written, you know, in volume three--Absolution, right?

MI: Mm-hm.

MM: At the end, Allura basically says that, you know, the universe is safer because the information Lotor provided us, “It seems we might be able to trust him. It’s time to use even more of his information and finally put an end to the Galra Empire.”

MI: Mm-hm.

MM: So, if you had had a chance to go to a next issue right after that, do you think it would’ve been something related to something that was going on in the show? Or a totally different storyline after that?

MI: Well, my thinking was the next thing that happens after. Maybe not the very very next thing, but when they go to that Glara facility in the next episode of the show.

GT: That’s where they were flying around in those tunnels underneath the…

MI: Yeah, with the lava.

GT: Yeah, I know which one you’re talking about.

MI: “The Prisoner”. Yes. So, my plan was maybe there were a few extra missions that would’ve happened, but the next episode that that would link up with would be “The Prisoner” and when they’re on that mission to go in the Galra facility, that’s information from Lotor that they’re using again.

MM: Right, right. That was the first thing that they learned that they could trust him, because it worked out exactly the way he said it would.

MI: Mm-hm.

GT: That was really nice. I think that that one tied in most directly with the plot probably of all three of the volumes, because we see something that actually motivates Allura to have a change of heart.

MI: Yeah. I hope it worked.

GT: Yeah! It totally did. I think the comics a-are so fun in adding some side stories to the overarching plot without, uh, taking anything away from it. I think the-the generally standalone approach with the tips of the hat to what’s going on in the main plot are-are a really nice compromise between, you know, ignoring what’s going on, of course, with the show, which would’ve been kind of hard to do, and uh, getting way too deeply connected to it so that someone who had only read the comic wouldn’t know what was going on, right?

MI: Aw, thanks. I can’t remember if the-if we pulled it off as well--er, one of the intentions we had in the second comic was, um, the second volume comics, was that the castleship is, uh, damaged. So that’s, like, the next episode was going to be, uh, “Green the Cube”, which starts with them out there trying to fix things on it. And so--

GT: Ooh.

MM: Oh, yeah.

MI: --the idea was the castleship in the-the midst of all that action. That’s why they were out there repairing it when the-the uh--the spore with the hidden information arrives.

MM: Cool.

GT: Very nice, love it.

MM: And I-I did notice that there was an ongoing theme with the aliens in the comics. They were very animal-like.

MI: Yeah! We’re always looking for, like, inspiration in nature and stuff like that. One thing we did on the, uh, on the show, or one thing that I did on the show that I always liked, was I had these, like, D&D monster manuals in my office from all the different var--uh--versions of Dungeons and Dragons. And I would just, like, pull them out when I was kind of, like, bored or thinking about things, and I would just look at weird monsters in there and think, like, you know, “What if this monster were in space? What would that look like?” And, you know, it didn’t always evolve from that, but sometimes that could start the, like, a conversation where maybe it was like, we would come to, like, a cool new unique monster from that.

MM: That is pretty cool.

GT: Yeah. Marc had mentioned that one of the giant creatures that, uh, that was encountered was a baby. A gigantic, gravity-producing baby with a much larger mother. And it--was that inspired by anything in particular, or was that just… awesomeness? [laughs]

MI: There might’ve been one, but I just don’t remember. I do think that--you know, one of the things that me and Tim talked about many times was, like, just ‘cuz we have this, like, scale where we think things are big to us but if you’re a big thing, they might not seem that big to other big things, you know, and that was something we always wanted to play with. We always, like, thought that was a fun concept. And another thing that I always just like--was thinking about was, like, you know, the Paladins, you know, if you’re a human being, a hundred years is a very, very long time, but if you’re a creature that lives for a thousand years, that’s not as long to you. You’re a creature that lives for a million years, a hundred years is like a blink of an eye, you know?

GT: Oh, yeah.

MI: Zarkon, like, he’s been conquering for ten thousand years or whatever, you know, it’s like--so somebody who’s been around for a million years, that’s like, “Yeah, that new kid on the block, Zarkon.” [laughs]

GT: Yeah, that’s a good point, a-and I think Kythylian Mu from volume one--that character that Coran had known and pretended as though Coran owed all that gambling debt to--he had been around for thousands of years, too, which was really cool.

MI: Right. Yeah.

MM: There’s not a good chance of running into somebody that you owe a debt to ten thousand years later where they can actually add the interest to your debt.

MI: No, that would be very, very expensive.

MM: So now you owe him a Yalexian pearl.

MI: Yeah, and he’s gonna get it.

GT: So one of my favorite creatures that you guys came up with was, uh, Gantomor, the ancient Davdabhau--I’m trying to get that pronunciation--who protected the sacred grounds and was-and challenged Keith in the, uh, training deck of the Castle of Lions, and then challenged Voltron, and then challenged Coran’s sneeze.

[laughter]

GT: And the-the idea that this creature could transform itself to match its opponent was a really cool thing, was-was that inspired by anything in particular, or was it j-just… where did this come from?

MI: I don’t remember. I think that that was based on just weird conversations Tim and I would have about, you know, like, uh, the idea of like, what would be, like, a fun thing to fight? And it’s, you know, that’s kind of like a, I feel like a fantasy or sci-fi trope of, like, you know, there’s the thing that can match your power, so, like, having to beat the thing that can beat you. I think we even kind of have that, well, sort of, to a degree, in the ep-in the issue where Pidge has to fight her friends, you know, and it’s always like, “How do you beat these scenarios?” So we would try and lock ourselves creatively into a corner and then try and figure out if there was any way we could solve it.

GT: Yeah, that’s really cool.

MM: Plus that scene, okay, y-you have to suspend yo-your thoughts about, you know, can people survive in space for a little while because Coran comes flying in on a kotka, right? One of these huge things with wings and he--[laughs]--he’s wearing that uniform that we had mentioned earlier, but it’s definitely not a space suit, per se, and of course he’s got this virus that he-he needs to, like, sneeze on-on this monster in order to expose him to the virus.

MI: Mm-hm.

MM: So, we’re sort of like, “Okay, Coran’s going through space with no-no spacesuit on, okay. I’m okay with that.”

MI: He’s also, you know, he’s an Altean. They’re pretty strong creatures.

MM: Yeah. [laughs]

GT: I was about to ask you that. Is-is his ability to breathe, sneeze, and talk in the vacuum of space an ability that’s unique to Coran or or is this something that a-all Alteans have?

MI: I am not--I don’t have high enough rank to answer that question.

[laughter]

MI: I mean, I-I think that there’s a little bit of maybe just, you know, whimsical magic happening there.

[laughter]

GT: There’s nothing wrong with that. I was just asking. [laughs]

MI: Tardigrades can move in space. The little water bears, you know what I’m talking about?

MM: Yeah.

MI: The inspirations for the, uh, “Ark of Taujeer”.

MM: The Taujeerians!

MI: Yeah, uh, the tardigrades.

MM: Cool.

MI: The water bears. I don’t know if you’ve ever looked at those things, but th-they’re really weird-looking, but they can live in space.

GT: Yeah. And uh, yeah, the Alteans are great explorers, Allura said so herself, so, uh, talking in space in undoubtedly a very, very uni-unique gift to have.

MI: I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about this before, but one thing that I always thought was funny that is, um, early in the show they fight that, uh, training droid.

GT: Yeah.

MI: And Allura says, “This is fit for an Altean child!”

GT: Oh, yeah.

MI: “This is fit for an Altean child.” And it seems like she’s making a dig at them, but then you find out later she’s super strong. [laughs] And it’s like, “Oh! Maybe that was set for an Altean child.”

GT: Yeah, that’s a good point.

MM: That is a good point. Maybe she wasn’t digging them at the time.

[laughter]

MI: Well, maybe digging them, but digging them with facts.

MM: Yeah. GT: Yeah. Facts that they would not yet know, yeah.

MM: Back then we were questioning as to whether or not Allura was actually controlling that-that droid at the time,

MI: Oh, interesting.

MM: Yeah.

GT: The way they staged that where the droid just collapses and Allura is right behind it, it does-it does sort of, at first glance, y-you kind of think, “Hm, yeah. Was she manipulating that thing or did she just happen to be standing there?” [laughs]

MM: We kind of thought she was the one fighting them, almost.

MI: Maybe she was.

[laughter]

MM:I loved it when they went out in the lions for the first time a-and she-she’s, like, throwing all the Castle at them, you know, like, all th-the weapons that the Castle can-can shoot. She’s firing them.

MI: She’s being so positive.

[laughter]

GT: S-so now that you have, uh, working with Tim and then of course working solo, fifteen comic books under your belt, have you thought any more about writing comics for any other property or maybe going independent? What-what are your thoughts about that medium?

MI: I would love to write more comics some day, and I-and I really want to, but right now I’m a little busy and I’m a little stretched thin. And I also, it just has to be the right one, but I would love to do it again. It’s a really fun experience, especially, like, you know, the company Lion Forge was so great and they were so great to work with, everyone over there is so nice. It’s a really positive company and so, like, maybe if-if I could find something with them someday tha-that that could be really fun, but, you know.

MM: Did you hear about their merger with Oni Press?

MI: Oh! No, I didn’t.

MM: Yeah.

MI: When did that happen?

MM: That was just recently.

MI: Oh.

MM: Apparently they had been either acquired or merged with Oni Press.

MI: Huh. Cool.

MM: Yeah.

MI: Well, I hope, that just makes them even more powerful and awesome.

MM: Yeah.

GT: [laughs] These comics, re-reading them was just a blast. I remember enjoying each of the volumes as they came out and, uh, it was just a lot of fun to revisit them. One--when I first read the first two volumes, I did them through, you know, print, but when volume three came out, I tried at first to buy an e-comic, that was my first ever experience with that, and I don’t know that I--maybe I’m too old-school--but I really, I went ahead and bought the print versions later a-and re-read them that way. Are you into e-comics at all, or do you prefer paper, or… what are your thoughts on all that?

MI: I go back and forth. I-I don’t know if you did the guided comic experience, but if you have an iPad and you do the guided comic experience where, like, it moves between panels and it’s curated really well--

MM: Yeah.

MI: --that can be such an awesome way to experience a comic. Like, I use Comixology, I love it, and I have don-I have done that before, but there’s just nothing that beats going into a comic book shop, talking with the guy that works there, having the paper comic, going home, reading it. I said guy, it could be, you know, any--girl as well, I know for a long time I used to go to Meltdown Comics. There was a really sweet lady that worked there tha-that gave just awesome recommendations. She recommended the comic book Two to me, which I loved, then you go home, you read it, you come back and you’re like, “Thank you for the recommendation”. And it’s just, you know, it’s such a great experience, like, I, I-I don’t know, I could never completely give that up. But, that being said, as I said, there can be some really fun motion comics to read, too.

MM: Yeah, I have a subscription to the DC Universe and they have a comic reader in that that you can watch on TV.

GT: Really?

MM: Oh, yeah. It’s great, and it’s, like, the guided comic, like you said, it goes from panel to panel. You can do it either way, you can do the guided or you can do the regular where you see the whole page at a time.

GT: That’s amazing.

MM: Yeah.

MI: That is awesome. I didn’t know about that.

MM: And they’ve got the whole library of, like, twenty thousand DC comics that are in there.

MI: Wow.

GT: Huh.

MI: Wow. You know, I, at first, was so hesitant to use digital comics, and I was like, “You know, I’m old-school” and I had tried that guided comic experience, and for whatever reason, whatever comic I use, I didn’t really like it as much. I was like, “No, no, no, you should have the page,” you know? And then later on I had a friend tell me, like, “No, no, there are some really cool ones out there,” and I was like, “Okay,” and he recommended one to me--now I can’t even remember--but I went through and did it again and was like, “Oh, oh! This is awesome! Okay.”

