#vld retrospective

[hollowwhisperings]

VLD Retrospective: My POV as a Queer Biracial Asian Aspie

I don't generally enjoy listing my demographics in public spaces but for a Voltron Retrospective, I find it Quite Necessary to better convey how much VLD meant to me personally. This is one fan reconciling with a work I enjoyed for years, remain saddened for, and felt betrayed by. lf I'm good for anything, it's my being a Living Statistical Outlier.

VLD gave me explicit representation within its main cast: it gave me Shiro, who I clocked as chronically ill well before it was confirmed (Like Knows Like) & struggled with mental illness too (I'm not a war vet but Shiro's implicit Medical Trauma was Also There). Shiro is also, very obviously, an Asian &, as later revealed, a Queer Asian. There are few Queer Asians in western media who are Actual Characters: Shiro was (& remains) fun to have on board. It was, primarily, his struggles with his physical & mental health that most resonated with me.

Pidge is someone a lot of fans identified with, being a quirky genderbender maligned for her relative youth: I'm an autistic female who is gender "meh" so Pidge was "Representation" but she wasn't New nor Almost Unprecedented like Shiro or, as I'll elaborate further on, Keith. Every AFAB, every youth has felt undermined by their assumed gender & their youth: this is Not New. Pidge is fun but she wasn't Groundbreaking, not to me.

Keith and, to a lesser degree (as in assocoation with him), the "Half-Galra" Misfits were who I most identified with. Even before Keith was having Existential Crises over being Half-Galra, Keith read as someone biracial: his name, "Keith Kogane", makes him a white-passing Asian . I think current consensus is that Keith's Dad was "Mixed Asian*" but Keith's "orphan" (& secret alien) status prevented him from engaging with his heritage.

I am Not Galran (so far as I know) but I am a white-passing Asian & someone of "Two Worlds" (half white, half east asian). Star Trek's Spock established how most subsequent works of the sci-fi genre depicts half-human aliens: all the vibes of being Biracial, existential crises about Passing & feeling Disconnected ("rejected") by either/both halves of one's identity. Keith checks those boxes and Lotor's Halfsie Squad are similarly Coded (to lesser degrees).

Aliens, half-human ones especially, are very easily read as Neurodivergent as in "has ADHD &/or ASD": Keith continued this tradition & it further isolated him from his peers, especially because (like many of us on The Spectrum) he grew up "Undiagnosed". Keith knew he was Different but no one had the correct Context for his "Difference": this lead him to feeling Wrong, Rejected and Alien. This is an experience Familiar to anyone belatedly recognised as having ASD and also to Literally Any Queer Person.

To summarize the above: Shiro meant A Lot to me because he struggled with his health in silence (& was Asian); Keith meant a lot because his Human Demographics & Coding match almost entirely with my own. Shiro became "more" Important to me through his being Keith's Most Important Person (KH fans: you see where this is going): I was already Attached to Shiro, Keith made me invested in him.

KH fans knew from my invoking of "Taihetsu no Hito" [JP for "Most Important Person"] that, through being Invested in Keith & thus Shiro, I quickly Recognised that Keith? Desperately in love with Shiro. I did not, however, consider Shiro likely to Act on any Reciprocating of such feelings (which he did show signs of developing, as early on as that Stranded From Everyone Else and "when I die, you be Black Paladin" episode) due to the implied age gap between them. I knew Shiro was Younger Than Assumed (very early 20's at oldest, I figured from Contextual Clues), that Lance & Hunk were about 17 & that Keith was Older than Lance (so, 18). The age gap between Shiro & Keith was never that much of an issue: it was their difference in Rank & the ages they were at their First Meeting that were the "real" obstscles, to my mind. Season 6 or 7 did a Flashback that made Keith 14 when he first met Shiro: that very much explains why Shiro was reluctant to acknowledge attraction to Keith & unlikely to act on it. Keith did, however, read as Crushing On Shiro pretty much from their first encounter (Keith stealing Shiro's car was a very obvious effort to gain Shiro's attention & respect: something Keith was unlikely to recognise as Crush Evidence but Shiro definitely did).

And then Shiro lost 3 years to Time Dilation while Keith gained 2: their Reunion post-Space Whale was very telling. For the first time, Sheith actually seemed genuinely plausible to me. Keith had had a Glow Up that allowed Shiro to stop thinking of Keith as the kid he'd been when they first met & actually admit that his excuses to not act on any attraction had stopped holding weight. I remain completely convinced that "Kuron" had fallen, equally & just as desperately, in love with Keith over the series and that the Aggression Kuron exhibited toward Keith was as much caused by That (Gay Pining he refused to act on, even as Keith ran around in his Infamous Blades Uniform) as it was by Haggar (& Kuron's growing suspicions on his "true" nature).

