#but... situations... time... dreamworks back to messing with us again

[campbenji]

trailer aside, just the fact that there's no official release date yet is killing me bc i would really love doing some sort of countdown event for jwct but this is keeping me from planning anything

[incorrigible-groupie]

Actually, the ends weren’t that bad (a TPN/TOA essay)

So.

There are two series that ended recently and which had a lot of impact for me but also a very controversial end, like there are some wars between fans who argue about if the end was good… or not.

And me ? I really want to believe that The Promised Neverland (the manga, obviously) and Trollhunters have very coherent ends.

You’re probably wondering « why putting these two together ? » and I have a reason, multiple reasons actually. Of course, there will be spoilers of The Promised Neverland and the entire Tales of Arcadia saga (Trollhunters, 3Below, Wizards and the movie Rise of the Titans).

First, Promised Neverland. 

And mostly the character who made a lot of people cringe even before the last book : Emma. Cringe because, for some fans, she isn’t someone you can relate with because she isn’t realistic… in every sense of the word.

She is too perfect or at least too perfectly programmed for the plot whisky is not entirely true ! « She is too kind ! » well… maybe not ? I don’t think all her actions were driven by kindness. 

She is too clever to be the naive kind of kind. 

And don’t tell me that if she was that clever, she would have noticed that her orphanage was a farm because… she probably was in denial. Also, how would she imagine that monsters were waiting for them outside ? Maybe she didn’t see, maybe she didn’t want to see. But anyway, when she discovered the truth, her first thought was to get everyone out. EVERYONE.

Of course, there are her family, she won’t let them… but she did have to let some of them because it would have been too complicated, so that prove that she isn’t just a naive idealistic.

She wanted to fight, first for her family, then for every kid of every farm, because that wouldn’t be fair if her kids stayed alive and not the others. Then she also want to save every monsters, because that wouldn’t be fair since they didn’t choose to have to eat meat.

This is not about being kind, this is about being fair. This is about responsibility and guilt.

Emma doesn’t want to save everyone because everyone deserve to be saved or something cute like that, she would have killed less people or monsters otherwise.

She wants to save everyone because she doesn’t want to feel as bad as the people, as the monsters who hurt her and her family. She doesn’t want to be a monster.

When she understood, and ONLY WHEN she understood what it means to hunt, she realized how thin was the line between her enemy and herself so she doesn’t want to live knowing people lived horribly because of her. 

She didn’t want to live with that on her conscience.

And… I think this is kind of selfish ? She doesn’t do that because it’s right, she does that because she wants to be better… I don’t know. She took a lot of risks, for her and for a friends just so she won’t feel that guilt.

But the others don’t care that the mutants die, only Emma who is really clever like I said before understood and was like « yeah so no we need to find a solution or it will haunt me for the rest of my life ». This is more like a perfectionist thing that a kind thing.

Which is… logical for a character like Emma.

Really the characters in the manga are very well-written, especially Isabella who has such a dignified way to die. It was a good end for her, very symbolic, even if I’m very sad about it. When she betrayed the blond guy, I was pleasantly surprised but at the same time it made sense like, it’s very consistent, everything is consistent even if we started with a complex project. Ending the meat industry ? Save all the children ? And Isabella’s end shows how the real villain of the story are the one who benefit from the system (which says a lot about our own society).

But Emma, actually, became « queen » of the system when she made the new treaty, she literally created a new system so… welcome responsibilities while she was only 14. Will she benefit too ? Or even take advantage ? But how could she after everything she learnt, and mostly after so many people sacrificed their lives so she could reach her goal ? Did she deserve it ?

How could she live with that on her conscience ?

The answer is : she can’t. She isn’t that strong. She isn’t that positive. She isn’t that perfect.

And destiny (haha) gave her a solution on a silver plate. Not by surprise like a Deus Ex Machina since we knew there would be a counterparty which won’t be too violent because Emma cleared the path. This was an equivalent exchange. THIS IS LIKE FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST ! (By the way, why does everyone think TPN’s end was too easy while in FMA, the best manga of all time, the solution to get Alphonse’s body back was in Ed’s hands… LITERALLY !).

Anyway.

The demon offered to lose her memory, thinking she would refuse because she would be alone, separated from her family which is… euh… stupid… I mean… have you seen Your Name ?

People who are meant to be together will find each other.

Moreover, Emma was so relieved because it was solving all her problems : nobody dies, everybody goes to the other world, nobody sacrifices themselves, and the guilt she was afraid to live with ? Gone. I think Emma was also relieved to be like « yes, I have a second chance, now I will live a normal life ». And it was selfish because it seemed like she said « so guys I will send you to another universe I know nothing about after I brought you into this mess but now you will deal with it yourself everyone ! ». That was… a little cowardly ?

And the worst was that every encounter she made, every lesson she learnt, she lost them…

Well, thinking about that…

TROLLHUNTERS !

Trollhunter’s end was… hard. And gave me a bitter sensation since not only we said goodbye to our favorite characters but we also genuinely said goodbye to the show. Even if we wanted to watch the show a second time, it was kinda deleted (along with Anton Yelchin acting…) ? 

Yes, it’s hard… but isn’t it ballsy to do a scenario like this ? And we could have expected this, it’s not the first time we talked about time travel in this saga. And for gods sake at the very beginning of the movie there were a lot of things that shouldn’t happen. The train’s crash in New York, the Titans probably crushing people, the bridge being destroyed, and all that jazz… Can you imagine how Jim should have lived with all of this besides everything else he had lost ? And then, Toby died (which affected me more than I imagined).

But it’s not Toby’s death that made Jim want to change everything, it was just the last straw. The last thing that wasn’t supposed to happen. After all, if it was written that Jim was given another chance, if Naru saw that Jim would have to get back, to go aaaaall the way back, there must have a reason, or multiple reasons. Do you think humans could live normally after everything that happened ? Do you think humans and trolls could coexist ? I’m not sure, not after that kind of damage. And Arcadia was destroyed ! The HeartStone, the center of the universe, was destroyed too ! I think even if Toby survived, the end wasn’t that bright…

And the time-travel wasn’t a Deus Ex Machina either because otherwise it would have been a « and then BOUM everything is back to normal and everything is ok » situation, which isn’t… 

We don’t know what will happen. 

Jim will do everything so it’ll be okay but maybe he will make some mistakes. Vendel may not survive, maybe they will take more time to kill Gunmar, Aaaaaargh may be turn to stone again… we don’t know. And I think everyone in the fandom is pissed because of that. Because we don’t know. And I do understand : this is not the end, not a conclusion, not a great finale, more like the beginning of something we won’t get to see (like a legacy?), which is both great and very very sad for us. I hope Dreamworks will do comics or books…

But also, I doesn’t mean that nothing will be like before. There is a lot of things Jim has no control of. For example, what happened to the extraterrestrials, Jim knew nothing about it so he can’t change a thing. And for the wizards too. And when you think about it, what happens in « Wizards » has to happen. Jim won’t be a troll during that arc but it will happen anyway, it’s supposed to happen because it’s the creation of the Trollhunter, the creation of the Amulet ! And Jim has no idea of what will become because he wasn’t really there.

What is supposed to happen will happen.

Friendship or love, it will happen. Even the relationship between Jim and Blinky, even if Jim isn’t the Trollhunter. OH, SPEAKING OF WHICH.

Choosing Toby as the new Trollhunter is a super idea. Toby will accept his role right away. Toby will love his new destiny. And since he will have Jim’s help, he will be okay. Jim doesn’t want his friends to get traumatized again (I mean it’s cool to learn stuff but do you really need to suffer for that?)(I’M LOOKING AT YOU AGAIN, EDWARD ELRIC), so he will do what he can so things don’t get too heavy. And you know, maybe he want (AND DESERVE) to give a bit away. He probably give the Amulet to Toby because he knew Toby is brave enough to fight even without powers… and because he was tired to bear the Amulet ? Anyway, like I said, everything that is supposed to happen will happen and if Toby isn’t the right Trollhunter, the Amulet won’t choose him.

AH ! And don’t forget that Jim doesn’t need the Amulet to be a Trollhunter ! This is literally what the show wanted to teach us, guys ! If you forget it, it proves that it’s not only the characters who had a reset…

A reset…

Holy guacamole this is exactly like Undertale. This is Undertale’s principle. Jim is Frisk who after taking a Neutral Route wants to do a True Pacifist Route ! This is so cooooool !

Except that, exactly like in The Promised Neverland finale (well, not exactly but like a reversed version of it), Jim decides that everyone forgets everything that happened and take the guilt off their shoulders, as heavy as an armor. He erased everyone’s guilt, except his. That is far from being selfish or cowardly.

It’s the opposite ! These two shows which don’t have a lot in common have finales being negative pictures !

And Jim’s end isn’t perfect either because he still has the world on his shoulders (a little less because he isn’t the Bearer of the Amulet, but still a little more because he knows what happens if it goes wrong). 

He is still the Young Atlas because even if the characters in the shows won’t live the same thing, they will still be the characters we knew, the characters we saw growing, the characters as brave and as strong as we used to see : like in Undertale, « despite everything, it’s still you ».

And to everyone who says to me « yeah but it will go wrong because when Merlin shows Jim the future where he isn’t the Trollhunter, it was shit », well : NO.

Jim stays a Trollhunter, he said so ! And I mostly think (since the moment I saw this episode) this all thing was an illusion, not a real future, because Merlin is a real piece of garbage and I was only sad for Douxie when Merlin died (otherwise, I would have celebrate it). And I think Jim knows it too, that it wasn’t real.

By the way, I hope they will find another way to not say « For the glory of Merlin » anymore, I loved the new version of the Amulet in the movie (AND JIM LOVED IT TOO).

All of this just to say that : these endings, even if it’s very frustrating, make sense.

Of course, saying goodbye to so many things I cared about for years make it difficult to assimilate it, but that also means that I really loved it.

And in the end, it showed these two characters flaws, these perfect, pure, way-too-nice characters with too many responsibilities and a huge desire to survive, but who are being selfish for once by taking a clean start.

But they’re doing it with their pockets full of determination… proving how humans they are.

And I really will miss them.

Ready ? Set ? Go !

[imaginesixguys]

Matsuno has been kissed on his cheek, by his crush. Reaction?

 A cute, simple one to start off with! Thanks anon!

Osomatsu

If Osomatsu got kissed on the cheek by his crush he’d be over the moon basically. I mean we’ve seen how he reacts in canon even getting a super short hug from someone he likes and it was essentially the equivalent of flustered keysmashing. He’d get a really deep blush, his eyes would turn into hearts or spirals and he’d start stammering and grinning like an idiot, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, all that stuff. Honestly I think he’d be pretty sweet about it. The boy is all talk so when it comes to someone actually showing him physical affection, he’d be super flustered. I don’t think he’d fluster quite as bad as Choromatsu or Ichimatsu though, but he’d definitely get butterflies. He’d probably be tempted to hug them but decide against it if he’s still in the crush stages. I honestly believe that when Oso genuinely cares about someone, he does take measures to try not to be too forward aside from like “haha what if we put our minecraft beds together lol�� jokes.

I think once he managed to calm down from the kiss, he’d try and play it off casually or make a joke about the situation to try and make his crush less obvious. He’d definitely be thinking about that cheek kiss the rest of the month though.

Karamatsu

Karamatsu can be difficult to get a read on sometimes but I think if he were kissed on the cheek by a crush he’d be very, very internally flustered but remain rather “unchanged” on the surface. However, unlike Jyushimatsu and Todomatsu who would be good at not drawing too much attention to it, Kara’s a different story. There’d be an obvious blush and some sweating, as is the case with all of them, but he would immediately use the opportunity to draw a ton of attention to the fact you just kissed his cheek, even with a crush. He’d be absolutely ELATED that someone took time to show him physical affection and make a huge deal about it. He’d give a “Heh”, push his sunglasses up and then immediately say something like, “It seems as though my Karamatsu [blank] is quite affectionate today!~ How lucky for me... Heh...”

While I do think Karamatsu is actually pretty easy to fluster, I also think he’s just gotten so good at masking how he actually feels that he’d be able to hold a pretty good poker face, even around a crush. Like he would obviously be flustered and would probably later sigh to himself and clutch his chest and romantically yearn and pine and be all cute and lovey dovey once he was alone, but in public or around someone he’s really trying to impress, he’s going to keep his Dreamworks or “Bishie” face on... Or at the very least try his damndest to. If you noticed, he doesn’t change his expression very often when he’s trying to come across as “cool” or “likeable”, again, unless it’s to give himself shiny bishie eyes.

Choromatsu

Choromatsu is very easily flustered, if he got a kiss on the cheek from a crush he’d be a complete wreck. He’d be blushing, heart eyes, sweaty, the works, totally frozen, totally shocked. I mean he’d react pretty much the same to how he reacts to cute people in the show, minus the fanboying. I guess how he acted with Iyako is a good basis really. He’d probably gasp and like freeze up, have no idea what to say but look completely flustered and shocked, deep blush, super wide eyes. It’s probably not something he was expecting at all, even if you are his crush. If you tried to question him about his behavior, all he’d be able to do is stammer and stutter... You’d probably have to wait a couple of minutes before he’d be able to form actual sentences.

If he was talking a lot earlier, he’d probably be much quieter afterwards too once he calmed down, getting caught up in his own thoughts about you. If you tried to question him about it once he had calmed down he’d probably still stutter but at least be able to explain that he isn’t used to physical signs of affection. He’d probably be very apologetic.

