#vld s3

[skysmadness]

i love co-leaders klance

(og post)

[markanddebbie-protectionprogram]

oh the flashbacks the word "buddy" triggered in me when i laid eyes on a blue and red coded pairing

my live reaction:

[depressedlochnessmess]

ok yeah yeah voltron in 2023 what else is new

[kanwalcreations]

i love co-leaders klance

[autisticlancemcclain]

Lance takes the long way there, now.

He doesn’t have to. Technically, the way their rooms are set up, he’s barely any farther from the hanger he needs to be in come battle time. From the very beginning, it was he and Keith in the left wing by Blue and Red’s hangars, Hunk and Pidge in the right by Yellow and Green, and Shiro by the royal ring with Black. Shortest distance to their lions, most prepared for battle. It would probably make sense, logistically, for some room switching to happen, or at least for Keith to take Shiro’s room, but that’s…it’s not happening.

Lance has had the castle fully mapped out since his first month in space. Pidge may have reigned queen in the vents, but it was Lance who carefully marked down every tile that when stepped on opened a stairwell, every divot in the walls that cracked open a pathway. It was Lance to walk the six hours from the highest point of the castle’s peak to the lowest pitch of its bowels and boiler rooms. It was Lance who walked the echoing servant’s passages, brushing dust from his jacket when he made it back to a regular hallway only to realise that there wasn’t any, in a castle sealed for ten thousand years, not even a cobweb. (It was Lance, too, to discover the bunker rooms and hidden staircases of the Garrison. He most certainly didn’t sneak out every other night by merit alone. And further still it was Lance to knock on the wall behind his childhood bed and realise it was hollow, and find the tiniest of little holes, right where the wallpaper met the floorboards, just barely wide enough for narrow fingers to poke through and tug. Lance has always been good at finding small, hidden places, at poking and prodding until secrets are revealed to him. Lance has always been ineffably nosy, he’s just quieter about it.)

To get to Red’s hangar, you have to pass Blue’s. That’s how the rooms are set up. Blue’s zipline reaches out first, and twenty-two steps later is Red’s. On the first day after Lance had crawled on his hands and knees to beg by the barrier between him and his Lion, on yet another mission called to them in the night, Lance had swung down into Blue’s hangar by habit, and when his feet hit the floor he choked, realising, and had barely managed to sprint back up the way before Allura questioned why the zipline wasn’t at the beginning. He’d ducked into Red’s reluctant embrace with lungs that wouldn’t fully inhale and a throat that was closing.

He knew better than to try the passages, easier as they would be.

He avoided passing Blue’s hangar entirely, now. He already felt her absence, the gaping hole of her abandonment, all the way in his room, in the bridge, in the dining hall, in space. He felt the sharpness of it awake and in sleep. He felt it when he lay under his bed, knees pressed to his chest, eyes blank and head empty. He felt it when he felt nothing else. He couldn’t escape the hollow pain of her rejection, but he most certainly couldn’t stand to walk down the same paths he used to run, beam pulling at the muscles in his cheeks, heart galloping in his chest, sparks lighting up his head. The emptiness of her and of himself lingered there, in her spaces, and Lance couldn’t face them.

He goes around.

———

Lance knows it’s stupid and torturous. But he makes his way to the training room anyway, in the dead of night, once he hears Keith’s breathing finally slow through the thin wall separating their beds. It must take him an hour just to creep out of his bed and down the hall, socked feet soundless on the cool polymer floors, breath caught in his lungs, paranoid that someone is going to pop out behind him and ask him what the hell he’s doing (as if anyone has paid him that much scrutiny and attention in his life, except maybe Iverson).

Half of his hesitance is trepidation, but he refuses to acknowledge it.

The knowledge that this is a bad idea rings in his head for the entirety of the walk, but he banishes it the second he walks through the training room doors, locking them behind him, walking brashly in and throwing open the cabinet in the farthest corner. He snatches a headset before he can talk himself out of it, forcing his hands steady as he sticks the electrodes on his temple and under his hair at the back of his neck, like Coran did all those months ago. It feels far more daunting without the brush of the advisor’s gloves on his skin to accompany them.

He’s grateful at least that the headset doesn’t make him click through his own memories, search for particular snapshots the way he might search for sad songs when he’s already upset. It’s the same premise regardless, and he knows the only thing he’s going to do is devastate himself, but at least he’ll be devastated. At least that will be something.

The first memory to play must be early space, the first few days of the Voltron mission. There’s no death in his eyes yet. They look bright and brown and sparkling, the way they do in family photos, matching his mother and brothers and sisters. He watches as he crows, whooping to no one as he pushes Blue’s throttles as fast as they will go, whipping himself around in barrel rolls. There is no audio, but he can feel the team’s yelling in his head, the shouts to stay on task, but he remembers the way he felt like he was floating, like Blue’s energy was billowing around him, carrying him throw the air. He remembers feeling like his belly had bottomed out, like he was doing exactly what he was made to do.

The memory loops, same thirty seconds on repeat again and again and again and again and again and again and again and he lets it and he doesn’t cry and he doesn’t feel pain or sadness or loneliness or anything but the same bottomed out feeling, only now he knows he’s not floating, he’s falling, and every time he hits the ground it gives out from under him and he gets lower and lower and lower.

———

He ends up in Blue’s hangar by necessity. He knows Allura’s head injury is worse than she is letting on, and he’s simply closer to her.