Then there was the "You're my brother... I love you!" scene. Initially, given The Current Events of the time, I was irritated by the Abrupt Brother-Zoning from the Very Obviously Pining Keith to Shiro.

Then I noticed the order of these sentences: first, "you're my brother" (neither Shiro nor Keith have any siblings: in asia, there's MLM equivalent to "they were Roommates" in "they're sword/sworn brothers") and THEN, more desperately and while at the cusp of death... "I love you".

VERY ON BRAND, KEITH. It's also the "I love you" that gets through Kuron's programming enough for Keith to save them both. From my observations of VLD, the sole remaining obstacles to Sheith sailing were "will Shiro retain Kuron's memories and, if so, will he accept Kuron as being another Him" and "will the writers be able to get the execs to sign off on TWO queer paladins being queer with EACH OTHER"?

and then... the love confession was never addressed & Shiro stopped interacting with any of the Paladins beyond a professional setting.

By then, a lot of the show was looking Off and I actually looked at the online Voltron fandom to see if other people were Connecting Dots: some Meddling had happened, Shiro was being OOC as all heck, Allura and Keith seemed pretty miserable, Romelle was Sus as Heck, why was Allurance happening, where the heck is Lotor (etc)....

I was, like everyone else, greatly upset by Allura's needlessly being Killed Off and by Shiro's Stock Photo husband. I was also Not Impressed by the alleged "happiness" found by any of the Paladins: Shiro retiring his greatest dream, of flying and exploring the galaxy when he had just found out he Wasn't Going To Die from his Chronic Illness? Jim Kirk, another charismatic spaceship captain who loved to explore the universe, had a similar "retirement" ending for its Heroic Captain.

The first Star Trek film, set post-series, conveyed exactly how Shiro's "happy" ending played out for a character Shiro was almost certainly inspred by: Captain James "Jim" Tiberius Kirk.

Captain Kirk's "happy ending" was introduced in TMP as being: a promotion/retirement, marriage, & settling on Earth. Sound familiar, Shiro? TMP then shows how that "happy ending" plays out for someone like Jim (or Shiro): barely a handful of years later, Jim is miserable in his "retirement" (he was Promoted to a desk job); his Very Sudden marriage to a Previously Unknown Character is crumbling (& is even implied as being arranged by Starfleet's Brass to keep their Poster Boy on earth!); he clearly misses his Team (his Found Family) & at his first "valid" opportunity to get his Team together to fly into space again? That's exactly what Jim does.

Star Trek: TMP also, incidentally, features Jim living out some kind of Space Divorce Drama with his Right-Hand Man, the Half-Human Alien Spock. The two had apparently spent all those years apart and Spocks's "logical response" to [everything post-TOS] was... becoming a Vulcan Monk in order to Purge All His Emotions. (Krolia, please tell me that the Galra do not have an Equivalent to Vulcan's kolinahr & that, if it DOES, you Forbade Keith From Doing It).

Jim & Kirk saved each other, often very impossibly, in every other episode of TOS. They were also so widely shipped by fans that the "founding" of modern fandom cukture is often attributed to those first K/S shippers.

The easy Parallels between Spock/Kirk to Keith/Shiro were something that seemed to increase as VLD continued, likely as its creative team started recognising how naturally Keith & Shiro played out that epic space romance. The relationship between the Black Paladins was consistently emphasized within the series (until it abruptly Wasn't) and their bond was considered the strongest shared by any two paladins. A Sheith required very little effort from VLD's creative team and, given the Time Dilation plot point, that effort WAS made: Keith shows up Older & Blade-ier, Shiro Visibly Reacts and seems perfectly set up to Reevaluate his relationship with Keith, both of them visibly Adult and already established as "Equals".

Reading the research done by Team Purple Lion helped me understand the many degrees of unpleasantness caused by the Forced Removal of Lotor from VLD's endgame: the series' overall plot, key themes and multiple character arcs were contingent to the ugly consequences of Voltron's [murdering] him, the emotional effects Lotor had on Allura, the ways Lotor was integral to the show's themes of Redemption & Recovery & Love (of all forms). Just about every main character (and the imexplicable presence of several other characters) had their Arc underminded by Lotor's staying [murdered]: Lotor (obvs), Allura (VLD's Actual Main Character), Lance (who suddenly became Every Creepy "Nice" Guy), Pidge, Axca, Romelle, Merla, Yzor & her girlfriend, Honnerva...