Ichimatsu

Oh poor Ichimatsu... Like Choro he would also be a wreck, except even worse. Out of all of the Matsus, I feel like Ichimatsu definitely flusters not only the most easily but the most violently as well (and no I don’t mean him being violent, I mean like... He’d foam at the mouth or pass out or catch fire... Something like that). Aside from the blushing, there’d probably end up being some gag where he just... Dies. He’s so overwhelmed, he just dies. It’s okay though because he’d be alive again almost immediately after. If he got kissed on the cheek by his crush, he’d be absolutely shocked and in complete disbelief... In fact it might take him a bit to register that it happened at all and assume it was just some super lifelike daydream. If it did register though, he’d be a complete mess the rest of the day, and extra scatterbrained for the rest of the week. Since he’s someone that thinks so little of himself on top of being touch-starved and inexperienced with anything dating-related, he’d probably still have some trouble believing it happened even if it obviously did. He wouldn’t bring it up again or acknowledge it unless you started kissing him on the cheek consistently.

He’d definitely react to it the most overtly, but at the same time he’d also be the most likely to be in denial that it actually happened. Ichi is someone who takes a lot of convincing in the early stages.

Jyushimatsu

Jyushimatsu is an interesting case. He’s one of the few Matsus where we sort of have an idea how he acts in a romantic relationship, but of course there’s still inquiries to be made. If he got a kiss on the cheek from a crush, I think he’d react comically, like think blowing steam out of his ears or getting those cat eyes he does. Still, even with the comical response, I don’t think he’d actually fluster quite that badly. He’d do a “WOOO FLUSTERED” sight gag to make you laugh, but Jyushimatsu seems surprisingly calm and well-adjusted when it comes to interacting with potential love interests. Yes, there’s the “HARDTY” joke and his penchant for yelling inappropriate things carelessly, but for the most part (especially with someone he’s interested in), he’d be pretty civil.

Aside from the comical reaction, I don’t think he’d mention it or acknowledge it afterwards for fear of seeming like a “creep” or something. He’s surprisingly respectful with potential love interests, though if he's known said crush since childhood he’d be more apt to make dirty jokes or say stupid things since his guard would be a little more down.

Todomatsu

Todomatsu, per usual, would react to it the most “normally” at first glance. He’d play it off very casually and maybe even turn it into an attempt to flirt back, kissing your cheek and saying something like, “Now we’re even!~” He’d try to be cute about it of course and on the surface he would seem very calm and collected about the situation, but internally... 

Internally he is still a Matsu, and thus at some point would politely excuse himself to use the bathroom only to go in there and lose his absolute mind. It’d be very similar to the scene in the Sutaba job ep where he goes into the employee background and does his whole “BINGO!” shtick. As much as he likes to act calm and collected for the sake of not coming across as socially inept, he still can’t help but get excited by the rare chance at physical affection. He’s just as strange and hilarious as the rest of his brothers but is admittedly a lot better at seeming collected on the surface. 

[a-master-procrastinator]

Tag! Get to know me!

Rules: Always post the rules. Tag 11 new people you’d like to know better!

Tagged by @verbose-vespertine, thanks!

Tagging (geez, it’s not even 7 people, i don’t know anybody): @swtorpadawan, @jedi-master-megan, @oakstar519, @shabre-legacy, @icertainlydidnotexpectthis (no pressure, of course, and forgive me if you’ve been tagged before)

1. Dogs or Cats?

Cats. When I was a kid, I was afraid of dogs. I don't know why. Over time, I've outgrown this fear, but I still prefer cats. They're cute, even when they're annoying by scratching the ceiling.

2. YouTube celebrities or normal celebrities?

I don’t follow celebrities at all (Keanu Reeves memes don’t count).

3. If you could live anywhere where would that be?

A place with a continental or harsh continental climate. That is, a warm enough summer, but not hot (for me even +25°C is already hot), and cold winter (bc I like winter). I wish -20-40°C, a lot of snow, and that it lasted at least more than 3 weeks. I think somewhere like Canada or Siberia.

4. Disney or DreamWorks?

Both, I think. Both studios made cartoons that I like.

5. Favorite childhood TV show?

Wizards of Waverly Place, Xena, Phineas and Ferb, Jackie Chan Adventures, almost everything that was on Disney Channel (because I hadn’t much choice).

6. The movie you’re looking forward to most in 2020?

Cats. Ok, I’m kidding. Wonder Woman 1984. And Onward.

7. Favorite book you read in 2019?

I've read a lot less this year than usual, unfortunately. I don't even remember reading fiction this year. Let it be “I morgen var jeg alltid en løve” by Arnhild Lauveng (idk if there is an English name of this book).

8. Marvel or DC?

I’m not big fan of comics, but not because I don’t like them, but bc I haven’t read Marvel ans DC comics, only have seen movies. Judging by movies, both.

9. If you choose Marvel favorite member of the X-Men? If you choose DC favorite Justice League member?

Since I don't know much about them, let it be Wolverine and Professor X of X-Men and Wonder Woman and Flash of the Justice League.

10. Night or Day?

I used to be day person, but this year my sleeping schedule has gone wild, so honestly, I don’t know.

11. Favorite Pokemon?

I haven’t watched or played Pokemons.

12. Top 5 bands/artists:

For next 3 questions remember this: I have a strange taste. In everything.

Mostly I listen to music (movies, videogames soundtrack), not songs. And it’s a list, not top.

Skillet

Imagine Dragons

Queen

Adele (though I’ve listened to only 3 her songs, but I love love love her voice)

Evanescence (I'm just starting to listen to them, but I really like her voice)

13. Top 10 books.

I’m stupid and boring as hell (and also SW fan). Again, a list, not top.

Harry Potter (every one of them, but faves are the Goblet of Fire and the Order of the Phoenix)

Bloodline by Claudia Gray

Darth Bane trilogy by Drew Karpyshyn

Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Greek Myths compilation (can’t say which one. One day I’m gonna read The Iliad)

The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Sorry, can’t remember more.

14. Top 4 movies.

Again, a list, not top (there are more, of course, i had to choose).

Schindler's List

Joker

The Incredibles

Revenge of the Sith

15. America or Europe?

I haven't been to America or Europe, and given my financial situation, I don't think I ever will. I would have visited America to satisfy my inner pop-culture fan (Star Wars in particular), to Europe to study if I had learned the language.

16. Tumblr or Twitter?

Tumblr. I love this weird place.

17. Favorite vacation destination?

I don't even go out of town on vacation (reasons why in 15). Cinema, cafe - these are my best vacation spots.

18. Favorite YouTuber?

zanny. He’s funny (imho).

19. Favorite author?

I don’t have one (but I have a feeling it's until I get to Stephen King and Agatha Christie).

20. Tea or Coffee?

Both. One cup of coffee at morning, after this, depends on mood.

21. OTP?

Poe/Finn, Exile/Atton. I like OTPs, but I’m a mess about them.

22. Do you play an instrument/sing?

When I was in school, I played the violin and sang. I also tried to play the piano, but it didn't work out. Unfortunately, I haven't played music in a couple of years (well, except for the violin performance in 2017, and it was the only time in several years I performed on stage). Now I'd like to go back to the violin and singing and learn the guitar, but that's not going to happen until I move to another apartment. My current apartment has a terrible soundproofing in it.

[yv-sketches]

A long unnecessary post about the Wizards of Once movie

WARNING: MAJOR WIZARDS OF ONCE and TWICE MAGIC SPOILERS

Please do not click read more unless you’ve read it. This is not a cool theory or analysis post. It’s not very fancy either, I came up with this a few days ago while trying to fall asleep. It is just me wondering how in the world Dreamworks will pull off the movie. 

AKA: I’m pointing out all the plotholes that could show up in said movie.

~

There are 3 main character plotlines.

Xar does not have magic.

Wish has magic that works on iron and multiple lives.

The relationship between them and their parents.

The conclusion to these depends entirely on what Cressida will write. 20 bucks that the parents and children will reconcile. Other than that, I have no idea where these will go.

There are also two main story plotlines:

The warrior and wizard tribes are enemies.

The witches have returned.

Now the conclusion to these plotlines should obviously be that the wizards and warriors will work together to get rid of the witches. (Unless there will be a grand plot twist, because I, and httydbooks-doodler as well, do not believe one species is completely evil)

The thing is, that’s quite a lot for one movie. Unlike a series, a movie, especially a first movie, should work as a standalone. Httyd 1 is a solid movie, the two sequels and series are not super necessary to understand httyd 1.

Once (TWOO book 1. My mom calls them Once and Twice because that’s easier, and I caught on) however, is a far cry from that. The warriors and wizards are still enemies. The kingwitch is alive, there are more witches out there and the two main characters split up. You cannot end a movie like that.

~

And that does not include all the subplots, like the Encanzorax (yes that’s what I call the ship now) plot, Bodkin’s crush on Wish, that one wizard that wants to overthrow Encanzo, Caliburn’s previous lives, the fact that Wish has multiple lives, Sychorax’s room full of decapitated heads, the mysterious sword. Encanzo’s black fingernail/backstory, whatever happened to the Sweet Track, all those creatures in Gormincrag that are not really treated, the witchsmeller who is headed for the capital... ect ect ect.

~

They could of course shove Once and Twice together and end with the party at the end of Twice. It would be a pretty solid ending. The witches have been defeated and wizards abd warriors CAN get along, even if it’s just for one night. However, I think that is a very, very, VERY bad idea character wise.

In Once, Encanzo is introduced as this wise, regal wizard king who is frustrated by his sons but also loves them. Sychorax is the scary, clever and tricky warrior queen with lots of secrets. The first half of Twice bends these characterisations a little. Encanzo wants to get Xar out of prison and sasses the Drood commander in a way that Xar would be proud of. Sychorax does care about the wizards, she hired the Witchsmeller to save both tribes from the witches (Not that that was such a great idea) and goes along with the “Help the wizard boy is kidnapping me!” scheme, even though she knows very well that Wish is being a bit of a traitor.

And then comes the story. The story deconstructs EV-E-RY-THING we know about these two. Encanzo was a clever and tricky young man, just like Xar, who saved his sprite even though it got him in danger, just like Xar, and who was not afraid of Sychorax shooting a freaking arrow at him. Sychorax was a nice person, just like Wish, who apparently has horrible, truly evil cousins. She did not care that Tor was a wizard, just like Wish happily befriends Xar, and did the ‘right’ thing (preventing the witches’ return) even if it meant getting rid of ger love.

To introduce, establish and then deconstruct these characters in the span of 1 movie is nearly impossible, especially because these are secondary characters whose story is not one of the main plotlines.

~

Another thing about movies is the tendency to make the main characters cool and appealing. After all, movies are watched by a whole lot of people.

The thing about httyd was: the main characters were a ragtag bunch of misfits. The TWOO characters even more so. Hiccup and Camicazi were very competent, just underestimated.

Xar on the other hand is a magic-less boy with a magical creature squad that doesn’t function optimally, who hides his frustration and sadness behind a huge ego.

Wish is a tiny little thing with a lot of magic that she cannot use yet, severe dyslexia and self esteem issues.

Bodkin is a bookworm pressured by his family to be a Household Defender who faints in violent situations. As bonus: all of them feel like they fail their parents.

Httyd 1 Hiccup was very close to the original, but in all derative and sequel works he has cool armour, a flaming sword, wings and a group of friends.

With mixed writing, Xar could easily become insufferable. He’s already annoying, but in the book we can read his thoughts and feelings and can conclude that he is a good person in the end. If they want a cool girl character (which I feel is a bit of a trend) Wish could become an Astrid. I like Astrid, but it doesn’t suit Wish. Not. At. All. Bodkin could become the comic relief one and his crush on Wish could be like that scene in httyd 1 where Hiccup stares at Astrid with heart eyes.

( I think would have been better left out. Hiccup and Astrid meet during dragon training, Astrid gets suspicious when Hiccup nails it every time, romantic flight happens, Toothless is their secret, they become friends and eventually fall in love. Same result, just without the ‘the girl the main character likes conveniently falls in love with him’)

~

Furthermore, movies usually have three parts. I’m pretty sure there are official charts for that, but here’s my blueprint:

Setting up the story and characters (movie Hiccup not being very viking-y and freeing the dragon he just shot down)

Building up suspense (Hiccup building that new tail fin, acing dragon class and finding the nest)

Everything goes wrong and then everything turns out fine. (The kill ring, Stoick takes Toothless, Hiccup defeats the Red death.)

Once, by comparison is kind of a mess. We introduce Xar and Wish and they meet. (Setting up story and characters) They travel to the wizard encampment. Scary scene where Wish kills a witch (The suspense) Squeezjoos gets hurt. (Everything goes wrong) They travel to the warrior fort. Xar gets thrown in the dungeon and then outwits Sychorax. (The suspense 2) The Kingwitch escapes (Everything goes wrong 2) They defeat the kingwitch (Everything turns out fine ??? )

Parts 2 and 3 happen twice, which tends not work very well on the big screen. And everything is not even fine at the end. I’m pretty sure that roots out a close adaptation.

~

Then there is the main plot. The plot of a movie has to wrap itself up in 100 minutes or so. Httyd’s long plot of ‘Humans can be forgetful and cruel and tend to repeat mistakes, and the efforts of one kind boy are not enough to change the way a society thinks about and acts towards dragons and fellow humans alike.’ (Man that was a crappy description) was changed into “Dragons steal from humans because they have to and the humans do not understand that and fight back.” because the book plot simply doesn’t fit in those 100 minutes. Not even in a triology. The same goes for TWOO, just look at the long list of subplots listed somewhere above. Even if you get rid of all the minor ones, the 5 main plots are already a lot.