He doesn’t let himself think as he sprints to her. He doesn’t let himself take in his surroundings (the deep blue accents the faint smell of the ocean the pinned up drawings from kids he’s gotten over the weeks and months the blankets and pillows he kept in the corner for rough nights the gigantic bottle of nail polish he had Coran synthesize for him to paint Blue’s claws the the the the the), keeping his eyes firmly on Blue’s, telling himself he’s not looking at her but through her, to his friend, who is hurt, who needs his help. By the time he makes it to Allura, by the time he helps her out of her seat and down the ramp, Coran has already come rushing in with his armful of medical supplies, whisking her away to a pod. He hears the rest of the team talking at the other end of the zipline, waiting for them, and he wills himself to follow them, for his feet to move, for his legs to function, and they don’t, and his knees stay locked, and suddenly he is a butterfly pinned through the chest, stuck in a glass box.

One by one, starting from the outer lights and making their way to the centre of the hangar where he stands, the overhead lights flick off, plunging him into flickering darkness except for the faint blue emergency lights, and the glow of Blue’s particle barrier up between them, and the deep yellow of Blue’s headlights. His eyes begin to lose focus, with the lighting change, until he is not staring through the particular barrier but at it, at his own reflection, at the way it lines up perfectly with the Blue Lion.

His legs give out from under him.

He’s not sure he feels it when he hits the ground. He’s lucky he doesn’t hit his head, although that’s in part because he cannot tear his eyes away, as if they are tied on a string to the Blue Lion. He feels stuck, and his mouth feels glued.

“You left me,” he manages, voice smaller than it’s ever been. He doesn’t feel her prodding at his mind in response, not like he should, but unless it is wishful thinking there’s a sharpness in the air now, the stunning smell of regret and of pain.

He wants to sink into it. He wants to let it envelop him, wants to let himself feel it in full, but he can’t, he doesn’t know how to let it seep into his pores. He tried to strain his ears, his mind, anything, to hear her, hear her apologise or excuse herself or anything, even tell him straight that she is done with him.

He thinks of how his best friend has been pulling away from him for weeks, how he chased after the taxi that drove his sister to the airport when she left for school, how he used to leave a space for his father’s boots every single day by the door long after everyone else had given up, how he would duck away from the first of his mother’s kisses when she picked him up from preschool, sniffling. There is a toddler in his head, feet planted on the floor, hands clenched at his side, tears and snot screaming down his face, cheeks bright red in rage, screaming at the top of his lungs YOU LEFT ME! YOU LEFT ME BEHIND! YOU DON’T WANT ME ANYMORE! YOU LEFT ME AND I WILL NEVER EVER FORGIVE YOU! and the voice is loud and echoing and the only thing he can hear and he has heard it all his life and he has never learned how to block it out, how to make it go away, and it will never go away and never grow up.

“I hate you,” he chokes out, and the lie is bitter on its way out of his throat, and he doesn’t regret it at all.

He drags his legs upright and steady with his hands and flees.

———

pt 2

[nervouswhizkid]

alright, u know what time it is. i've finished season 3 of voltron, so here's a whole dump of all my thoughts :o]

it was so weird starting out this season with no shiro. i felt so bad for keith, he was struggling so much without him and you could tell. it did throw me off that everyone was acting semi-normal even though shiro was missing?? like lance was so Lance (especially in the first episode) if that makes sense (which, like, if i think about it that's pretty on brand for him. i feel like he's the type to hide behind that flirty easygoing attitude when shit's going down.) i was freaking out when the lion swap happened ohmygod. i still have mixed feelings about it?? like i can kinda get used to keith in the black lion, but lance being in the red is so strange to me. they're just so red & blue coded, it's weird to put them in lions that don't match that. my heart was breaking when lance was begging black to let him be the new leader, you can tell he wants to prove himself so bad. and when blue wouldn't let lance in and he was having a mental crisis over it, i was genuinely in tears. he's got so much insecurity hidden behind that carefree mask and it makes me so sad i just wanna hug him😭 even though i'm not entirely on board with the lion swap, i did like the way it was executed. everyone gets in their lions to go fight, except oh wait! lance isn't following, where is he?? his lion is refusing him?? what! (i'll be completely honest though, i feel like i've read fics that have had something like this play out and they STILL did it better than the show did LMAO)

i also loved that it was LANCE out of all the paladins that became the new red pilot. he was worthy enough to be keith's right hand🥹 i feel like there was such a big emphasis on klance this season, there were so many important moments for their development.

key moment one:

the way EVERYONE was looking at lance to comfort keith??? and lance wasn't even thrown by it, didn't even seem to notice them staring at him. he was only focused on keith. he doubts himself in so many other areas, but when it comes to being there for keith there was no hesitation. he would have done it whether the others were there or not.

key moment two:

when keith came out of the black lion clearly upset and tried turning down the leadership position. again, everyone is chiming in and telling him that black has chosen him, he's their new leader, he has to do this. but he brushes them off, he's adamant in his decison. only when lance steps forward and tells him that he accepts his new authority, keith was willing to give it a shot. what if i scream

key moment THREE:

when lotor lured team voltron to planet thayserix and keith went a little cuckoo trying to catch him, he and lance end up having a moment where keith admits he's taken it too far, putting the team in jeopardy in his rush to capture lotor. and in perfect lance fashion, he agrees with keith. and then he supports him and says let's go fix it together.

this doesn't mean anything, he's just so prettyboy in this scene i had to add

moving on. lotor's character has me conflicted. his introduction had me thinking he was different from his father, and then it swaps to him talking shit with this inner group and sounding like he IS just like his father, he just presents a different front to the general public. but then a few episodes later, his plans are conflicting with what the witch (sorry i literally cannot ever remember her name) wants, and she's supposedly zarkon's right hand, so by that logic lotor is going against his father's plans?? and i think it's in episode 5 where he says "i am the leader! but i am not my father." so what is it really huh. i can't figure this guy out, i don't know whether to root for him or not

i'll tell you who i'm not rooting for though. lotor's group of misfits, that's who. i literally cannot stand them for some reason. that creepy blind person with the cat ANNOYS ME. they're so op it's actually crazy. i definitely dislike the lot of them because they're capable adversaries, which i know is the whole point, but also i just love these characters so much and i want them to be happy and win 😾 is that too much to ask???