I was invested in the plot, characters and themes of VLD: its ending wasn't just upsetting, it was contradictory to its own story. Though I am not invested in any VLD ships other than Sheith (for the way the characters are individually Important to me, the ways Shiro is important to Keith, the ways their relationship parallels K/S down to the syllables), the series had set certain ships up through its Themes and within its plot: Allura/Lotor, a reclamation of Allura's agency & a thematic resolution to the major conflicts of the series; Shiro/Keith, a love story the series spent 7 seasons telling; the tentative beginnings of Lance/Pidge, a Chekhov's Gun that would round their individual character development through better understanding each other; Hunk & Recognition of his Ingenuity, Bravery, Compassion (which would, incidentally, feature Hunk/Shay and Hunk's central role in the intergalactic Recovery proces). All of these ships serve a Purpose within VLD's plot, aid individual character development, reinforce the series' overarching themes, and have a solid basis within the text of VLD (as well as outside of it, in interviews and statements from the creative team).

I was able to "recover" from the betrayal of how VLD ended, largely through the detective work of fans like Team Purple Lion and reading many "fix-fic" wherein Allura Lives and Shiro is not OOC as all heck. VLD was one of many series, at the time, whose Betrayal of its themes & characters made Waves all over Fandom. It was, however, one of the Betrayals that hurt me more "personally". It was also a fantastic example of Creatives having horrid working conditions, Corporate Interests actively Hurting their consumers, of Fans being forced to Play Detective due to the modern Media Landscape: the culture of creatives being under strict NDAs, of their being without Unions, of how abruptly Projects can be undermined by the Whims of singular entities (creating additional work on an already overworked labour force, often in ways that betray their own work).

So, uh, surprise: this was a Retrospective inspired by the current Writers Strike & growing awareness (that we have known & ignored for years) of how unethical the working standards of animators are. There are Actual Americans and Actual Artists who can speak on these issues more specifically, as well as the best ways to help the affected: this was a more individual Take, from One Fan, and the ways that media has affected That Fan emotionally (though, being an Aspie, i'm pretty distanced from articulating any Specifics beyond "upset" because "this is narratively inconsistent"). The purpose of writing this was personal catharsis, a means of discovering how I feel about VLD all these years later, and perhaps as an act of microcosm within a greater fandom macrosm RE: engagement with media & correctly identifying how the faults of its business structure sabotage excellent works of fiction from staying "excellent" or becoming "magnificent".

*"Korean-Japanese" seems to ne the current consensus but as Sourced outside the text of the series. It is not his "exact amounts of Asian" that Keith is "relevant" to me but his being both Mixed & disconnected from his asian Heritage.

[quiznack]

rewatching s1

[walterthemelon]

So like I (walter) started rewatching Voltron (2017) with my friends (who haven't seen the show before)

and like we haven't gotten past the first season but I first watched Voltron pre egg-cracking and watching in now with my (queer) friends I realized just how relatable Pidge is to me? like even if we keep everything cannon Pidge still reads trans masc to me they just haven't realized it yet.

They didn't have to crossdress to go to the garison they did that willingly. There are also many other ways that they could have disguised themself (hair dye for example) without trying to appear as a guy.

And yes, they assert that they are a girl to the team! But this could be for a variety of reasons! I thought that my desire to transition was something perfectly normal for most cis girls. I thought that wanting a binder and wanting to take testosterone was a perfectly cis feeling (I was delusional). So one could argue that Pidge just hasn't bothered to explore their gender yet? I was a child who would in fact assert that I was a girl. The fact that Pidge does that doesn't mean that they can't be trans masc.

and this isn't to say that pidge is 100% trans masc! they aren't but i think that trans masc pidge is just as valid as a reading as trans fem reading.

Also if you are going to say that this is taking away rep from young girls kindly fuck off. I was pressured to not transition because I would be taking away a good role model for young girls wanting to get into STEM. Young trans boys also deserve to see themselves in media.

[grapefruit03]

Was rewatching the pilot episode of Voltron in YEARS and honestly. Eye opening.