MM: Yeah.

GT: That’s cool.

MM: That’s pretty cool.

GT: I wonder if it depends on--I mean, di-di--I wonder if they have to manually stage each of those comics, it’s guided so that it guides you appropriately, you know? In other words, is there a human being involved in taking a comic that’s completed and making that experience the best that it can be, or is it something they can fully automate? In which case, you know, one person might do a better job giving you that guided experience versus another, you know?

MM: Yeah.

MI: There has to be a human being that does it, you know, because it moves so oftentimes it moves from, like, like face to face with speech bubble to other face. And sometimes it, like, you know, i-into a-and then, like, of--it lets the panel build sometimes in certain ways, and sometimes it gives you the whole panel because it, like, you want all this information at once and you don’t want to overmove the, the i-image around, you know. A-and then sometimes, like, you want that splash page when that comic tends to be, like, “Woah!” you know? Like, it’s--there’s no way to-I think that could happen without someone, like, being involved in that.

MM: Right, and then sometimes there’s a lot of information in that speech bubble that takes a while to read, and then other times it’s just, like, one word, and sometimes th-that word is like a shout or something like that and it’s written in big letters and you wanna emphasize it by bringing it into the panel real quick.

MI: Yeah.

MM: You know, or something like that.

MI: It’s funny, it’s not--it’s just so interesting to me how there’s always so many people involved in creative endeavors, like, you know, if you wanna--when you’re watching a TV show, the amount of people that were involved in that, that worked so hard on that, it’s truly impressive to me. I mean that’s one of the reasons why at the end there’s all those credits, you know?

MM: Mm-hm.

MI: But similarly in comic, you know, there’s artists that work on it, there’s inkers, there’s colorists, sometimes that’s all the same person, sometimes not, you know, there’s letterers, there’s, like, it’s--and then, you know, for even to the level of, like, there’s probably somebody that helps curate that motion comic experience. It’s very cool, I think, to, you know. There’s a-there’s a--as a writer, there’s always a part of me that thinks, like, “You know, one of these days I’m gonna write a novel and it’ll be just, like, my thing, it’ll be my book.” And it’s like, yeah. Sometimes I think, yeah, that does sound really fun, but also, like, it’s really fun to work with other people. It’s really fun to see sometimes, like, you have an idea and it might come out different than you expected, but it be even better. It might have been plussed by someone else, you know?

GT: That’s a great point.

MM: The whole is better than the sum of the parts.

MI: Yes. Which, I mean is, I think, apropo when talking about Voltron.

GT: No doubt.

MM: Yes.

[laughter]

MM: We are always stronger together.

MI: Right.

MM: So, one thing I wanted to do before you leave, Mitch, is I wanted to thank you for all these years where you’ve been signing comics for us, an-and you and Tim and everything, and then providing these signed comics for prizes as, you know, for our listeners of the podcast, so I wanna-I wanna thank you for doing all that over the last few years.

MI: Oh, it’s been my pleasure. I should be thanking you. Thank you for all the support, you’re such a great person, you’re such a great fan. Both of you, I-I--it means a lot to me that you guys, you know, uh, like this stuff, you know. We work really hard on it, so when somebody appreciates it that means the world to me.

MM: Oh, yeah. It’s not hard to appreciate it all because you did such a good job.

MI: Aw.

GT: Absolutely.

MI: Keep going.

[laughter]

GT: Well, as soon as we learn about this top-secret project, a-and enjoy that and enjoy Fast and the Furious when it comes out, we will have more to say. Even more to say than we already have. [laughs]

MM: Right.

MI: Yay!

GT: [laughs]

MM: So, we will be watching your career with much interest.

MI: Thank you.

GT: Alright, Emperor Palpatine.

[laughter]

MM: We also look forward to the day when Monsters and Mana has its own comics line.

[laughter]

MI: You know, I-I’m not sure that’ll happen, but maybe, you know, as time goes on, I’ll find the time to do fanfiction for it or something. As long as DreamWorks doesn’t sue me. [laughs]

MM: Okay.

GT: Until then, keep the faith, right?

MI: Right. I can’t believe I got to do that episode at all, that was such a pleasure. So, you know, l-let’s focus on the good we have. [laughs]

MM: That’s right.

GT: That’s right.

MM: That’s right. Can--I can’t believe they paid me to do something that was so fun.

MI: I’m--that’s how I felt, I mean, I was like, every day, finish my stuff, then I got to sneak in little things that were, like, names of people that I play D&D with, their characters, and like, little inside jokes from, you know, people I played D&D with for ten years, so that was, like, tha--I mean, pretty much from the second I was told I got to write a D&D episode until now, whenever I think about it I have just a big smile. I’m really, really grateful for that.

MM: Nice.

GT: Yeah, so cool.

MM: Awesome. So thank you very much once again for joining us on Let’s Voltron, the Official Voltron Podcast.

MI: Thank you.

[mechanical lion roar]

[outro music: VLD theme]

MM: Well, I have to tell ya, I talked to Mitch Iverson so many times in the past few years, but i-it felt a little bit bittersweet this time, I think. Knowing that we might not get a chance to talk to him again without another Voltron thing.

GT: Yeah? I mean, I think the same is true for a lot of the guests that we’ve had on i-in recent months. You know, Voltron: Legendary Defender is done. I mean, it’s-it’s not dead as long as we remember it and enjoy it, continue to watch it, and share the stuff that we like with our friends and family and all that good stuff. It lives on just as the original show and other iterations have. But yeah, it is a little bittersweet, isn’t it?

MM: Yeah, but I mean there were so many great episodes in there, and of course we talked a lot about “Monsters and Mana” because it was one of Mitch’s favorites to write. You know, that’d be like “Space Mall”--

GT: “Crystal Venom”.

MM: --”Crystal Venom”, “Reunion”--

GT: “The Legend Begins.”

MM: Right. All these great episodes that we loved from the show and everything, they each had a writer and Mitch’s favorite was “Monsters and Mana” and I know there’s a lot of fans out there who had said, you know, we could just do a Monsters and Mana, like, type of show and we would love to see that.

GT: Yeah, a-and you know, people were saying the same thing about the Blade of Marmora, maybe some spinoff novels or tie-in novels or whatever. Yeah, I mean there’s so much richness and variety in the Voltron: Legendary Defender universe that yeah, I mean there’s so much potential. But, uh, I guess at this point a lot of that’s up in the hands of fans to maybe pick up with their own fanfiction and if they haven’t already written a lot of that crazy stuff.

MM: “I wanna be a Paladin again.”

GT: Ah, there you go. Yeah. A-and I recall y-you’re kind of fond of the Black Lion, right?

MM: Yeah. Yeah. Always bet on Black.

GT: Ye-yeah, I’ve always been fond of the Yellow fellow, as, uh, Hunk called it in Voltron Force. Yeah. Old Yellow. [laughs]

MM: I thought that was pretty funny that, uh, there was actually a line from the comic where Hunk mentions the fact that, “I-I don’t want to tell everybody out loud, but I may have wet myself,” and Lance says, “Well, you do fly the Yellow Lion.”

GT: [laughs] Yes, I do love that.

[laughter]

MM: And it reminded me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. “I’m so scared I soiled my armor!”

GT: [laughs] Yeah, I remember.

MM: And then later on, “I soiled my armor again!”

GT: [laughs]

MM: Yeah.

GT: Yeah. Interestingly, Lance in the comic, and, uh, of course, none of the characters in “Monsters and Mana”, none of them encountered the knights who say Ni!

[laguther]

MM: No. No. Hunk, though, he had a couple of the Davdabhau that had wanted to marry him.

GT: Yeah, he was a popular guy for a while there.

MM: And at one point, he actually says to them, “Well, I don’t think I can marry either one of you, and it’s mostly because, well, number one you haven’t met my mom. An-and there is this rock girl.”

GT: That was really interesting, wasn’t it? That he actually flat-out says it.

MM: Yeah. That was great.

GT: Yep. [sighs] I so love Hunk, I truly do. And apparently he had a pappy at some point named Herschel.

MM: That’s right! I was wondering where Herschel came from and I was thinking to myself, the only Herschel I can think of, there was a character from The Walking Dead that was named Herschel.

GT: Yes, I remember there--isn’t there an astronomer named Herschel, too?

MM: Yeah. I was trying to wonder where Herschel came from, but, I guess we could’ve asked Mitch, huh?

GT: Yeah, where the writers came up with it. Of course in the fiction, Hunk says it was, uh, one of his pappies from the past. A apparently departed pappy, but yeah! Yeah, there are so many more questions we could have asked Mitch, but there’s only so many, uh, only so many minutes we can do these podcasts and, uh, you know, maybe, maybe some things are best left as mysteries.

MM: Well, you know, we do have to give a proper review to these comics, right?

GT: Yeah, that’s true.

MM: So, why don’t we get together in our next episode and talk about these comics a little bit more in detail?

GT: Yeah. We’re gonna dive into all of them, aren’t we?

MM: Yeah, we are.

GT: Yeah. For our listeners who aren’t into the comics, don’t worry, there won’t be fifteen podcasts, one per comic. There won’t be three, one per volume. We’re gonna-we’re gonna cram ‘em all into one, and, uh, it’s going to be a lot of fun. Uh, you know, th-the comics are definitely worth checking out. I know that, uh, there’s some who, you know, who kind of dismissed them outright, but, uh, I hope that, uh, people will give them a look now. They really are fun. You can get them as e-comics on favorite places like Comixology, or you can still find them at, uh, favorite online vendors, or maybe even in some local comic shops.

MM: And you may still even find them on the Voltron store, or Amazon, or many other places that have comic books.

GT: Yep. Yep, yep, comics are fun, and so are the, uh, these Voltron ones, as well.

MM: So, we think we set it up really good with the Mitch interview.

GT: Yeah.

MM: So, thank you Mitch Iverson for joining us on Let’s Voltron, the Official Voltron Podcast, and we’ll get right into the comics next week.

GT: Alright.

MM: We wanna thank you all for joining us on Let’s Voltron. Don’t forget to visit us on Twitter at @LetsVoltron. We’re also on Instagram at @letsvoltron. We are also on YouTube, the Let’s Voltron YouTube channel. And we also have a Let’s Voltron store on TeePublic. We’re also on Facebook. We also have a skill on Alexa where you can just say, “Alexa, open Let’s Voltron,” and you get a cute little quote that is, uh, one of up to a hundred quotes that are possible that you will get.

GT: Awesome, awesome.

MM: And of course you can listen to our podcast on many different places like Google Play, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, also Podbean, Stitcher, and of course on Alexa. You can also say, “Alexa, play Let’s Voltron, the Official Voltron Podcast,” and you can listen to it right on Alexa.

GT: Or, of course, go to letsvoltron.com

MM: That’s our favorite place. Letsvoltron.com

GT: Yeah, I can remember that one. [laughs]

MM: Because that’s how you get to all of our other things, like we just mentioned.

GT: That’s right. We are all over the place.

MM: So, thank you for joining us once again, and we’ll see you all next time on--

Both: Let’s Voltron!

[outro piano music]

#teampurplelion #transcript #let's voltron #vld #voltron legendary defender #vld comics

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artsy-alice · 6 years ago

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Nine People You’d Like To Know Better

THIS IS COMIN’ IN LATE (it was stuck in my drafts and i forgot about it sorry!!!) but thanks @rubymoon-snape for tagging me!

RULES: Tag nine people you’d like to get to know better.