i'm also a little bit of an allura hater...i'm still unaware of how that opinion is received in the fandom, so pls don't crucify me. i still have a bad taste in my mouth from her treatment of keith when the team found out he was galra, okay? i'm sure someday i'll get over it. or maybe i won't. we'll see. it was also frustrating to watch her try and pilot the blue lion. you're telling me this girl's dad is the creator of voltron, she was the one who instructed the paladins on how to connect with their lions, stressed the importance of teamwork, and she STILL thought she could boss blue around?? i'm sure it was purely to provide conflict for the story and deliver that payoff when she finally figures out how to work with her lion, but imo it was a little unrealistic for her character. yes, she's royalty and most people defer to her authority, but i just feel like she would have known better, especially considering most of the time she seems uncomfortable by people worshipping her. and episode 4?? her weak spot seems to be anything connecting back to her altean heritage, because she almost let the totalitarian alternate universe versions of her people into their universe simply because they were altean. yes, she quickly realized what was going on and switched sides, but i can't get over how easily she trusts anything altean, meanwhile she's skeptical of everything else. i know that's how bias works, but i can't standdddd hypocrisy it gets on my nerves like nothing else!!

episode 5 was wild. i don't know what they did to shiro, but it's got me so nervous for him and the team. the galra clearly let him escape, it was just too easy. him waking up alone, no guards or anyone to intercept him leaving his chambers? walking around, no sentries anywhere? he witnesses ANOTHER(?) shiro being experimented on before making his way to a pod and zipping away?? and most notably, the "notify command headquarters. operation kuron stage three is underway." to me, there's only one reason why a prisoner would be allowed to return to their group. sabotage. is he some kind of sleeper agent? but like, unknowingly?? and what about the memory that popped up while he was looking at the other shiro? and HOW is there another shiro? this is so fucking confusing. but, and this could also just be a change in artstyle, he looks different to me? why does his face look so weird🧍‍♀️

LOOK AT THIS MAN. THAT IS NOT SHIRO

not to mention, shiro's return causes some issues within the team. for one, there's not enough lions for everyone. i didn't think that was a huge deal, but obviously it's a little strange for someone like shiro to not be doing anything. and if he did get black back, what does that mean for keith? or lance? or allura? they've all been displaced. on top of that, there's now a conflicting power dynamic between shiro and keith since shiro is used to doling out orders, even though keith is the one leading them now.

special mention for another klance moment:

even with all the leadership confusion, i think it's important that lance chose keith to talk to about his concerns for the team. he views keith as their leader, which is insane(!) given that shiro is his personal hero/idol. also the fact that keith has been his rival up to this point, and here lance is offering to step down from the team (which he's obviously fought so hard to be a part of and holds a lot of pride for!!) and better yet, keith thinks this is CRAZY. "what are you talking about?" the inflection in his voice?? he literally can't believe lance would step down. voltron without lance? it's unthinkable. i think it's obvious that lance is still doubtful, so keith connects with him the only way he knows how: by getting on lance's level. "leave the math to pidge."

AND THEN THEY BOTH SMILE AT EACH OTHERBKANJKCLFJLWA

for cohesiveness sake, i'll be referring to honerva as haggar, considering that's what she goes by now.

the finale for this season really surprised me! i wasn't expecting to get a comprehensive history on alfor's era, but i'm not complaining. i can't believe that zarkon and haggar (the witch, that's her name!!) are MARRIED?? that's freaking crazy. and they didn't even remember???

what i found interesting is how their experimentation with quintessence affected them, both after they "died" and came back to life, and even before that. by the second half of the episode, the toll haggar's work had on her was obvious. she was clearly going crazy, suffering from malnutrition, and passed out after alfor argued with them and left. i could be looking into it too much, but i'm wondering if it had been affecting haggar for longer than that. when zarkon first met her, she seemed kind, almost sweet. definitely capable and incredibly smart, but she had a soft disposition. years later, when alfor has allura and zarkon and haggar are married, she's lost any sign of a smile and doesn't seem to care for pleasantries or idle chitchat. her responses are clipped and noncommittal, unless it's pertaining to her work. i think that was the first sign. the whole situation is just so horrific.

i'm also just realizing, does this mean lotor is the son of haggar and zarkon?? IS HE HALF ALTEAN???

another small detail i wanted to mention before i finish this off:

is this the same cat?? it's either the same species or it's the actual same cat from alfor's era. i just thought it was interesting that he was included and, if it is the same cat, he's really fucking old LMFAO

[cricket-toast]

thought about space too much now im rewatching voltron again :///

[strawberryicemoon]

Why I can't watch the Ducktales Finale

I'm not the kind of person who struggles to watch the last episode of something. I love to finish a show, and let it sit in my brain. I'm the kind of person who often enjoys spoilers because it adds to my understanding of the media. I love to view the media in their entirety just as much as I love a journey to get there.

But I can't get past the first few minutes of Ducktales 2017, The Last Adventure. And it's because of spoilers that I couldn't deal with. I don't like them, and even years later after I've had time to digest, and have seen so many finale clips, that I still can't just sit down and watch it. And I've made attempts. I've looked through the summary of the episode to prepare. But I can't.

And there's... a couple of things that rub me the wrong way about the Finale that keep me from being able to just watch it.

1. Webby is Scrooge's Clone Daughter

2. Webby is April, of April May and June

3. Donald and Daisy are going on vacation.

Now, I don't actually hate any of these... conceptually. And I'm well aware that Frank Angones has stated the Webby twist was planned from very early on. And usually I am completely down for whatever a finale is, as long as I can tell that this was something the creator really believed in.