~

So the only option is: dramatically change the plot, just like with httyd. Which is not a huge problem. Dreamworks has good writers and directors. It happened once, I’m pretty sure it could happend twice. (Pun very much intended.)

Maybe we’ll have two fandoms again? A book and a movie fandom, who knows? (If that means there will be two awesome, albeit different, series and two fandoms that get along well, I’m game.)

~

The thing about that is: The main factions in TWOO are both humans. In the httyd movies dragons are animal-like and do not speak or think compex thoughts. They could apply the same logic on the witches and make them nightmarish creatures, but not on the wizards and warriors. The httyd movie dragons are controlled by the Red death/Drago’s bewilderbeast/evil dudes working for the tv series villain. Their actions have a direct cause, and destroying said cause turns the dragons back into the peaceful, quirky creatures they are.

The warriors and wizards on the other hand are both human. They think and feel and remember. And there is no way Wish and Xar (both seen as odd by their respective tribes) can convince their ENTIRE cultures to accept each other. Encanzo and Sychorax refused to change at the end of book 2, and it will take a long long while for Xar and Wish to turn that around. All the insults wizards and warriors exchange give a good idea just how bad the tribes think the others are.

“Wizards are barbarians, sleeping under the stars in the company of animals and practising chaos and disorder.”

“Warriors are turnips in tin cans who destroy the forest, steal land and decorate themselves with useless warrior jewelry.”

These tribes are not going to change in 1 movie.

Not in a realistic way.

Not even with a very different plot.

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | Q&A WITH DAVID CHUNG (THE CHUNG)

Artist David Chung’s paintings, drawings and sketches are filled with colorful anthropomorphic characters from sword wielding pandas to rainbow spilling landscapes where skeletal heroes battle fuzzy cute creatures. Drawing from his own experiences and psyche, David’s uses his adorable and hilarious creations to help deal with the everyday stresses of life and as a form of catharsis. We’re excited to feature the work of David and talk about his art, his work as an Art Director at Dreamworks TV, and what new projects he’s got in the works! 

Find out more about David Chung by taking the leap below! 

Photography courtesy of the artist. 

Introduce yourself?   My name is David Chung, but a lot of people might know me as The Chung!! I’ve been living in Los Angeles for the past 11 years now, which technically makes California the longest place I’ve ever lived in my entire life. During the day I work in animation, currently as of this interview, I’m an art director at Dreamworks TV, but at night, I’m my own artist, free to do whatever I want!

How did you get into painting and art as a kid? What kinds of things were you influenced by? I’m not really sure how I got into art as a kid. I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. Much like all kids, I’ve always just enjoyed drawing and making art. I realized early on that I could be as weird as I wanted to be in my drawings, and that was a really liberating feeling. Earlier in my childhood I was raised in Hong Kong and Taiwan but my highschool years were spent in Upstate New York, where I graduated from. I pulled a lot of my influences from growing up in Asia and having a Chinese background, but the subjects and humor mostly came from living in the States.

How do you describe your work to folks who’ve never seen it before? I might describe it like watching an animated kids’ movie with a lot of jokes your pervy parents would appreciate.

You have various creatures and characters throughout your work that we love. Storytelling and humor are elements in your works as well. Can you tell us a little about how each piece evolves? What is your general artistic process like? I’ve been finding myself creating new characters based off of new ways I need to deal with my life at the moment. The characters that are in my work are compartmentalized parts of my psyche or emotions. Being able to take the everyday stresses of life and make cute characters go through it in a more harsh and humorous way is a really effective form of catharsis for me. About 90% of the subjects in my work are autobiographical. The humor in my work is just another way for me to prevent myself from ever taking myself too seriously. If I can’t laugh at my own work, then what’s the point.  

Do you have a main protagonist in your work? And who or what is it? How did it come about? It really depends on what I’m going through at the time of my life when I paint my characters. For example, my XiongMao (Panda) character was created during some pretty rough times. He represents my persistent side to survive. Grimothy (the little reaper dude) and Xiaguai (his little chinese demon friend) are my two mischievous daydreamer characters that are all about ditching their responsibilities to have fun adventures. Pouty Pig is the side of me that throws silent tantrums anytime he is unhappy about a certain situation, which apparently is a lot. These are just some of the few recurring characters in my work depending on how I’m feeling. I even have a few recurring antagonists such as the Happy who are pink soulless zombie-like creatures who roam the earth seemingly always happy, but they feed off of people’s energy like vampires. If you ever let them get a whiff that you’re not happy, that’s when they attack. I think we all know people like this. Right?? They’re the worst. I hate them.

What was your last adventure that showed up in one of your work, thematically or just visually? I do these sketches in my Instagram feed called “Procrast-O-Sketches” that usually follow my most current adventures. The overall sketches can be interpreted however you like, but for myself, friends and family in my inner circle, the subject matter is pretty esoteric. 

A pretty straight forward Procrast-O-Sketch is from Sept 21, 2018. We just moved into our new house in the beginning of September, and about 2 weeks after moving in, my 2 year old kept crying that there is a monster living in the house. He keeps saying it’s a shadow man that “kind of looks like Daddy” but sometimes it turns into a dog-like creature. He’ll be playing and being super happy, then all of a sudden he’ll see his shadow man, then will let out a terrified scream, scramble over to myself or his mom and cry that “The man is back!!” We’ve been trying to turn it into a game now by going monster hunting together, which seems to be helping. At least helping him... I’m terrified as shit now.

What is your favorite thing to draw or paint? I love drawing or painting creatures and characters in familiar situations that are way worse than my own.

What are your favorite tools?  Currently, I always have my little Pentalic Traveler Pocket Journal, a kneaded eraser and a good clutch pencil with me just in case I need a quick therapy sketch session to take out any frustrations. I feel like brands and mediums change all the time, but a good ol’ fashioned pencil and a sketchbook are always constant.

What’s a medium you have yet to try and would love to take a stab at? Oh man, there are way too many mediums I’d love to try one day. I would really like to try oils again. I haven’t messed around with oils since I was in college. I also really want to try out ceramics and bronze casting.

Not only do you draw and paint, you also work as an art director and designer at DreamWorks by day? What’s that like and how did you find yourself working for such a cool company? Dreamworks is a pretty awesome company to work for, and I’m not just being paid to say that. They’ve made me sign a contract to say that. But you know, overall it’s pretty awesome because of the people. I love being able to collaborate and riff off of other artists every day. All of whom are working toward the same goal of making the best looking product possible. I’ve been working in the animation industry for about 10+ years now, and over the past decade, I’ve met some really great people who I know I’d work with again and again like I have in the past. So when a lot of those people who felt the same about me ended up at Dreamworks, I was brought on over, and I’m super grateful for it.

How do you balance your work life with your artistic life? Or are they sort of one in the same? It’s actually pretty easy and difficult all at the same time. I deliberately try to separate my work-life from my art-life because what I do after work, is mine and mine alone. This keeps me from taking anything too personally when there are ridiculous amounts of notes and revisions to be made at work. Nothing is personal, and I’m totally okay with that. My job is to provide them with the work that they want. It’s a lot easier to make revisions when I know that as soon as I go home, I can start working on my own personal stuff that nobody can say shit about. 

The hard part is finding the time to have an art-life after work-life. It usually  means eliminating good health. Fortunately passion usually wins out over sleep, but unfortunately, “usually” isn’t always. Typical days at work can last 10-14 hours, and when I get home, I still want to be able to hang out with my wife and kid, which means I won’t even be able to get started on my own stuff til around 12-1am. Especially lately, due to the monster keeping my son up all through the night.

What are you constantly inspired by? And who are some of your early and current art influences? I’m constantly inspired by life and all of the little idiosyncratic behaviors we have. Human life is so interesting even at its most mundane moments. There’s always inspiration to be pulled from who we are. When I was in the second grade, I saw Alien for the first time in my life on TV. It fucked me up. I needed to know what this monster was. Then I found out about H.R. Giger when I got a little bit older. It wasn’t necessarily the style that inspired me, but the way the he created. It seemed like an obsession that he turned into a profession. I didn’t even know being an artist for a living was allowed! Lately I’ve been super digging Travis Millard (IG: @theotherfudge), Alex Solis (IG: @Alexmdc) and I was recently introduced to Kamila Mlynarczyk’s (IG: @Woodedwoods) work which is pure insanity and I love it so much.

What do you do when you are not painting or drawing? Lately it’s trying to spend as much time as I can with my family and soak as much of it up as I can before it slips away. While doing that I’ve been messing around with photography and filmmaking as a hobby. Filming my son doing weird shit is super fun. He makes a great subject.

What advice would you offer to an aspiring artist who might wanna follow in your footsteps? You gotta want to do it. And not just because you think it’s a good way to make money. You have to want to do it because you love it. That’s really where it all begins. Next step is to just go fucking do it.

What’s your best Art School tip that you want to share with folks? Could be technical or just advice. This is a continuation of my previous response, but it’s important, after you “just go fucking do it” expect to fail. Don’t even just expect it, LET yourself fail. As long as you learn something from it and never stop trying, you’re totally allowed to fail all the time!

What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t an artist or doing anything art-related? This one is difficult, everything I can think of that I’d possibly be doing is art related. I’ve always wanted to be a fiction writer or a filmmaker, but those can be very creative. The other thing is to start my own business producing products for creative enthusiasts.

What are your favorite style of VANS? Every time I end up buying a new pair of VANS, I always end up getting the Authentic style. You can never go wrong with them!

What’s coming up for you the rest of the year that you’re super excited about? I’m super excited about two new toys that are currently in production with Martian Toys and Wetworks. Also there’s a bunch of new stuff I’m trying to launch on my own that I’ve been pretty excited to work on, I just need to find the time!

FOLLOW DAVID | INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE

[fanfics4all]

Let’s get more Personal!

are you under 18? Nope

do you have siblings?, if yes how many? Yep, one!

can you art? I think I can (I can post something I’ve done if you guys want to see)

can you sing? Nah

can you act? I guess so?

turn ons? Funny, Dom, Not really sure what else to say tbh lol

turn offs? People that are dicks!

top 5 favorite bands? Oof this is hard, right now I guess Set It Off, 3OH!3, Get Scared, My Chemical Romance, and Gorillaz

top five favorite singers? Sabrina Carpenter, Machine Gun Kelly, Jonathan Young, Todrick Hall, and Avril Lavigne

least favorite singers? Meghan Trainor, Sia, Taylor Swift, and Demi Lavato. Those are only a few I could think of.

fave artists? Vincent Van Gogh, Leonardo Da Vinci, Tim Burton, I honestly can’t think of that many right now.  

favorite actors? Again I have a few but number one is and always will be Matthew Gray Gubler. Others are Jordan Connor, Richard Harmon, Colton Haynes, Corey Fogelmanis, Rob Raco, Skeet Ulrich, Chandler Riggs, Ross Lynch, Grant Gustin, Mark Sheppard, Cassey Cott, Tom Felton, Evan Peters, Christian Kane, and that’s all I can think of right now.

favorite actresses? Emily Bett Rickards, Ruby Rose, Vanessa Morgan, Dove Cameron, Lilli Reinhart, Kat Dennings, Madelaine Petsch, Madchen Amick,  Um I know there’s more but I can’t think of them :(

how may fandoms are you in? Oof too many probably lol

top 5 fandoms? Riverdale, The 100, Criminal Minds, Harry Potter, and Batman I guess lol

on a scale from 1 to 10, how dramatic are you? Depends on the situation but normally like a 3 probably

can you cook? Oh my god! I love cooking! So yes

a random fact about about you? Um I can sculpt and do SFX makeup!

how many places have you been? Not many, like 7 or 8 states and never out of the country

top 6 shows? The 100, Riverdale, Criminal Minds, Arrow, American Horror Story, and White Collar (I watch way more though)

fave movie franchises? Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Batman (Mainly 1966), Thor, Captain America, DeadPool, Um that’s all I can think of

Disney or Dreamworks? Both but mainly Disney

top 3 childhood shows? Cyberchase, Zoboomafoo, and Bear in the Big Blue House (Going really little childhood shows)

how many schools have you been to? Four so far

somewhere you want to go one day? England, France, Ireland, Russia, and Canada. Probably more but those are the main ones.

straight or nah? Nah

LGBTQ+ supporter? Well I’m Bi so yeah

favorite school subject? Math and Art

least favorite school subject? Gym, is that a subject?

Food? Yes?

books or Tv? T.V. but I do like reading it just takes me awhile because I have astigmatism and they unfocus a lot so it makes it hard to focus on reading.

Spotify or Pandora? Spotify

what are you listening to right now? Youtube videos!

whats the weather like rn? Hot and a little cloudy

are you reading anything at the moment? After You by JoJo Moyes (The second book to Me Before You)

any family problems you feel comfortable talking about? Oh god, my family is a mess. My dad was an abusive asshole and my mom is an alcoholic (My parents are divorced and my little brother lives with my dad while I live with my mom, I still see my dad and brother but very rarely)

how do you feel right now? Pretty depressed tbh lol

thoughts on trees? Trees are rad, I live climbing them but I’m scared of heights so it’s a fun time lol

something stupid you did once? Smoked too much weed and got stupid high

something random in your backyard? We rent so don’t really have a backyard anymore :(

funny childhood story? One time my brother when he was little he decided to take a nap somewhere and we couldn’t find him ANYWHERE, we were yelling and looking everywhere but we couldn’t find him. We tried to lure him out with marshmallows but that didn’t work and this was going on hours. So we called the cops they came they couldn’t find him anywhere and we were freaking out but then he just walked out and took the bag of marshmallows and to this day we have no idea where he was because he wouldn’t tell us. It was kinda freaky at the time but now we look back at it and laugh.

