#vld pro event

[envy555]

Lotor’s Plans: An Unlikely Theory

There’s no way this theory will end up being legitimate, but because Lotor’s proven time and time again that all of his actions have a purpose, even if the true purpose is masked, it seems like a theory worth considering. So, bear with me (despite the length). 

Regarding Lotor’s plans, we only really know the basics. He’s seeking a method to enter the rift to obtain quintessence, likely for the good of the universe. Lotor is also ancient (and maybe possessed), so we can assume that he’s probably been working on this particular plan for centuries and revising it constantly to fit his circumstances.

At some point, however, Lotor would have realized that he couldn’t open the rift without material from the other reality, ie. the comet. He couldn’t obtain the trans-reality comet without Voltron, but if he could get his hands on Voltron, even for a short period of time, he wouldn’t necessarily need the comet.

So, Lotor ultimately needs Voltron for the success of his plan, but he doesn’t need to be the one to find the lions––Zarkon has already invested all of his time and resources in that project. Lotor just needs to patiently wait and prepare to form Voltron (and also plot out how he’ll double-cross his dad and steal the lions––an unfortunate inevitability).

Now, here the theory really begins. If you had to prepare to form Voltron, what would be the first step? To find pilots for each of the lions. And if you were Lotor and didn’t necessarily know that the lions were picky about their paladins and select them based on consistent personality traits, how would you reasonably assume paladins were chosen?

Genetics.

Furthermore, if you were the son of the original black paladin and felt confident in your ability to lead Voltron and realize your dreams, wouldn’t that reinforce your logic?

So, my unlikely theory is that Lotor selected each of his (ex-)generals not because they were female or because they were Galra half-breeds like himself, but because they were the descendants of the original paladins.

Sounds crazy? Let’s break it down: first, by appearance as an indicator of potential genetic match, and second, by overlapping personality features.

Red paladin: Alfor & Acxa

I highly doubt that Acxa is Alfor’s direct descendant, because Alfor doesn’t mess around with the ladies and Allura, obviously, never had any children. However, if Lotor believed that the Altean royal line had ended at his father’s hands, perhaps he decided that a distant offshoot would suffice. So, imagine that Axca is actually a descendant of (or is) Romelle (Allura’s cousin in DotU). This is a nice concept because it could lend a hand to explaining the weird archer Allura preview, and it doesn’t eliminate the possibility of Acxa and Keith being related. In fact, it makes it cooler, because it would also suggest that Keith and Allura are distant cousins.

Appearance-wise, look at Acxa next to Alfor. They have the exact same ear shape. They have similar bangs and jawlines. Even their posture is similar (and not just in these screenshots). Mix a little Galra into Alfor’s family line and Acxa is a totally reasonable outcome.

Personality-wise, Alfor was Zarkon’s right hand paladin and loyal friend, even when given great reason to doubt. Acxa was Lotor’s top general and his most loyal follower, even after he killed Narti. Both Alfor and Acxa are capable of acting independently, but prefer to follow a more qualified leader. Both of them are also capable “scientists” and are shown to have a good understanding of the power of the comet and the value/ risks of the other reality. Alfor and Acxa also act as the straight man stock character, at least in comparison to their teammates. 

Green paladin: Trigel & Narti

Appearance-wise, Narti and Trigel have very similar mouth and nose shapes––in fact, their noses are identical and Narti’s mouth is just a scarier upgrade of Trigel’s. Beneath her hood Narti’s “hairline” of sorts creates a nearly identical widow’s peak to Trigel’s. They also share similar physical builds, and both lack eyebrows.

Personality-wise, Trigel, as the green lion, would have served as Zarkon’s “left hand,” and would have been third in the chain of command, after Alfor. Despite killing her in a moment of fear, Lotor uses Narti almost as often as Acxa and more visibly than his other two generals. He sends her on independent missions and selects her specifically to accompany him to Zarkon’s ship when he’s been called in, leaving Acxa in charge in his stead.

Blue paladin: Blaytz & Ezor

Appearance-wise, the “V” like facial marks on Ezor’s forehead mirror the shape of Blaytz’s, and they both have a form of antennae––the former’s is her one, long, ponytail-esque feature and the latter’s are his two swoopy, moth-like protrusions. Though their physical similarities seem to end here, we do see Blaytz flirting with a Galra servant in this very screencapped scene. If you take a second to consider the Galra’s appearance, you’ll notice that their ears are the exact same shape as Ezor’s. I ship Blaytz’s forbidden Galra love.

Personality-wise, both Blaytz and Ezor act as comic relief stock characters in roughly the same vein that Lance does, and they both push boundaries when it comes to interacting with others. Their personalities lend themselves to a flirtatious nature, and it seems they both enjoy toying with the emotions and reactions of other, though likely only to stroke their own egos.

Yellow paladin: Gyrgan & Zethrid

Appearance-wise, Gyrgan and Zethrid are extremely similar. Consider their physical stature as a starting point, but then look at their eyes. They have a glossier, rounder eye shape than most alien races we’ve seen. Furthermore, both of their facial marks consistently appear in symmetrical pairs and are focused around their eyes and cheeks. In fact, it seems they both have marks above their eyes in lieu of eyebrows.

Personality-wise, Gyrgan and Zethrid also act as comic relief stock characters, like the oft-unfairly depicted “Humorous Hunk.” Gyrgan has a blatant and absurd appetite for food and Zethrid has a blatant and absurd appetite for violence. Both of them also share a slightly wry sense of humor, and both are consistently genuine in the simplicity of their emotions. They also both stick to their beliefs––Gyrgan’s religion and Zethrid’s aggression. 

So, I’m sure this theory sounds absurd at first, but just take a minute to mull it over. The original paladins in VLD all have obvious similarities to the modern paladins and intentionally so, but both groups of paladins share similarities with another group too––Lotor and his (ex-)generals––and understanding any one group helps us better understand the others.

Finally, I like this theory because it fits Lotor’s behavior, which often can’t be explained but is rarely happenstance. He’s gathered his potential paladins but he’s also helped them become great generals, so they serve a purpose either way. The discovery of and bonding with the lions by the new paladins would have definitely thrown a wrench in Lotor’s original plans, but we see him shift to manipulating the proper paladins almost immediately––if he can’t have Voltron, he’ll get the comet. His murder of Narti feels foolish if he needed her to pilot a lion, but less so when you consider that he’s already got (in theory), a way to enter the rift without Voltron. Plus, what does Lotor immediately do when his rift theories have been disproven and his team betrays him? He swoops in to win over Voltron, and returns to a version of his original plan.

What makes it all worse (assuming this theory is legit)? Lotor probably never told his generals who they were. He probably found them, in desperate need of guidance and purpose, and convinced them to aid him without fully revealing his intentions. His ex-generals probably still haven’t realized that they’re the descendants of the original defenders of the universe.

[justhijinx]

Day 4: Headcanons

This got really long really quickly! I'm going to try putting it under a read more but since I'm fairly new this might not work the first time. Please bear with me!

Lance

Lance actually really likes gardening. Before he went to the Garrison, he had his own little vegetable patch in his family’s backyard, and when he did finally make it in, he couldn’t resist smuggling a couple succulents into his dorm room.

Because of this, he has a habit of picking up plants from the various planets team voltron visits.

Word about his green thumb got out, so now it’s not uncommon for planets hoping to join the coalition to gift team voltron with harmless and beautiful flora from their planets, along with other offerings.