I'm a fan of such "controversial" endings as, Amphibia and Digimon Adventure 02, because I know exactly why they ended like that. It's written in the themes. Even if it took me time to understand Adventure's ending, I've grown to understand it and love it once I learned more about the original Japanese version and the shows production (and also grew up myself). Amphibia ended exactly as I expected based on one of the very earliest things I heard about the show from Matt Braly: "an ode to past friendships". Even if I think there are things they messed up I GET IT. I wouldn't want them ending any other way.

So I understand WHY the decision is made. Conceptually it does make sense. Webby exists as a composite character of April May and June, and I believe shares the same name as April in one language. Webby being Scrooge's clone daughter is an effective way of full-circling her relationship with him. Strangers in each other's home to father and daughter. She's family not BECAUSE of Blood, but because of Love. She still loves her Granny, it's just the non blood relationship wasn't the one she thought it was. And Donald deserves a vacation, and to have the more down to earth life experiences he wanted, especially after raising his sisters kids alone for 10 years.

But they still twist me up inside.

And I think it comes down to three reasons: 1. Lack of Continuity between episodes 2. An over-focusing on Scrooge 3. Handling of Word of God

1. Lack of Continuity between episodes Part of what got me to fall in love with Ducktales was S1 and the continuity of the Spear of Selene subplot. We got hints at a semi-regular pace, but it successfully overhung the entire series. It was what separated Scrooge and Donald. It was why Della was gone. The subject matter was of course not something that needed to be overstated, as most of it was being kept hush hush. Sure it was a mystery, but not an urgent one. Dewey had never had his mom, so it wasn't like he couldn't focus on anything else for a while

But in S2 I started noticing that the show stopped explaining or foreshadowing things. Maybe it always did, I haven't re watched it properly. But I definitely noticed something off about the storytelling then. But it was definitely a problem throughout the show.

Webby never brought up Lena after her sacrifice until the relevant episode.

Lena living with the Sabrewings was something never brought up until episodes later we saw her with them.

We had Della talking about the boys with their "Uncles" setting up the pain of not knowing how things fell apart after her departure, only to get no payoff.

We didn't get ANYTHING about Webby's parentage until the final episode, and barely a hint in 1 season 3 episode.

Almost every finale episode changes the status quo in some way. The question is how much. Lots of final episodes kind of have things going back to the way they were before plot kicked off but better (like with new friends or a new government). Sometimes someone dies.

Webby being Scrooge's clone is paradigm shifting. And that kind of thing needs to be set up. You CANNOT catch your audience off guard with something like that.

In Digimon Adventure 02 the series ends with everyone on earth with a digimon partner which is controversial but at least built up throughout the series at hints of other digidestined until an arc near the end showcased many international digidestined. Hilda ends with the reveal that Hilda's mother is half-fairy, and despite not being present throughout the first two seasons, it was hinted at through the third season, and contextualized some of the few things we did know before about Johanna's childhood. The Hollow's first season ends with you finding out it was all a game, but it had been hinted at before with the video game nature of the world. Sure Avatar didn't hint at Aang getting the power to take away bending, but we knew he was a pacifist who didn't want to kill so was looking for a solution, getting the power to remove bending (ie power over others) works thematically, in the same way Anne using the power of the stones and getting brought back to life by a god like being worked. Sure, Scratch turning out to be a wraith at the end of The Ghost and Molly McGee was rather sudden, but people had been theorizing that Todd was Scratch's body for a long time, so it wasn't like there weren't any hints, and while the show was cut short and had to rush to end, the build up of Scratch's memories at least gave some sort of foreshadowing link to what was going on.

There's a reason people rarely throw in new characters at the very end of a show. It can absolutely work. Amphibia and The Owl House threw in "God" at the end, but that gets a pass for being the kind of figure they meet once and then move on with their lives. On the other side, you can sometimes have secret big bads that were pulling the strings the whole time too. I can't speak for the finale of Ducktales (because again, can't bring myself to watch it), but adding two new characters on top of changing the entire dynamic of how the family is set up at the very end of the show does not sit well with me. We won't get to see how this change in status quo effects the characters. We saw how learning about their mom affected the boys relationship with Scrooge, her return and having to build a relationship with her and her presence conflicting with Launchpad's. But we don't get that with Scrooge and Webby? Basically too many status quo shifts in the finale all at once.

All we got was Beakley was a spy, was overprotective of Webby, and a few episodes before the end it was revealed Beakley was lying to her. Webby didn't seem to care about her parents. And this was a girl who was very dedicated to unraveling the secrets of clan mcduck. Couldn't they have had one hint at some point in the show where it was unclear if it was the boys or Webby who were recognized as a McDuck? Some offhand mention where the boys ask her about HER parents, because she helped them with her mom?

You couldn't tell what was or was not going be important in the way they dropped. It's very hard to set your expectations when you had no clue what to expect. And while there is something to be said for unexpected surprises and twists in a story, an audience really needs to know what is or is important or they're going to go on wild goose chases and get disappointed when they build up hype for something the show then refuses to address.

In HINDSIGHT, I find it extremely odd that Huey and Louie, prior to finding out about Dewey's investigations, did not pry at ALL into the fact that hey: if Donald was an adventurer with Scrooge, then he had to know their mom. Like that’s weird right?

2. An over-focusing on Scrooge Scrooge is the Center of the Universe.

I'm not a Disney Ducks fan. Aside from 2017, and pop culture osmosis, I know very little. But the thing is I am someone whose first inclination once I become a fan of something is to check out the wiki pages for information. Find about what longstanding fan mysteries there are. I understand the importance of cross continuity callbacks. I'm a fan of other longstanding series and have rubbed elbows with several others. I get really long franchises with several iterations.

Which is to say that I, despite not having a horse in this race, understand how this works and how it should work.