3 random stories about stuff that you’ve done in your neighborhood? I’ve moved a few times so we’ll go with 3 different neighborhoods. 1. We were living with my grandparents (Mom’s side) and there’s a lot of ducks and we were feeding them so I went to feed one by hand and that’s how I learned ducks have teeth. 2. We were living with my other grandparents (Dad’s side) and they had a frog garden thing that made noise, we were walking up the driveway, they didn’t tell us they got a new one and that it made noise. Me and my dad walked past it and it croaked at us, scared the fuck out of me and I ran away. There were potholes in the driveway and I tripped and cut my knee up so bad. 3. Um my friend lived on a dead end around my block and I would walk over to his place a lot (I was like 8 maybe older) and we road scooters a lot, he could do tricks and he wanted to teach me, I failed horrible cut up my knees and hands and face and scratched up my glasses so bad I couldn’t use them.

top 5 musicals? Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Peter Pan (1960), Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hairspray, and Anastasia

musical fandoms you want to know more about? Any really

any instruments you play? No, I played the clarinet in elementary school and broke it haha

do you and your friends ever roleplay or have given each other character names? Does playing a dating sim with a friend count?

favorite comeback? No you

do you have a phone? Yes

have you ever written a story? Oh yeah

O.c.’s? I have a few

S.O.? Ummm it’s complicated

favorite stores? Hot topic, Spencers, um I don’t know, I don’t go shopping much.

are you still in school? No but I’m going back soon (hopefully)

markers or colored pencils? Both but mainly colored pencils!

memes or gifs? Um both!

oil or chalk pastels? Both!

Height? 5’2

Painting? Omg yes, I’ve done some myself, I’m working on one rn and I have one finished (I can post it if you guys want!)

can you give a description of yourself? Short, kinda overweight, colorful hair (changes a lot), kinda big black glasses, hazel eyes, um that’s all I can think of.

description of your personality? A child mixed with a grandma

will you ever reveal your face( if you haven’t yet)? Sure

Anime? Oh heck yes

favorite animes? Owari No Seraph, Future Diary, Diabolik Lovers, Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, Your Lie in April, Black Butler, Guilty Crown, Shiki, Death Parade, and more but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

K-pop? Yeah!

Ships??? Falice 100%, Bellarke, idk I can’t think of any others right now

ships you dislike? None really unless it’s weird and underage.

Children? I want children so bad!

do you have a library? I personally don’t

winter or summer? Winter

spring or fall? Fall

sun or snow? Snow

long or short hair? Short

ice cream or sherbert? Both

rain or bright sunlight? Rain

clouds & wind or heat & humidity? Clouds and Wind

pool or beach? Pool

how innocent are you? Not very tbh

cake or cupcakes? Both

chocolate or vanilla? Both, but depends

something sneaky you’ve done with your friends lately? Smoke weed I guess?

favorite colors? Black and Red

favorite animal(s)? Red panda, Panda, Husky, Pigs (I had one as a pet) Hedgehogs (Also had one as a pet)  

skiing or sledding? Sledding

have you ever ridden a horse? Yeah, my cousin owns two horses so I’ve gone riding with her before

have you ever ridden a train? Yeah but I have a fear of them

have you ever been on an airplane? Yes (Not scared of flying like at all)

Nature? Nature is rad

inside or outside? Inside in the summer/spring but outside in fall/winter

introvert or extrovert? Introvert, I’m so shy

rules/ laws? Um both I guess?

how many friends do you have? A bunch but a small close circle

pants/ shorts or skirts? All three but mainly pants and shorts

Dresses? If they’re weird

video games? Oh yes, I love video games

fave holiday? Halloween

least favorite holiday? Christmas and 4th of July

[dappledpetals-blog]

SEASON 3 PREDICTION

All right, let’s not get into the whole chit-chat and let’s fricking do this because I have like a few days and I’ve been procrastinating but it’s time for action.

So, season 3 is very highly anticipated by the Voltron community. There have been so many leaks, it’s been a roller-coaster, and I honestly can’t wait to see what the creators will do with the series. But, in the end, I’m just too impatient to wait that long, so I’m going to try and predict what will happen in Season 3. Can I accurately predict an entire season? Probably not. Am I going to try? Obviously. Why else would I make this? Okay, I’m rambling, let’s do it.

First of all, the Lions. Since Shiro is gone (but never forgotten), Voltron’s order will need to be changed. Of course, there’s some leaks and confirmation already (I’m late lmao) but in the end this is most likely, if not yet officially confirmed, what is going to happen- Keith will move to Black, Lance will move to Red, and Allura will begin to pilot the Blue Lion- just like the older series in which Legendary Defender is derived from.

Of course, let’s devote a little bit to talk about the Lions themselves. Throughout the series, we’ve known that the Lions have a mystical bond with their pilots that “Cannot be forced,” according to Allura in the first episode. A pilot’s quintessence (their spiritual energy, or something along those lines) must mirror their Lion. Therefore, we can assume that a Lion’s pilot is someone who has been chosen, not forced or just ‘oh, I was there so let’s do it’. It’s something that cannot be forced and is inherent in the beginning.

So, if this logic is true, then that means huge trouble for Voltron. Because all of the paladins were uniquely chosen for their specific Lion; no one else could pilot each other’s Lions like their original pilot can. Which is why I think that Voltron this season will be (statistically) much weaker than in season 2. Not only because the team has been shifted and changed, but also because the Lions cannot truly bond with their new pilots. Again, a pilot’s quintessence must mirror their Lion’s own. Lance’s quintessence probably won’t mirror Red’s, and Keith’s probably won’t mirror Black’s. Allura, having her life force tied to all the Lions, might have a bit of an easier time, but I’m going to touch on that in a little bit.

Because they might have a harder time bonding with their Lions, Lance and Keith might get high-strung emotion-wise. Well, I’ll get exactly to what this will mean later, but we can expect that they will be some of the most high-strung of the team.

Now, Blue. Throughout the entire series, Blue has often been described as ‘the friendliest of the Lions.’ She’s the most accepting of new pilots, the most devoted, and generally the most accepting. By this logic, wouldn’t it be easy to say that she’ll take it all in stride? Hell no!

Because throughout the series we have seen that the Lions are incredibly devoted to their pilots. Hell, Red will freaking destroy everything in the general vicinity if Keith does so much as stub his toe! Red’s probably not going to like this change one bit, but I’m gonna touch on that in a second.

Anyway, Blue might not seem to be as devoted to Lance as Red is to Keith (Blue’s never blown shit up to help Lance), but I feel like she really is. I mean, she waited for over 10,000 years on Earth, in a cold, dark cavern, patiently waiting for Keith to bring Lance over so he would become her paladin. If that’s not devoted, I dunno what is. And in the end, I feel like Blue is devoted to Lance just as much as Red is to Keith, it’s just shown in a different way. Which is why I think Blue won’t like having to give Lance up.

In one of the trailers and leaks (spoilers, btw, but then why would you have clicked this? You should have expected spoilers??), Allura is shown to be walking away from Blue, clearly frustrated, until Blue lowers her barrier. Of course, this shows that eventually Blue accepts Allura, but I don’t think Blue would have done it willingly.

Because Blue might be friendly, open, and accepting, but this is her paladin we’re talking about. None of the Lions, or their paladins, wants to accept this whole situation. And if Red is gonna be really impulsive and Black’s going to stay in a lump on the ground, not accepting anything, then why can’t she not want to change paladins?

Just a cool thought about Blue.

Okay, now going on to Red. How’s she going to react to this? Well, throughout the series we’ve seen Red continually destroy shit to get to Keith. Clearly, she loves her paladin and would do anything to keep him safe. So him having to change Lions and leaving her with someone else? Awful, horrible. Betrayed. Red’s not going to like that one bit.

But what about Lance? How will he feel about this whole thing? I mean, if we’re going to say that Red’s not going to like it, how will Lance feel having to switch Lions with Keith? Keith, the one person who Lance has always been compared to. First at the Garrison, and now by Red. Lance might feel inferior to Keith, left out, a replacement. If the writers want to crank up the angst, then this is one of the things to do it on.

But in the end, I feel like the Lion’s reactions to all of this is something that could be really interesting in the series.  

Okay, but with the new trailer (fucking dreamworks, I have to keep editing this shit because you can’t keep your pants on) it fucking shows that the paladins are still in their original lions. Like wtf, stop fucking turning all of my theories down and just let me live ;n;

Okay, but anyway: Since this new trailer happened, we can assume that the Lion swap is going to happen somewhere in the middle of the season, since in the beginning it’s shown that the paladins are still trying to stay in their actual lions. Just thought you would want to know that.

Now, let’s talk about the paladins themselves.

Now, the paladins are obviously going to be messed up by this. I mean, Shiro, their leader, basically disappeared like a magical unicorn?? Like?? What??? Why would you leave your children like this????

All jokes aside, they’re all obviously messed up. However, I feel as though Lance, Keith, and Allura in particular will be some of the most. Not that I’m dissing Hunk, Pidge, and Coran; it’s just that they’re not the ones who have to drastically change Lions (or in Allura’s case, begin to pilot one.)

Allura will be forced into a completely different situation than she’s used to. I mean, she’s always been known to be a strong, confident leader, helping train Voltron but not really interacting with it. Because, in the series, Allura doesn’t really try to interact with the paladins on a more personal level. While the paladins are becoming friends, working as a team, she just..kind of stands off to the side, leading but never interacting. She doesn’t interact with them in the same way that they interact with each other, putting them on different levels of personal bonds.

Because of this, I feel as though piloting Blue will be harder for Allura. For one thing, she’s never really tried to bond with the paladins, and, as a result, will have to learn to work with them not only as teammates, but as friends. Another thing, she’s always been the leader; the other head of Voltron, if we’re going to go into metaphors. Where Shiro carried out the plans and helped the paladins bond, she was the one behind the plans; keeping the mission on track and forming valuable alliances with the various planets they’ve saved. Since she is now a paladin, she has to get used to being in a different position; a team member, not just a leader. She’s floated above a lot of the paladin affairs throughout the series, and now she has to learn how to be a paladin. How to work with others, how to form Voltron with them. I feel as though this will be a good chance to have some more character development for her, allowing her to grow and accept that she doesn’t have to always be a strong leader; she’s allowed to help as well.

Now, moving on to Keith. Of course, Keith had almost an entire season devoted to growing out his character, revealing stuff about him, and all that stuff. Of course, this is going to hit Keith hard. Throughout the series, we’ve been shown that Shiro and Keith have a very close bond, Keith even going as far to say that he sees Shiro as a brother. Now, keep in mind this is Keith we’re talking about. Keith, while having a personality and not being an emo baby, as well as having a bond with the other paladins, has also been shown to not trust easily. He’s very loyal and very impulsive, but he takes his bonds seriously and is not willing to forsake them for anything. So, showing that Keith sees Shiro as not just a friend, but as a brother, is a huge indication of their closeness.

From what we’ve seen in the trailers and leaks (*glares at Dreamworks*), Keith is very upset about this. From the “hey man” moment to the image of him stalking off from an important meeting, as well as him blowing up at everyone in the newest trailer, he’s been hit hard. He’s even more angry and impulsive now than he was before (if that’s even possible lmao).

But I feel as though as the season continues, he’ll begin to mellow out. Now that Shiro’s gone, he’s got to step up and be the leader (even though he doesn’t really want to.) I feel like this is also a good way for Keith to get some more character development.

Now, Lance. Lance is a character beloved by the fandom, for hundreds of reasons. However, throughout the series he’s always been shown as a ‘comedic relief’ character with little to no development. The closest we see to any insecurities or deeper-laid fears is in the episode “Beta Traz”, where he laments about ‘what if he’s just a seventh wheel, useless and alone?’ Now, I love Lance. He’s a nice character and he reminds me of Sokka from ATLA, but that’s not the only reason for it.

However, getting back to the point, the creators have stated that season 3 will give Lance and Hunk character development, something that the legs of Voltron have been severely lacking. I touched a bit on Lance’s insecurities about his relationship with Red, or at least a possible route in order to overcome his insecurities, but I want to expand on some parts of that.

Lance is a family man. He’s been confirmed to be the youngest in a very large family, with older siblings and a niece and nephew. He’s clearly a very family-oriented person, a ‘great uncle’ (according to the creators), and generally a deeper person than most people give him credit for. But I feel like some of Lance’s better characteristics will begin to shine in this season, offering us (the fandom) the opportunity to see how deep his character really is. Lance’s insecurities might come a bit into play here, but so will his family characteristics. Voltron is...kind of like his family now. They’re all a bunch of people out in space, and you know that Lance really cares about him. All of them.

Now, before I go into this next part about how I feel Lance will help people throughout this season, I want to put out a disclaimer. Since I want to be serious about this and not take all of this information and lean it towards proof for any particular ship, I’m not going to accept any of this information as any kind of relationship. I know a lot of you guys ship Klance, Sheith, or Hance, or a lot of other ships, but I want to keep this information neutral. I understand you guys like your ships and want them to be more clearly stated in the narrative, but at this point I don’t want discourse of any kind on this essay. Therefore, this is going to be ship-free. If you were hoping for no ships, then congrats! You’ve found it! If you were hoping for a particular ship, then I’m sorry to disappoint you. You can choose to process this information in any way that you want, but for the purpose of the essay this will not be inherently any kind of ship. Back to the essay.

All right, back to the essay.

Lance is going to get some development in the season, whether I predict it accurately or not. The way that I see it is that he will help support the team in their time of need, helping to keep them up and making sure they’re alright. This was confirmed in the famous “Hey man” scene, wherein Lance was one of the first to comfort Keith after the discovery of Shiro’s disappearance.