Part of Lance’s dislike of Lotor is because of the increased attention the team (and especially Coran) gives him. When Coran found out that Lotor wanted to learn about Altean culture, he stopped coming to talk to Lance as often. Lance has seen them wandering around the castle, trading stories without him.

When Lotor finds out, he starts coming to Lance directly to talk to him about Earth. This doesn’t go so well at first, because Lance thinks that Lotor is compiling information to later attack his home planet. After the initial distrust has worn off though, he joins Coran and Lotor for their walks, and the three of them become really good friends.

Pidge

Pidge is actually a hard-core sudoku fiend. She’d go through those books you can find at checkouts at a breakneck pace. It actually got to the point where Matt essentially banned her from doing them.

Her next addiction was 2048. She has 4 apps on her phone, and now that they’re in space and off of wifi she can actually play without ads.

After her dad goes home and Matt returns to the rebel group, Pidge has a mini-crisis. Her two main goals accomplished, she feels briefly as though there’s nothing tying her to Voltron any more. Then Keith almost dies and Pidge realizes her next life goal is to keep everyone else alive long enough to make it back home, since it seems like certain people in her group have no self-preservation.

Hunk

Hunk asked Kolivan for a hug once, in part because he really just needed a hug and no one else was around, and in part because he was curious to see how it would feel to be hugged by someone bigger than him.

Long story short, Hunk is now addicted to Kolivan’s hugs. Kolivan was exasperated at first but has since become very fond of Hunk, and initiates these hugs as often as Hunk does.

Hunk has been sworn to secrecy about that.

Hunk knew about Yellow’s previous paladin before any of the other paladins knew about their predecessors. Yellow was open and supportive of Hunk’s curiosity and shared memories and footage of Gyran with him whenever Hunk was having a bad day, or had done something that was a lot like Gyran.

Because of this, Hunk has a strange attachment to Gyran, despite having never met him. He spends a lot of downtime wondering what it would have been like to meet Gyran personally.

Keith

Keith tried to befriend a coyote during his year in the desert. It did not go well, and now he really doesn’t like dogs because of it.

When Keith gets really bored he will start absently spinning his knife, much to the terror of everyone on the team. Krolia has confiscated the knife several times because of it.

Before Shiro went to Kerberos, he and Keith had a number of conspiracy-related discussions, mostly because it was one of the few things that could really get Keith to open up.

One of these discussions did involve a suspicion from Keith that he was something more or less than human, a notion that Shiro swiftly and thoroughly shut down.

Now that they both know he is in fact part Galra, neither knows how to approach that discussion. They settle for pretending that neither of them remember.

Shiro

Shiro actually gets cold really easily. This is part of why he almost always wears a long-sleeved shirt and a vest. When the others found out, it became a team mission to find and make asmany soft warm things for Shiro as possible.

He now has two hand-made sweaters, three pairs of fuzzy socks, several blankets, and one eight-armed yarn-like tube that Coran dug out of castle storage for him.

Shiro really enjoyed doing origami when he was still at the Garrison. His prosthetic, although helpful, is still difficult to use for such refined and delicate pass-times. Keith knows about this lost hobby and is always slipping Shiro bits of paper to practice with.

It takes a long time for Shiro to be confident enough about his origami to start doing it in earnest again. The first piece the team finds out about is a clumsily made paper-crane that they affectionately dub “Crane-Berry”.

Allura

Allura doesn’t get periods. When she first found out about Pidge’s, she was so concerned and disgusted that she nearly put Pidge in quarantine to prevent it from spreading.

The conversation that followed taught Allura a lot about the human species in general.

Honerva and Trigel were honorary aunts to Allura, and she looked up to them a lot. Trigel’s death and Honerva’s corruption would have been devastating to Allura, which is why Alfor and Coran kept the truth from her.

She is as afraid to confirm Hagar’s identity as Lotor is because of this.

Coran

Lance reminds Coran of young Alfor so much that Coran has actually stumbled over his name several times. Lance believes it is Coran almost calling him “Allura”, because Coran has a tendency to call everyone by everyone else’s name (like a frazzled parent trying to single out one of their seven kids).

When Coran first heard the other paladins referring to Shiro as “Space Dad”, he narrowly avoided launching into a tirade about how Shiro is too young to have so much responsibility thrust upon him. Before he could say anything however, his eyes landed on their armor, and he realized that all of them were way too young to be fighting in a war. He was too choked up to say anything after that.

Instead he settles for being as dad-ly as possible behind the scenes. He has parented every member of the team at least once.

He and Kolivan have actually made a pact (that Krolia later joins) to be the voices of guidance, reason, and parental love for everyone else on the ship. The others know that the three of them meet up fairly frequently, but decided not to ask after Krolia sent them to the training deck for trying to eavesdrop.

Lotor

Lotor was raised knowing about his Altean lineage, mostly because he was belittled for it almost constantly. He spent much of his youth trying to hide or mask his heritage, hating himself for the half of him that wasn’t Galra.

It was only after uncovering the works of his mother Honerva that he decided to embrace that side of himself rather than cover it up. Shortly thereafter, he befriended a half-breed servant who later became the first of his generals.

Lotor spent centuries collecting and finding information about the Alteans, which had been all but erased from Galran history. He found out as much as he could about their culture, their civilization, and their planet.

When he first met Allura and Coran, he tried to honor them using the knowledge that he learned by greeting them in what be he thought was a traditional gesture of kinship and respect.

He unknowingly flipped them off instead.

Once they were able to move past that introduction, however, they realized what had happened. Allura and Coran both greet him this way now, as a sort of inside joke.

General

The lions can interact with the castle, to some extent. They use this to take care of the paladins (and to prank them, on occasion). Mostly, it consists of them turning the lights down in rooms when their paladins fall asleep by accident, shutting down machinery that their paladins have no business exploring, and adjusting room temperatures and humidities to make sure their paladins are comfortable and happy.

On a related note: when Lance first talked about missing rain, Blue lured him to the pool room and manipulated the water to simulate rain for him. Any time he’s feeling homesick or down, that memory will resurface and Blue will prod him, rain? He always leaves feeling more refreshed and happier than when he goes in.

Because of Lotor’s curiosity about Altean culture and Coran’s hope to pass on the legacy of his people, the two became fast friends once they moved past hostilities. It is not uncommon to find them wandering around the ship trading stories about Altean civilization.

When Lotor became emperor, he recruited some of the empire’s best scholars to continue the search for remnants of Altea in the universe, and asked Coran’s help in verifying the research that they uncovered. Once every decaphoeb, he sends an updated compilation of the Empire’s research to Coran for review. Coran always sends a heartfelt thank you note in return.

When the paladins first saw pictures/footage of the original paladins, several things happened.

Pidge all but fell in love with Trigel. Not necessarily in a romantic sense, but more in the "dear lord I need to learn more about this person they’re pretty amazing" way

Lance learned several new pick-up lines just from Blaytz’s interaction with the servant.

Keith became strangely distant from Allura. In part, he thought he would be keeping her from feeling hurt because he could see clear similarities between himself and her late father. When that notion finally came out in the open, Allura smacked him and then hugged him. Keith stopped being distant after that.

When Lotor saw footage of his parents, young and happily in love, he cried. Like full-on ugly sobbing for an hour or more. Everyone was banned from the room except Coran, who stayed to find more footage of the happy couple.