Now a bit of this is the fact Ducktales is ABOUT Scrooge. But Scrooge isn't the center of the Duck universe. Something I find pretty interesting is the fact that Donald has reasonably fleshed out family trees on both sides of his family. That's cool. That's how real people work, a meeting point of the stories of those who came before. But Ducktales doesn't care, the only adult the show cares about is him. I get that to a certain extent it was the show execs insisting on focusing on the kids. And again, he's kind of the main character. But you brought back Donald, and Della. There are other characters here with rich lives, he doesn't need to take over everything.

It's especially egregious ANY time the McDuck clan gets involved. Could Matilda be the youngest child now? Sure. But that's a really arbitrary change, that they don't use for anything. And even if that was purposeful, the fact is that the first thing they established is Donald's mom is still Scrooge's sister, so Donald is the grandson of Fergus and Downy McDuck. Not nephew? Surely they could recognize him? But where is Hortense and Quackmore? They brought them up in the first episode, and then they never made any appearances aside from references. Why were Donald and Della staying with Scrooge for Christmas? Never clarified. Fans (reasonably) assumed they were dead. Scrooge called Donald his ward (admittedly when he also called him Fergus and Downy’s nephew rather than grandson). I mean where else would they be when their DAUGHTER DISAPPEARED. Would they not want to meet their grandchildren? But that was never clarified. And I've seen some fans alternatively interpret them as bad parents, which I think is just really unfair. Scrooge gets to be the good parent? It's once again Scrooge to the rescue. The CAPITALIST? I mean it's also a little bit just a family issue in general: It's Uncle Gladstone and Cousin Fethry when they are theoretically the same: technically cousins but old enough to be honorary uncles. It's fair enough. But really that brings us to the Duck family in general.

Grandma Duck? What about Gladstone and Fethry's parents? Gus Goose? Are they all dead? Does Fethry have any siblings? Do the boys not know or not care about the Duck side of the family? They know Gladstone but no one else? I mean Scrooge's parents, who should be dead, were magically kept alive but nothing for the duck family. Speaking of which, they constantly bring up how old Scrooge and occasionally refer to the causes of his supernatural age, but that does not explain how young Donald and Della are compared to him. Overall, we get nothing on the Duck family except for its existence at least, so even removed from the context of Disney Ducks legacy its weird to introduce a side of the family and just gloss over it.

The one episode about the Duck family legacy is a Webby episode. Which, fine, she's not a Duck, but she's part of the family. Except wait. She's Scrooge's daughter/clone, and you gave her the focus on the one episode about the Duck family not the McDuck's? You couldn't leave Scrooge out of anything?

So for Webby's great twist in the finale, was taking not just one, but two characters NOT related to Scrooge (April and Webby), and tying them to Scrooge. I think I could deal with Webby being April, and (HUGE MAYBE) Webby being Scrooge’s clone or April being Scrooge’s clone but not both. Not to mention April, May and June are DAISY's nieces... not random three girls who are her boyfriends uncles clone and and boyfriends uncles clones clone? It doesn't sit right with me that a character who I thought was supposed to be learning that he was sometimes in the wrong, and not the center of morality (see how he made Glomgold a villain through his own ego), continue to be made the center of the universe in ways he simply shouldn't be.

He's literally an old rich guy. Like there is historical context for why this character is like this, but why does the world revolve around him in this show.

3. Word of God Word of God is useful. As are interviews and statements made by the creator. It helps to provide insight into the themes. I love seeing the person behind the art.

But here's the thing. Word of God is clarification, insight into how you should look at the work to set expectations. It's supplementary. It doesn't replace text.

This is a little bit difficult to really talk about now that I'm several years removed from the experience, so grain of salt and all, but I really think the way Word of God was handled did the show a disservice.

Back to Lena becoming a Sabrewing, we didn't get that in show. Lena just dropped off the face of the earth, not until S3’s premier we got a clarification on that in show.

We never got Della's reaction to learning that Donald and Scrooge were estranged, she just suddenly stopped speaking under that assumption.

So Word of God became an essential part of understanding the text, because a lot of necessary information was left unexplained by the canon its a huge problem. And Word of God is often fluid. It can be changed later if during the writing process something changes. (We should probably cover this topic in show and want to do it a bit differently, I have a great Idea of what we can do to turn that error into foreshadowing, I was lying to the fans to keep a secret).

But when word of god is necessary, word of god becomes essential for tempering expectations about the show.

This is probably going to be less of an issue for people who come and watch the show later. Sure, things are still unexplained, but when you can binge the show Lena's unexplained absence is less obvious, you're so busy moving on to other things that Della's change in understanding about the situation is clearly unimportant and you can move on.

But what ended up happening is that Frank Angones struggled to balance clarifications, keeping show secrets, and a sometimes changing story. Which sometimes left characters completely sure on where the story was sitting, only for it to be ripped out from under them. Also, tying back to the first point, of plot points being dropped until the episode where they where they were relevant made it VERY difficult to tell what was or wasn’t going to be relevant, and what emotional beats to get emotionally invested in.

Prior to the finale there was a bit of a community of Webby/Triplet shippers. Personally, I see that as a complete dismissal of the themes of the show and a bit heteronormative. I avoided all such content. But at the same time, shipping doesn't hurt anyone. At the end of the day, the boys and Webby were not related by blood, and hadn't even met until age 10. There wasn't... really a reason you couldn't ship them. There are TONS of shows out there with 10 year old characters and love interests. Just off the top of my head: Any Ship with Ash Ketchum, Sprigivy, Phinabella, Kenyako, Sorato. Even if they don't get together at 10, (or at all) the fact of the matter is 10 year olds getting shipped is old news. I'm still attached to Pokeshipping and Takari to this day, even if I tend to see them more as platonic relationships these days. So I avoided all shipping with them, but I understood why people (particularly younger people) were shipping them. Until the finale hit, and the ships that people thought never going to be canon, but were safe, weren't. To a certain extent, that's the game you play with shipping clearly noncanonical ships. But I feel that the way questions about shipping were answered didn't help, because iirc he tended to say the show wouldn't focus on that more than he explicitly stated the kids were family. He called Webby/Triplet shipping highly unlikely for example, giving it more legitimacy than a no, which leant to it being taken as a solid fact prior to the finale that Webby was definitely not related to the boys, because a lot of what else was said was solid fact.