Favorite Colors: pink, yellow, black

Top Favorite Ships: sheith (vld), cluclu (code geass), ichiruki (bleach), alikou (magi), fraxus (fairy tail), korrasami (legend of korra), royai & edwin (fma), wolfstar (harry potter)

Lipstick or Chapstick: i use neither, but if pushed, i’d choose chapstick. not really a make up person. :p

Last Song: *facepalms* oh my god don’t judge me i... uh... Brand New Baby Smell by the Chattering Nuns YES IT’S A CRACK SONG ABOUT A SQUISHY SQUISHY BABY ANTICHRIST I JUST WATCHED THE MUSIC VIDEO OK

Last Movie: Avengers: Endgame

Currently Reading: - comic: Bagong Buwan Komiks Anthology by Mervin Malonso, Julius Villanueva and Hulyen - serial/novel: Tremontaine Finale Season

As always, I usually tag the last nine people I find in my notes! @goldsoul16 @queenrojpag @knothim @blessdunrest @summerbummin @mooitsmekeith @i-w-o-n-n @blackdragonfire @xbluexflowerx

Feel free to skip on this if it’s too much trouble! :)

#tag meme #ali replies #rubymoon-snape

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sol1056 · 6 years ago

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@dynared commented:

There’s not going to be a spin-off. The show failed miserably in actual sales metrics, and the whining has generated absolutely nothing but bad publicity. Sure there may have been plans for one, but they will never be realized.

I’m going to pretend like you’re making a sideways jab at a particular sub-set of the fandom and not being snide about genuine complaints. That way I can get to the point: I wouldn’t be so sure.

First, Dreamworks’ entire modus operandi is to beat the goddamn cash cow until it’s a bloody pulp. They’ll take something that did mediocre in one venue and do it again in another, then a sequel right after, then another, and another until there’s only three people left on the planet who aren’t sick of it. If the first outing did great, then they just repeat that in the same venue with a sequel and then another and another and we’re back to that poor cow again.

Let me count the ways.

Penguins of Madagascar has four feature films, a television series, a spin-off, two television specials, and one short film.

Shrek has four feature films, two spin-offs, eight short films, two television specials, one television series, and another feature film is in production.

Kung Fu Panda has three feature films, a television series, a holiday special, and two short films.

Boss Baby has a feature film, a short film, a television series, and another feature film is in the works.

How To Train Your Dragon has two feature films, a television special, a short film, a television series, a video game, an arena show, and another feature film is in production.

Trolls has a feature film, a mobile pop-up attraction, a television special, a television series, and a second feature film is in production.

The Croods has one feature film, a television series, a video game, a mobile game, and a second feature film now in production.

Trollhunters has a television series, four novelizations, two graphic novels, two handbooks, and two more television series are in production.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron has a feature film, two video games, and a television series. Captain Underpants has a feature film and a television series. Turbo has a feature film, a video game, a mobile game, and a television series.

Oh, and Voltron: Legendary Defender has one television series, two handbooks, twelve graphic novels, five character books, four novelizations, and a feature film is in development.

Plus, Dreamworks isn’t the sole owner. The Koplar brothers are still in the mix with the franchise ownership by some convoluted means that makes my head hurt, and the Koplars will probably go to their graves with the eighteenth iteration of Voltron. VLD is their sixth iteration, and that’s not counting however many stops and starts on comic books in the past thirty years.

I mean, when you look at how many times the Koplars have tried to cash in on that one damn Toei cow, it’s almost obscene. And it’s almost karmically perfect that Voltron just happened to be in the bundle of rights Dreamworks purchased. It’s like a match made in, uh, hell, basically.

It’s true Dreamworks does have some projects that it hasn’t beaten to death. They’re far and few between, but it does happen. Sometimes. But as long as they’re not the only decision-makers --- and as long as the Koplar brothers are still alive --- I’d be really surprised if DW has the option to quit so easily.

I would definitely expect some kind of continuation. A sequel, a spin-off, even a reboot of a reboot, who knows. But if this is the last of VLD, it’d definitely be a surprise, given the track records.

#vld #voltron #television production #sol eats popcorn

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my-ass-is-a-mythical-class · 6 years ago

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fic rec thing :))))

The Message | 132k, Teen | shipstiel on ao3

(4:07) okay, but considr this, and hear me out here (4:08) so like, a photobooth u can do with ur pets like there’ll be lil costumes that u can dress them up in, and u can do liek, period costumes and shit with them (4:09) omg, can u imagine, u and ur cat/dog, and theyre in a lil 1800s dress and one of those lace umbrella things omg so cute

(4:15) Why the FUCK are you texting me at four in the morning with this

—

Keith is texted by accident by some idiot one day, and honestly he's not even sure why he responds. Or why he keeps responding. Yet somehow he finds himself drawn in, and okay, so maybe this fool is mildly entertaining after all. Who would've thought.

Forsaken Paths | 4.5k, Teen | WinterAndLittleBrunettes on ao3

Keith and Lance have been spending more time together, and Keith's noticed his feelings for the Blue Paladin have advanced beyond what teammates should be...

Does Lance feel the same way?

cant buy me love | 8k, General | jilliancares on ao3

“Just because your teeth can’t handle doing what they’re supposed to —”

“They’re not supposed to! Popsicles aren’t meant to be bitten!”

“All food’s meant to be bitten!” Keith argued, which was absolutely wrong (uh, ever heard of soup?) but still entirely too fun to argue about.

Or:

In which Lance is an ice cream truck driver desperate to find love and Keith is a car mechanic who fixes up Lance's truck better than anyone else ever has.

Letters and Love (Shouldn't Mix) | 1k, Teen | orphan_account on ao3

Sometimes, people bottle up their feelings. Literally.

(Or, in which Lance writes down little thoughts he has about Keith and keeps them in a box where he can hide them away and not think about them. It doesn't work.)

Carpe Diems and Chrysanthemums | 14k, Teen | Gigapoodle on ao3

Lance falls unimaginably hard for the biker boy with a black mop of hair and terrible Spanish skills. After years of rivalry, bitter acquaintanceship, and eventual friendship, the realization slaps Lance hard, hard enough to settle into his lungs and sap his life away. It's when he coughs up a petal that Lance realizes just how far gone he is.

Lance McClain decides he is going to die.

A Modern Hanahaki Disease AU.

a change of space | 1.5k, Teen | Crawlingthroughashes on ao3

"I don't want to kiss you," Lance announces quickly, color rising high on his cheeks. "Ok." "I don't." Keith holds his hands up. "Ok." Stupid Keith.

Blue Shells and Comic Books | 70k, Teen | SonofHades on ao3

Lance has too much time on his hands, Keith doesn't have enough. Lance leans more towards being outgoing and sociable, while Keith keeps to himself and can be mostly unpleasant. Neither think they have anything in common. What they don't realize, however, is that there happens to be a very popular graphic novel that connects them together. Lance happens to be an avid reader and Keith just happens to secretly be the author.

just come to me once | 90k, Teen | laallomri on ao3

Lance’s smile widens. He leans forward, and the prickling in Keith’s chest gives way to butterflies, fluttering wildly in his stomach, and oh wow has Lance always had this many freckles, has he always had eyelashes that long, has he—

Lance pokes his cheek, right over the Galra mark. Keith blinks.

“I can’t believe you and your mom have matching face tattoos now,” he says, and it’s so fucking dumb, but it’s exactly the kind of dumb thing Keith has longed to hear, and before he knows what he’s doing he’s surging forward, almost knocking Lance back against Red’s paw, and throwing his arms around him.

In which Keith lives on a space whale, goes on a road trip, and (eventually) gets a boyfriend.

every group chat needs a gryffindor jock | 66k, Teen | ciitadel on ao3

dontfuckwith: MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS IS A HORRIBLE EXAMPLE OF POP MUSIC AND NEEDS TO DIE

Tinydick: WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY YOU LITTLE GREMLIN

Tinydick: I’LL DROP KICK YOU SO HARD YOU’LL GO FLYING INTO THE ORBIT OF FUCKING JUPITER

Tinydick: DOES EUROPA HAVE LIFE UNDER ITS SURFACE

Tinydick: WELL PIDGE IS ABOUT TO FIND OUT

Basically an au where the group meets through the wonders of mutual friends/the internet in a random group chat

Beat Drop - Klance AU | 55k, Teen | MonsieurDandylionMethod on ao3

Keith works in Allura's flowershop. Lance takes dance lessons with Allura. Keith and Shiro go to the same gym as Lance and Allura... things get angsty and romantic and cute. Hunk owns a bakery and coffee shop. Pidge is off doing (probably illegal) computer hacking for an agency. A band called Voltron re-emerges from the past and the same four kids try out music life again. The whole VLD family ;)

There you go, ten fics at your service (:

#fanfic #fic #fic rec #fanfiction #klance #klance fic #klance fic rec #klance fanfiction #klance fanfic #how the fuck do you tag #oneshot #archiveofourown

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nebulawriter · 6 years ago

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Blind Review VLD S7E6 The Journey Within

Oh kay, I think I’ve scheduled things out for the day, as long as I finish watching this by Noon I should be good.

Seriously though where is Kaltenecker?

Thanks Keith.

I mean, you’re not wrong Lance.

ITS NOT DARK MATTER

Hunk I love you.

Shiro, is your convenient amnesia clearing up?

Shiro I love your sass.

ALLURA STOP BLAMING YOURSELF

Shiro I love you. Keith no.

Well, Lance was right again

Uh-oh.

We gotta re-charge with your own energy to work as a team

Um theres no resistance you should be able to just move them.

PIDGE!

Tether yourself to each other and you can call the lions TO you once you work as a team and can re-charge them.

Lance you’re not helping.

EMOTIONAL BONDING TIME

Nope not ships. Space birds.

Oh gosh thats beautiful.

A Mass Hallucination though?

Oh Hunk.

WELL FUCK

Aaaaand there’s Keith’s temper.

You gotta work as a team guys.

KEITH STOP BEING A DICK

Guys.

Awww Hunk.

Keith.

:( Hunk I love you.

Yeah that....that can’t be real.

Thank you Hunk.

How does Allura know what Earth looks like?

Oop.

Well thats not good.

HUNK! Working as a team!

Team! Hug! Team! Hug! Team! Hug!

That giant monster is pretty.

HECK YEAH ITS THE LIONS!!! ALL RECHARGED FROM YOUR BONDING!!!

YEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH VOLTRON!

oooooh, special voltron. Nice.

I love the ‘comic panel’ style things.

Ok, now everyone should take a nap.

Lance I love you.

YES PLEASE!!!! THEY MADE IT TO THE MILKY WAY!!!!!! HECK YEAH!!!!

#Voltron legendary defender #vld spoilers #voltron season 7

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keiiro · 6 years ago

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Explaining myself just for myself bc I felt like I needed to... o)--( No one will read this but I have no one to rant to abt this td;lr so.

From S1, I’ve said multiple times that I’m in Voltron mostly for Sheith, that VLD isn’t usually the type of show I like to watch. I simply have a preference for dark and complicated dramas/stories. I don’t like cartoons much, actually ^^;; I’m sorry, but a show really has to grab me with its writing or characters for me to be invested in it even a little without me having a ship there. (I uh, hyperfocus on romance. . v.;; I don’t ignore plot tho I swear.. I mean if it’s objectively well written (side-eyes naruto and 500 other series)) Like Steins;Gate. FMA. Skip Beat. Inception. etc. In my case, my criticisms about the show, i.e. the pacing, were always there since S1. I don’t think I like... betrayed LM or JDS by being hurt and having such a negative outlook on this. I think my comments were fair.

Before this.