As soon as Lotor left the room, he was all but dragged to a mandatory team-movie night. No one commented on what had happened.

Coran later compiled Zarkon and Honerva’s photos and videos to give to Lotor. When Lotor feels especially lost or lonely ruling the empire, he spends an hour or two watching the footage and reminding himself that even if his childhood wasn’t always happy, he was born from happier times, and he can make those happier times for himself and for his people.  

[bushybeardedbear]

VLD Pro Event Appreciation Day

This was queued for the 1st of July. Apparently editing the post and saving that edit somehow means it gets published days earlier. The pitfalls of using Tumblr with big clumsy paws I suppose... Sigh....  First off, I’d like to thank everyone who has been reading the nonsense I’ve posted. I’d like to thank the mods at the Voltron Positivity Event. I’d like to thank my followers, amazed I can use plural now! 

We should all thank the creators of Voltron, from the humblest intern to the head of Dreamworks, every voice actor, every artist, every credited name, every coffee boy, every guest star, every single writer... There are too many to name them all, just look at the IMDB, so much talent, hard work and dedication! Thanks are due to them all. I’m not sure I want to thank Playmates toys for the dent the Legendary Lions put in my wallet... Though, I’d also like to make a note of thanks to one fan in particular...

I really don't want this to come across as too notice me senpai. However, I think that may be a little unavoidable. Keep in mind though that I'm considering the term purely to mean a more experienced student to whom I look up to. A student, practically a tutor, for my favourite ship in the VLD Fandom.

@honestlyprettychill That's not exactly a name people here will be unfamiliar with. I'm certain that a huge number of Voltron fans appreciate and admire their work. Doubly so, if like me you have thirsty Plance that needs constant watering. Even some members of the VLD cast have commented on HPC’s honestly beautiful artwork along with their other fan works.

So, I'm hardly alone in my appreciation of what HPC does, but let me share my perspective anyway. When I write, I tend to have one of a few things on in the background. These can range from ambient sounds and non invasive music or they can be more frenetic and energetic pieces depending on the mood I'm going for with whatever I'm writing at the time. Right now I can only hear the sound of the wind and the birds, just to keep my work calm and reflective. What anyone who writes anything will often tell you is how awful writer's block can be. That sudden drag to a halt of any and all creativity flowing from you. It can be very difficult to overcome. Some take long breaks, some work on other projects, some just power through. I do a combination of them, though probably need to power through more often. What I've found when writing Plance sections, the easiest way for my writer's block to be shattered is by taking a moment to watch this...

As soon as this comes on, I'm swept up emotionally into the moment. The shared happiness these two characters can offer one another, the warmth and care, the strong narrative symbolism they both evoke in the other that only ever seems to grow deeper the more you look. Plus, the tune is sweet and the animation always makes me smile, which is a bonus.

Now, I'm no animator. But according to the scribes of Google, the average animation runs slightly less than a motion picture. That for every frame of film, a drawn image is shown twice or in some cases four times. I'm also no artist, so it's tricky to tell precisely how many individual pictures per second HPC's Animatic translates to on average. So, taking a bit of a wild stab in the dark, we'll go for about 3.5 pictures per second. Given the runtime, minus a little intro and outro, that gives us about... 315 individual images in such a short time. Again, I'm not an animator, (I'm barely a writer most days.) but given my limited understanding that animation programs can create transitional frames and such, that seems entirely reasonable an estimate. Please someone feel free to prove me wrong, I'd love to know the real figure! Still though, to my point at last...

A picture is worth, they say, a thousand words. So that means that in essence, HonestlyPrettyChill has written in animation, three hundred and fifteen thousand words all devoted to Plance. The equivalent of an entire extra large novel's worth of Plance, and all contained in a such a short and sweet animatic.

How can anyone who writes not be both inspired, humbled and frankly made a teensy little bit jealous by that...?

So, when I look to those heartfelt frames, realise that I have only begun to scratch the surface of those thousands of words they evoke, I am in no small way inspired. I am sure I am not the only one. Thank you, @honestlyprettychill

[midoriyasbones]

VLD Ship Exchange

When @belovedsheith @'ed me in a post about wishing for some sort of event we could hold between klance shippers and other shippers to prove that all pro shippers are truly on the same side, I enthusiastically stole the idea and ran with it as far as I could. So, without further ado we are introducing the first ever VLD Ship Exchange!

Here's how it works: you sign up for what ships you'd like to see and then sign up to produce content for ships you normally wouldn't. For example as a klance shipper I would sign on to create allurance, katt, sheith, or any other ship that I am comfortable creating content for! On the form we allow you to let us know what ships or content you are and aren't willing to create, and will match you up with a partner for exchange. Pretty neat huh?

The goal of this event is to foster new friendships between shippers from across the fandom, to create fun content for all kinds of ships, and to broaden our horizons! If that sounds like something you'd be interested in, then sign up today!

Here is a link to the form!

Here is a link to our discord!

Thank you for taking the time to read this, please reblog and pass along to your friends!

[pointykeef]

Not only do I think Antis are trying to overshadow Shaladin events and Keith week, but as evidence proves from last years anti events, they can only celebrate when summers out bc antis are out of grade school and have nothing else to do for their summer break ✊🏽😔

[paladinsagainstshaladins]

Regarding the recent Voltron Café event

Once again, Antis prove themselves to be absolutely pathetic

There was a recent event called the Voltron Café held to just have fun with other fans of Voltron but of course Antis must turn this into a "A shallie held this event ewwwwww!" Thing, just some tweets when you look up the Voltron Café

(Ignore the last tweet from tekurik they are not apart of the event drama.)

But it's just disgusting how a positive event now ends up with stuff like this. The event in question from what I've heard from a friend who attended and ran the event that there was no ships involved, it was just a nice event for fans of Voltron to come together and yet?? Shaladin runs it it's evil bad and awful.

I'd like to see Antis try to make an event come together like this how the Voltron Café came together, they wouldn't be able to do it, especially with the threats of violence and excluding parts of the fandom. Complain all you want but the event was amazingly done and cheers to the creators who managed to keep the event fun while keeping ships out of it. I applaud them for that.

TL;DR?

Stop being a fucking baby and get over it. One Shaladin run event isn't going to kill you.

[huntypastellance]

Where is that Lance murdering Shiro fanart? I've seen people saying that it's someone trying to demean Shiro to raise Lance's character, and that it's racist/ableist to draw a mentally ill Asian character like that on his birthday. But then I also read that the artist is Korean and they don't even stan Lance, they just like drawing gore art in general. Plus I've been to fandoms where drawing gore art of their fav character on their birthday is normal so idk I kinda want to see it myself to judge

Okay so it turns out that I had actually SEEN the fanart in question (before the wank started).

But because the artist was

a) pretty well known in the east asian VLD fanartist community

b) has a VERY distinct style

c) draws gore of EVERYTHING (hell, they even have a VLD zombie apocalypse AU)

d) stans a completely different character (not Lance or Shiro)

& the fanart itself was very well-drawn & clearly an angst pic not a “haha fuck you Shiro!” pic…..

I did NOT make the connection that this was the fucking fanart people were pissed about.

What the fuck is wrong with you, shaladin community???

Anti art is deliberately shit on purpose, could you really not fucking tell???