I feel like some of the paladins might have a breakdown, and Lance and Hunk will be there to comfort them. Because they’re the legs of Voltron, and it’s their job to support. But, in a sort of metaphor, the legs of a human aren’t as appreciated as the arms or the head. And if you think about that, it’s kind of true. But now, Hunk and Lance are definitely going to get their character development.

___

All right, now let’s talk about Lotor.

Lotor is going to be...interesting. I don’t know very much about what he was like in the original series (all I know is that he was a walking shitpost who has an obsession with Allura because she looks like his dead mom??? Like?? Wtf??? Go see a counselor??? Do you need help???). However, from what we’ve seen with his voiceovers and what the creators have leaked, he’s going to be a really formidable foe.

From what I’ve seen in the trailers, he will certainly be more crafty. He outsmarts the paladins and is always ‘one step ahead of them’. Therefore, he’s going to pose more of a threat.

Concerning his relationship with Allura, I’m not quite sure. From what I’ve heard, it seems as though Allura might know him from before she was thrown into a cryo-pod, but this is just me reaching for something. Lotor doesn’t give any indications of his relationship with Allura from his monologue, so I can either assume that they do not know each other, or they do. It’s really up to the series lmao.

His generals are also very interesting, but I’m going to touch on the most interesting one in a second. What will they pose? What’s their story? I don’t have many answers, but I’m eager to find out.

Now, let’s talk about the most interesting one.

Now, in the generals, there is one Galra lady who bears a certain resemblance to Keith himself. A lot of people have said that she’s Keith’s mom, but others have stated that she’s Keith’s sister. Now, from her age and the way she looks, I am more strongly inclined to believe that she’s Keith’s sister (if anything). However, this could just be me reaching.

Because really, we don’t actually know Galra’s life-spans. Zarkon’s survived for thousands of years, but Haggar is Altean and did almost the same. Is this an indication that Galrans can survive for thousands of years? Personally, I head-canon that Galras have a longer life span than human beings do, so it could be possible for her to be Keith’s mom if this theory is fact. But, I can’t really say much more about that subject.

Now, let’s get to the juicy part. Shiro and Matt.

Basically, Shiro’s gone. He’s run off again, that little shit. But where did he go? That’s the million dollar question.

Going along with what the show has laid out, there are 2 places he could be in the series:

In the astral plane

With Matt

Now, the Astral Plane (for those of you who aren’t familiar with the name, it’s the place Shiro went to when he was talking to Black where he had that epic fight with Zarkon) is a mysterious and unknown place. All we really know about it is that it’s connected to the Black Lion, if you die in it you die for real, and it can be accessed through a strong bond with the Black Lion.

Having Shiro end up there would be a neat way to not only give us more information about this mysterious place and what mysteries it holds, but also a way to securely tuck him away for the purpose of the narrative.

But, having him with Matt is also interesting. Because if that happens, Matt is also a part of season 3, which causes some interesting things to happen. Matt, being the object of Pidge’s search, would be interesting to have him be introduced so soon. Because (and this might be the angst talking) I kind of want Matt to be introduced a bit later, for that sweet angst amiright lmao.

Anyway, I can’t predict what’s gonna happen in Season 3, but this is all I have. I wrote this in like hours with a huge headache so you’re welcome lmao. Have a nice day!

[themusicplayedherlife]

Take a Chance (Part 7)

pairings: Steve Rogers x Reader characters: Reader, Steve Rogers, Steve’s Parents, Your Mother, Wanda Maximoff, Natasha Romanoff, Sharon Carter (briefly) word count: 2,025 warnings: none? a/n: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ summary: AU! After a one night stand at a friend’s wedding, you gain something that could possibly change your life and views on life for the better or worse

Prev||All Parts||Next

Have you ever pretended to faint? Just decided that fainting was the only possible solution to get out of an upsetting and awkward situation? No? Well, now you have.

It probably wasn't one of your best ideas. What if Steve hadn't caught you? You most definitely would be feeling that fall for days. And your baby? Oh god, you don't even want to think about what would've happened!

“Oh my! Is she okay?” you hear Sarah fretting, the genuine worry almost makes you want to stand up and yell, “surprise!” just so she wouldn’t worry anymore. “Should we call an ambulance?”

Steve is cradling you against his chest, the two of you on the floor. Not a very comfortable position but you have to suck it up, at least until they leave and you won't have to hear any more talk about marriage.

“I--I don't know!” Steve’s hand cups your cheek gently, patting it softly as if that would wake you up. Obviously it wouldn't.

“What have I done?” Steve’s dad cries, the sound of feet pacing the floor following his words. “Was I too harsh?” Your eye twitches.

Was he too harsh!? “Were--were you too harsh?” Steve mimics your thoughts and a sort of giddiness overcomes you. Baby daddy is so in sync with you! Look at him! So proud of him! “You're giving us an ultimatum, dad! Of course you were too harsh!”

Before a fight could escalate, Sarah interjects strongly, “Maybe we should take (Y/N) to her room, huh? Do you have any alcohol?” 

Your mother sighs, “She’ll be fine.” 

Oh. She knows you're faking. Or else mother hen would be all over you. Might have even fought Steve off just to be the one holding you.

“Are you sure!? What if she doesn't wake up and--”

“She’ll be fine,” she repeats firmly. “But taking her to her room is for the best.” 

You feel Steve shift, an arm hooking under your knees and the other stabilizing your upper torso. You almost give away that you didn't faint by wrapping your arms around Steve in panic, having not expected him to be able to carry you so easily. Man has some strength!

“Oh, oh! Careful, Steve!”

You hear Wanda and Natasha snicker, most likely murmuring jokes about your current position. They knew you were faking too, or else they would have agreed with Sarah to call the ambulance.

Your friends and family know you too well.

You feel Steve shift again, and soon you're being lowered onto the familiar comfort of your bed.

“Are you sure we shouldn't be worried?”

“I promise you she's fine, Sarah. C’mon, let's give her some time to rest. Wanda, Natasha, why don't you girls stay and watch over (Y/N)?” 

“I’ll stay too.” 

“It's okay, Steve. She's in good hands, don't worry.”

It's quiet and you assume Steve is thinking about it. After a few more seconds, he sighs and relents. You hear them leave your bedroom and the door click shut.

“You can stop pretending now. They're gone.”

“God, you're so dramatic,” Natasha snorts.

You open your eyes and slowly sit up, smiling sheepishly when you're met with the amused smiles of your friends. Natasha has her arms crossed over her chest and a leg propped out, shaking her head slowly. Wanda takes a seat at the foot of your bed, her right hand propped on the bed as she leans forward.

“You really gave them a scare,” Wanda tries to reprimand you but it's half-assed and not at all concerned. 

“I didn't know what else to do,” you groan, laying back down on your bed. “He's the Joseph Rogers!” 

“And why is that important?” Wanda asks, curiosity laced in her words.

“Because,” Natasha starts, “he’s the founder and current CEO of Freedom Media, one of the biggest digital networks to exist.”

“I still don't understand. What does that have to do with you guys?” Wanda asks, eyes moving from Natasha to you, and back. You don't blame her, she’s never needed to know how your blog runs or the business behind it. She only knows the basic and what she sees you and Natasha do, but that is it.

“Freedom Media partners up with a lot of creators, like us, giving them the support they need to continue running their blog as long as they have a share in their creative endeavor. They usually don't have a huge say in the things we post or do, but they do play mediator between the creators and sponsors. Especially when it's mutually beneficial.

“And they don't just partner up with bloggers or YouTubers, or anything of the like, they also create themselves. They’re basically up to par with Disney and Dreamworks when it comes to animation. Been producing a lot of good shows and movies as of late, too.” 

“So if you don't get married to Steve, you basically lose all of the support you've had from them and the connections you've made through them?” Wanda questions you after processing Natasha’s information, tilting her head to the side. 

“Not exactly,” Natasha answers nonchalantly for you, making your eyes snap in her direction. “We’ve put in a lot of hard work in that blog and gained a lot of love and support in return that I know for a fact that we don't need them. I think the only thing we would have to worry about is terminating our contract with them.” While she's right, she's making it sound easier than it truly is. Getting out of a contact with Freedom Media is like accepting social suicide. Sponsors won't be as interested without the backing of such a huge network, no matter how big your brand is. You would most likely struggle to get sponsors to trust in the blog rather than those who once helped you run it, but it could happen… Eventually. You have enough resources and connections to help you out of the awaiting funk the blog will most likely fall in if you choose to go against Steve’s dad. Then there's also the legal battle that will ensue if you terminate your contract with them, a contract that still has three years left. “But I can't say the same for Steve.” 

Your eyebrows furrow and you're back to sitting up, eyes never leaving Natasha.

“What do you mean?” Wanda voices your question, curiosity lacing her words. 

She plops down on your bed, making you and Wanda lean closer to her. “Okay, so after we found out who Steve was, I did a little research on him. His company is majorly funded by Howard Stark and Joseph Rogers. Which I found strange.” 

How is that strange? “Why? They're their dads, they're obviously going to care about their son’s business.”

“Not when they don't get along. Howard and Tony are rumored to be at each other's throat all the time and there's a lot of speculation that the only reason Howard even invested in Avengers Tech is because Joseph did. Which isn’t really speculation anymore since he basically confirmed it earlier.”

“So if they both pull out…”

“They lose a lot of funding and support. And while they might be making a name for themselves, it isn't enough. Not for a tech company with their ambitions.”

Oh god. And here you were, more worried about yourself and your job that you didn't even realize what Steve would be going through.

“Is it that bad of an idea to marry Steve?” Wanda winces when you glare at her. “I'm just saying. You did say he was a decent guy.”

“You know how I feel about marriage,” you cringe as you say the word. “Decent or not, I do not want to marry him.” And it might be harsh to say after learning what you did about his company, but you weren't about to go against your own feelings because of that. “We can co-parent without a piece of paper binding us together.” 

Wanda and Natasha share a glance before returning their gazes back to you.

“So you're okay with your baby daddy being in deep shit?” Natasha gaze turns hard and critical, a perfectly groomed eyebrow arched in your direction as she waits for your answer. “Okay with the fact that he might not be able to financially support your child in the future?”

You duck your head, “No…”

"Then talk to him,” she says. “This isn't just about you anymore,” her eyes flick to your stomach. And you know she's right. It hasn't been just about you for a while now.

“Plus,” Wanda starts, “he is pretty hot. I wouldn't mind waking up next to that every morning.”

The next morning, after ignoring countless worried texts from Steve, Natasha picks you up after you call her. It isn't that you want to ignore Steve, in fact, you really want to talk to him. You need to hear his opinion on this messed up situation you're in, after all. It's just that you don't know how to respond to his worried texts. A simple: “it's okay” doesn't seem like it’ll be enough and a detailed response seems like too much. And you are obviously not going to tell him that you didn't actually faint. Best keep that to yourself. Forever.

But after speaking to your mother and sister last night (which was really just a lengthy scolding from your mother), they encouraged you to go over to his place and talk to him in person, promising you that they’ll support you in whatever you choose. Though, your mom did drop a lot of hints about having taken a liking to Steve, even if she thinks his dad is a douche.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Natasha asks you after you tell her to make a turn.

“Weren't you the one that told me I should talk to him?”

“Well, yeah, but I didn't think you'd talk to him this soon. I thought you'd maybe talk to him after a couple of days or something.”

“The clock is ticking,” you mumble, keeping an eye out for a parking space. Steve’s apartment building is just up ahead, looming over the wide open street. “There's a space right there.”

Natasha starts parking the car when you notice Steve stepping out of the building. You’re about to shout a greeting as he holds the door open, most likely for one of the tenants, but then a beautiful, tall blonde steps out of the building, stopping right in front of Steve. An image pops up in your mind: the picture on Steve’s phone from that night, the maybe Sharon. You immediately shut your mouth and slump into your seat, hoping to slide down and not be noticed by either of them.

Why is she here?

Noticing your sudden change of mood, Natasha turns to you after turning off her car. “What? What's--” she doesn't finish her question, her eyes moving to the entrance of the building and immediately spotting your baby daddy and his ex or lover or whatever she is. “Who is that?”

You both watch as they speak a little more, Steve smiling brightly and genuinely, and you realize that you have never seen him smile like that. Granted, you haven't known him for that long but still. He's the father of your baby! Shouldn't you know every side of him? Seen every side of him? “Sharon.”

“Oh, hell no,” you hear the click of her seatbelt as she speaks, her voice lowering dangerously. You turn to her, panicking slightly.

“Nat, what are you doing?” She doesn't answer you; instead, she just opens her door and starts striding towards the couple. “Tasha! Nat! Natasha!” you call her name repeatedly as you try to clumsily unhook yourself from your own seatbelt. When you're finally loose and stepping out of the car, Natasha is rounding the hood of her car. “Nat, wait! Wait! At least wait until she's gone!”

As soon as you say that, Sharon starts leaning into Steve, her head slowly tilting to the side as if she were about to kiss him. Was she? Is she?

“Oh, hell no.”

Tag List for Story (if you wanna be added/removed, send me an ask!): @anyakinamidala @etherealxslytherin @incarcenatedangel @nobodys-baby-now @pacifikaproudaotearoa @lady-thor-foster @on-your-left-marvel @shelvesandwhelves @wildestdreamsrps @bicevans @caitsymichelle13 @alyssaj23 @debzybrazy @jonsnowisnotdeadthough @meatballevans

[indecisive-scribophile]

Pink (Was the Colour of Our Souls): Chapter Two [Blue]

DISCLAIMER:  All characters mentioned in this story DO NOT belong to me. ‘Voltron: Legendary Defender’ belongs to DreamWorks. All rights reserved.