I was in the Sherlock fandom, knee-deep in TJLC (The Johnlock Conspiracy, yes, humilating, I know, but the sad thing is the real S4 that was written was so bad that we thought it unthinkable that it would be... like that trashfire). I remember near the end of an episode of S4, before the other eps aired, I really liked this one popular blogger. Pearl something. She was really good at making me feel more relieved in the bigger plan. Even though already with episode 1, I was already incredibly disappointed in the writing of S4 and regretted every time I defended S3. The sister’s storyline. Was so. Bad. There were so many plot holes. I don’t even. Pearl--She sent the message to have faith. And as a result I crashed incredibly hard, 40x worse than Shiro’s retirement. Her account ended up hacked and she went MIA. I was there through Apple Tree Yard, being sent the message that apparently two middle aged het ppl hooking up within 15 minutes of meeting and having 5 mins of bad sex that she made sound like he rocked her world but it was just so goddamn sad--and apparently sexual assault--is more valid than a canonized mlm couple. Though really, even if they did, since S3 would still be an incredible disappointment. (the cases in the wedding ep were so, so dumb) Just because even though I knew there wouldn’t be a fourth episode, I was in so much shock I just. ...I was there for the probably-troll fansite for “the lost episode” with friggin Sherlock scripts hidden in the coding. The horror stories go on.

Before that, I was in the Naruto fandom, as a hardass SasuNaru fan. Everyone getting hetmarried at the end was a real shoot in the fucking face, this coming from someone who also likes NaruHina. I. My faith in authors. I just. Yeah, that kerplunked.

I decided to give the benefit of the doubt to Isayama Hajime (Attack on Titan). I used to defend him, pointing out and believing his Imperialistic comments were mistranslated or blown out of proportion. :) Then he said the Chinese and Koreans lives were bettered because of Japanese takeover. Which I ignored because I love Eruri. I don’t care for the writing of AOT/SNK, never really had. I tried to have faith in him. And then apparently he’s now using Jewish WW2 imagery in the series in a way that’s. ........ Basically, it’s been debated whether this is anti-semitic. Idk. I’m not touching that trashfire outside of Levi remembering Erwin frames anymore. So yeah, faith in yams was DIRT. Oh, and then Erwin died. Which hurt much, much worse than this with Shiro, and would’ve hurt more even had Shiro died.

I believed in Bryan Fuller, a lot. He still supports Hannigram fanzines and literally wears shirts of them making out. He told a beautiful, dark mlm romance and I. It didn’t stop him from calling their relationship a “bromance”. He gave no explanation and I was very. Every time it felt a little no-homo’d, I bit the inside of my cheek.

I was in the Supernatural fandom, and I loved Destiel terribly so and I’m not. even. going to start.

Death Note, Piano no Mori, Sam Esmail re: Mr. Robot, goddamn Yana Toboso, Magi, X-Men, many others.

I mainly stan a pairing in the D.Gray-man fandom, and I can’t. Over many years, the mangaka has said things/put things in in a certain way that I decided to overlook. Stereotypical transphobic “okama” inserts. The novel she approved where it was said a guy’s first kiss didn’t count because it was with a guy. Um. Frankly, I didn’t like the Alma arc...... at all. I found that it was mostly tell and not show w/ Kanda and past!Alma’s romance.... and I’m just like........ he was white in his past life his was completely different... and they were lovers in their past lives but their portrayal in their present lives are only as friends? Um. ok I’m rambling and there’s a lot of stuff too but. My point is, I don’t expect anything of her anymore. I don’t hate her, I just don’t respect her as much anymore. I don’t have faith in her anymore to write the absolute best, and she proves me right in recent chapters quite a bit. I’m still quite mixed-feelings there. (Also, I know a lot of people made fun of kls for being so emotionally dependent on kl, but. I’ve been stanning Yullen since 2006. Over ten years. It is literally my life. It’s the main reason if not the only that I’m still alive. The other is my merch. Once I tomb my merch, sayounara Earth.)

I don’t expect authors to be perfect but. I think it’s reasonable for me to not be able to have faith here. Most of the times I held onto faith, it was crushed. I already had faith in that they’d return everyone to their original lions, because honestly I wanted them at each other’s side while saving the world together, in a way that I found most beautiful. I mean, the only thing that could beat that tbh is Shiro getting his own mecha, which I find unlikely. Oriande arc was done already and the white lion accepted Allura and the comic version was just a Robeast, so I found it very unlikely that he would pilot white.

I don’t really know if this is all so childish. It’s hard to care about a lot of things when you, well, deal with dark thoughts every day, and I’m such a bad adult that before worrying over worldy issues, I can’t. even help myself. I don’t eat most days. The entire past weeks I’ve felt like passing out. Vomited on monday from nausea. major depressive disorder. been to two psych wards, the first time for a month. chronic headaches, chronic back pain... being 24 without a degree because I still haven’t finished studying the language I even need to get into the school I want mmmmmm I’m pretty worthless, man. Shipping’s my best distraction. Yes, I know it’s not healthy. But it’s either that or me being dead so.

Anyway. I’m just trying to say that I think it’s fair for me to be bitter like this. I personally think I didn’t take it very far, but. I think it’s fair that I/we’re upset.

#just throws this into the void #I don't wanna bother more ppl today #than I have already #personal #tw: depression #I had... a really rough day today #news of Shiro was icing on the fucking cake

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leonawriter · 7 years ago

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So, uh, anyone else wanna suggest Lotor’s not being abused? Any takers?

Because, VLD has learned a lot from the old series and comics. And everything says Lotor has been and is being abused. In - oh, so damn many ways.

This even has Zarkon coming into a place where Lotor feels like he should be able to relax and feel safe, and then proceeds to assault his kid, child or not.

#vld stuff #abuse mention #leona liveblogs voltron DDP

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dessinelle · 5 months ago

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Uh oh, a vld comic - Page 7

Previous - Next

Things are not looking good for Lance 😰 Brax just wants to hurt team Voltron at this point, he doesn't care about forcing Lance to give him their exact location on the base.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments/tags. Even just a key-smash or emoji, I love silliness. 😊

#voltron #lance voltron #voltron legendary defender #vld #vld fanart #violence tw #uh oh vld comic #dessinelle art

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starboundfic · 5 years ago

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Chapter 18

Archive

-for the record, I do not own the concept of Ekkunar. I’m just borrowing it from a game I’ve played because it’s neat. Not going to say who though, because they have lost my respect.

-heavy references and a reiterated line or few from the first VLD comic ahead.

-there may be some inconsistencies with this and Ch12 regarding the Arrow. I intend to rewrite Ch12 at some point, though I have to get it to stop fighting me first.

Chapter 17 -

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There wasn’t a tracking device on the ship.

Over the course of two days, the seven of them had looked through every single room, the mice had checked the entirety of the ventilation ducts, and the Lions had even done their own separate complete scans—and they’d all come up with nothing.

“Maybe it was just bad timing,” Stan suggested finally. “I mean, they’ve probably been looking for those Blade people anyways. We were just there at the wrong time.”

“That could be it,” Shiro agreed, a sigh in his voice. “But I still don’t want to risk it until we know for sure.”

“So what’re we supposed to do until then?” Jordan asked.

There was a pause, before Coran snapped his fingers. “I think I might have an idea. Princess, mind setting a course for the Karthulian system?”

The princess looked puzzled. “The Karthulian system? But why…” Realization replaced the confusion, and she nodded. “Yes, that would be a good place to start.”

Eva was officially lost. “Wait, what’s…there?” she asked, while they were all on the way to the bridge.

Coran just grinned a bit, saying “Now that would just spoil the surprise!”

Red wasn’t much help either. he had a guess on what the surprise was, but he wasn’t too sure about it; there was a sort of an edge to it though, which had her thinking that what the Lion had in mind was something he wanted to get around to doing eventually.

They didn’t set a course so much as they did wormhole there. Once the blue faded, they were greeted with the sight of maybe one of the weirdest looking planets ever, in that it looked like it was in pieces, with fissures that were both large and deep enough to have an orange glow visible from where they were in space. The surface was mostly green, with streaks of blue and patches of yellow-brown in places—and the pieces that looked like they had halfway floated away from the planet were, of course, almost entirely barren.

“I…have so many questions on how that planet even looks like that,” Koji muttered.

“No one’s certain, actually,” Coran replied chipperly. “Whatever fractured Ekkunar happened long before even my pop-pop was around, and the best guess anyone has for why the pieces haven’t just floated away is the planet’s magnetic fields. It also happens to be home to possibly the largest archival system in the universe…” He paused to bring up some screens, before adding stiltedly “Which currently appears to be in flames.”

Said flames were probably caused by the trio of battlecruisers that were still firing down onto what looked like a city carved right into a forest-covered mountain range.

“Looks like we’ll be giving Ekkunar a good first impression,” Shiro said, and Eva stifled a groan. More fighting. Great. Red gave a weird impression that started off as something like a chiding growl that turned into an awkward purr.

He tried, at least.

And they definitely took the first ship by surprise—or at least, Shiro did, with Black’s jawblade cutting right through the ion-cannon’s barrel. Eva kept her attention firmly on the swarm of fighters that had immediately turned their attention to the Lions.

It lasted a few minutes, ending with the last still-in-one-piece decided it wasn’t worth staying around. “Jordan, think you could use the Blue Lion’s ice cannon to put out those fires?” Shiro asked.

“Uh, maybe?” A pause. “Actually, I think she has a better idea.” With that, Blue dove towards where two waterfalls cascaded into a reservoir, vanishing into the water for a few moments before rocketing back up, tail arced like she was going to fire—but instead of a laser, it was a jet of water.

“Well that worked,” Koji commented once the fires were all out.

“It’s all clear Princess,” Shiro reported.

It made sense that the one clearing large enough for all six ships to land was mobbed almost immediately. “Uh…do we really have to go out there?” Koji asked uncertainly.

“Yes, we do,” Allura replied, her voice having a stern edge to it that had Eva rolling her eyes.

The crowd itself looked more curious than anything, maybe a touch disbelieving, and was definitely a lot quieter than she’d thought it would be.

“…can’t be, can it?” she barely heard one of the watching aliens say.

“Sure looks real,” another said. To the side, she saw Allura go from confident to uncertain in maybe three seconds, and Coran having sort of a pinched look on his face while he scanned the crowd—which promptly gave way to surprised glee when his gaze had gone to where the crowd had abruptly parted.

“Well I’ll be a wabble’s plonk!” he exclaimed, throwing his arms out wide. “Kythylian Mu!”

Eva’s first thought was one of the orphans on Bherna (Wayth, if she remembered right), in that he was definitely the same species—but he was also definitely one of the biggest aliens she had seen so far.

“Coran, Coran the gamblin’ man,” Kythylian greeted amiably, throwing an arm around the Altean. “How long has it been since you came around here?”

“Ah, just short of ten-thousand decaphoebs.”

“Ten-thousand,” he repeated, whistling quietly. “My, my. Where does all that time go.”

…and that had an implication that Eva wasn’t sure made sense. Jordan must’ve picked up on it too, given the face he made before exclaiming “Hold on a second, you two know each other?”

“Do we?” Kythylian repeated, snorting. “I don’t have enough scales for the amount of times I had to get him out of trouble in this quadrant.”

At that, Coran laughed nervously. “Yes, well, that was all a long time ago—now, Kythylian, if I may—this is Princess Allura, and these here are the new paladins: Shiro, Eva, Jordan, Stan, and Koji.”

“So I’ve heard,” the alien nodded to them before looking at Allura. “…you’re the spittin’ image of your parents, y’know that?”