Did your fucking brains fall out of your heads or something because that pic was nowhere NEAR anywhere close to the typical “uwu pastel bullshit vitiligo blackface caricature” style that antis always draw their shit in, what the fuck.

Don’t fucking spread bullshit rumors just because the antis haven’t stirred up new drama this week.

[ashkazora]

Ashka's AU Tags Masterlist

AIGHT here's a list of all my ask/anon-based AUs for easy navigation (this will be added onto my pinned post).

VLD AUs:

#feral!Lance au - an AU where Lance was given a gun and allowed to go feral.

#bakshi!Lotor au - an offshoot of the feral!Lance au where Lotor is like Brad Bakshi of the show, Mythic Quest. He's just a sociopath

#enabler!Allura au - another offshoot of the feral!Lance au where Allura enables feral!Lance and bakshi!Lotor's chaotic behaviour.

#five!Lance au - in which Lance is a jaded 58 year old who is launched back in time to canon events in his 17 year old body. Inspired by Five from The Umbrella Academy.

#leopika!klance au - Klance, but it's Leopika from the show Hunter X Hunter. Keith is an edgelord on a quest for revenge and Lance is a doctor motivated by pure spite.

#fem!Lance au - in which Lance is a chick and even more unhinged than normal.

#post wirip au - an AU based off of my fic, When It Rains, It Pours. Explores a hypothetical future where Blue erases Lance's memories, launches him back to Earth, and somehow he ends up dating Kinkade.

#quirk au - random AU that's basically the Paladins in the universe of MHA.

#ofa!Lance au - an AU where Lance in canon is given One For All (the quirk from My Hero Academia).

Non-VLD AUs:

#mha/mp100 au - an AU where the body improvement club loves Izuku, and Reigen cons his way into being a pro hero despite being quirkless.

[hirazuki]

Ooo I'm curious about your hot takes on the Inuyasha reboot after reading your tags 👀

Ahaha, where to start XD Idk if they are hot takes, but here are my thoughts in bullet point form for coherency, I couldn’t figure out how else to organize them. Under a cut, as usual, because it got lengthy... as usual :D

We are 13 episodes in, and I still have no idea wtf is going on or what the series is actually about. And yes, I’m aware that we didn’t know of Naraku’s existence or of the overarching plot until at least episode 16 of that series either and Inuyasha was still very episodic in nature at that early point too, but here’s the thing: Inuyasha did not build upon a pre-existing series. For better or for worse, Yashahime has certain expectations to live up to that the original anime didn’t, by virtue of its being a sequel. Unfair? Maybe, but tough; that’s what happens when you make a sequel. Additionally, despite us not knowing The Main Plot™ of Inuyasha until later, the basic framework for it was laid out clearly by... episode 2? I think? Find and collect the Shikon Jewel shards. Boom, done. Were there distractions or fillers? Sure, but you never got the sense that the characters simply up and forgot about the shards. Even in fillers, the shards often made some kind of appearance. With Yashahime, there’s like three potential storylines going on: 1. The most obvious: most of our main cast from the OG is missing; where are they? Apparently no one in-story cares! :D Inuyasha, who’s that lol. I’m all for a sequel focusing on the new generation with cameos of the old crew; after all, they already had their own series. But this is like... no one cares about them? No one talks about them? And the more characters go about not mentioning them, the stronger their absence is felt. Like, for instance, Kaede knows Moroha is InuKag’s daughter. Moroha grew up on her own, doesn’t know her parents. Kaede doesn’t mention them to Moroha, doesn’t even spare a passing thought about them for the audience’s benefit, Moroha doesn’t ask. Kagome’s family in the present day meet Moroha, recognize her as Kagome’s daughter and... say nothing??? Souta shows Towa Kagome and Inuyasha’s old photos, but doesn’t say a word to Moroha?! Like. It makes no sense. By people not even acknowledging their existence, it makes the fact that they are nowhere to be found even weirder. Also the new gen girls don’t care about their parents or finding out who they were/are... like, okay, it would maybe be in character for one or two of them, but all three don’t give a fuck??? 2. Kirinmaru/the rainbow pearls: Idk how familiar you are with the story, but similar deal with Naraku and the shards here. Kirinmaru is being set up as the villain, still a mysterious figure; our new gen trio is supposed to collect the rainbow pearls that... some of his henchmen have? Or he is after them? Or is that Riku? Unclear. ANYWAY the new gen girls often forget all about the pearls’ existence :D 3. Setsuna’s memories: Setsuna’s dreams have been stolen by the dream butterfly and they need to get them back, because without her dreams she has no memories and is unable to sleep. Cool! Finally a solid, easy-to-follow plot line! Except wait! Towa, who supposedly made it her goal to get Setsuna’s sleep back, forgets all about it! All the time! Like, none of them make an effort to look into this other than being like “oh yeah, know anything about the dream butterfly?” to random folks every now and then. The Inugang back in the day was putting some grad school level research towards their goals, just saying. It just feels like everything’s all wishy-washy and there’s nothing really solid tying the series together. People just remember shit exists when it’s convenient.

.

Character development is MIA. I’m not expecting ground-breaking char dev in 13 episodes (though I do know 12 episode series that were phenomenal in that regard), but like... I do expect the series to focus on building the dynamics between the main three characters. So far, the series is more focused on teasing the audience with glimpses and promises of the OG cast instead. The creators are using nostalgia and bait (esp of a certain pairing) to drive interest in the series, rather than developing the new characters as fully-fledged characters for their own sakes. 

.

Moroha is was the only thing I actually liked about the series. She is a little spitfire and you can somehow instantly see both Inuyasha and Kagome in her, while she also remains very uniquely herself; I have never seen such a successfully developed main pairing child in any series. She featured quite prominently in the first few episodes -- and unlike both her parents, she’s got a great memory and knowledge of lore -- where she balanced funny moments with badass fighting moments and being the token supernatural encyclopedia. It was great! And then... they’ve like... forgotten her. She’s been left behind so many times by the twins. She’s the butt of every joke. She’s become the type of comic relief that’s, well, insulting. More like a buffoon than anything else. And it’s basically all for the sake of giving the floor to Towa :/

.

Setsuna is okay. Not offensive, but unremarkable. She’s got her dad’s personality but like way toned down due to her different growing up circumstances, which is nice, but like... I feel she isn’t given any room to grow or breathe or anything. She’s also basically there as a device to enhance Towa’s development.

.

Towa... oy. I tried to like her, I really did, but she just doesn’t work for me. They set her up having a very Kurosaki Ichigo type deal with beating up bullies and getting into trouble at school and shit -- I’m fine with that. That’s cool. Esp if it’s linked to not feeling like she fits in bc she’s a hanyou? Awesome. Except once she travels back in time to the feudal era it’s all “Oh killing is bad you shouldn’t kill people” and “even though they attacked me I can’t possibly hurt them” and “you need to empathize and talk things out” and “friendship is magic” and shit. It feels like she had a personality transplant, it literally makes no sense. Her design is totally nonsensical too -- out of everyone at her school, she’s the only one dressed in a bright white suit? Do protags not wear the school uniform? Someone should tell Kagome lmao. She’s a pro at hand to hand, and she can absorb demons’ powers and fling them back at them like a personified Tessaiga, and she has a lightsaber sword, and she’s immune to miasma, and -- like... you get it. It’s too much. It’s way too OP for the type of universe that Inuyasha/Yashahime is set in. She’s hanyou for fuck’s sake; remember all the training Inuyasha had to go through? When he couldn’t lift his sword? When his sword attacked him? Sango, Miroku, Kagome, even Sesshomaru all had trouble with their weapons and had to work to become stronger. But Towa? Nope. Towa is straight out of the Yas Queen/Girl Boss manual, so she gets a free pass on everything.