Rating: T Warnings: No warnings apply Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Relationship: Shiro X Allura (Shallura) Language: English Originally Written: 09/08/2017 Spoiler Warnings: General Season 3 spoilers, specifically episodes 2-3 ('Red Paladin' and 'The Hunted')

Summary: Before the festivities to celebrate the successful alliance with the Arusians of planet Arus, Allura bonds with Shiro over the colour pink…and what it means to see pink when she’s with him.

Additional Notes: Hey, so I've written half of the sequel! I didn't want to make this an actual series, so the next half of the sequel will be out soon. Hope you enjoyed!

Pink was the colour of our souls. That didn’t change when Shiro disappeared and I became the new Paladin of the Blue Lion.

It didn’t immediately register with me that I was a real Paladin Voltron. For a long while, I felt like I was lucidly dreaming—like I could do a few loop-de-loops, send Blue into a wall, take the Galra head-on, and still be okay at the end of the day. It was oddly surreal, sitting in the seat of the Lion that both Blaytz – the original Blue Paladin – and Lance had sat in, piloting the same Lion as they had. To be in the same space as both boys had battled against the universe in; to share the same link to Blue as them…it was like a dream come true.

I didn’t fully understand Blue until my first close call with death, thanks to Lotor. Up until Lotor leading us into the planet we later recognised as Thayserix, it seemed like Blue was merely tolerating me, as if she needed a stand-in pilot and I was the only one barely capable of supplying that. Though her blue light surrounded me, her controls didn’t respond in the same way the Castle did. Instead of cooperating with me, Blue did the opposite: her sensitive controls crashed us into the other Lions on more occasions than one, and firing her lasers proved to be a problem when they missed more often than not. With both Keith and Lance in new Lions, more than half the team was out of their comfort zone. We were a disorganised mess; a conglomeration of four in-training pilots and one princess who had been in a Lion for less than a quintent.

Though we didn’t understand it at the time, Thayserix was a planet made of dense gases—red syntian nitrate, to be precise. It is universally known to react violently to light, creating an explosive combustion reaction in response. In addition, the planet’s absurd polarity interfered with our Lions’ sensors because they were unprepared for the heavy change in atmosphere, so communication between each other became inadequate and sparse.

This, coupled with Keith’s inability to stray away from his personal morals and properly lead the team, resulted in Lotor further ripping the tears in the already damaged fabric of our team. If he was anything like his father, then he was set out to disband our team and capture Voltron for himself. Our feelings were insignificant in the eyes of that wretched Galran; we couldn’t expect him to care and spare us. He found loopholes in our cooperation and took advantage of the fact—just like any true villain would. And I couldn’t blame him.

It seemed like everything was going wrong: Keith was being impatient and impulsive; he, Lance, and I were adjusting to our new Lions; Lotor was hot on our tails. The hunters were becoming the hunted, and I was doing nothing to help the team. Blue wouldn’t properly listen to me, and it seemed that neither would Black nor Red to Keith and Lance. Pidge and Hunk were the only ones with their own Lions, but that was no help when our means of communication was rendered redundant.

Lotor backed all our Lions into an outward circle, keeping us on edge. I could make out Keith’s growling through the broken static of the radio, and I could tell the others wanted to leave as soon as possible. But with Lotor outsmarting us and Keith as our new leader, we couldn’t.

“As soon as you see him, fire with everything you’ve got,” was what Keith told us to do. I knew the others – including myself – disagreed with his ‘leadership’, but we had no choice. The moment we caught a glimpse of the dark Galra spaceship, Keith yelled, “Now! Fire!”

But the red syntian nitrate wasn’t having any of that. If we hadn’t have fallen into Lotor’s trap, we would have known that upon fire, the light of our Lions’ lasers would react with the gases and cause huge explosions. Alas, we didn’t. We took the bait—and we paid for it.

I was the one Lotor came after. The blasts our Lions created separated me from the others, so I was the easiest target. Recuperating from the blast, I immediately trembled with fear as his ship stared Blue and I down. I acted fast, frantically finding a little cavern to hide in. There was an incessant pounding in my head and chest as if I was about to burst. But I couldn’t afford to be spotted; if I was, there was no doubt I’d be killed on the spot.

In my position in the little hideout, I could hear the low rumble of Lotor’s fighter ship circling the area I was sat in. He flew by painfully slow, the monotonous droning beginning to resemble the repetitive pattern of one of Coran’s tickers. An irritation was building up inside of me, one that spread from my stomach to the back of my throat. I may have sat in Blue for less than five dobashes, but it felt more like a million decapheebs. Time passed by slowly, torturing me with the fact that I knew my friends could be in trouble and I wasn’t there to help them. Even Blue’s lights within herself seemed to dim down, just like my own self-belief.

“Stay calm, Allura. Think,” I breathily muttered to myself. What would anyone else do in my situation? What would a capable, non-Altean princess fighter pilot do if stuck in the Blue Lion with the son of Zarkon encircling them?

What would Lance do?

He would…he would flirt. With the Blue Lion.

I took a deep sigh and put one hand on my hip, leaning towards Blue’s walls. With a faux, shaky grin, I stammered the only pick-up line of Lance’s that I could remember.

“Hey there, Blue Lion! You know, you’re really activating my particle barrier right now.”

When Blue made no response, I groaned loudly with frustration. I gripped the main levers that controlled the movement of her paws extra tightly, hanging my head.

“Nothing works!” I grunted. I closed my eyes, feeling tears well up behind my eyes. I didn’t mean to, but I began talking to Blue out of desperation. “I’ve tried asking you nicely, and I’ve tried commanding you. What do you want from me?” I choked back a sob, my chest heaving. “I can’t do this. Everyone depends on me. The universe depends on me, but I can’t control everything. I need your help.”

With another sigh, I gritted my teeth. Nothing happened. I let go of one of the handles to wipe away the tears that had formed in the outer corner of my eyes. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be a Paladin of Voltron. If Lance was there, then—no, it wasn’t his fault. He was piloting the Red Lion just fine. But if Keith hadn’t—no, not his fault, either. Although his means of leadership was questionable, I couldn’t place the blame on him. Then, if Shiro was here, then…

Shiro. My goodness. He hadn’t crossed my mind ever since I hopped in Blue. My tongue involuntarily pressed against the roof of my mouth as more tears welled up in my eyes. How weak. If Shiro were here, he wouldn’t give up. He would believe in himself; he wouldn’t let this get him down. He would…

He would fight.

Suddenly, Blue began to vibrate. I opened my eyes—and as soon as I did, they widened, for I was no longer seeing the thick, musky, orange layer of gases before Blue and I; instead, I was seeing…something. I didn’t know what it was; there was nothing like it on Altea. There was some kind of bright blue liquid that filled my vision, waves of white and other hues of blue washing about. The waves all toppled in one direction: towards a layer of golden yellow, brighter than the Yellow Lion. The waves washed onto the shores of the yellow substance, discolouring it slightly. Humans dotted the yellow surface, some sitting under parasols to shield themselves from the sun. They were all half-dressed, some with peculiar dark glasses covering their eyes.  

I didn’t know what I was seeing, but it sure was beautiful.

But just as quickly as the vision had appeared, it left. The images of waves and the humans and yellow surface disappeared right before my eyes. I was confused for a moment, but I quickly came to realise that I was back in the Blue Lion—and that vision wasn’t mine. No, it wasn’t a vision; it was too vivid. It must have been a memory. But if the memory wasn’t mine, then…

There was no doubt about it. It couldn’t have been Blaytz’s, for he had never seen a human in his entire life. The memory was Lance’s.

The vibrations started again, this time more violently than before. Before I could say anything, Blue began to move on her own. Her neck raised up and she roared loudly. The blue lights that surrounded me became incredibly vivid, and I felt my spirit brighten with it. With relieved tears in my eyes and a wide grin, I gasped.

“I can hear you!” I cried.

Blue. Blue had heard me. Finally, she heard me.

[eggutamaplz]

Operation Klance Con: Day 2

I said I would upload it here later today, so here it is!

This chapter was written by me.

The Ao3 chapter link is here.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Day 2

It is very early in the morning when Pidge stirs from her sleep, the entire room lit up by a singular Netflix message flashed over the end credits of Big Hero 6 on the TV: “Are you still watching?”

The room is filled with only the noises of soft breathing (or in Hunk’s case, soft snoring) and the air conditioner. Pidge gropes around to find her glasses and her phone, and groans as she turns on the display to check the time, the brightness burning into her eyes. 5:18 A.M., she thinks. Oh well, I can’t go back to sleep now otherwise I’ll just oversleep again.

Careful to not step on her teammates and friends, Pidge maneuvers around their bodies and creeps onto the balcony the hotel room had, providing a view of the convention center and the luminescence of the city. The sky slowly starts gaining an indigo color to signify the birth of another day, slowly consuming the twinkling stars, nebulas, galaxies, and other heavenly bodies in its wake. The moon, however, appears to be untouched.

Quiznak, to think that I’ve been to those same star systems above me, light-years away… and spent years amongst them...

Green sends a nudge in Pidge’s mind.

She chuckles. Of course, you were with me the entire time, girl. Well, after a boat ride with Shiro and a sloth creature, and after a brief separation a little trip to a garbage galaxy. We’ve been through alot together, huh?

Her lion purrs in agreement and a hint of pride.

Pidge stays on the balcony for a little while after grabbing a drink from (*insert names of people who are in charge of the room*)’s mini-fridge, watching the sky’s portrait continue being painted with colors. Not too long after getting her drink, the horizon slowly gains a streak of gold as the sun is reborn from the earth, the wispy clouds a strange yet beautiful silhouette against the canvas.

She heard movement behind her, from where she’s perched herself on a chair. She turns her head to see Hunk, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, shuffling over to her.

“Mornin’, big man,” Pidge says, shooting a two-fingered wave to her groggy newcomer.

“Good-” Hunk yawns. “-morning.” He stretches his arms and back, facing the sun. “Y’know, I really missed seeing the sunrise from Earth. Though we’ve witnessed many different sunrises on many different planets, home’s is-” Another yawn, as he ties his trademark bandana under his bangs and ties the knot on the back of his head. “- still the prettiest to look at.”

“Ditto, both on missing the sunrise and witnessing others,” Pidge replied, giving a yawn of her own shortly after. “Aw great, you’re gonna make me sleepy again from your yawning alone.”

“Oops?” Hunk shrugs while turning around and walking back into the room, passing their roommates for that night. “I might as well start cooki… okay now that’s just adorable.”

He starts grinning and motions with his hands for Pidge to come back into the room. She quirks an eyebrow, but leaves her roosting spot on the chair to look at Hunk is smiling about.

What she sees is pure blackmail material seeing the way her fellow paladins act.

Shiro and Allura are asleep sitting upright at the foot of one of the beds, the Altean Princess resting her head on the Black Paladin’s shoulder, he himself laying his own head on top of her’s. Pidge catches Allura nuzzling into Shiro’s neck, the side of his mouth quirking upward for a second in response. Their fingers are woven together between their sleeping bodies.

The Green Paladin snickers softly as she starts snapping pictures of the scene. “Ohoho, I see Space Mom and Dad have seemed to make advancements other than in battle strategies and technology for once.”

“That’s not the end of it. Look to the right,” Hunk says, gesturing to a place on the floor. He then proceeds to take a box of breakfast sausages out of his bag.

Pidge follows his gesture to be met with Keith and Lance. Asleep side by side, and quite close in proximity that is, their chests basically touching. Not only that, their legs are tangled together, and Keith’s arm is loosely wrapped around Lance’s sleeping figure, as if he was actually trying to snuggle with Lance.

Pidge continues to take pictures. “oh my god, this is too good. Lance and Keith are gonna flip out when they find themselves like this,” she whisper-shouts towards Hunk. “I mean seriously, Keith is like…” She crosses her arm and tilts her head downwards. “‘My name is Keith. I’m so emo, and I’m thirsty for Lance but I don't and will not want to admit it yet and I’m always jealous about him flirting with Allura!!’”

Hunk muffled a snicker behind his hand. “Don’t get me started on Lance about Keith. He’s always ranting about him but honestly it’s more like lowkey whining about how Keith is hot, and I’m pretty sure he means more than just hot-headed. Send me those pictures you took by the way,” he says as he continues preparing breakfast for the team.

The shorter hums in response. “I would continue this conversation, but it’s 6 A.M, and the drive to the con building is pretty far away.”

Pidge produces a wireless speaker from her bag, turns it on, and connects her phone to it. She then goes on YouTube, searches something up, and then clicks on a video.

“Hunk?” Pidge says.

“Yeah?” Hunk yells over his shoulder.

“Brace your eardrums for this and enjoy the show.”

And she turns the volume up to max.

The very start wakes everyone up with a jolt.

Everyone that was woken up let out startled screams and discontented groans, however their sounds were drowned out by the ear rape and Pidge’s hysterical laughter.

The first thing Keith noticed about his position is that oh my god. I slept right next to Lance. There is a blanket. Over our legs. We slept under the same blanket. He then remembers the final minutes before he went to sleep, where Lance laid his head on his shoulder, and very sleepily and stupidly let him be this way, and fell asleep snuggling with him.

Oh my quiznaking god I snuggled with him… lord take me now.

“PIDGE, WHAT THE QUIZNAK?!” Lance screams, now immediately up and on his knees. He, like the others, UCKare severely triggered. “YOU WAKE US UP WITH EAR RAPE AND RICKROLL?! YOU LITTLE SHIT I WON’T HESITA-”

The Green Paladin pauses the ear rape video. “Okay okay, Ocean Man,” Pidge says, raising her arms up in surrender, however a mischievous look plastered upon her face. “However before you kill me, I wanna know why you were sleeping next to Keith all…” She wriggles her eyebrows. “... couple-like.”