If anyone else noticed the brief flash of pain in her eyes, nothing was said. “I’ve been told that a few times, yes. It’s good that we finally got to meet—my father told me stories about you.”

“I bet he did.” And then he looked at the rest of them studiously for a bit, before saying “Kinda scrawny, ain’t they?”

“Wha’—hey!” Eva retorted before Jordan could say something probably along the same lines.

“Well, they just started not too long ago,” Coran said, a touch defensively. “They haven’t gone through the full training regimen yet.”

Kythylian gave him a look. “Wait, don’t tell me—you wanna bring ‘em through the planet run?”

“Yes, actually!”

Now the alien grimaced. “I got some bad news for you then. Zarkon’s got all five of them on lockdown, ever since that stunt you all pulled at his central command.”

Coran’s face faltered, a delicate “Ah,” being his response.

“Yeah. Now, I sure as heck don’t like takin’ trips out to places for no reason, so here’s the deal: you all get free reign in the capital today. No tabs, no nothin’. It’s the least I can offer in return for clearing up that disagreement I had with the new commander for this quadrant. Now if you’ll excuse me, I was bein’ pulled in about eight directions a couple doboshes ago. Lots of important places were just on fire an’ all.”

With that, he turned to head towards an intact road with a lazy wave, the remnants of the crowd that had steadily dispersed taking the cue to return to whatever they’d been doing.

“So uh,” Stan started, voice a little stilted. “If you knew that guy from before, wouldn’t that make him over ten-thousand years old?”

“The Mudranni can actually live well beyond forty-thousand decaphoebs, if they are particularly lucky,” Allura remarked, earning stunned stares. Forty-thousand?!

Coran, meanwhile, had run a hand down his face with a groan. “Of course the traditional grounds would be watched,” he muttered.

“So what exactly is that planet run you mentioned?” Shiro asked.

“Yendailian, Bluve, Niloofar, Griezian Sur, and Talwar-Six,” the adviser listed off in response. “Those five planets have some of the most extreme environmental conditions in the known universe. The original paladins used them as a sort of training course.”

Red had gone full reminiscence mode as soon as Coran had named the first planet; Eva had the impression that Yendailian not only had a lot of volcanos, but was also what Red would consider a vacation spot. As for everything else: “It sounds fun,” she commented.

“Maybe for you,” Jordan said tightly, face pale.

“Oh come on Jordan, you’re getting better at it, right?”

“Well—yeah, but—!”

“It’s not like we can go out to any of them right now, what with Zarkon watching them,” Coran cut in, looking pensive for a moment before adding “That, and now that I think about it, we tended to have to wait for Bluve’s conditions to be favorable anyways. But no matter—how about we hit the archives instead?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The archives themselves was something like a library crossed with a museum, actually, complete with a front desk headed by three gray-skinned humanoids that had cyan-colored geometric lines (tattoos maybe?) crossing their arms and faces, a crest of colorful feathers on their heads, and bright-green eyes; native Ekkuni, according to Coran.

Jordan wasn’t expecting one of them to actually squeal when she realized who they were, though, before the one dressed like they were in charge could even finish his introductory spiel on the place’s rules.

Beyond that…it wasn’t that the place was too boring, it was more of the fact that there wasn’t really anything for him to do there. Eva, Stan, and Koji were off looking for anything they could use to draft up a new engine for the Arrow, he didn’t see where Allura went—probably to do some diplomatic thing, and Coran…well, Jordan didn’t see where Coran had gone off to. Or Shiro, for that matter.

So he went back outside.

The glaring detail of one of the planet’s floating chunks being visible way off in the distance aside, Ekkunar was kind of like those pictures of high-altitude rainforests on Earth. Unfortunately, also like rainforests on Earth, it probably rained here a lot—like now, for instance. He was relatively close enough to where the Lions were when the downpour started to duck under Blue for cover, at least.

Blue herself seemed pretty stuck in memory-mode, offering an idea of what Bluve was like before Jordan could actually ask: lots and lots of snow with near-constant blizzards. Not something Jordan could consider an ideal place to be, but it seemed to be pretty high on her favorite-places list. Well—maybe we could go there one day. Just to check it out.

Blue purred in response, before pausing and directing his attention toward some movement at the base of one of the stairways cut into a slope. “Figures the weather goes sour after all of that,” Kythylian commented, coming to sit by Blue’s other paw. “’Least it’ll put the rest of the little fires out, right?”

“I guess,” Jordan replied awkwardly.

The alien chuckled, taking his hat off to shake it a few times, sending droplets flying back into the deluge. “Don’t worry, I don’t bite. Got a question, if ya don’t mind.”

“Go ahead.”

“Where’re you and the rest of ‘em from? I’ve been all over most of the charted universe, but I can’t say I’ve seen anything like you, aside from Alteans.”

He really should’ve seen that question coming sooner than later. And just saying Earth probably wouldn’t cut it, either, which means he had to think about how to answer it. “Well, uh…we’re from the same galaxy Ōban’s in?”

Before he could start berating himself for making the response sound like another question, Kythylian made some sort of clicking sound. “That explains it. Ya need all sorts of paperwork to even get an idea on what lives in that galaxy nowadays. And don’t even get me started on the black market that came out of that quiznakking blockade. Don’t get me wrong, gettin’ things to sell legally on this side of it is worth a pretty piece of GAC, but when somone gets it into their head to do it illegally, they really go out of their way to hide when they do it.”

Jordan thought about that comment for a moment. “So you’re like a space cop?”

“Ehh…” Kythylian made a so-so gesture. “Could call it that, I guess. Some quintants it’s a more of a headache than anythin’ else, but it’s my headache.” He paused, glancing up. “Got a few mixed feelings at seeing the Lions again, honestly. How much has Coran told you about Alfor and the rest?”

“Barely anything, actually,” Jordan said, feeling apprehensive about the maybe-opportunity.

“Huh…can’t fault him, really. Probably still feels like yesterday to him.” The alien looked distant, before asking “Y’all at least know who the old Black Paladin was, right?”

“Yeah,” Jordan drew the word out, feeling himself scowling more than thinking about it. “Found out at the last possible second.”

Kythylian grunted. “Lemme guess—he’s still got the bayard?”

“As far as Eva saw, yeah.”

“And that’d be the itty-bitty one, right?”

Jordan opened his mouth to make a retort on her behalf, and then considered the fact that Kythylian was definitely taller than Rick at full height.

“Looks like the rain’s clearin’ up a bit,” Kythylian said abruptly, glancing at the sky. “There’s a thing or two I have to talk to Coran about. He’s still at the archives, right?”

“I think so.”

The alien stood, stretching a bit, taking a few steps out in the direction of the path back up towards the building, before stopping again, turning to say, “Y’know—I don’t wanna steal Coran’s thunder or anything, but if you want to know what the old guard looked like, there’s a holo-display doohickey in the central room.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I think this might work, but…” Stan said finally, trailing off. To the side, Koji was frowning slightly, staring at the draft they’d put together for the possible new engine for their star-racer.

In theory, it looked beautiful. But in reality?

There was simply no room in the Arrow II as it was now to even put the necessary equipment for converting the crystal’s energy into something useable, which would mean having to attach an extra compartment somewhere onto the ship—which by itself was dangerous.

On top of that, the fuel tanks would become nothing more than dead weight. And that was saying nothing about how in the world they were supposed to overhaul the hyperdrive.

“Honestly, I don’t think we can even take most of those things out of the Arrow in the first place,” Koji admitted, shoulders slumping. “It’s all too integrated.”

“So what do we do, then?”

“I’m not—”

“Couldn’t we just build another one?”

It took all of Stan’s willpower to not curse at Eva’s sudden words, having not heard her come up to look at the draft too. “Uh, well, we could,” Koji said, stuttering a bit. “But to do that, we’d…huh.” He blinked, brow furrowing. “Actually, we might be better off just doing that.”

Build another one? Stan repeated silently, scowling for a moment—that’d equate to just giving up on the Arrow II. Then again, they did just come to the conclusion that they wouldn’t be able to apply most of the upgrades they had planned out to begin with.

That, and knowing how poorly the materials the Arrow II was made of held up against everything else used in the galaxy, or at least that they’d seen back on Alwas…

There was a sudden commotion from the second floor that jolted him out of his thoughts, sounding like something falling over followed by Coran shouting “Sorry!”

Stan kept the glance up level for a few moments before looking back at the draft with a sigh. “Okay, so maybe that would be the easier thing to do. But where would we even get everything?”

Koji shrugged. “We could probably get a few more things from those defunct shuttles, but not much.” No taking parts from the Arrow II, in other words. Stan wasn’t going to argue.

Time to ask Coran if there were any other storerooms with things they could use, then.

Shiro saw him coming up the stairs first, stopping short in whatever he was saying, which got Coran to turn—he barely got a glimpse of a somber look before it was replaced with a cheery smile. “Ah, Stan! Did you need something?”

“Uh,” he mumbled, feeling like he’d just interrupted something important. “It—It can wait.”

“Don’t worry, Shiro and I had just finished up drafting the new training regimen. Don’t want a repeat of…uh.” He coughed, and Stan had to try extremely hard to suppress a flinch when he realized what exactly he had been about to bring up.

Shiro side-eyed Coran, before asking “Has Jordan come back yet?”

“He went out?”

“So did the princess, I think,” Coran said, looking thoughtfully back down toward the entrance to the building. “Ah wait, there he is! With Kythylian, too!” I guess it’s a good thing we got that draft finished.

Coran paused when Kythylian made some hand gestures at him, nodding almost imperceptibly before heading downstairs and vanishing off into another room with him. Jordan, on the other hand, looked around the room a bit before settling on looking at the darkly-colored small desk toward the back of the central area of the building.

Eva got to him first. “Hey Jordan, guess what? We’re going to build another star-racer!”

“That’s…neat,” he said awkwardly, glancing up at Stan with a confused look for a second, before looking back to the first thing, then to the side at the main desk. “So uh, how does that holo-thing work?”

“Is that what it is?” She turned to look back over her shoulder, curiosity written all over her face. “I’m not sure—but I bet we can find out!”

Have to wait for Coran to get back anyways, Stan thought, shaking his head before following the kids. Eva was already making a face at the controls, which looked a bit like what was on the castleship’s bridge, if simplified by maybe half.

It didn’t help that he still couldn’t read the language it was coded in—Ekkuni, probably—but Yellow could, dubiously letting him know what keys to push to bring up a list.

There was a span of two seconds before Jordan hit another key, and the only warning Stan had was Yellow doing the mental equivalent of taking a deep breath before the platform in front of the desk lit up.

It took a bit for him to realize just what he was looking at, in that the first thing he recognized was what looked like the hologram of Allura’s father, if a few decades (or the Altean equivalent of that) younger. The second thing were what he and the three others were wearing. (There was one missing, but Stan couldn’t fault whoever put this together in leaving the last one out.)

“Is that…?” Eva started uncertainly.

“Yeah,” Jordan mumbled, blinking. “I mean, same armor.”

“What are you guys looking at—oh.” Koji cut himself off with a stifled flinch, maybe from however the Green Lion reacted. “I guess it’d make sense for a place like this to have something like…this,” he said slowly, coming up to look at the screen, Shiro a bit behind him.

Stan had a suspicion about Alfor having been one of the first Lion pilots, but this confirmed it—and while he couldn’t be too sure, he also had a feeling that Eva might’ve guessed at it a little more specifically beforehand.

Details were a little hard to read, given the whole blue-hologram detail, but Yellow’s first pilot had been a big guy, at least Rick’s height.