.

UGH they are doing the VLD/bad writing thing where things happen (like, BIG THINGS) and none of the characters actually react to them. Or stuff happens and there are no consequences. No one ever talks about anything. It’s wild.

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Everyone has amnesia!! :D People either don’t know or don’t remember anything or anyone. People who absolutely should know things all of a sudden magically don’t know them. Like, Kohaku -- traveled with an undead priestess, spent years in the company of demons, traveled with Sesshomaru... and yet had NO CLUE that Setsuna is Sesshomaru’s daughter or that she is hanyou, despite her living and working with his team of demon slayers all this time. Like... how, man. How. And Kaede! Don’t get me started. Since when does she perpetuate random demon-boogeyman type stories as facts? Demon children will kill each other in the nest so that only the strongest one will survive, therefore Setsuna must have killed Towa when they were infants. O_O What are they, sharks? Has she been hanging out with Kisame? Wtf?? And she’s speaking about Sess’s kids as though she doesn’t know him or anything about him, when she has had Rin under her roof all these years. It just makes. no. sense.

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Things that happened in the original series are happening again now! Because that’s the best we’ve got, recycled plot elements wooo! No, but really, characters that died or things that were resolved in Inuyasha keep coming back. Why? What was the purpose of bringing back Kinka and Ginka? To have a foil for Towa and Setsuna as twins? Someone please tell Sunrise they can just create new characters. Like, it’s one thing to have call backs to the original or cameos, references, whatever. But like... this is entire (dead) characters and interactions.

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No one knows how long it’s been since the original series ended. Fans initially heard 20 years from promo material, then “over 15″ and “10 years since” in-series regarding two different events, and now in a future episode summary we’ve gotten 18 years since Hosenki II gave Inuyasha the black pearl. But like, which black pearl? Because the one in Inuyasha’s eye doesn’t exist anymore, but Hosenki II had told Inuyasha that it would take 100 years for him to produce one. So, are we retconning that or where the fuck did it come from? Also, this doesn’t help one bit, it just confuses things even more. Back to the point, though, we have no coherent timeline or real frame of reference whatsoever, and I’m betting it’s in large part to keep the mystery of who is Sesshomaru’s wife going, as it keeps Rin’s age very vague. Everything is vague and mysterious in Yashahime, to the point where no one knows what’s going on, in fandom or in-story even. It’s kinda like how too much plot twist/shock reveal ruins a story, too much mystery does the same. It’s insane that both shippers and antis of that ship can lay equal claim that the “18 years since” announcement works in their favor.

tl;dr: Idk man, Yashahime is a clusterfuck of a series. Even if the mother of Sess’s twins is either of the characters I ship him with, I will still not like the series. There’s no saving this writing. Every episode feels like this:

[voltronfandomhag]

I have a fandom related question, if that's okay. I wondered how the fanfic scene in the dotu fandom and vld fandom differed. Have you noticed a difference in the kinds of fics people write besides ship preferences?

Yeah, I have. DoTU fanfic tended to be very canon complaint. AUs were pretty rare in general and those that existed were usually retellings of the series or “what if” scenarios. The vast of majority of the stories took place sometime during or after the events of the show and tried to expand upon the lore and characterizations as presented in canon. Fanfics back then were often judged by how closely they came of the spirit and feeling of canon.

VLD fic writers, from what I’ve seen, follow the opposite approach. Tons of AUs, many of which share very little in common with show, to the point they might as well be original fiction. “Fuck canon! I do what I want!” is the rallying cry of many fic writers.

Both approaches have their pros and cons for me personally. A lot of DoTU fic felt rather same-y after awhile, but it least I felt like I was reading a Voltron fanfic. VLD is more varied, and some of them are mindblowingly good, but I find a lot of them it so AU and OOC that, again, I might was well be reading an original story already. 

[justhijinx]

Day 5: Crew! I wasn't sure exactly how to interpret this one, but all I could think about was how Lotor's voice actor said he would like animal crackers! Since it was from a crew member of the show, it counts right? Either way, at least it's cute!

[bushybeardedbear]

VLD Pro Event: Introduction / URL

Hi, I’m Bushy Bearded Bear and I’m just a touch of a Plance Shipper as some may have noticed based on my content. Between a Youtube video by the user  “You Will Never Know“ and @honestlyprettychill, I found myself returning to explore something cute I thought I was seeing back with season one of Legendary Defender. I’d thought it was an uncommon ship in the community. Glad to not be so alone on that score. Still, whatever way the canon wind blows, I will be happy so long as it’s well written. So far, it sure has been. First got into VLD a couple of weeks after it first aired. One of my D&D group recommended it. I was pretty much sold just from the fact he’d told me Andrea Romano was involved. Not to age myself too much, but I first became aware of her during Batman The Animated Series. Too late. Aged myself hard. Anyone who can cast The Best Batman, The Best Joker and even The Best Lex Luthor was clearly going to be involved in something huge. I was not disappointed.

Enjoying the show, chatting about it at our weekly sessions, perfecting my Coran voice for one of my characters...well, a character’s character really, but that’s beside the point... I kinda of stayed away from the fandom online. Mainly, I must confess, due to social anxiety. It’s a tricky problem to overcome, but one cannot do so by hiding in one’s cave... So, I suppose I’m now doing that. Cautiously moving into an online community by sharing one of the few things I’ve ever felt I’ve done passably and that’s writing. I want to able to see in myself what my partner sees in my work. She tells me it is good of course, but bless her she is biased by love... So, I suppose I’m putting myself out there now just to see if she’s not alone in that belief. Maybe I’ll start to believe her praise for what I do... And by proxy believe a little more in myself. Sorry for the pity party, but hey, honesty, right?

I doubt I’ll ever have the courage to try for something original and try to get it published... Not even sure if there will be any need for writers in the not too distant future, thanks to the Ron Magic of AI... But even if I don’t make waves, I will be happy enough to know I’ve made a few smiles. 

Here I am on three sites, one a new upstart with a lot of great ideas, one an old war horse that has endured through many a fandom and one...I’m not even sure why I bother with, but hey, it’s there... I’ve got...maybe ten or so unfinished fictions still waiting to be uploaded there. Two more shorts for the Positivity Event... And Three more long ones inspired by the positivity event that simply will miss their deadlines... So, content coming plus a couple of fictions that I’m fairly pleased with. They’re Plance. Because of course they are.

To the few people still reading this, thanks.

[midoriyasbones]

Introducing the first ever Voltron Shipping Exchange!

The Voltron Shipping Exchange is an event to promote community between shippers and content creators alike. It’ll be like any other exchange in that you sign up to receive and to create content, but the twist is that you sign up to receive content for one ship, but then create content for a totally different one! Don’t worry about having to create something for a ship you aren’t entirely comfortable with, on our signups you list what you’re okay with and not okay with doing. That way everyone is happy!

If you’re interested in participating in the exchange, be sure to fill out this form. Keep in mind that the last day for signups will be Sunday, March 4th. Partners will be assigned and handed out shortly after!