Lance quirks an eyebrow, confused. “Huh?” He then looks to his right, and sees Keith, slightly groggy yet wide-eyed, running his fingers through his bed-head mullet (oh god why is that so hot- wait what?), avoiding eye contact with him. Keith was also very close in proximity, and the blanket covering both boys’ legs only contributed to the fact.

Keith had already seemed to notice this and was very red.

Lance himself ended up doing the same.

Oh god oh god oh god Pidge why are you like this does he remember last night? What he did? D- Keith thought, but his racing thoughts were abruptly cut off by a pillow slamming into his face.

When he grabbed the pillow and pulled it off his face, he was met with Pidge and the others, trying not to explode from laughter, save for Hunk as he was already in the buffet. In addition to the laughter, Lance gave a shit-eating grin, but was also seemingly blushing out of embarrassment.

“Oops?” Lance said. “I was just trying to match how much you wanna tap male ass in the form of the force of a pillow hitting you in the face.”

Keith blinked, then in a flash pinned down Lance with a firm push from his palm to the other boy’s chest, that hand slamming on the floor next to Lance’s face once he hit the floor.

Lance, internally, was a fucking mess.

Here he was, pinned down by the Red Paladin after slight teasing, in front of his teammates, who were probably laughing and/or staring at the scene that unfolded in front of their eyes.

Keith, hovering over Lance now, gave a smirk. In a low, slightly flirtatious voice, he said, “Like that?”, which honestly, was doing a number of things to him mentally, and hopefully-not-but-probably physically. He was pretty sure his face was as red as the Red Lion’s body.

The Red Paladin, however, was freaking out. Did I say it like I did that one time in the snowball asteroid field?!

Lance was about to probably combust because of this rare, handsome, really fucking hot (okay whoa there buddy) Keith on top of him, but then he was met with a pillow full force to the face.

The thoughts subsided, replaced with the flame of battle.

“OKAY, IT’S FUCKING ON MULLET. ARE YOU READY TO SURRENDE-” Lance was forcefully hit again with Keith’s pillow.

He flopped on the floor with an abundance of dramatics. “Shiro, I’ve been hit,” Lance wails. “Avenge me, you beautiful 5-year-old!” He then makes choking noises to imitate death. Keith snickers while smothering Lance’s face with his feathery weapon and repeatedly smacking him with it.

Shiro laughs, slowly scooching away hugging his own pillow. “Nope, sorry Lance. I pick and choose battles, and it seems like a personal situation. Sorry!”

Pidge is observing the situation, obviously loving it. “Ha, truly number one in the `Top 10 Anime Betrayals’.”

“Well, we’re technically not an anime, our animation is owned by Dreamworks and Studio Mir, so we’re more like anime-inspired. Actual anime is animation straight from Japan,” mumbles Coran, watching from the sidelines.

Allura hears Coran mumbling and turns to him. “Hm? Coran, did you say something?”

“Ah, nothing important,” Coran replies.

Meanwhile, Shiro continues on. “I don’t know, you guys seem really occupied over there,” he says in a slight teasing tone.

“Yeah, probably, while you’re probably thinking, ‘wow, Allura is the most beautiful being in the universe, and I know this because I’ve been across the entire universe!’” Lance retaliates.

“I’m with Lance on this one, sorry Shiro,” Keith adds, still trying to lowkey suffocate Lance under him. “You guys fell asleep holding hands and looking quite content at that. C’mon guys.”

Shiro then turns a shade of red. He turns to Allura, who is also blushing. Their eyes meet, have some sort of understanding. Somewhat along the lines of, hey, you're embarrassed, I’m embarrassed, they’re responsible for this, let’s kick their asses. They nod in confirmation.

Then they hurl their pillows at Keith and Lance together in tandem.

This sparks the start of a pillow war, pillows being thrown between the Red, Blue and Black Paladins and the Princess. Pidge, Hunk, Coran, and Shay all witness the intense thwipping of pillows flying through the air and hitting each other in the face, along with a long stream of comments.

Eventually, everyone joins in the fight for the fun of it, except for Hunk, who was smiling to himself, looking over his friends every now and then as he eats the food he got from the buffet.

After 15 minutes, Hunk calls everyone to breakfast down at the buffet, and the paladins and their companions get their food- while still giddy from their pillow battle- and get back to their respective hotel rooms to get ready for Day 2.

Everyone shortly meets up after that, and in no time they’re back in the line for Day 2 of AX at 8 A.M. However, since they got their badges yesterday, they didn’t have to wait in line. But as they were in the car Lance notices Pidge typing something into her phone.

A minute later, his phone buzzes with two text notifications.

Keith also receives a text shortly after.

The texts both of them receive are a short message and a YouTube link from Pidge.

Pidgeon Molt(ing)/Pidge

Have some music I found today, I think it’d suit you, ya dense fucker ‘,;P

https://youtu.be/AzpHVQTlbdU

Well, it doesn't look like the rickroll link at least, Lance thinks, as he clicks, and plugs in his headphones.

Keith simply reads the message and clicks on the link.

The link sends them to a video with a song from a musical, Be More Chill. Lance has heard about, but never watched or listened to himself, while Keith on the other hand has listened to this song once or twice.

Another notification pops up in front of them as the instrumental starts.

Lance’s says this:

Pidgeon Molt(ing)

After listening to this, I want you to honestly tell me and Hunk how you feel about quote unquote “Mr. Mullet Man” later in person or through text

Lance frowns at this. Why Keith? Sure, I’ve been in compromising situations with him, but… He shakes his head to cut off his thoughts, and listens to the song and the lyrics.

Pidge’s message to Keith however, says:

Pidge

Just listen to it I already know how much you like this song so eh I sent it to a few other people?? Besides you honestly could be Christine or Jeremy… or both???

Keith lets out a sigh through his nose, smiling. He lets the music play and starts losing himself in the song.

“You’re used to thinking about him in a certain way

From the persona that he displays

Then one day it changes

And he changes…

From a guy that you’d never be into

Into a guy that you’d kinda be into

From a guy that I’d never be into

Into a guy that I’d kinda be into

Is he worth it?”

If Lance was the guy who this girl was talk/singing to, he’d definitely say “yes”. He knows himself that you can’t control when you gain crushes or fall in love-

Wait. Pidge said to think about Keith… Lance thought.

He looks over to the boy in question, who is nodding his head to his own music, eyes closed with a smile on his face. His hair falls repeatedly over his eyes, but he seems to not notice or care.

He looks so… carefree. He so stony and hotheaded at most times, even after we defeated Zarkon and Lotor, but yet sometimes… those moments when he genuinely smiles and has fun…

I like it. I really want to see more of it.

Meanwhile, Hunk, walking next to him, was observing Lance and Keith listening to the song.

He got a text notification.

Katie Holt (Pidge)

Is Lance listening to it

I know Keith is he’s bouncing his head

Hunkie Chunkie

Yeah, he is. And he is looking very contemplative. And he’s also staring at Keith like an ethereal being.

Katie Holt (Pidge)

Good phase 1 of Operation Klance Con is a go

Hunkie Chunkie

Wait, we had a name AND a plan for a thing we merely discussed before 6 A.M in the morning?

Katie Holt (Pidge)

Nah

Actually it sounds cool you wanna keep the name

Hunkie Chunkie

Sure. We’ll discuss the plan later…

Lance continued listening to the song, watching Keith bop his head to whatever music he was listening to.

The music drew to an end, and he laughed when Christine anticlimactically sang out “yeah, that guy that I’d kinda be into is… Jake.”

He put the song back on repeat to listen to it again and think about the lyrics and his own feelings.

Then came the verse again.

“Say there’s this person that you never knew that well

You thought that you had him pegged but now you can tell he’s gone

From a guy that you’d never be into

Into a guy that you’d kinda be into

From a guy that I’d never be into

Into a guy that I’d kinda be into

Is he worth it?”

In this verse, Lance could relate, in regards to Keith.

Way back when at the Garrison, he was all of a sudden plucked out of the cargo pilot class straight into fighter class, apparently because Keith Kogane, top pilot in the class, had temper issues and was kicked out.

The general consistently reminded him of that, for every single slip-up he made.

He always saw Keith as this talented, impulsive hothead who apparently does not have a sense for trends, proof cited in his mullet. That’s how most people saw him.

Months after when he saw Keith again along with Hunk and Pidge, he just had to follow him, to find Shiro, only to find out that he doesn’t even remember him. His replacement as a fighter pilot, Lance’s self-proclaimed rival.

And then they found Blue, flew to Arus, met Allura and Coran, and suddenly became part of Voltron.

Despite the entire change in scenery, Lance only continued to him as the guy at the Garrison and a rival, and it kept him from cooperating with him. And it seemed that Keith had the same mutual feelings.

And then the fight with Zendak happened.

After he recovered, he denied he remembered anything, but… he did. He remembered Keith giving him his hand, and instead of pulling him up, kneeling down to where he was sitting, all bruised up and slipping in and out of consciousness. Him telling Keith they were a good team while giving a weak smile. Keith reciprocating the smile before he fell unconscious again.

Then waking up for a minute while Keith was carrying him over to a healing pod, then passing out yet again.

From that event on, their dynamic… changed in a way. They still did bicker, sure, but they worked together much more easily and willingly. They gradually learnt more and more about one another, along with the whole team.

And then when Shiro disappeared… Keith trusted him with Red. A lion as impulsive as him, whose trust and respect had to be earned. He also helped him cope with the temporary loss of Shiro, talking with and comforting Keith as necessary.

Keith was still the same boy from the Garrison, his rival… but as time went on Lance found much more behind the prejudicial wall he had built around Keith, way back when. As impulsive as he is, he cares about others, so much to even rescue a being from the enemy. He isn’t as stony as people make him to be. He doesn’t really get jokes, he cries, he has fears, he has good days and bad days. It’s part of him, it’s part of who he is, Keith’s human.

Well, he’s technically half human, half Galra… living being??? Ah, whatever.

So in that way… he can relate to Christine, in thinking you had a person pegged. But being into him?...

…

“Absolutely,” sings out Jeremy and his Squip, and Lance agrees on his end.

Hunkie Chunkie

Lance has been staring at Keith for more than a minute. I can hear him thinking.

And it looks like we’ve hit realization.

Katie Holt (Pidge)

It seems my purpose for this song has been fulfilled thank you BMC

Lance decides to listen to the rest of the musical from the beginning to pass the time in the line.

By the time he finishes “Michael in the Bathroom” (poor Michael… sounds like a bad panic attack, Lance thinks), they are back inside the convention center. Shay, Rax, and Matt met up with them at the entrance with matching cosplays.

“Alright, paladins, day two of Anime Expo. What’s the plan?” Coran asked, twiddling with his mustache, as well as donning a simple green Scouting Legion Jacket, while Allura wears a Military Police version of the jacket. The rest of Team Voltron wear full Scouting Legion uniform cosplay, except for Pidge, wearing a Garrison jacket.

“Are you wearing that thing ironically?” Lance asked, seeing as the paladins were… well… students themselves in the Garrison. “Wait, how did you and Allura even get those jackets?!”

“Bought the badges and sewed them onto jackets. You just don’t really think about it cuz most of the time it’s always Scouting Legion people want. All versions of the jackets are generally the same price on the Internet, if you want to buy it off of eBay or something,” Pidge replies with a shrug.

“Jackets apart,” Keith said, checking his outfit, “I think we look pretty quiznaking awesome.” He sneaks a glance at Lance, who notices, and returns a smile.

“I totally second that, and I’m totally loving it, cuz I’m totally the best looking one,” Lance says, posing and changing his soft smile into a sarcastic grin. His replies from the team were a mix of laughing and groaning. Keith covered his mouth with a hand, but Lance could tell by the crinkles at the side of his eyes that he was hiding a smile.

“I know you’re smiling Keith,” Lance sings. “Come on, you know you’re allowed to exhibit enjoyment and let loose here. We’re not fighting aliens, we’re back home, it’s an expo!”

Keith drops his hand, however confused by Lance’s statement. The boy in question pokes the Red Paladin in the side, making him laugh and cover his eyes with a hand by habit.

“C’mon, Keef, lemme see it!” Lance coaxes, taking Keith’s hand covering his hand in his own.

Keith finally gives up trying to hide his smile and looks at Lance, laughing so carefree. Once he calms down, he looks at the Blue Paladin, giving him that smile that he longed to see. Lance feels his face heating up.

“Y’know Lance, at some points you never change,” Keith says in almost a whisper, the tenderness in his eyes unshielded. Lance lets out a soft laugh, returning the smile.

Meanwhile, Pidge, Hunk, Shay, Shiro, Allura, and Coran look at the intimate display between the two boys.

“Is it just me and Pidge, or are Keith and Lance probably going to follow the ‘red and blue characters are in love’ trope from a lot of books and TV shows?” Hunk asked the group while the two in question were having their moment.

They all looked at each other then back at Pidge. Their faces were blank as they nodded.

“Honestly, I could tell even before the space mice filled me in,” Allura said. “Their courtship rituals are… blatantly obvious.” Coran simply nods in agreement.

“Yeah,” Shiro agreed. “Keith always talks to me in our free time, and since he’s like my little brother, well… I know him pretty well and I can read him like a book. Besides, he trusts me with secrets, but honestly this-” the Black Paladin gestures to Lance and Keith. “- doesn’t look like a secret, or at least trying to keep it.”