Because I would hate being stuck with these people for 2-3 years

I did not realize how much personality the FANDOM gave to Voltron. I was there as it was being written. I was in the trenches. I would block off 6-8 hrs on Fridays in high school to binge seasons. It was bad. The finale was awful enough that I haven’t watched anything but a couple of specific episodes in six years. So I watched the pilot again with some friends and I realized—these personalities are NOT developed. How did hunk even get into the garrison? He just throws up from motion sickness—why is he a pilot?? And in watching this I realized that yeah, hunk was robbed, because everyone else got somewhat of a personality and his was mainly food, anxiety, and I love my gf. That was it. Watching early shiro also made me resent post season 6 Keith bc he was just made to be shiro pt 2. That was it. So when shiro came back, there wasn’t anything to be done with him since Keith was basically shiro so now shiro had to pilot the big titty ultra thicc Voltron whorebot. Which makes me sad since, now that I’m in my 20s, I definitely relate more to shiro.

anyways this was a whole useless rant but also. was keith supposed to originally be white? as one of like two pocs voicing the main characters, I do find that really ironic LMAO

[toastess-with-the-mostess]

Voltron: The Series

Last stop folks! One I'm sure you already know well This was my introduction into Voltron, fell in love with it, led me to its predecessors, then had a rocky relationship with it, and still do Thanks for joining me so far! I love Voltrons history because there's so much to be inspired from Dotu/VV - V3D - VF - VLD (here)

Word vomit under the cut <3

Oh boy 2016, nothing can go wrong here Frankly this is the better looking Voltron out of all of them, I'm glad to see what 2D and 3D can really do together since VF had a rocky time with that itself. Like I said in the Dotu/VV post, this show is a hard reboot, at most it takes the names and basic legend of the original show and just runs with it. Though it does take inspiration from the previous shows, again with Pidge being a genius, the lions being mystical, and this time I'm fairly sure the bayards were directly inspired from the voltcoms from VF That's the main reason why I don't find it fair to compare Voltron Legendary Defender (VLD) to the other Voltrons because it's not the same story at all, it's its own thing and is pretty well isolated. It has major changes to the story beats, like Lotor not automatically being a villain, the pilots aren't trained soldiers and instead cadets themselves, for a while the team aren't even friends, Allura's planet is renamed (to be fair it's back to the original anime name) and also destroyed, and Pidge is a girl now, which I don't mind but from what I've learned its a joke between older fans since many of them thought dotu Pidge was a girl at first due to his headband. The gist of VLD is vaguely similar to the rest of them, a team of five lands on Altea (Arus) and discovers Voltron which is then used to defend the universe. Like I mentioned though, the team isn't made up of soldiers, most of them are cadets with only one (1) seasoned soldier on the team who has been missing for years until the group found him. They have an Indiana Jones moment and find blue lion hidden away on Earth which abducts the entire team to Arus, a planet unrelated to Altea, where the castle of lions sits locked up. The rest of the show is them learning to work together and the best way to handle dangerous situations when more than just easily ignored lives are on the line. In total, it had 8 seasons in 2 years (yikes), the most of the shows (probably ran too long in retrospect), spawned 3 volumes of comics (15 in total), and brought the return of the toy line. This iteration brought in the most viewers because of the original fans who were still kicking, the animation, the story (in the beginning), and it was on Netflix which many people had at that point so it was easily accessible. It also spawned an incredibly large fandom which could be amazing at some points and down right radioactive at others. Either way though, it created avenues for merchandise, podcasts, fan interactions, and furthering the legacy of Voltron itself! As of this post, there's information slowly coming out about a live action movie for Voltron (probably not VLD related, that ship has sailed lads) which has many fans excited for what's to come

[skayafair]

Ok S3 let's go *ooph*

Live impressions below (yes it's another wall of text)

Ok I still have like 1\4 of the episode to go but I just need to vent out a bit because HOLY HELL.

What the actual fuck.

I mean I do find myself being correct most the time lately since I've started to trust my gut instinct more instead of doubting every thought and idea, like I've been surprisingly in tune with The Sheridan Tapes, it still blows my mind, - or hearing nearly exact words I've typed in the latest Malevolent ep - from and about John, that was surprising, too, but I just concluded we're pretty much alike in personality so that partially explains it, I think, and HG is pretty good at depicting the characters, so I just must have caught a few hints.

But to be THIS spot on??? I mean I've just typed that long-ass post yesterday, and I WAS going to listen to the show from season 1 again first before proceeding to S3, buuut then I had to wash the dishes, and it's unbearably boring, and I didn't manage to make myself do it in more than 3 hours, my ADHD be damned. I needed something interesting to drive me, so there wasn't much choice since I've caught up with TST earlier this evening and mirror house host story wasn't very interesting to me, alas. So here I was, turning S3 on before refreshing my memory on everything that happened before.