The preferred deadline for completion of exchange gifts is April 20th. If that’s not an ideal time for you have no fear! In honor of the many amazing events being hosted by the fandom, we will be holding a grace period for any late works.

Be sure to like and reblog this post to show your support for the Voltron Shipping Exchange. Also make sure to follow us at @vldshipexchange or join our super cool discord for future updates.

Happy shipping!

Event mods: @cupidlance @belovedsheith @lo-tor @the-universalfiction @starryyskiies

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

What are your thoughts on having Romelle be a plot twist villain in VLD? I honestly think DreamWorks should’ve went that route with her, Romelle was very bland and was a background character/nuisance most of the time I really hated her character cause she was just kinda there talking up space and she’s the reason my poor baby Lotor was suffering

Hi, anon. Thanks for your note! To start, I feel that VLDhad serious design flaws as a show. It’s really 4 separate shows in one becauseof its character arc and plot/foreshadowing inconsistencies. I believe Romelle,like so many characters (including Lotor), is just a victim of that disjointedformat. So I’ll say that I do in fact like her. Or at least, I like the potential of what she could have been.

The design flaws make me more sympathetic to both Romelle  and Lotor in general, because I feel caught in a “catch 22.” (Please note, this essay is looking strictly at Romelle and Lotorand is an attempt to explain my own discomfort and struggle with canon, and why I sympathize with both characters at the same time. This essayis not a treatise on why someone should like/dislike Lotor or Romelle as fictionalcharacters in general.)

So here’s how I feel VLD created a seriously awkward “catch 22” with Romelle and Lotor:

VLD has Romelle flying in during s6 as a borderline posterchild for the “Me Too” movement—the single woman accusing the powerful male Emperorof sucking the life out of her friends. The timing for this arc is uncanny, considering  recent events of real women and men choosing to stand against often-loved,powerful, and prestigious predators. From the perspective of Romelle, EmperorLotor is a deceitful predator.  

So if I completely vindicate Lotor and ignore Romelle’saccusation, then that sets me up to sympathize with a predator and shame the victim.  Which, that’s a discomforting thought to me. I feel sympathy for Romelle giventhe canon that she is genuinely offering what truth she knows and presents as avictim. I don’t feel I can just write her off or automatically assume heraccusations are malicious in nature.

Romelle’s “Me Too-ish” arc (I know I’m using that phrase looselyhere to make a point) would have been interesting had VLD stuck with Lotorbeing a true villain and revealing just what the second colony was about.

Instead, and here’s part two of the moral catch, VLD happensto conveniently forget that it’s alsoabuse-coded Lotor and that it reverses its convictions about his villainy after he is killed, transforming him into a martyr. Lotor himself is not quite the loved, powerful, or prestigiousEmperor that aligns with a predator profile. His own people dislike and distrusthim because he is misunderstood and considered weak per his mixed blood. He’son the fringes of society despite his title as prince, given how casuallySendak threatens him with slavery in season 5. His own father calls him a “shame.”His empire is in shambles.

This is not quite the image of the powerful predator who hasthe world eating out of his hand while he maliciously preys on the weak. Instead,Lotor aligns so much more with the feminine Joan of Arc trope—which isprecisely why it’s attractive to desire defending his innocence, even againstRomelle.

Because they’re both victims of much larger forces out of their control.

History lesson: Joan of Arc, as a person, felt she had moraland godly convictions for her military involvement. She was 17 years old whenshe led battles and made serious tactical decisions to the advantage of France.And yet she was ultimately sold out and burned at the stake by a pro-English populace,who declared her a heretic. Her own trial was moved from the public to aprivate area because of how she schooled her accusers. It was only after shedied that the people who accused her then reversed their decision and declaredher a martyr. Now, she’s even a Catholic saint.

Similarly, VLD does so much visually and contextually to givea sympathetic light to Lotor despite painting him as a heretic. Like Joan ofArc, he’s a young, fiery light—charismatic with a vision for his lands. And yet,also like Joan of Arc, his actions are misunderstood. He is not given aconsistently public trial, he receives harsh punishment for attempting to presenthis side, and he is subjected to the wishy-washy whims of his accusers in aprivate assassination. He is “burned at the stake” right onto Sincline.

And lo and behold in s8, Allura herself who signed his death warrant (just as the pro-English court did to Joanof Arc) is the one vindicating Lotor as“misguided” but someone who genuinely “wanted peace” and deserved better.  

So with all of this in mind, Romelle’s accusation about Lotor’svillainy is seriously undermined. It makes her seem very misinformed about thegreater forces at hand. At the very least, if I fully back Romelle’s  play and applaud Lotor’s canon death as agreat end to a villain, then I fall into the moral traps of justifying vigilantebehavior, not supporting basic due process, willingly choosing sides on the basisof race (Romelle is Altean and good while Lotor is Galran and bad??), andputting personal revenge against one person over the physical safety oftrillions and trillions of souls.

So basically, in VLD pitting two canonically innocent victimsagainst each other, it opened up a serious web of moral conundrums. VLD Romelleand Lotor are an ultimate catch 22 because I can’t win either way. And that’snot the fault of the viewer. That’s just poor design.

With this current structure, I struggle to support theconcept of Romelle being a villain. I think, in its current form, it wouldresult in a bait and switch / awkward victim shaming for only the purpose ofclearing Lotor’s name, when in fact they’re both victims.

To do “villain Romelle” right, I think VLD would have had torewrite Romelle’s background entirely and to show her from the start as agenuine antagonist/villain against Voltron and Lotor. This would help avoid awkwardmessaging and could have presented some really great arcs about Romellediscovering the truth, and team Voltron and Lotor overcoming—ornot overcoming—trust issues. I agree with you that it’d certainly make her amore interesting character.

The way the whole thing was handled in canon was justutterly tone deaf. I can’t blame antis or stans either way, because the show itselffostered such damaging messages around these two. 

[sol1056]

another round of asks: keith

This feels like one of those things where you type ‘keith is’ into google and see what comes up.

Keith is a self-insert

Keith is on his way to becoming (a) god

Keith is destined to be emperor

Keith is friends with Lance > Keith is friends with Shiro 

Keith is over Shiro [ + kills Sendak]

Behind the cut.

Keith is a self-insert

I have no proof for this but I think that a majority of VLD’s writing staff are secretly making Keith their self-insert character.

It’s an amusing idea, but it’s very hard to do that when it’s a collaborative exercise like writing for television. Ostensibly collaborative, that is, ‘cause hell if I know at this point whether anyone has say beyond the EPs, but more on that in another post. 

I’ve never heard of anyone in the deciding-level staff (the EPs or the writers) say that Keith is their favorite. JDS is clear that his personal favorite is Lance, and LM’s been known for being pro-Pidge since the beginning. Early on (like S1), Hedrick’s on record saying that it mapped nicely, since he felt the most affinity for Hunk in some ways, but that’s not what I’d call a preference in the same way as I’ve seen JDS and LM speak of their favorites. 

More likely Keith is not a self-insert so much as a kind of every-hero. It’s really quite remarkable --- given how much the EPs are so blunt about their dislike for Shiro --- how the story events, put together, could be seen as split almost evenly between them. To the point we had nearly two seasons where they were never in the same room together, never exchanged any words, nothing. Like matter and anti-matter. 