Everyone expectantly turns to Shay, who just shrugs. “I do not know of other Skylings’ courtship rituals, so I simply did not look into it. However as this seems like one according to the rest of you, I believe they are doing that… how did you say it again Pidge?” She turns to the shortest of the group.

“Pining?” Pidge suggests.

“Ah yes, ‘pining’. They are pining,” Shay says.

Everyone else agreed and waited for Lance and Keith to notice that they were staring at them. It admittedly took a while, and it was only because Pidge ended up playing “Careless Whisper” from her endless library of audio memes.

“You gonna have a bonding moment you finally remember, Lance?” Pidge snickered, and Lance groaned.

“Pidge, please stop.”

“The Pidgeon makes no promises~” she sings while walking off towards Artists Alley.

From there, the team follows her, and for the next couple hours they spend their time wandering around Artist Alley, buying fan merchandise and taking pictures with other cosplayers, and attending panels.

-

“Oh my god, they have a pin that says ‘Space Dad’,” Keith chokes out while laughing. “Lance, should we get it?”

“Already way ahead of you, Keith.” He says as she holds out her hand, revealing a copy of that pin, as well as an assortment of other space-related buttons.

-

“Katie, you are not buying us hats that say ‘problematic’,” Matt says.

“Says my brother who bought like, half of the Kanan merch here in this entire area,” Pidge replies.

“SHE IS MY BEST GIRL AND OSHIMEN I SACRIFICED FUCKING 3 OF MY DREAM URS OF OTHER GIRLS JUST TO CONTINUE THE OSHIMEN CHALLENGE. I. AM. DEDICATED.”

“Yup, getting the hat set.”

-

“Wait, so Shiro, are you kinda like Marco because you lost your right arm?”

“Lance. No. Marco lost like almost all his right half of his body and died. I only lost my right arm, which is now a pretty badass prosthetic, and I’m alive. I think… wait, what if I’m still floating out in space?”

“Shiro, calm down,” Hunk says.

“What if I’m still in cryosleep and all of you are figments of my imagination?”

“Shiro. You’re fine.”

“What if this is the afterlife and I’m actually dea-”

“Okay, that’s enough existential crisis for Space Dad,” Lance says, and pats Shiro’s back, who would basically have a dark shadow masking his eyes and have squiggly lines over his head if he was an anime character right now.

-

“Is that a… dancing hot dog?” Allura says as she squints her eyes at a t-shirt display.

“Seems quite so, Princess,” Coran says. “Apparently this is what humans call a ‘meme’, as well as many more photographs, like this adorable specimen!” He points at a picture of Doge.

“Human culture is weird,” the Altean princess decides.

-

Before the gang could even notice, the sun has traveled to the western part of the sky, and they walk out of the convention center, caps emblazoned with the word “problematic”. Matt’s is decorated with Kanan buttons, and Shiro’s cap has a pin that says “Space Dad”.

The plaza in front of the place is still relatively crowded, but less hectic than inside the building. Many people are seen taking group pictures and chilling outside. A performer duo finishes a piece on the sidewalk, and passerby applaud.

Team Voltron starts walking back to their van after saying goodbye to Shay, Matt and Rax when the music playing from a speaker changes, and suddenly both Keith and Shiro stop abruptly in their tracks, catching the attention of the rest of them.

Lance, who has a pin on his Survey Corps. jacket that says “uranus is out of this world”, turns around, confused. “Uh, guys? You okay?”

Shiro smiles. “Yeah, definitely. Something Keith and I remember from a while back came up, right?” He looks over at Keith, who is donning a nostalgic, yet energetic smile.

“Definitely. Do you still remember our choreography Shiro?!” He asks.

“It’s been a while, so I might be a bit rusty. But hell yeah, I still remember.”

Keith’s eyes grow brighter. “Wanna do it for old times’ sake?”

“I thought you’d ask that, and the answer is definitely yes,” Shiro replies, then walks with Keith to a more open spot on the pavement.

Lance, Pidge, Hunk, and Shay at first are confused, when Allura suddenly says, “Oh, so this is what the mice told me about!”

“Wait,” Matt asks, “You know about Keith and Shiro’s dance?”

“Dance?!” The Blue, Green and Yellow Paladins echo, bewildered. Shay is still quite confused. Then Pidge straightens.

“Oh yeah, now I remember! It’s their song playing right now!” She says, and nudges Lance’s arm. “You might want to prepare your bisexual pining heart for this. Allura looks full-on ready. It’s gonna be fucking amazing.”

“Pidge, what do you mean? And how have I not heard of th-” Lance starts, but then shuts himself up when he sees Keith and Shiro in position, then moving in sync, mirroring each other’s movements to the beat of a BTS song.

However, as Lance starts to notice, the choreography both boys are dancing isn’t simply a copy of the original dance for the song, cut down for two people.

(And he knows this, because he has watched BTS’s MVs, thank you very much.)

No, this was a dance made from just the two of them, Brogane trademarked and choreographed.

An audience started building up around their display, some taking their phones out and recording, many cheering.

Keith then did a certain move where he ran his hands up his body, through his mullet, then turned to Lance, and smirked.

And then he winked.

He quiznaking winked.

This sent another fresh wave of cheers through the crowd, Team Voltron’s louder than the rest (although admittedly Allura’s cheers could be heard as the loudest of the group). However, Lance was only semi-aware of this, as he was currently occupied on pondering why he hasn’t melted into a puddle on the floor yet by the sheer heat of the Broganes’ dance and the fire in his cheeks.

Oh god, when did Keith and Shiro MAKE this dance?! This is way too seductive for my own good, quiznak! Lance thought, watching the rest of the performance.

A minute later, Keith and Shiro drew to their final pose, the music ending and their chests heaving out of exertion. Their audience clapped and cheered enthusiastically, multiple wolf whistles being heard as well. The Black and Red Paladins bowed, then walked back over to the group.

“It’s just as I remember it,” Matt says, still applauding the two as he hands the two boys water bottles. “You couldn't even tell that they hadn't danced this together in a few years!”

“That. Was. Amazing! I didn’t know you guys could dance like that!” Hunk took the Broganes into a tight hug then let them go.

“I agree. The dance was quite enjoyable to experience!” Shay adds on as she walks and stands next to Hunk.

Allura and Lance both exploded with the same question. “WHERE AND WHEN DID YOU LEARN THAT DANCE?!”

Keith blinked, smiled, and replied first. “Well, it was around a year before Shiro and Matt left for the the Kerberos mission. Me and him were really close and loved the same music, and we randomly decided one day to make our own choreography to one of our favorite BTS songs.”

“At first it was a little thing we did on a whim,” Shiro continued, “but eventually the dance ended up being our thing, and it stuck with us. We made tweaks and practiced it like we were actually going to perform it for a huge audience. We danced it for Matt and Katie one time, and that’s how they know about it!”

Lance was impressed. “I never really thought of you guys dancing together, K-pop at that. But seriously, you guys were amazing!”

“Wait, what’s K-pop?” Allura asked, eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. “Is it a genre?”

“Right you are, Princess,” Coran answers. “According to Keith, ‘tis a type of music that is popular in a country called Korea, hence the ‘K’ in ‘K-pop’, as well as here in America.”

“Anyways, let’s head back to the hotel now, it’s already 7 P.M. and we still have 2 more days left of AX,” Shiro says. “And this time, no staying up late!”

On the way back, Pidge and Hunk notice Lance staring aimlessly ahead, looking contemplative again.

They nodded to each other, and Pidge took out her phone and texted something to Lance. Seconds later, Lance opened his phone.

Pidgeon Molt(ing)

So do you have your answer ^^

Lance looked up at Keith in front of him, who was happily ranting about a Mothman cosplayer he met at the con today with Shiro and Allura.

Hunk and Pidge saw him smile fondly at the scene, and looked back at them while texting his response.

Ocean Man

Oh yeah

His “best ass in the galaxy” pin is spot on ;;;)))))

Pidgeon Molt(ing)

ha, ha. -_-

Pidge however then looked up to see Lance smiling awkwardly at her and Hunk.

Team Voltron continued their walk back to the van, facing the setting sun, the Garrison trio satisfied with Lance’s real answer as it reflected in that smile and his eyes.

Okay, fine. I like Keith.

[onewordshy]

I loved Moana! Haven't seen Trolls yet, but might as I'm seeing so many good reviews on here. What did you think were the problems with Moana?

I didn’t hate Moana, I think that it was just a victim of its own hype. It wanted it to be so much better than it was, so that’s partially on me, and I saw Trolls first so I was always comparing it to Trolls which is kind of unfair because Trolls appealed to my particular aesthetic exactly, but I do have issues with the movie that hold up under scrutiny. Basically, I feel that the movie did a great job creating characters and having them develop relationships/grow, but utterly failed to create a cohesive, driven plot line or explain the world it exists in accurately.

If you really think about it, the movie was a buddy cop road trip movie with no stops. Think of it this way, the plot of a road trip movie is about getting from point A (her island) to point B (Te Fiti), and the story is made interesting because we encounter so many wacky people and obstacles along the way, with the relationship between the two leads as a core to the story. The problem with Moana was that it lacked real obstacles, all of the “obstacles” along the way were either vague or contrived and out of place.

Like, the first obstacle that Moana faces is “how do I find Maui?” But that just kind of... solves itself, because the ocean is on her side so there’s no stakes because the ocean can just save her and do everything. And Maui doesn’t have a reason for not wanting to help Moana, his reasoning is literally just that he doesn’t want to, so the movie has to throw stuff at them to make stuff happen, and it does so poorly. The character conflict between Moana and Maui is good and actually works well, and their relationship is very sweet and really worked. That was good. The events surrounding the two were pointless and existed solely to move them along and create needless conflict that doesn’t amount to anything.

Much of the movie is just Moana and Maui bickering on a boat. They knew where the island was, so they basically just had to sit there and wait until they arrived, so the movie just kind of floated along. We’re often told things, but then when we’re shown confirmation it’s almost never enough to create adequate drive. 

We’re told that the darkness is slowly killing the ocean and all of the islands, but other than some empty traps, some rotted coconuts, and some black tendrils, we’re never privy to the destruction. Moana leaves immediately after learning of the darkness so we never get to see it become a real problem so there’s a lack of urgency. Like, show us starving or frightened people or something. The dream sequence she has where she sees the island destroyed kind of addresses this, but not really.

We’re told that the heart will attract danger, but other than the coconuts, it never does? The coconut pirates were there for merchandising reasons, I get that, but their entire scene felt like it was out of the movie Waterworld. We never get an explanation of what they are or where they come from or why they want the heart or how they found the heart. Were they trying to bring the heart back to Te Fiti? They raise questions that don’t get answered. This is the only time we see anyone seeking out the heart, so there’s no tension.

We’re told that Te Kā is a huge danger, but we don’t even see it until the end and even then it’s trapped on the rocks? Supposedly Te Kā was seeking her heart the whole time, but actually she was just just trapped on the rocks the whole time, so she had no presence whatsoever in the rest of the film so introducing her as the final antagonist felt sudden? It’s never explained why Moana, specifically, was needed to put the heart back in? Why didn’t the ocean just give it to her? Could she not put it in herself? Would the lava monster melt it? Was it a metaphor for overcoming abuse and learning to trust again? Again, questions.

They were obstacles that were specifically introduced to create tension and justify certain situations, but they were cheap and didn’t really work. It’s like how the heart kept falling out of the necklace just so the chicken could be somewhat validated when it saved it at the end of the movie. Sure, the chicken became relevant because it stopped the heart from falling into the ocean at the end, but the only reason her necklace had a faulty clasp was so the rock could fall out so the chicken could save it so the chicken could be kept around the whole time. They were needlessly complicating the situation to justify things like a dumb chicken.

And I feel like, just on paper, the score is somewhat lackluster. The coconut song is silly and not catchy. “We Know the Way” was nice, but it was glorified background music. “You’re Welcome” was really fun, probably my favorite of the movie. “Where I’ll Go” is dynamite, but then we’re constantly hearing it throughout the movie. Even the scene with the ancestors, which most people agree is one of the most beautiful scenes in the movie, was just another reprise of it. And “Shiny” is a complete atonal mess and atrocity of the piece that’s completely out of place.

The music in Moana wasn’t bad, but look at some other Disney movies. Usually they have one or two flagship, iconic numbers, which are bolstered by a consistently entertaining score. “Let It Go” was a smash hit, but “For the First Time in Forever,” “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?” “Love is an Open Door” and “In Summer” were all respectably popular in their own right. “Colors of the Wind” is iconic, but the rest of Pocahontas is extremely good as well. I feel that while Moana has a few gems, if you really think about it, and hold the music up against the songs from other Disney offerings, you’ll find that pound for pound the songs in Moana were weaker and less memorable. 

And “Shiny” was just an utter train wreck of a scene. It felt completely out of place in the movie, the crab monster thing looked and sounded different than literally everything else in the film, and not in an “otherworldly” kind of way in a “he looks like he was cut from Dreamworks’ Turbo” kind of way. “Shiny” was just straight up a bad song and contained the crab speaking French, which is a huge anachronism. It went on for far too long and was trying way too many things and trying way too hard to be entertaining to the point where it was just unpleasant.

I also felt like the film was the most blatant Disney Princess movie to go “let’s use the sardonic humor of the millennials” because there were a lot of lines and jokes that felt completely out of place. Like, Maui jokes about tweeting at one point?

This is all just my feelings, I did like the movie, I just didn’t like it as much as everyone else did and I’m sick of hearing about it. I do think it’s one of the strongest Disney movies as of late in terms of character development, but the plot and world building were awful.