And. I'm baffled. Positively.

The emotions are a bit too much so they don't want to get out through the bottle neck of thoughts, sorry

First of all, I laughed out loud when Beckett said Cass is no longer the team leader. Because - what??? I mean. This is rational, that's what I've typed a whole post about, it's logical and actually very reasonable and I believe is going to be beneficial for Cass as well, they need this weight off their shoulders at least formally, it's not like they are going to stop looking out for everyone.

But at the same time - WHAT???

I expected something like... toning down this whole thing a little? or something like that?.. but CERTAINLY not removing them from the post and the team altogether! My reaction was pretty much the same as team Alpha's, save for the disbelieveing laughing.

Oh, this is SUCH a great twist! I'm having the time of my life.

Firstly, I love being right. And if even a part - not the best but still sorta rational - of the show itself agrees I've read the character and their position correctly, it's a real boost. I'm very much used to not getting clues and, well, generally everything, especially about people (which includes characters as well), hence my interest in psychology, so following the writers idea by simply making conclusions that are natural for my way of thinking is. It's so validating you have no idea. don't mind me I'm trying to catch my breath here among the racing thoughts and a chaos of emoitions

Secondly, this twist was completely unexpected. While, yes, I've seen it done before - like with Shiro in VLD (although we don't talk about VLD writing in this house), it was different and not so out of blue. In the show, it's kind of a pretty obvious idea, but I didn't expect them to actually go THIS far??? That's bold! Logical, natural, but bold! Wow. So great. I positively love the team working on this podcast.

Thirdly, my mind was blown when Cass actually agreed to this in the first place (were they the one who proposed it? With their guilt and all that?). In retrospect, in a few seconds after the revelation when I had time to think it over, this made perfect sense, too, but I still didn't expect that. I guess I never noticed how much I missed the unexpected twists which weren't just because, but completely natural and logical, just another option out of several possible. This decision goes veeeerry well with Cass' character but there was always a chance the sense of duty will outweight. And, well, they are back on their feet in no time after Silas' pep talk, already talking about what's best for the team. So this expectation wasn't unreasonable, either, and got confirmed, just a bit later and in another way. I'm just giddy at this point.

And then we've got LIZZIE. Oh my goodness. It was just one twist after another, how didn't I get a mental whiplash? Who says I didn't, what a great rollercoaster. She was probably the last person I would have expected to be appointed as the team leader, although it's actually not a bad choice in a lot of ways but one. I don't think she's a natural leader, like... she can if she has to but wouldn't if she doesn't? She's not a people person. This again reminds me of VLD with Keith as the Black paladin and Shiro as the backseat driver, but, again, the writing in VLD left much to be desired and didn't explore... practically anything. So, I'm really counting on THIS show to show how it's done. So far it's been mind-blowingly great.

Considering team Alpha consists of indiviluals who generally won't take any shit from others and prefer to think for themselves first and foremost - Lizzie should do fine. She's pretty cautios and careful, more rational, but at the same time has infinite curiosity for these new worlds. Still not the most obvious choice but I believe they'll work out the dynamic between everyone somehow.

And this leadership situation is actually very interesting in a way that it's never been very conventional.

Like in my last post, when I struggled at first to understand what was Cass' role as the leader at all. Then I pinpointed it and it made sense. But they never told others what to do on the general scale - they're the heart, the emotions, the driving force, the enthusiasm, the dare.

However, Greg had a lot of authority from the get-go, too. And this is natural - he's the most experienced in dangerous situations (although not in the wild life setting) and he was actually the one responsible for everyne's safety. So we already have two people for that. Sure, Greg wasn't always taken seriously enough, but he DID have a say in their decisions.

Next, there's Silas. Not the most obvious candidate but he started supporting Cass and then, gradually, everyone, and he was the one making rounds to check on the teammates every time there was the need. The carer of the group? Sort of? And he influenced Cass' decisions more and more as the time passed. I love how it's executed! *giggles and jumps in place*

So there are three figures at the heart of everything already, and the group is small, just 6 people. 2,5 heads with well-distributed responsibilities is actually pretty good for such a number. Plus J has an indisputable authority in everything that considers physical health. This leaves only Alyx, the team's little sis everyone wants to protect and a hacker, and Lizzie.