To put it bluntly: by S7, Shiro pays the price, and Keith gets the rewards. We didn’t get to this point overnight; in S1/S2, it was split a bit more evenly, and the rest of the team had some share in the prices and the rewards, too. But that concept of an ensemble cast got tossed out the window to lie dead on the highway tarmac, somewhere around S4. 

The thing is, a character needs a conflict, needs an obstacle, because failing (and suffering the consequences) and trying again (and growing from it) is the only route to character development. And that’s been almost criminally denied to Hunk, Lance, and Pidge (and since S3, Allura). Their paths have been continually softened, if not truncated outright. 

I was noodling around last night, and this quote jumped out at me: ‘Dos Santos says they did think Pidge deserved a happy ending. “We wanted Pidge to have the true reunion she deserved...”’ They did the same for Lance and Hunk, whose families also survived. But what about Allura? Is her happy ending just Getting A Nice Boyfriend? Where’s Shiro’s or Keith’s happy ending? 

The result is that the story’s necessary conflict and tension --- because it must be there, or we’re all just watching paint dry --- gets shifted to Keith and Shiro. And with the bulk of that conflict landing on Shiro to suffer all consequences while Keith gets all the hero moments... it’s no surprise Keith might feel like a self-insert, since that treatment usually correlates. 

But I think it’s less self-insert, and more that with Shiro taking on all the EPs’ dislike, there’s not much left for Keith to do. 

Keith is on his way to becoming (a) god

At this rate, Keith will turn into god by the end of the show (like madoka, space dandy, and oban star racers), with all the stuff that gets handed to him, it doesn’t seem far-fetched anymore.

Okay, that’s out of left-field, but... it might actually improve the story if he turned out to be a long-lost twin of Haruhi Suzumiya (though I would totally dig if it were Haruhara Haruko instead, but only if the Atlas turns into a giant iron). 

With the way Keith's quintessence sensing came to the forefront several times this season, I still wonder (and fear, a little) about the possibility of him being part Altean. Even if there is a slim out with learning the druids were Galra, the focus on Alteans still has me worried that the last season will overlook Allura and Romelle in favor of having Keith develop druid powers and learn his connection to the Alteans.

Thing is, we’re so far along in the story that I don’t expect any of the odd abilities to ever be explained --- anymore than we ever got an explanation as to why quintessence reveals a skin tone Keith’s never demonstrated since, at least not to the same striking degree. And truth is, I don’t think the EPs know. I have a strong suspicion there was a lot of groundwork laid in the first two seasons that have since been abandoned. So I don’t expect it to fit together, in the end, and would not be surprised if everything’s hand-waved. 

So who knows. 

Keith is destined to be emperor

People are speculating on Galra emperor Keith (partly because he’s apparently magic now). Would explain why this season pushed Keith as leader... even though he never wanted to be a leader. And the leadership arc wasn’t really natural to his character. Also, whatever happened to democracies?

Emperor? Because magic? I mean, wouldn’t that make Allura a better candidate? I know, it’s so easy to forget she exists, now, but she did have a line or two this season. (Okay okay I kid, she had maybe a half-dozen.) 

I really don’t know. When I put on my writer’s hat, Keith’s entire arc really doesn’t make much sense. He spent way too much time in S2 and S3 protesting and fighting ever being a leader, and I have no idea how he got from that point to S7′s sudden undiscussed and unquestioned acceptance of the role. If there was development there, I would’ve liked to have seen it. 

Because without that, it’s still hard to look at the character onscreen and see it as the same person. Maybe they are setting up Keith to be emperor. I have no idea how that logic even works. Of course, seems like logic left the building about four seasons back but go off I guess. 

That reminds me of the teaser version that used to be all over the place --- and now I only see on the Google results --- that closes with “to conquer the Galra Empire.” That’s a rather specific word, compared to, say, “overthrow” or “defeat” or “end.” Conquering is what you do when your plan is to take over, after all. Maybe the idea of Emperor Keith isn’t that out-there. Hell if I know. 

As for democracies... well, the EPs have never mentioned influences that’d make me think genre political savvy (ie Gundam, Code Geass, Gasaraki, etc). Probably easier to have monarchs: one Puigian leader for the entire planet. 

Earth does get to be the exception there... with a social structure that appears to rest entirely in the quasi-military hands of the Garrison. Was there even a single civilian present, as the obligatory elected spokesperson for the people?  Pretty sure there wasn’t. (This is not unique to VLD; we have the same discussion on a regular basis in the SFF community about the bizarre prevalence of monarchial systems in American-written SFF.)  

Keith is friends with Lance > Keith is friends with Shiro  

There were scenes which would be v sweet for Keith and Lance if they weren't explicitly there to prove how useless Shiro is, and many to show how useless KEITH thinks Shiro is, and that’s why Keith took [Shiro’s] place. [Before S7] ... Keith wouldn't step on Shiro like that, take Black and his place in the team and his healing away from him. But S7? Behold the new Shiro and Keith dynamic. Keith choosing Lance to lead while Shiro’s right there? Roger that team leader SHIRO’S RIGHT THERE! +Sendak thing?

@sassafrassrex did a meta on the Sendak-Shiro fight that’s a must-read, so I won’t repeat that here. As for the rest... I mentioned above that Keith felt very unlike himself this season, and his dynamic with Shiro --- or complete lack thereof --- was a big part of it. 

After all this time, we’re overdue for seeing a solid friendship between all the paladins, and that includes Keith and Lance. Most of what I saw felt... well, uneven would be the best word. S1/S2 at its best, between them, was more of a good-natured teasing. S7 felt harsher, to me, as though it was Keith’s turn to be the asshole.  

More than that, though, is that it almost feels like the writers can’t figure out how Keith could cherish Shiro and yet have other friends --- so instead they chose to highlight Lance to the near-exclusion of Shiro. And that’s no better for Lance, either, because again he’s just a substitute. 

Frankly, I’m tired of Lance always ending up with someone else’s leftovers. 

Keith is over Shiro

They really had Keith kill a version of his most important person in the world (who he thought was Shiro) so he can rise as BP, then toss Shiro aside as broken, even choosing Lance as right hand over him. *And* to pick the one who abandoned him twice -- and at the end were [framed as a] “family" with Kolivan -- over Shiro who never gave up on him. Krolia even got an I-love-you *and* got called Mom for leaving. What fucked-up messages, lemme tell you, as someone who relates to Keith.

Put like that, it is pretty brutal. Not sure how else to read how completely Shiro is excluded from the narrative for the first 3/4s of the season, down to being literally frozen out --- and it’s most striking of all considering this is Keith we’re talking about. The one even the EPs describe as being so devoted to Shiro that he’d never dream --- let alone be capable of --- walking away (though the co-dependent note in that description skeeves me out some)... and then S7 starts and after the first episode, the two barely exchange any words. 

This was the one person Shiro was always vulnerable with, and Shiro was the one person Keith relaxed around. While yes, the team is way way overdue for doing that with each other beyond their original dynamics (and what I wouldn’t give for some real friendship-bonding between Allura and Keith, damn it), the complete absence made the season feel hollow. 

Just as Lance’s and Hunk’s friendship provided heart in the early seasons, so did Shiro’s and Keith’s. The absence of that, in S7, was nearly palpable. And it did make Keith look like someone who’d taken a long hard look at his best friend and decided Shiro was no longer worth it. This is the character who’d go back for a colleague even when the clock is ticking, who didn’t want to see Thace sacrifice himself, or see Regris killed, and went to the ends of the universe for Shiro? What wouldn’t he do for a friend? Unless, of course, that friend was killed, cloned, and brought back broken.