4. (Bonus): of course, I do also feel it kind of isn't enough to justify breaking the found family. So much of Webby's arc was being accepted into the family. Becoming the 4th triplet. So for her to have been blood all along is a little cheap. Sure it doesn't break the becoming family despite blood before. But, having meta-knowledge of Launchpad probably finding family with Gosalyn and Drake Mallard, it's just Beakley whose left as not blood related (and she's technically the help...). And yeah, there's the Granny/Grandaughter adopted relationship. But....

Webby is one of four kids. Again, she became one of the kids. So yeah. I'm happy that she became one of the kids. Able to call him uncle scrooge. But it feels weird to me that she, the kid who already lived in the manor with Scrooge even if they kept their distance, displaced the triplets as Scrooge's natural heirs. The uncle relationships in this show being parental/grandparental was already good. Not all families look the same, some people parent their siblings' kids for one reason or another. Scrooge's presumed "heirs' ' was his sister's descendants, not his, but he loved them like his own. That's good. So to not only break the "not blood related at all" to "actually daughter", kind of ALSO meant a "my niblings are my legacy" got overtaken with "my daughter is my legacy".

And maybe I'd feel less sour about it if we had more time after the show. But on a fundamental level it didn't just alter Webby's place in the family, but her grandmother's, and the Duck Twins and Triplets. Again, especially with the triplets. I wanted the four of them to become functional equals. The 4th triplet. But for her to have a secret Scrooge connection that overtakes the one she was jealous of the triplets of having doesn't sit right to say the least.

I feel I could get over this one, especially maybe if they gave us more time. But it just didn't make it worth it to me.

5. (Bonus Bonus): Now I don't use the term Mary Sue lightly. But what I do think of canon Mary Sueism is a tendency to make female characters on predominately male casts "special" in some way to justify their presence. They have to be the level headed smart ones and the ones with . They have to be likable so they're robbed of character. I wouldn't say Webby is a particularly bad example of this, and it's not like Ducktales lacks other flawed female characters (Della my beloved).

But the way Webby is treated reminds me of April from TMNT 2012, and Allura from Voltron Legendary Defender (and kinda Larmina from Voltron Force). All are 80s characters in shows that had a predominately male cast of characters, and who were both an outsider, and defined by being a girl. And then the reboot both doubled down on making them special, integrating them into the group more, but also making them generally tougher the boys in some way, and also sometimes more in the know about things. Webby is aged up to match the boys age rather than aged down to match the boys age like April but the effect is still the same.

The girl is now a peer to the boys, 4th triplet, rather than a little sister. Webby is more capable and well-read than any of the boys. And at the start of the series she's socially awkward enough it feels like it will work. And I'm not saying Webby isn't flawed, she is. But when it comes to the things the family finds important: adventuring, she doesn't have any obvious shortcomings. Louie quits easily and isn't as coordinated, Dewey is reckless and generally uneducated, and Huey isn't flexible. And Webby... used to be socially awkward???

It’s kinda trading 1 sexist trope for another. And yeah, all shows do have OTHER female characters who kind of avert this. But it doesn’t change the fact the leading lady is more “special” than the boys. Like being a girl has to be special.

In short, at the end of the day Webby being Scrooge's daughter doesn't help her character, her grandmothers, or the rest of the family. It kinda helps Scrooge’s character, but while I haven’t seen the episode myself, I’m not sure there would be enough time for it to be meaningful. And again, I think a lot of the characterization and worldbuilding of other characters were already sacrificed for Scrooge’s sake in the show already.

Oh and the Donald/Daisy thing.

The reason Daisy/Donald's trip doesn't sit right with me is we barely got any Donald and Della having to coparent. Get used to each other again. We barely got any of them and we're heading back into separation. It doesn’t feel cathartic when we still have unanswered questions from this stage in their life. And even if the trip is well, a trip. It feels weird.

It feels kind of unexpectedly "conventional family", even if it's still really unconventional. Donald is going to go be happy with his love interest, away from the boys he raised who aren't actually his sons (and yes, I know he takes May and June with him but still, knowing that May and June are by default Daisy's nieces kind of has "new kids with new wife" implications to me but that's neither here nor there). Adding this to "Webby being Scrooge's daughter is a good plot point for him" and it's just really weird, and kind of feels like the final nail in the nontraditional family dynamics coffin. If feel only way they could have buried it more is if Beakley died or something.

I was already kinda uncomfortable with the “Daisy being the only one to understand him” thing because like. That’s sweet. His soulmate is the only one who really hears him. But also that’s a fucking speech impediment Donald has. Are you telling me that no one in his family cared enough to effectively communicate with him despite his disability? Like if it is REALLY that much a problem he should have an effective communication method. Sign-language for example?

The triplets he raised don’t always understand him. His twin sister doesn’t always understand him? But this random woman does? I am all for Daisy and Donald being basically soulmates. But uh? This feels both ableist and allonormative in a show that really wasn’t those things before. (well okay it was kinda ableist about Donald but it felt less weird to me when there wasn’t one person who could magically understand Donald). And Daisy understanding him still could be a big thing? The first person who understood him without getting to know him first/wasn’t literally raising him/raised with/raised by him?

I want to like Daisy so much, but she just feels a bit like Webby does: a legacy female character they are trying to make too cool, who gets some of their coolness incidentally defined by a male character, rather than a full-fledged character on their own. (For instance if we saw Daisy with anyone other than Donald, her overbearing boss and… whatever Storkules is). 