Honestly it's the most difficult to say what her part was because with time she sort of drifted more and more away from everyone? Sure she cares for Alyx quite noticeably, discusses some decisions with Cass from time to time, but that's it. And she's the only one who's been hostile towards other team members - first it was Cassius (which was very understandable, I'd have been furious, too), then Silas, and this last beef is a total mystery to me. What's her problem with him? I'm not particularly fond of him either but uh... he's okay? And has a lot of good sides, too? Why such an open animosity? So, Lizzie became team's outcast or someone like that. Hi again Keith!

Which illustrates perfectly why I didn't expect her to be appointed as the leader. It does make sense from Yanus' perspective - she collaborated with Vincula the most before, she's calm-er than Cassius (yeah the anxiety and sensitivity aside, uh-huh, and there's impulsiveness, too, when she sees a particularly inspirational new species - is Lizzie ND or am I making things up?..), seems responsible but not that hard to knock down a peg if necessary. Meaning, easier to push to where Yanus needs team Alpha to be. Orrr that's what they probably expect.

But the decision to remove Cass from the team altogether was just... the team has already lost one of their heads - Greg. Lost tragically, this hit everyone about as hard as I imagined. Thanks for not disappointing in this department. To remove another one meant this is just a bunch of people with no center, so to put someone more easy to manipulate as one was a brilliant and soul-crashing decision. Wow, the show keeps inventing new ways to hate the higher-ups with each passing episode!

I mean, that's approxiately how Beckett should have seen this. I bet no one outside the team expected Silas to rebel :DDD The guy grew some teeth and they didn't notice, nice! Or rather Silas reminds me of the kind of people who stay silent and compliant as long as it doesn't go against their core values and beliefs personally. THEN shit hits the fan and good luck trying to psych your way out of the conflict. I think Michella in Kekkai Sensen put it the best way possible, calling her brother "a tortoise knight": he may not go forward, he can be scared to death but if something strikes the right cord, he won't back down an inch. And this is what happened. Silas provided the first angry spark because boooy was he furious (and I LIKED that a lot! Let him vent out more!), which immediately yanked everyone else out of their bewilderment after hearing the news and made them start opposing the decision as well. Yaaaay, this was SO satisfying <3

And when Lizzie chimed in. Girl I may have my doubts about what's going on with you but in that moment I clouldn't care less. THE QUEEN <3

And I'm tired of typing so I probably won't go on for much longer because the whole episode is just like that. What a banger of a season opening! I'm sort of always cautious about these because there are quite a lot of cases when after the break things change, and I don't always like the way they they go further. NOT the case here. I was listening to the most of S1 & 2 smiling all the time just because of how enjoyable and in line with what I usually like they were. To get so much more in S3 is just. Wow. I'm so happy.

Buuut I can't help mentioning the pep talk. It was beautiful. I like their interactions so much. Please let the dynamic go on like this, it's rare for me as aroace spec not to miss any links in relationship which are supposed to be romantic? Are they?.. I'm so not sure but this one feels natural to me and I'd always be glad to have this.

[mimikyufriend]

I would not unwatch vld actually bc like the drama was very fun in retrospect

[leakinghate]

Oh what a lovely day to awaken to these tags! Thank you for them. It warms my heart to know this post and all the hard work we did is still reaching people who care about this show. It's a rare day that I do not think about this show, and wish we could see the original versions. In retrospect, this post has a lot of issues with it, but many I think are forgivable, given that the main thrust of the post is still true: Season 8 of Voltron Legendary Defender was severely edited post production and one of the main casualties of these edits was Lotor and his associated story.

Do you know, friends, that today, December 7th 2024, is the first day that there is no legal way to experience Seasons 7 and 8 of VLD? it's true. It came down off of Netflix last night, and since it was never released on DVD or available for digital download all copies currently available are those that were illegally downloaded. The only way you can watch VLD S7&8 today is piracy.

You may ask, well, why is that? It should be a simple and relatively inexpensive task to release those seasons for digital download. Why, in the years since their original airing has this never happened?

Well shit, I wish I could tell you, but I don't have any official answers. At this point, all I can do is speculate.

Fortunately, speculation is my forte!

It should come as no surprise that I believe the lack of official copies of S7 and S8 of VLD are a direct result of the edits to both seasons. Yes. Both. When I originally wrote this post, we hadn't connected the dots and realized that Season 7 was edited as well (I covered some of this in my followup post "Seek Truth in Darkness", since a portion of the content cut from Season 7 makes an appearance in Season 8). Whether it's a legal mess behind the scenes holding it up, or a matter of principle (ha!) of DreamWorks not wanting to publish something they were forced to butcher...

