canonvoltronurl

[canonvoltronurl]

Yup

do you ever have a good url just to flex on 90% of tumblr users

[canonvoltronurl]

I never gave myself permission to believe in myself,

So when others believed, I believed.

And when they stopped, I stopped.

I don’t mean it cocky or anything, I just don’t know how to deal with rapid success that came and went quickly. I was fine being nobody, I was used to it (still am, as I’m probably too honest on this blog), but having attention for like 5 minutes was so wild. It was like, I could never miss what I didn’t know, but now I know and it’s like? Empty?

Like naybe it’s the same thing as gifted kids who grew up and don’t know how to grapple with being ”average” (or the world treating as such).

Except I was dumb and still kind of am, but I had one (1) taste of being ’special’.

Part of me wants to go back to where I was just a happy clam with everything, my interpretation of voltron was perfectly aligned with the majority of the sheith fandom. I had friends and interaction. I’m autistic, those things are rare gems.

But then like, even if I could or wanted to unsee or unfeel things,

Those times are gone. Ya know?

And it just feels like this ultimate dumb thing ’cus like. Who gets suicidal over a website? It’s tunglr dot clam. That’s dumb. This is dumb.

But also just.

I had friends and that was wild.

I can’t help but notice, now, what it’s like to not belong in a community or group. It never matterd before, because i’d never known otherwise.

[canonvoltronurl]

Are you an Asian man? (*raises hand and jumps up and down in my seat* oooh, me! I am! That’s me! Do I get bonus points for being gay?)

Because the stereotype goes waaaaaaaay beyond looks.

And the show =tries= to flip stereotypes only to fall back into them.

I’m like. Kinda livid to try and explain so I’m gonna tag some people who are good with words (im working on it) whom /may/ or /may not/ be able to word this. They aren’t obligated ofc, so what ever comes out of it, comes out of it. Just know that Im a gaysian man am uncomfortable with Shiro’s damseldom. They don’t erase the trope by pasting a differentface on it. ESPECIALLY not a face of someone who is usually already seen as femme just for his race. It doesn’t break a trope to flip it.

@sol1056 @bbtree

Why is Adam not a Bury Your Gays? Also, I don’t get why you think Shiro is great rep when Lance could’ve been our rep

I’m gonna ignore the tone in this ask and answer your questions bluntly

Bury Your Gays is a trope specifically for queer romance where a (usually queer) author would only be able to write a m|m w|w love story if one of the characters dies in the end. This is due to homophobia, wanting to pluck at cishet heart strings to grab their attention for the novel, etc. That’s why so much LGBT media from the 1900s is sweet and sad and ends with the horrible death of one of them. Since then this trope has expanded to encompass fleshed-out queer characters who died for the sake of Straight guilt

Shiro and Adam’s relationship was done, finished, wouldn’t have made narrative sense for Shiro to still want to be with Adam; Adam was another voice that told him he couldn’t do anything since he was sick. Shiro didn’t think of Adam once during his time in space, not during his happiest memory, not during his video diary, and not when he asked Dr. Holt to punch Iverson. They were not a happy couple, they were exes for years and two drastically different people

Adam is also a character who we know next to nothing about except for these facts

1.) He was one of the most skilled pilots in the Garrison2.) He once loved Shiro until he got tired of Shiro wasting his “remaining” time on training and not with him 3.) He was one of the only pilots qualified to go fight a giant alien ship, hence why cadets are in charge of the next best super weapon after they pass

He has approximately ten lines, and then dies. He was not a fan favorite (fanon Adam is though), he was introduced and killed in the same season. The staff told us that Adam would not be a recurring character, and that was true. But most importantly, Adam was directly juxtaposed with Keith: “Don’t expect me to be there when you get back” scene then transitions to the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves that you can’t convince me is unintentional scene” where Keith is quietly waiting outside of Shiro’s pod for 15 seconds of silence before transitioning to another scene.

So no, Adam isn’t a Bury Your Gays. He’s a Situational Sexuality. Situational Sexuality is for queer characters who die, but it makes sense in the context of the story. This context is usually a horror story, a war story (bingo), or any story signaled to have an awful ending.

I’m personally not gonna judge Adam’s death till next season since VLD likes to work in pairs (introduce something in the first 13 eps, finish it in the next 13)

And as for why Shiro is an example of great rep, I cannot think of a single reason why in a society where LGBT characters are jokes and perverts why having the military male fantasy character who is also Japanese (and not emasculated because of it), disabled (but it’s one of his greatest strengths) chronically ill (and managed to fight stigma against him), who doesn’t display toxic masculinity (despite being very masculine), who respects women in earnest, who literally had his life torn to shreds and crawled out of it victoriously time and time again is a good example of rep and not the beanpole with pubes for hair, sorry 🤔

[canonvoltronurl]

vld’s idea of found family is ‘i finally found my Real™ family’

[canonvoltronurl]

Still frustrated with s7

We just never had a good reason for why Shiro couldn’t be Black Paladin.

Let’s face it; that interview saying that Shiro was an ex-paladin was bullshit. It was used to cover for the fact that season 7 never even brought the topic up. They seemed almost surprised the the fans would consider it.