I feel some of these may have been resolved with more time. But some of these problems had their seeds planted as early as S1. That said I think if the quality of S1 was maintained they would have been fine. Overall, I think Ducktales is a good reboot, and a good show, but it really could have been better. Was so close to being better.

[localfanbaselurker]

YOURE TELLING ME HE SAYS THAT?????

[askmeanjudge]

[skysmadness]

like a wise man once said: "we did it. we are a good team."

[vldcanondaily]

Zarkon is scared of cats

Episode: S03E07 - The Legend Begins Time: 05:15

The man is SHOOK when he sees Kova at this time stamp.

[mychemicalasexual]

ok, so i’m doing a bunch of ship art all month for valentine’s day. you guys get to pick out an extra ship drawing for me cause why not yk

i made the mistake of putting huntlow and wenclair with some other ships not realising they wouldn’t stand a chance lmao. not making that mistake again

[coolauntlilith]

Every now and then I replay the first episode of VLD and I wonder why I thought it be a good show lol

[autisticlancemcclain]

“That was bad,” Lance murmurs.

The last team member has just left the room, footsteps slowly fading down the hallway. Left is only the red and black paladins, sat at the head of the table, one with his elbows resting on the table, head in his hands, and the other tipped back in the chair, looking blankly up at the ceiling.

“Yeah,” Keith agrees, eyes crossed and unfocused. He sighs, tipping forward and straightening his neck. “It was.”

It’s not unusual for Voltron to fail. They’re fighting a force so huge and ancient and convoluted that they can’t possibly be truly, entirely victorious; the lions are powerful, and Voltron moreso, but they can only be in so many places at once. There is only so much information they can have. And they are all so young, besides, inexperienced and fumbling in their own confusion.

The fail frequently.

But rarely so ardently, and so congruently.

“I didn’t get all the details,” Lance says softly. He picks his head up; brown eyes still tired and downcast but pen prepped for notes. “The rest of them…this briefing didn’t get anywhere. I need the story from you.”

It’s true. The last half hour was almost completely silent. No one had looked up from their laps, faces streaked with tears or carefully neutral, defeat lining postures and pulling down frowns. Any questions Keith or Lance had asked to try and spark discussion, get notes for later improvements, went nowhere. No one could summon their voices to speak, to vocalize their disappointment and pain.

“Let’s not,” Keith begs. At Lance’s hesitant face, he bulldozes forward, pleading hand on Lance’s arm. “I can’t now, Lance. I honestly don’t think I could make myself go through it, not yet. I just want to — ignore it. Just for tonight.”

Lance scrutinizes him carefully, holding his gaze, trying to read right through him. It’s not like Keith to beg for a break, to insist on taking a breather. He’s usually the one to convince them to get up again and keep going.

But they’ve all been going for so long. They’re tired. The team’s tired. Keith’s tired. Lance is tired.

They can’t keep running on empty.

“Alright,” Lance whispers. He slides his arm back a tad, flipping his hand to grab Keith’s and squeeze. “Let’s take a breather.”

He pushes his chair back and stands, pulling Keith up with him. Keith doesn’t fight it, simply follows behind him. Lance leads him out of the briefing room and down the hall, ducking into the kitchen and flipping on the lights.

“Hang on,” he says. He squeezes Keith’s hand once, shooting him a small grin, and then makes his way to a largely unused set of shelves and cabinets on the back. He climbs up onto the counter, then opens the cabinets by his feet, using the doors as footholds.

Keith snorts to himself. Spider boy.

He finally manages to find what he’s looking for and scrambles back down to the floor, holding out a bottle of something.

“Shiro’s stash?” he asks, eyebrows raised.

“Coran’s,” Lance says with a grin. “The nastiest nunvil in the galaxy.”

Keith makes to grab a couple glasses, but then stills, getting an idea.

“Keith?”

“Come with me.”

Keith dashes out the hallway, not waiting for Lance — he’s got long legs, he’ll follow.

He speeds past their rooms, past the royal wing where Allura sleeps, past the rest of the paladin rooms. He slides his boots past the training room, Lance’s whooping laughter behind him. He dashes all the way to the very edge of the castle, the forgotten corner, with the giant windows showcasing beautiful and dark empty space — and the pool.

Lance grins at him. Some of the tiredness faces from his dark eyes, replaced with something alive, excited. “You know, sometimes your brain actually pumps out a decent thought or two, Kogane.”

“Oh, piss off.”

They duck into the room, walking up the side walls like Coran showed them all those years ago, feeling the swoop in their bellies as the gravity changes. Keith barely even pauses to strip down to his boxers before diving into the pool. The cool water is like a balm to his heated, sweaty skin and tired brain. He inhales deeply when he finally comes up for air, and the relief settles like heavy snow in his bones.

“God, that feels good.”

He keeps his eyes closed for a moment, waiting for the telltale signs of Lance cannonballing in, but all he hears is the sound of rustling fabric, then a soft grunt and gentle waves. He turns around to see Lance, down to his boxers like Keith, but sat in the edge of the pool, legs swishing in the water. He still holds the bottle of nunvil in one well-manicured hand.

“You’re not coming in?” Keith questions, swimming over to the side of the pool and hooking his arms over the ledge. Lance scoots back slightly, lifting one leg out from the pool and tucking it under the other so he can face Keith better. He pops the cork — narrowly missing Keith’s eye, which makes him laugh and Keith curse at him — and takes a deep swig, hacking up a lung when he comes up for air. He passes the bottle off the Keith as he wipes his mouth.

“God, that shit is disgusting.”

Keith coughs as the bitter taste coats his mouth. “Yep.”

He hands the bottle back to Lance, who takes only a sip before setting it resolutely down behind him. “Nasty.”