Hmm. I don't think I ever came out and publicly said what I believed happened and who was responsible, did I? We alluded to it in a few articles, but never directly stated it. The man in question is notably litigious after all.

*Ahem* Seasons 7 and 8 of Voltron Legendary Defender were edited, post production, on the orders of Bob Koplar, the CEO of WEP (formerly World Events Productions) the company who owns Voltron, the brand, and who leased the adaptation rights to DreamWorks in order for them to make VLD.

Presumably, what happened was that Bob was screened the final cut of the seasons for his stamp of approval (he was not heavily involved in the production despite being named a "Producer" of the show in the credits) whereupon he threw a tantrum and demanded they be changed. His being the CEO of WEP (who, remember, still held the Voltron trademarks) meant that DreamWorks was forced to capitulate to his demands and make the changes. Season 7 was sent back to Mir for the changes to be done professionally, and they're very difficult to pinpoint by animation analysis alone. Season 8, however, was up against a tight deadline and there wasn't time or budget left for proper changes to be made. So they were done with the skeleton team that remained at DreamWorks, and it shows very clearly in both the story and animation. Which is why I could see it, and why the original post could exist at all.

I don't think it's debatable that Season 8 was edited. It's blatantly obvious for anyone who bothers to look and is not under an NDA. The main questions are going to be, what was removed, and why this happened at all.

The answers to these questions are heavily intertwined, as the content removed reveals what was objectionable. As far as I can tell, the two apparently verboten topics were anything involving Lotor's redemption and anything that would potentially cast Voltron-the-robot in a negative light. These topics themselves are intertwined, because it is Lotor's redemption that proves that Team Voltron made a mistake in "defeating" him. As Lotor's VA himself said, "Lotor was framed." Revealing the truth of this would mean that Team Voltron has the potential to be NOT a unilateral force for good, and introduce a grey morality to a previously black and white situation.

In essence: redeeming Lotor would tarnish Voltron's "brand". And this was what was so offensive to Bob Koplar, who is on record saying his favourite character is "the robot".

Bob Koplar does not want it known what he did. Especially as, at this very moment, he is involved with the casting and filming of his long-awaited live-action Voltron adaptation. For sure, he did nothing illegal. In fact it's the very legality of what he did that made it possible - he owned the trademarks, and no one could do something with his property that he did not approve of. But he did something disgusting. He used and abused the creative team of VLD, forced them to butcher their own work, that they had poured their hearts and souls into. He forced them, through non-disclosure agreements, to take the fall for his terrible decisions, and is still refusing to tell the truth about it; he'd rather bury VLD and forget it exists at all.

So thank you, for remembering. For still caring about this show and these characters so many years after we saw it's "end". Maybe some day we'll see the real one.

Chasing the Ghosts of Season 8

Let’s skip the flowery intros and get to the point, because this is important.

Lotor’s vindication and reunion with Allura were originally part of VLD s8 and I can prove it. Most animation relating to this plot was excised, while other clips were re-purposed to make it look like he was dead all along: but some are still in there.

The removal of this plot line was one of the major factors in completely messing up season 8, and it was a change that was made very recently; no earlier than August in fact. There is a significant, non-zero chance that an unedited version of Season 8 exists in its entirety; completely finished.

The evidence is below the cut.

Trigger Warnings: Gore - that image and discussion of it, body horror, sexism, and major character death.

Keep reading

[keepinventory]

every so often i think of when i lost like half of my followed blogs to the kpop plague overnight and i couldnt figure out who anybody used to be

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

Hiya! How are you? Before the question, here's the background:

After explaining Voltron to my best friend(in an entertaining way), she grew curious about the series and we started having watch night Saturdays for Voltron. Fast forward to today, we finished S6 and and currently on S7 E4.

We do our usual breakdown of what's up so far and she also agreed the writers did Lotor dirty (because it didn't fit his character to "fumble the ball", despite being pretty lovesick at that point. But even that, he is usually good with words regardless of emotional feels).

Now this breakdown, my best friend cringed at the kiss (and I was just annoyed to the point I left her alone to watch it herself and comeback after) and we agreed that perhaps that scene wasn't necessary and the whole Altean plot is where the writing fell apart. Back to the kiss. After rewatching S6, I kinda agreed because it was like another "L" for Lotor (oof literally). She thinks the kiss would be more of an impact towards the ending of the series where they have more screen time and fighting scenes together(which come to think of it, they've never been shown how well they bounce of each in combat...)