Same went with Green’s being the shortest of the four and…well, kind of reminding him of a deer in some ways, and Blue’s looking like a humanoid something between a shark and a manta ray, obviously partially aquatic.

Yellow had gone about as distant as…as Coran looked right now, whereas Kythylian just made a huffing sort of sigh before saying “Still feels like it was yesterday, don’t it.”

Stan was pretty sure he and Koji hit the off key at the same time, with Jordan stuttering a bit, though Coran just shook his head with a sad smile. “No, no, it’s fine. I’m honestly not sure if we have any pictures of them on the castle.”

“I already knew about Allura’s dad being Red’s first pilot,” Eva started hesitantly. “But what about the other three?”

“Blaytz, Trigel, and Gyrgan,” was the response, Coran’s gaze going more towards the ceiling. His voice wasn’t quite resigned, more reminiscent with a touch of weariness.

“You said something about Trigel being the one to come up with the blindfold-dive,” Koji pointed out.

Kythylian guffawed, the noise startling all of them and earning a glare from one of the archive’s staff. “That sounds like a thing she’d do. She wasn’t nearly as bad as Alfor though.”

Somehow that conversation resulted in Kythylian corralling them all to a nearby restaurant, before he and Coran really started going on about things the old paladins had gotten up to.

It was when they were maybe halfway through a story involving a case of mistaken identity that happened on some planet called Veldin involving a rogue mercenary and a politician that Stan got his second scare of the day, in hearing Allura say “Is that what really happened there?” from behind him. She was smiling, though there was a pinched look to it.

“Well, uh…yes, it was,” Coran stuttered a little at first, before going fully resigned, and then curious. “I was wondering where you were.”

The smile went drier than a desert. “It occurred to me that we likely wouldn’t have any use for the tax records in the castle’s archives.”

“Ah, no we wouldn’t.”

Koji, ever the perceptive one, picked up on the impending mood switch and changed the topic back to its original track. “It kind of helps, hearing about things like that. That they messed up now and then too.” It sounded about as awkward as he looked (not that the others would probably be able to see, but Stan could kind of feel it) but it was a sentiment Stan agreed with.

Kythylian waved one hand a bit in a gesture that lost context probably between species. “Kid, that’s all heroes are in the end. Some story could start as some guy clearing out a nest of yeilphars and somehow turn into him taking out a pack of Zarellian hellcats without a scratch.”

“Is that something that actually happened?” Eva asked.

There was a snort alongside a smile and fond headshake. “Maybe. Look, give it a few phoebs, and I’ll probably be hearin’ stories about you kids that won’t include all the panickin’ and improvisin’.” A glance up at a clock on the wall got a mumbled curse. “Look, I gotta jet back to Mudranni or the missus is gonna want my head on a pike, but I got one last warning for y’all.

“That little show you put on at Zarkon’s central upped you to top-priority public-enemy status everywhere the empire’s got a strong foothold. You three should still be safe in civilian areas so long as you’re not in armor,” he gestured at Eva, Koji, and Stan. “You, they got a good shot of, so you’re gonna have to watch it everywhere there might be a bounty hunter,” a gesture at Jordan there, who gulped visibly. “And you especially have to watch it.” He leveled a stare at Shiro. “Gladiatorial matches get broadcast.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Coran seemed way too eager to help in planning out the theoretical Whizzing Arrow III more, but that just added to the amount of distraction the activity was to the whole intergalactic-public-enemy status they had now.

That definitely wasn’t a thing Koji would’ve liked to have heard, but he supposed it was better to have heard it then in the form of a warning then finding it out the hard way. Definitely better than finding out the hard way, he corrected himself with a small shudder, briefly glancing back at the Arrow II.

It would be considered a very early retirement for a star-racer, but then again, the Whizzing Arrow line weren’t meant to be star-racers in the first place.

…and it didn’t occur to Koji until that moment that he’d gotten used to the Green Lion showing interest and/or giving input on random thoughts until it didn’t happen. She’d seemed distant ever since seeing the holograms, actually.

It was strange, finally having both a name and face to put to Green’s first pilot instead of having to just piece together little bits of information.

To the side, he saw Stan look up suddenly, before saying “Remember that…weird thing that happened on Bherna? While we were fighting that thing?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I think I know what that was now.” That statement was considerably quieter, with his face paling slightly. Koji caught on after a few seconds.

In retrospect…it made sense. A frankly-horrifying amount of sense. Shiro’s knowledge in close-quarters fighting had to have come from somewhere, and he knew from seeing firsthand that he was on a completely different level than where Jordan was at. (That was saying nothing in comparing him to the rest of them. Koji was actively dreading the next time Allura threw the robot at them.)

Shiro had taken Kythylian’s words with only a barely-noticeable flinch, a shudder felt mentally, and was either still on the bridge or maybe on the training deck.

He actually wasn’t sure about what Shiro did during their downtime, so that was probably another thing they had to work on fixing. “Think he’d mind helping out with all of this?” he asked.

Stan shrugged a little, before saying “I was gonna ask the same thing, except with Jordan.”

Koji thought about that for a second. Jordan had disappeared pretty quick once the two of them and Eva had got started with looking for references on how to put together the type of engine primarily seen in this part of the universe, but he honestly hadn’t really thought about it until now. (There was a brief moment of thinking back to that awkward conversation on Arus.)

“Well, he’d probably want to help with getting the turret put together?” It was a guess, honestly. And that was another thing—the turret wouldn’t need its own battery anymore.

Stan muttered that same thought, before asking “Where are those two, anyways?”

“Uh…”

“I think they’re with Shiro on the observation deck,” Coran piped up, reminding Koji that he was still there. Suspended up near the ceiling to get at a series of wires, yes, but still there.

That wasn’t as surprising as Koji felt it should’ve been, at least in the case of Eva. She seemed to almost have a sixth sense on knowing when someone needed help.

Coran yelped alongside Allura’s voice suddenly being on the intercom: “Coran, I think one of the castle’s barrier-emitters was damaged during the fight for the Balmera.”

There was a groan from the adviser. “Roger that, I’ll put it on top of the list.”

Koji exchanged a look with Stan, who nodded a bit, before asking “How damaged is it?”

Coran stilled. “Ah, you’ll have to ask the princess. The castle’s hull is pretty sturdy, so it probably just has to be reset.” A pause. “Oh, I see what you’re asking. If you could do that, it’d be appreciated.”

“It’s nothing,” Koji said, standing up. “Where is it, anyways?”

“You’ll have to ask the princess. There’s quite a few of them. You may as well get suited up on the way there, since they’re outside the castle and, well, we’re in the vacuum of space at the moment.”

In retrospect, he should’ve seen that coming too.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If anyone’s wondering, the offscreen conversation between Coran and Kythylian can be summed up as “I don’t want to hear that any of those kids ended up getting killed because of something you chose not to tell them.”

#Oban Star Racers #Voltron #Starbound fic #Chapter 18

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ptw30 · 8 years ago

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Re: “Keith, if I don’t make out of here…”

With Shiro’s ominous comment from the Season Two teaser trailer and the season premiere less than two weeks away, there has been speculation concerning Keith and the role of “leader” of the Voltron paladins. (I put leader in quotes since Allura is the defacto leader of the team.) However, Keith in Voltron: Legendary Defender isn’t the same as his earlier versions, and VLD, inspired by Beast King GoLion, broke the mold by making Shiro, formerly Sven of earlier series, the leader.

Show frontrunner Lauren Montgomery says in an interview with Newsarama, “The decision to make [Shiro] more of the leader character came from the way Sven acted in the original show. He seemed the most wise and willing to do whatever needed to be done to help or protect the team, all the way down to putting his life on the line whether it meant dying or going to space hospital. We saw those actions and felt that he really embodied more of the ultimate team player.”

This showcases Shiro as the team leader and doesn’t seem to indicate Keith will be taking charge of the Black Lion anytime soon. What about that ominous beginning of the Season 2 teaser trailer?

As per the Let’s Voltron podcast, VLD Story Editor Tim Hendrick addresses the matter, “Well, I think that Shiro knows Keith very well. And I think we’ve seen, when Shiro crashed back to Earth, that you know, Shiro and Keith had kind of a touching moment outside of Keith’s desert shack, there. And, uh, so it implies that they have a past. And so we’re going to see a little bit more of that development.”

This doesn’t necessarily say that Keith will become the leader, only that Shiro knows Keith the most to choose him as his successor. However, we haven’t seen much of Season 2 yet (not even four minutes, unless you attended NYCC), and the narrative doesn’t seem to show any changes in leadership – or Keith even in the running for the Black Lion. We only see Shiro and Zarkon duking it out.

As for evidence in the actual show…

“Whoa? Did you guys just see that? I’ve got firepower!”

“Hey! We can’t let this thing hurt the Balmera!”

Keith uses the Red Lion’s firepower to take out one of the Galra’s cannons on Balmera and almost hurts the “mighty beast.” Hunk and the Yellow Lion come to the rescue!

“The entire hanger’s only being guarded by a few sentries. Let’s go!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Cool your jets, Keith! Don’t you remember all that stuff about this Balmera thing being a sensitive animal?”

“Oh. Right.”

“Yeah, so we can’t just blow things like a psycho.”

Keith wants to run in half-cocked, but Lance comes up with a better plan. (Lance actually makes a great argument to be the next Black Paladin…but that’s for another post.)

“I’m going to go check it out.”

“How about we just lay low and you don’t blow our cover? …Keith, think about what you’re doing. Don’t walk through that door.”

And Keith gets caught and fights a druid, and doesn’t get the quintessence he went to steal.

“Keith, do you copy? You don’t know what you’re dealing with! He’s too powerful! Listen to me. It’s imperative that you don’t engage – !”

…and Keith doesn’t listen. Shocker. During the fight, Keith gets his lion’s ass kicked by Zarkon before Shiro and the Black Lion swoop in for that last-minute save.

“…I want you to lead Voltron.”

Yeah, no. All evidence points to the contrary - Keith is too impulsive and hot-headed to lead the team.

In fact, as fellow frontrunner Joaquim Dos Santos says in “Voltron: Legendary Defender Showrunners on the New Season, The New Legend… & LOTAR?!,” “Because while Keith is not the leader in this series as he was in the original, I’d argue that we’ve given him some character and personality traits that set up a much deeper character by comparison, and ultimately allow the viewer to see him evolve and grow over the course of the series.”

May he one day lead the team? Maybe. Personally, I hope Shiro continues to “lead” the team and pilot the Black Lion unless VLD pulls a Young Justice Season 2 where Nightwing took over for Aqualad – and along the same vein, Robin/Nightwing was the leader of almost all the Titans comics for years with few exceptions. Yet for YJ, he wasn’t the leader, though it was perfect for him to step into the role in Season 2. He later handed the reins back to Aqualad.

And that, ultimately, is how I hope Keith becomes the leader of Voltron, and that would be a fun arc – with Shiro eventually taking back the Black Lion at the end.

Edit: Season 2 review talks about Keith and the Black Lion -- SPOILERS!

#voltron: legendary defender #Keith #Keith Kogane #Shiro #Black Lion #Red Lion #Season 2 #Voltron #leadership #I needed to write this #cuz I love Keith #but Shiro is the Black Paladin #IMHO #Lions #vld random thoughts

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onesp1cyboi · 7 years ago

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Tagged by @pidgepitchu

(#01.) Name/Nickname: percy/perce

(#02.) Gender: who the fuck know, not me, thts who

(#03.) Star Sign: pisces

(#04.) Height: 5′5, abt 160 cm

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(#07.) Hours of Sleep: round abt 6 hrs i think

(#08.) Dogs or Cats: both??