Keith hums. He pushes back slightly from the ledge, tipping his head back as he treads water. He says nothing for a while, sensing that Lance is sitting on something, turning it over in his mind.

“Was it really a total ambush?” Lance asks eventually. His voice is quiet; small almost.

Keith sighs, heavy and pained. “Yeah. Just —” he sighs again, tilting his head back in the water until it covers his ears and mutes all the ambient sound, softens the sound of Lance’s feet kicking slowly through the water. “Just a total ambush. No chance of our victory. Me and Hunk and Pidge, watching everything go to shit.”

He imagines he can hear Lance’s heartbeat, his even breaths. He matches them to the swish of the water, to his own steady heart pounding.

“I’m sorry,” Lance offers. Keith lifts his head so his voice doesn’t sound so far away, meets his soft brown eyes head-on.

“It happens,” Keith dismisses. They’ll have to talk about it later, the entire team, but the slight buzz of the nunvil makes everything soft and fuzzy and easier to handle, so for now he doesn’t worry about it. “How’d it fail with the diplomatic mission, though? You and Allura are usually do good at those.”

To his surprise, a light flush dusts Lance’s cheeks. Keith places his feet in the floor, leaning forward in intrigue.

“No particular reason,” Lance says, obviously lying. “Just a rough one. Happens.”

“Try again,” Keith says, smiling teasingly. “I know that look. Something embarrassing happened to you.”

Keith isn’t honestly expecting him to fess up. Keith probably wouldn’t, in his shoes. But for whatever reason, despite his obvious embarrassment, Lance averts his eyes slightly and mutters something.

“Huh?”

“She wanted to kiss me,” he repeats, way too loud. He clears his throat, flush deepening on his cheekbones. “The, uh, the president’s daughter? Said it was some sort of custom, and that I needed to kiss her to seal the contract. I wouldn’t do it and Allura wouldn’t let them force me, so they walked away.”

Keith frowns slightly at the tinge of self-doubt clouding the Cuban’s voice.

“Good for Allura,” he says emphatically. He holds Lance’s gaze until he’s sure his right hand understands, until he knows that he knows that they made the right choice, even if it was a hard one. “I’m a little surprised, though, Loverboy. Gone are the days where you would have jumped for a chance of that, huh?”

He’s only joking, playing at the way Lance used to brag about all the princes and princesses he’d score with his paladin status, but to his surprise Lance looks slightly uncomfortable, like he’s caught in a lie. Keith narrows his eyes.

“I’ve never actually kissed anyone,” Lance admits, so quietly Keith has to strain to hear, and it takes him a second to process. His eyes widen comically when he does, jaw dropping in shock. “No way. You? Loverboy Lance? You’ve never been kissed.”

Face flaming, Lance ignores him, reaching back for the bottle of nunvil and chugging until he literally can’t stand the taste anymore and gags.

“Hey, hey, slow down! Pass that over.”

Dutifully Lance does, still averting his gaze. Keith takes a quick swig — blegh — before swimming over to place the bottle on the other end of the pool, out of Lance’s reach.

“Cant believe you’ve never been kissed,” Keith mutters, half to himself. It really is a shock. He’s always known that Lance plays up his playboy status, that he plays a bit of a part, but he’s assumed that Lance had no shortage of suitors to sort through. There’s no way a boy walks around with legs that long and a face that pretty and isn’t at least a little aware that he’s gorgeous.

Lance shrugs slightly, eyes trained on a very specific area of the pool, pointedly away from Keith. “Just want it to be special, is all.”

For the briefest, barest second, Lance glances at Keith, before hastily looking back away. His fingers start tapping rapidly on his knee.

Something clicks in Keith’s head.

Oh.

He smirks, widely, tilting his head back and looking at his right hand with cocky, half-lidded eyes.

“Aw, you’ve never been kissed,” he teases, voice a touch condescending, making it clear that Keith had definitely been kissed, and it’s cute that Lance hasn’t.

Lance scowls, refusing to rise to the bait. Keith smiles wider, letting some of his blatant fondness bleed through the playfully. He lifts his arm from the water, splashing getting Lance attention, and crooks his finger, beckoning. His heart pounds, but he refuses to bow to any nerves.

“C’mere.”

His voice is so quiet that he’s almost convinced that Lance can’t hear him, but slowly he pushes off the ledge, sliding into the water and making his way to where Keith stands, water up to his chest. He comes all the way close, stopping only inches away. Keith reaches over, water dripping rapidly from his arm, and cups his hand around Lance’s cheek. It burns, but Lance doesn’t move, rigid in Keith’s hold, breaths stuttered and short.

Slowly, giving Lance time to move if he likes, he leans in. He keeps his eyes open as long as he can, so he can watch Lance’s flutter closed, watch him sigh, watch him lean close, watch his fingers curl around Keith’s arm, watch the freckles over his nose and the water droplets of the pool dotting his brown skin. He keeps his eyes open until his lips finally touch Lance’s, gently, softly, reverently.

This kiss is not long. Barely lasts two seconds. But Keith’s belly is flip flopping, and his heart is pounding, and when he pulls away he stays, for a moment, an inch from Lance’s face, just to watch his eyes flutter back open, hazy, dark.

“Hope that was special enough,” he murmurs, trailing his hand down Lance’s bare ribs, down his waist, resting on his hip for just a moment. Lance shudders.

“Yeah,” he whispers, glancing at Keith’s lips like he’s longing to press them to his again. “Yeah, it was.”

———

based on this post

[lolabearwrites]

I almost wanna rewatch Voltron just for the first 2 seasons so I can experience fond memories of Voltron again. Like, ah yes, this is why I'm brain rotting about this series.

but I know I'll get sucked in again and I'll end up rewatching the whole show, just to end up right back here.