My question is: What are your thoughts of the kiss scene? Do you think it was cringe as well? Maybe a bit out if place? Or pretty okay or something 🤔? (Sorry for making this long).

Hi, anon! Thanks for the note! Wow, good luck to your friend as she watches VLD.

Hm, yeah, I can agree that the kiss between Lotor and Allura had an unsettling spin inside the show, given that it happened just after we learned about the overly complicated plot twist of Lotor harvesting Alteans.

As the audience experiencing dramatic irony (in that you know something Allura doesn't know), you're just anticipating the inevitable train wreck as you watch them kiss...Narratively speaking, I guess a kiss at this point served to heighten Allura's sexual angst, her fury, and her self-doubt/depression that we see her experiencing later.

A kiss at the end of the show, as you mention, in a version where Voltron and Lotor were still positively allied per the show's "strength in unity" theme, would have been nice and probably more family friendly.

The canon treatment of the situation (a romantic kiss just before visceral betrayal involving a discovery of mass murder) ultimately did feel out of place for a Y7 family show.

The only other time I've seen the Voltron franchise try to tackle a similar colony concept with Lotor was in the ages 16+ Dynamite comics, where it wasn't even Lotor who killed the people. And it's oddly Allura who defends Lotor to Keith in that comic...it's just a very different situation all around.

So yeah lol, as a fan of Lotura, watching that kiss in VLD was like, Okay so they kissed, but my god, at what cost.

Luckily, Lotura fanon has certainly provided happier alternatives in fic and art! I think given the toxic lack of catharsis/closure in canon, a degree of separation from canon is ultimately healthy. Sometimes, all you can do is take the lemons that life gives you and make some lemonade a;dfjlas

[whatthehelliswrongwithme]

Voltron Part 40

I did the math and decided to do each episode seperately as it’s own part (except for the 2-part episode). That way I’ll end on a nice, round number! Sooo, season 8 episode3! Enjoy! :

I’m always amazed at myself, at how little I care about the action scenes

I’m 4 minutes into this episode. They’re forming Voltron right now and I’m actually bored.....

Thank god, it’s over

Hunk is too precious of a cinnamon-roll to deal with those Galra

Keith, their whole thing is “Victory or Death”. I don’t think, that you can change that so quickly

Considering, that this Galra-commander didn’t want to cooperate, he sure is talkative

Shiro’s arm really is just extremely unsetteling

Oh god. The commanders coming with them. Do I have to care about him now? Because I sure as heck don’t! I’m still on the fence about the random ass children!

That’s the second time that someone’s race was pointed out.... Oh god, is this season gonna do the thing, were they still needed a b-plot and thought “Hey! Racism’s always a good problem to deal with!”

Keith really just said “OK! Let’s split up Gang!”

And Keith is on his own, because he somehow still needs to retain his “lone wolf”-persona

Commander sure likes pointing out, that he’s galra

This monster looks like VenomMyotismon

Pidge is so worried bout Lance. Plance?

This episode gonna be an “Alien” (1979)? Kinda mixed with the plot of the Digimon movie

If you really, really stretched it, there was a Klance moment

Space wolf went: “Bye, Felicia!”

Oh it’s the thing Krolia let loose! Guess, that’s being cleared up now

Keith can now also turn his weapon-thingy into a gun.... That’s too many guns on Team Voltron

Hey, Stone Cold Bitch’s also here

What do you mean the Atlas and Voltron are gonna split up? What do you mean Voltron is now stronger than ever? Y’all just came back from a break on earht, filled with doing nothing!! What is this shit?!?!?

[janiedean]

Every once in a while I get a sheith kick and I usually re-read your fic 'you are the sir my flowers breathe' and it always /always/ grabs me. Thank you so much for writing it! ❤️

awwwww thank you anon you’re too kind ;; ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

[lynvaren]

Taking breaks today with scribbles of my two best boys!! They always find each other no matter where they are 💖

Writer applications for my zine @vintageklancezine close in a day and artist apps are closing soon as well! Be sure to check it out if you’d like to take part! 

[shatterinseconds]

Excerpt from and all the things we dream about, a 1920s AU for @vintageklancezine

Preorders are now open!!

[prongsmydeer]

wlw and mlm solidarity: 

[glossolali]

that feel when you're minutes into your voltron season 7 marathon and you tear up because you just realise you're seeing the real shiro for the first time since season 2