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(#10.) Dream Trip: roadtrip across north america w/ @crimemammal and @star-scales n also i wanna stop off n meet @sunrisepng n @vocl-ka and also felix (whos not on tumblr smh) uuh yea

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(#15.) Favorite Solo Artist(s): melanie martinez, gerard way,, i dont listen to a lot of solo artists regularly tbh- OH FUCKING LADY GAGA

(#16.) Song Stuck In My Head: .. nothing currently actually lmao

(#17.) Last Movie I Watched: thor: ragnarok

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(#19.) When Did I Create My Blog: uuh oct of 2016 i think (but ive been on tungle fr like. 4 ish years)

(#20.) What Do I Post/Reblog: fandom shit n personal posts occasionally, also just anything i find interesting or cool

(#21.) The Last Thing I Googled: “weird cursed painted tumblr happy holidays card” i was looking for a holiday neutral alternative to my dead frog christmas card n my yeti fight new years card

(#22.) Other Blogs: @notquiteartyet is my art blog, @son-ofabeach is my music blog, @nb-peterpan @bluepaladab @stray-catstrut and @exhausted-and-homesick are all kin blogs (careful if ur following the links, stray-catstrut has uh. gore), @ilikehunkalot is my hunk appreciation blog, @pastelpunkprince is my pastel blog, @moan-ahh-lisa is my nsfw blog, @yesplsdaddyshiro is a vld nsfw n shance blog, @intemerata-comic is my severely neglected webcomic aND im a co-mod on graecus (i also have a pjo askblog @percyjacksoff )

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(#32.) Favorite Song: hm. the cure by lady gaga

(#33.) Last Book I Read: the new magnus chase book

(#34.) Top 3 Fictional Universes I’d Like To Live In: pjo, marvel, carry on

Tagging evryone i mentioned in this post

#rambles #long post //

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dragonofyang · 6 years ago

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Form Podcast: A New Defender Transcript

A transcript of the Form Podcast episode covering VLD season 4 episode 6 “A New Defender” with Nora Lewis-Borbely, Alex Eby, Lauren Guerard, and Lika Leung interviewing with Kyle Anderson.

Vrepit Sa!

[Chimes]

Female voiceover: Now entering Nerdist.com

[Intro music - VLD opening theme]

Shiro’s voice: Paladins, welcome to Form Podcast.

[Intro music continues for a few more bars, then fades out]

KA: Hello, everybody, welcome to another episode of Form Podcast, the official Voltron commentary podcast. My name is Kyle Anderson, thank you again for joining us. We are here at the end of season 4, everybody. It’s “A New Defender”, season 4 episode 6, and I’m here with four people who help make Voltron happen. And they’re going to go around the room and introduce themselves. They are:

NLB: Hi, I’m Nora Lewis-Borbely, I’m the production manager on Voltron.

LG: I’m Lauren Guerard, I’m one of the production coordinators on Voltron.

AE: I’m Alex Eby, I’m a production assistant on Voltron.

LL: I’m Lika Leung and I’m also a production coordinator on Voltron.

KA: Alright, we will talk about what that means once we get started on the episode. So everybody at home, get your, uh, Netflix episodes all queued up to 0:00, and we will hit ‘play’ in 3, 2, 1, play. [pause] And we’re off and running, everybody. Thanks for joining us. [laughter] So what do you--yeah, what does--what does that mean, “p-production coordinator”, w-what does, for people who don’t know, uh, the ins and outs of animation and television-making? What does that mean?

NLB: So, uh, in short as a production manager, basically I work with a line producer to oversee the crew, to oversee the budget, and then to oversee the overarcing schedule from pre-production all the way to post-production and delivery. And then our production team are really the kind of the unsung heroes of our show because they do a lot of--they’re kind of the core of our team and they do a lot of facilitating.

LG: So basically, when you’re looking at these shots, sort of everything that you’re seeing of the screen is an individual design. So a lot of our jobs are tracking those designs. Um, I think right now in our database there’s something like 13,000 total designs? Um, so, it’s a lot to keep track of. Enough to--enough to warrant a job.

KA: Sure.

AE: Uh, and then as the assistant, I just help all the coordinators in any way that they need it, and then I also have a little bit of coordinating things, as well. Um, just… yeah. [laughter]

KA: Sounds like you got a lot to, uh, l-lot on your plate at any given moment.

NLB: Yeah. The tasks are coming from a lot of different directions because, like, we work with Studio Mir in Korea, so, like, it’s a lot of back and forth with them, like, trading designs back and forth, making sure they’re approved or if they’re noted, like, um, that they know what needs to be addressed. Uh, and then we also do CG designs in-house, so, like, and with a different studio, so going back and forth with that, like it’s a completely different group of people who are working on the CG-specific designs. Um… Yeah, it’s a lot.

LG: Yeah, and then I think the other thing to kind of note is that every single stage of production basically has to be tracked and make sure we’re on schedule, and everything’s on time. As you move through different drafts of a script, or, uh, different variations of a storyboard. All of that information needs to be tracked. And that is a lot of what our production team does. It’s really helping the artists make sure that they have everything they need to be able to create this amazing show.

KA: Mm. Is everything s--very, uh, detailed and color-coordinated?

LL: Yes.

[laughter]

KA: It has to be.

LG: Yeah, I mean, like each lighting environment, that’s the thing, there are, like, hundreds and hundreds of variations of our main characters because it’s every single different lighting situation that they’re in. Um, each time a character changes costume, that’s considered a brand-new design, so that’s why we get to a number like 13,000. [laughter]

KA: Is that high? I mean, I don’t know, have you worked on programs that are much lower than that?

NLB: It’s very high.

KA: Okay.

LG: Uh, yeah, it’s a very high number.

KA: It sounds super high.

LG: Yeah, it is.

NLB: It is a high number. Um, there’s a lot of detail that goes into a show like Voltron that is kind of unique to a show like this. Um, as Lauren briefly hit upon, every single character is colored to that environment and it’s something that’s a really, really special touch that our artists do because what that does is it makes the character feel like they’re actually in that environment. Opposed to if they just have the same color scheme in any location, uh, they don’t blend into the world quite as well. But, that means that every single character that goes to every single location, not only do you need a design for that location and that character, then you also need a color design of that character in that location.

LG: And then, also a thing I think that’s--I have, like, I’ve worked on shows where I haven’t seen this level of detail where I’ve worked on another show where, like, you’d make a design and it’d be for a chair. And that’s the chair you have in that show. Every time you see a chair.

KA: [laughter] That’s the chair.

LG: That’s the chair. And in this show, it’s like, “Well this is an Altean chair and you really need to think about how the Alteans would, like, go about designing a chair.” And so it’s, like, different from the Galra chair. It’s--

KA: Right.

LG: --a lot. [laughter]

AE: But you know, it’s that level of detail that really makes the show special.

KA: Mm-hm.

AE: It’s something that Joaquim and Lauren and Ryu and Christine and [Beyond? I know that’s wrong but the name isn’t familiar and sounds like that so I’m going with that for now], uh, as well as Kristy Sang and Anthony Wu. Um, all of those producers and design supervisors care a lot about all of those little minute details. And that’s what really makes the environments as, uh, I mean, as immersive and encompassing as they are.

KA: Yeah. And as we’re seeing here, the Galra--every-everything in each of the, uh, different species even has their own specific set of colors and designs, too, which… yeah. Which, I guess, y’know, viewers can almost take that for granted because it is such an immersive show, but that’s, you know, that’s why--it’s good you guys are here to tell me all this stuff because I’m just like, “Aw, fun! Spaceships!” LL: I think the other fun tidbit about our show is how unique compared to other 2D shows is the technology on the screens. There’s a lot of--oh! There’s a screen right there, actually. Yeah, that screen has its own design. Every screen, every UI that shows up in their cockpits, that has--oh, there’s one, too--has its own design attached to it. And it’s a unique design. And every single one of these screens, not only do we have to call it out, which means we make note of when it appears in that scene, we also have to design it.

KA: Mm.

LG: Yes, that’s a pretty interesting thing that I think Lika has to deal with in particular is, uh, so she does the initial phase of looking at the storyboard animatic, which is just when they put all the storyboards together to make basically a rough version of the episode. She watches that and calls out every single object and character that is in each in--like each individual shot, and then particularly with the screens it’s just, “Okay here’s this screen and here’s the specific thing happening on the screen.” Sh-she does it all the time. [laughter]

KA: She’s nodding.

NLB: She’s nodding.

[laughter]

KA: She agrees.

NLB: She’s nodding.

KA: So do you get--did you get a chance to--like, do you still watch it and-and as a “fan”, quote-unquote? Because everybody who’s come in here so far has been like, they love working on the show but they also enjoy watching the show. But do you--do you just sit there and go, “Well there’s this element, and this element, and this element”, like, ‘cuz you’re the one who knows, like, all that stuff. You’re like the-the keymaster of all that.

NLB: I think for me in particular it’s super fun when we do the, um, crew screenings together. Like that’s the first time we’ll watch it all put together. So, like, we’ll see all these individual designs and then, like, it’s its own unique fun thing to get to see it all animated. Like, we don’t get to see that until much later in the process.

LL: Yeah, I think a little-known fact is, uh, when we’re dealing with production or pre-production is actually what our stage is, we’re doing all of these design call-outs off of that animatic. So we’re dealing with a black-and-white or very rudi-rudimentary colored, um, animatic, and while our animatics are beautiful ‘cuz our artists put a lot of effort into them, they’re not--they don’t look like the final show. So, when you are dealing with day-in and day-out with that black-and-white animatic and then you actually get to see those designs appear in the show and everything animated for the first time, it’s--it’s really amazing because I know our team, like I said, we deal with the black-and-white animatic and then we see the designs come in and out. So that design of Naxzela we just saw, we got to see the planet getting designed, the actual design for the planet, but we’ve never seen it animated until the actual show came out.

KA: Mm.

AE: I personally get very excited to hear the sound effects and the music because that’s not something we get to experience until the very end.

KA: Mm-hm.

AE: So yeah. Not watching silence is pretty cool. [laughter]

[laughter]

KA: And it’s such a--like a--I got to host the panel at Comic-Con this year. We watched the first episode of season 3 in a huge room with like big, booming bass and everything like that I’m like, “Yeah, that’s how you want to watch a Voltron episode, I think.” Um… AE: I do miss the scratch, though.

[laughter]

LG: So, uh, to those who don’t know, when we have to do our storyboards, our actors record all of their lines. They record all the lines in the script. And sometimes if a line gets changed, or if, um, an actor was unable to come in and record at that point, we do what’s called a scratch record, where somebody on our team is assigned to voice that character for temporarily just so that we have the lines for rough timing. And some of our crew are particularl--particularly talented at scratch. And, uh, they’re always really fun lines, so that--we always get to deal with those in the animatics. They’re not in the final episode, though.

KA: But do you keep those? [stammering, others laugh] Also, could you then go back and, like, re-- “I’m gonna put the scratch track over the finished episode.”

LG: Oh, totally.

KA: That… yeah. [laughter]

LG: That would be amazing.

AE: I should do that.

LG: You should do that.

[laughter]

LL: It would be wonderful and awful.

[laughter]

AE: Gonna do it.

KA: Uh, have there been episodes--because you deal with so many elements in each episode, uh, I don’t know--do you know offhand the episode that had the most amount of individual--or what number that might’ve been?

LL: I always feel like I take special note of the ones that have less because I’m so excited about it.

[laughter]

KA: Because you’re like, “Look at that!”

LL: I know those episodes. [laughter]

KA: What if there was an episode where it was just like, “Eh, there’s a bunch of people in a room talking, no lights on or anything.”