It comes down to two possible explanations: one is that the writers genuinely don’t know how to balance Keith’s devotion to Shiro while also letting Keith connect to the rest of the team. I’m having trouble believing they’d be that clueless about how friendships work, though. 

The other possibility is that we didn’t quite get the entire story when JDS said there’d been two versions of S6. I think what we’re seeing is the original script and storyboards for S7, leftover from when the EPs pitched a version where Shiro died at the end of S2 and never returned. 

The reason might’ve gone like this: we need N hours to sit down and write S7 with Shiro as Black Paladin (as they would for any other season). But if we just re-use the original storyboards with Keith as Black Paladin, we’ll save X dollars. Just edit a little to add Shiro, plus we’ll have the cash freed up to do [some set piece] so it’s really cool. 

JDS pitched the Atlas as the awesome and amazing consolation prize for Shiro, according to recent interviews. He might’ve argued the cost-cutting step would also let them expand Shiro’s role in the finale. 

My guess for the reason why Keith was the one to kill Sendak (besides the writers hating shiro and Keith needing to resolve every plotline himself now) is that Shiro killed Zarkon, the first major villain, so maybe that was one of their reasons to give that kill to Keith.

I was pondering that until I got to thinking about why the execs would reverse course and allow the EPs to shelve Shiro. I think that’s the reason Keith kills Sendak: it remained from the original storyline, where Keith took revenge on the person who’d tortured Keith’s best friend. Which in Shiro’s absence would’ve been powerful. In Shiro’s presence it’s... demoralizing. 

Bottom line: execs love cost reductions above all else. (Newsflash: DW is a business.) Given how the execs have consistently been described as pro-Shiro, cost is the only thing I can see convincing them otherwise. Especially if the series has already hit budget overruns from rewrites and redoes in previous seasons --- and if they’ve done this before to save money, by pasting Kuron where Keith would’ve been for most of S3-S6. 

That would explain why Keith doesn’t seem to even notice Shiro for most of S7. Because when the script was written, Shiro wasn’t there. 

note: it might also explain the EPs’ hints at a spoiler, but I’ll leave that wild speculation to @ptw30 to explain.

[juskla]

me, checking out a voltron blog: hm, i wonder what they’re like...?

their header: “#he’s looking at keith”

me: ...really? i mean-

me: a TRUE shipper would know the quote is “#he is looking at keith” not “he’s”

me: :D

AKA; HELLO, YES, IN LIGHT OF RECENT EVENTS THERE IS GOING TO BE A BIG SHIFT ON MY BLOG!

i have always been discourse free and hate free and clearly loving lotor ships, as those of you who know me know, but from this day forth, while i am planning to remain discourse free aside from this post and any replies about this post, i want you all to clearly know my stance on the discourse: i am very strongly pro shaladin. and not just for the stance. i ship sheith. it is fantastic and shiro makes keith so happy. why don’t i have a problem with sheith? 1) i don’t see them as having more than a 3 year age gap (considering it was confirmed that shiro had just graduated when he went for the kerberos mission, keith was not a first year when he dropped out, and the GG is most likely a 4 year institution/uni) 2) i see them as both adults, even when they were at the garrison 3) i don’t think age gaps, even if they did have one, are inherently unhealthy as long as both parties are adults. 4) no, i don’t think and have never thought they are related. i’ve posted a couple sheith posts before, and had it on my ship list for months, but now it will be appearing on my blog on a more regular basis. feel free to block the tag #sheith if you do not wish to see that, along with any other ship tags you may not want to see, because i will most likely post about some ships i don’t ship as well, and who knows... maybe i’ll hop on some new other ship trains too. I understand I may lose followers for this, but I will be instead gaining friends.

I AM LOOKING FOR NEW MUTUALS/FRIENDS WHO:

are pro shaladin***

post sheith

post lotor and the generals

post galra

post about any of the girls in vld

post about/have original characters

reblog/make art

reblog/make icons

reblog/make edits

make sicc memes™

***required, everything else is just bonus :D

PLEASE EITHER REBLOG THIS + TAG WHAT YOU POST -OR- LIKE THIS + REPLY WITH WHAT YOU POST -OR- INSTANT MESSAGE (not ask) ME A HELLO + TELL ME WHAT YOU POST IF YOU’D RATHER DO IT PRIVATELY ...AND I’LL CHECK YOUR BLOG OUT! if i like your stuff, i will follow you/follow you back, and i will try to message you too so we can become mutuals... and friends!:D

(notes/faq under the cut, reading is optional, but it may answer some questions)

things to note:

make sure that you either allow IM messages from everyone, or if not, that you follow me first so that i can message you and we can start talking :D

i will NEVER condone harassment of real people and their families/children over a fictional ship, there are a couple ships in voltron that do make me uncomfortable, and i just ignore it, because i know and understand other people don’t share my headcanons and may see those characters differently than i do, so they’re just my NOTPs.

while i prefer voltron-centric blogs, you don’t have to be voltron only, but please be voltron heavy

i do ship klance, but i am much more heavy into multiship, aliens, galra and rare pairs, so even if you have #klance blacklisted, i’m still open to being mutuals and you’ll only be missing select amount of my content

i carefully tag all of my content, so anything you blacklist, you’ll be good!

i post mostly original content! anything from art, to memes to edits!

i know i may get hate now, but this blog is discourse free and hate free, any hate will simply be deleted, or respectfully replied to with kindness

no, i do not support adult/minor relationships, and if you are an adult attracted to minors, please never interact with me or my posts ever

i’m not mass blocking all antis or saying you can’t follow me/interact with my posts, but i won’t follow you back or reblog from you if you are anti, and if you send me or any of my friends hate or harassment, you will not be welcome here

while i only actively ship sheith in the shaladin umbrella, i am open to following people who ship anything as long as you are pro shaladin, i don’t need to ship your otp to appreciate it

while i’m mostly looking for shaladin/sheith mutuals on this specific post, you don’t have to ship shaladin for me to follow you in general, neutral/ship-free/hate free and pro shaladins who don’t ship it are all great too, as long as you don’t identify as ‘anti’ or harass anyone for what they ship, i’m cool with you! and you’re welcome to message me too :)

this includes ex-antis, if you drop the label and change your ways, whether you switched to neutral or pro, you’re fine too!

also know, you don’t have to ship shaladin just because i do, if it makes you uncomfortable, as i said before, you can blacklist the tags, no problem, i’m not going to force anyone to ship sheith

thank you to the people in my life, old and new, that have given me the confidence and courage to come forward with my stance: @im-so-voltdone @kcgane @marmorababy @belovedsheith @cupidlance @adenna79 @purplerubyred @tiredgaykeith @cagethestars @lotors-saltwife @blacklionshiro @just-for-voltron @flusteredkeith @keiths-stupid-mullet @vld--mess @spicyboikeith @factorysaltedpeanuts @internetfeet @jaegereska @paladinwilla thank you all from the bottom of my heart, you’re all so kind, ok? thank you.

i’m sorry this took so long but, HI PRO SIDE! I’M ONE OF YOU! I’M A SHALADIN! PATIENCE YIELDS FOCUS, AS MANY TIMES AS IT TAKES, BUT HE LOVES KEITH, SHIRO LOVES YOU BABY!!!!!! :D