LG: Oh, wow.

[laughter]

AE: That would be... whoo.

[laughter]

NLB: Sorry, I just got really excited because that’s a really nice low design-count episode. Um, no, I would say the episodes that have the highest design count are gonna be the ones where you go to a new location for the first time.

KA: Mm-hm.

NLB: Because all of that is new, so all of that needs to be designed. Uh, episodes where you’re seeing lots of people, new people, those also need to get designed.

KA: Mm-hm.

NLB: So those are going to be really high episode countsa--er, high design counts, sorry. The--these finale episodes, uh, interestingly enough, tend to be low design counts because, for example, in this episode, uh, a lot of these locations we’ve already been to in the previous episode. And there’s a lot of fighting in space and it’s very exciting to watch it, but a lot of those designs we’ve seen in other episodes, so it’s actually lower new design count, but there’s still plenty of designs being used in that episode.

KA: Sure. Yeah, it’s not like there’s four.

[laughter]

LG: The mermaid episode has already come out, right?

AE: Yes.

LG: Okay. Because that was a high count ‘cuz that was like a new environment, lots of new characters, they all had food.

AE: All underwater.

LG: All underwater.

KA: Yeah. Then there would’ve had to been designs for Hunk and Lance.

LG: Mm-hm.

KA: Things that I’m sure if they’re--if they’re done properly people don’t notice these new changes and things like that, but maybe people don’t know that that’s what goes into it.

LL: Yeah, I--before I actually joined this industry, I had no idea how much work went into these.

KA: Yeah.

LL: And I didn’t realize that every single one of these scenes you see, there is somebody who has to call out every single design that’s in that scene, and then every single one of those designs has to be drawn and created.

KA: Mm-hm.

LL: And you kind of don’t think about that as a viewer sometimes.

KA: No. And that’s good, that is a good thing.

LL: [laughter] That’s the goal right?

KA: That is the goal. If you wanna be invisible, it’s like sound effects, too. You don’t want to notice the sound effects, unless it’s, like, the silly stuff.

[laughter]

KA: Allura’s hand magic, that’s a different element. Now all I’m gonna do when I watch the show is count all the different things.

AE: Yeah. Would that be a comp element?

NLB: I know, that was the one thing I was thinking, like, “I think that was comp.” So, like, there are certain things that we’ll call out, like, that we just, like, say, “Hey, animator, we trust you, like, go for it.” Most of it we don’t because that’s just way too much responsibility, like, then you’d get so far into the process and be like, “We have to redo this entire sequence.” It’s ridiculous, so--that’s sort of the thing is like, you’re--you’re calling these things out and you’re designing these in advance so, like, they have that to start animation. And animation is such an involved process, like if you’re waiting ‘til after it’s already animated to realize you didn’t like the color for that, then it’s way too late.

KA: And since you guys--most of what [stammering] you said what your job does at the beginning of the process of an episode, how long is it from what you’ve done your job to when you get to see even a mostly-finished episode?

LG: There’s…

[laughter]

LL: Lauren’s doing calculations.

LG: I am doing calculations. Um...

KA: We’ll add a sound effect for that.

[laughter]

LG: It’s a lot of months.

KA: Okay.

LG: Um, I mean--I mean I can, yeah, I don’t know how much detail I can truly kinda go into for the schedule for that, um, but it’s--we’re talking several months between the time that we send that design, um, set overseas for them to actually start--for Studio Mir to start animating the product, ‘til we actually see the final product come back here. So, a lot of months.

KA: A lot of months. And i-in the interim time you’re working on an episode, you know, several more episodes, do you ever find yourself being like, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that” when you--

All: Oh yeah, all the time.

NLB: I mean, you’ll definitely go, like--especially when you’re dealing with an episode that’s in storyboards versus all, like, sort of, like, at the point of color designs, even though that’s all pre-production, that’s all pre-animation, those are so far apart in the process that they can be, I mean, [laughter] you’re like, you go from one meeting to the next and you’re like, “What’s this episode?”

KA: [laughter]

NLB: Like, what is this?

AE: Yeah, it’s even--it’s really fun, kind of, seeing the fan response for things and actually kind of watching the episode when the fans get to see it. But sometimes it gets confusing because uh-- our story, events happen and things change. And someone will talk about something, and then you’re just like, “wait a second.” Uh- as an example when uh- when seasons one and two came out where Keith was piloting the Red Lion, and then the uh change happens where Keith gets into the Black Lion. There was a period of time where we had associated Keith with the Black Lion, and fans had only seen Keith in the Red Lion. KA: Mmm

AE: So it kinda-- Sometimes you get confused.

KA: Yeah, yeah. [Laughing] As it would. Because you’re so far ahead and the fan [laughing] reac-- yeah it means you’re having to remember what people are talking about online like “what is this?”

NLB: I think that there are things that fans assume were put in the show because they’re like “aww they saw we responded to this in Season 1.” And we’re like, dude, no. [laughing]

KA: You have no idea.

NLB: It’s been there. KA: You predicted it.

AE: Our fans are really great at predictions. [Laughing] Um yeah after season 1 came out there were some great predictions and then season 2 came out. I mean, they were true, they came to fruition and it was--it was fun to, kind of, see some of the fandom predictions sometimes.

LG: Yeah. We read them all.

KA: You do?

LG: Oh yeah. [laughter] I hound for fanart and, like, reactions when it comes out on Netflix I’m just on the internet reading all the Voltron tags to see what people are saying.

AE: And then she’ll post it onto our group chat so the whole crew gets to see

LG: I do. And there’s a whole board dedicated to fanart that I have picked out that we just hang up so everyone can see it. So we do see the things that fans post a lot.

KA: But it in no way impacts how the show is made, everybody.

[laughter]

LG: It’s true.

KA: Way too far in advance.

LG: We do enjoy it, though. We absolutely love to see fanart, and it, um--and i-it’s just so great that the show is appreciated and the show is loved, and it makes us feel really great to see that, so, we--yeah--we look for it, we seek it out, we see it, and we-we love it.

KA: Do you--do you all have favorite characters?

AE: Yes.

[laughter]

LG: Uh, mine’s Pidge. I always try to voice her in scratch recordings.

[laughter]

NLB: Of the main… I think probably Hunk. Yeah, Hunk is pretty solid.

KA: Mm-hm.

AE: Ooh, that’s hard. I really like Allura. I mean she is just such a powerful female character and I love that about her, but Lance is also a ton of fun. So… [laughter]

KA: Whoever’s piloting that Blue Lion, that’s all you really care about.

[laughter]

AE: Yeah, I mean, really, I’m just attached to the Blue Lion.

[laughter]

LL: Oh yeah, I just, you know, go for the comic relief, so Coran is definitely my favorite.

KA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

NLB: I know, can we shoutout, like, Bii-boh-bi?

KA: Yeah.

LL: Oh, Bii-boh-bi’s so good. Definitely.

KA: Bii-boh-bi is the noise of anyone who if anybody does swear--

NLB: That’s what we--oh, fabulous.

[laughter]

KA: This is a particularly beautiful episode, I think, visually because, I mean, it’s a culmination of so many things, but it is so… it has such a unique style, I think, to it.

LG: Yeah, I really love seeing these fight sequences with the ship and I think--I think it’s because I really… So, Voltron is a CG design, and I think it’s… you know, that decision was made for a multitude of reasons, but I love the fact that our team at Studio Mir is so talented that they can take the CG design and, uh, basically integrate it flawlessly into a 2D show where if I hadn’t been told that Voltron was CG, I probably wouldn’t have assumed it. So, seeing these fight sequences involve a lot of these CG elements mixed with our 2D elements, and I think that’s--it’s--from a production standpoint it’s really special to watch that happen.

KA: Mm-hm. Well it’s very singular in terms of, uh, animated programming to have that kind of integration. But yeah, I remember the first time y-you see the new design or updated design of Voltron it’s like, “Oh my god it’s so cool”.

[laughter]

NLB: And then you’re just like, “And I’m working with those people every day, so… the people who made that. That’s neat.” [laughter]

KA: Now we’re just watching the episode. This is what happens sometimes.

NLB: Yeah. It’s definitely like watching that shot and knowing like, “Is that Haggar’s phase 1 or 2 in the background?” Like--

KA: [laughter]

NLB: That’s Keith with his helmet off.

LL: Yeah! Oh, that’s right, so every time a character has a helmet on or helmet off, that’s a new design.

KA: Mm.

[laughter]

KA: Helmet on, but with--er, helmet off, but with suit on is diff--

LG: Yup, 100% different for sure.

[laughter]

LG: Yeah, I mean we have sheets and part of our job is we have these sheets that we’ll say, “Okay, this is scene, you know, 100”, and every single design that’s in that scene from background to character to prop to all the different color variations, they all get called out just for that scene. So pretty much we go through these episodes with a fine-tooth comb, decide, writing down every single design and color design that happens in that--in each individual scene.

LL: So it’s like, if you like Excel, or databases, a career in production might be for you.

[laughter]

AE: We’re all organizational nerds. [laughter]

KA: Which isn’t what I--yes. That’s a fun--it’s a fun thing to be. I don’t have the patience to be one of those, but I always want to be. I was--I was in college I was always like, “God, if I could just have, like, the perfect spreadsheet.”

[laughter]

AE: Lots of folders. So many.

LL: It’s true.

LG: I don’t know. I think it’s fun and satisfying. [laughter] But that’s a true sign that I’m an organizational nerd, so…

NLB: It is, like, probably one of the favorite parts of my job because I keep a lot of, like, physical paper from, like, the Excel spreadsheets that we print out and stuff, and when I get to, like, move one to my “done” folder, like, physically take a piece of paper from one folder to the next folder. It’s like, “We finished all the designs,” and it’s the best.

KA: Do you--what do you do with all the, like, the finished ones? Do they eventually go into an even bigger drawer?

NLB: I just keep them forever. I just keep them, and I look at them, I’m like, “I don’t have to think about that anymore.”

[laughter]

NLB: Like, “Look at that paper. That’s obsolete now.”

KA: Do you all still have all your old school papers, too?

LL: I do.

[laughter]

LG: Wow.

LL: Yeah, they’re in the closet.

NLB: That’s impressive. How many boxes?

LL: It’s like two boxes, I kept it from my favorite classes, but I was like, “We paid for this.”

[laughter]

NLB: That’s true.

LG: That’s very true.

LL: This is what I have left of college.

[laughter]

KA: An old en--old textbooks that are way out of date now.

LL: Yeah. Exactly.

KA: So we’ve reached the end of the episode, and I feel like we barely scratched the surface of you guys’ jobs.

[laughter]

KA: So, we’ll have to have you guys come back, uh, later on, if you would like once we get into season five, which as we record this does not exist yet. As far as we know.

[laughter]

KA: You guys are on, like, season 28 probably. But anyway, um, thank you guys for joining us on the podcast. If you have social media you would like to plug, feel free to do so now. If you want people to follow you on Twitter or Instagram or anything.

AE: Do I. [laughter]

NLB: I know, it’s like, well that’s the thing, is I’m like, well I have artist friends that I know. I mean I could plug their stuff. I’m not… [laughter]

KA: Alright. Well that’s okay. You can follow me on Twitter, everybody, if you want to, because I’m, ya know, a dumb [Bii-boh-bi] who talks a lot at @funcitonalnerd, um, and thanks for watching and listening along with us, uh, and we will see you once season 5’s around here on Form Podcast. Thanks, everybody.

NLB: Bye!

LL: Thank you.

AE: Thank you.

LG: Thanks!

[outro music, the rest of the VLD theme]

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[chimes]

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