We never saw Shiro have a reason to give up Black. He never fell from grace. There was never a moment in the show that said Shiro was a second choice to pilot Black. In fact, everything about Shiro proved that he was the best choice to do it. We saw him build a bond away from Zarkon, proving to Black that he could do the job, and thereby having Black come in and save him when all seemed lost.

And, y’know, Keith still could have taken over as Black Paladin if we had seen Shiro offered a choice and a pull between his duty as BP and a higher calling. If he had been needed elsewhere, and it was shown in a way that made it seem that Shiro was outgrowing the role.

I can hear people saying that’s what happened with Atlas.

It really didn’t.

This season worked as hard as it could to keep Shiro out of the spotlight. We never have a moment to process what happened in the previous season- unless you call two throwaway lines enough. Which is insulting, given what happened. We’re never given the chance to see Shiro process what happened. Nor are we given a specific reason for why Shiro would be needed to power the Atlas. Giving life and powering a giant robot was Allura’s legacy from her father and from going to Oriande. It would have been excellent balance for her being tricked into empowering the Sincline ships- this time she creates the ship that saves Voltron instead of nearly destroys it.

Shiro was not needed for that.

We had no good reason for Shiro to be able to transform the Atlas. But he had ever reason, character wise, to still be piloting the Black Lion.

This leads to the second part- Keith.

I feel like I’m watching a scapegoat child and golden child, and while the golden child undoubtedly has it easier, they are set up to fail just as much.

As much as there was no reason for Shiro to not pilot the Black Lion- something we see him battle his own demons for, along with Zarkon himself- we never see Keith do anything to prove himself in the role.

Most of this is because we never get to see anyone’s reasoning on this show. But Keith’s mourning for Shiro, arguing that he should be the Black Paladin, and unwavering faith in Shiro in the first three seasons is the biggest argument against it. We never see Keith want it, or work to improve in that role. This show loves its “one and done” moments- we see one moment where Keith says he should improve back in s3 and… after that? Nothing. As soon as Clone Shiro arrives, Keith is trying to put him back in the pilot’s seat.

And here’s where I feel like so much of the story went off the rails.

It’s implied that brainwashed/sleeper agent Shiro is going to start manipulating the team. That was my expectation for season 4. Keith was going to have to go through a growth arc and learn to trust himself instead of following Shiro.

Except… as we know… that never happened. Kuron never seemed to be aware of his behavior. And while Naxzela happened, it’s never made clear if he was being manipulated or if it was Haggar’s spying that made the the trap almost work.

And Keith left.

If you wanted us to buy Keith being a candidate for any sort of leadership position? He couldn’t have left.

A few episodes with the BoM I would buy. Keith’s feeling lost and his biracial background were implied to play a part in season 3 at some point. Of course, nothing came of it, like so many things. Keith being asked to choose his place? I would buy that, too. But Keith just… leaves.

I had heard rumors about Steven Yeun having scheduling conflicts. There had to be ways around this. Why would he commit to a role without it being cleared first? Sidelining a main character you want to develop for becoming The Protagonist for two seasons is really absurd.

His mission is never followed up on. Instead, he rejoins at the end of s4 for Naxzela, see him do a few cool things with the Blades, and vanishes again, after almost pulling a kamikaze. Whatever else you can say about that moment, it was something that needed follow up, especially because we had no reason to think he believed his charge would have any affect on the shields.

His stated mission was to look for Lotor. Again, it was a useless thread, because Lotor came to them. Lotor came to them, we never saw Keith’s progress in searching, and he found out about the quintessence he was searching for by finding his mother.

None of it felt natural or connected. Nothing about it progressed the story until season 6, and using that moment to discover Lotor’s plans felt rushed and convoluted. Mix all of that in with the superfluous clone story and I’m still wondering what the EPs were thinking.

During all of this, Keith stayed the same. We never saw him advance in a way that would make his being a leader plausible. He met his mother and got over some of his abandonment issues. Part of me really loves that, but it is another symptom of VLD’s “one and done” moments. Let’s get it out of the way so we never have to talk about it again, and Keith’s abandonment issues are forgotten.

Somehow that is supposed to help him learn to deal with people? Forget that he’s got a bad temper? That he doesn’t have a knack for leading? We never see him buckle down and try to think it through or work for the job of Black Paladin. Instead, we’re told that his lack of natural affinity is a personal failure. That Keith, who was written as the loner, is somehow the only person able to pilot Black is never explained, because according to the lore presented earlier, he had none of the traits. He fit perfectly as Red Paladin, like how Shiro fit Black.

Again, early Keith? Some traits of leadership, yes. He could come up with good tactics. He was fine with listening to others when they had a good idea. He started to step up when Shiro wasn’t there, a little. But we should have seen him provide something that Shiro could not if we were going to believe he could lead better.

I’m not even going to touch on Black Paladin Allura. The line “Allura’s lifeforce is connected to the Lions” had a lot of potential for the story. Yet it was never touched on again. Hell, we’ve seen her be completely unable to FIND the Lions, even when that was supposed to be her schtick. Allura had the natural leadership ability that Keith lacked. Seeing Keith trying to be her right hand would have been a great story in its own right. If Allura could pilot Blue, there was no lore-friendly version she couldn’t pilot Black.

It makes viewing frustrating, because I had hoped for resolution to all of these. But there wasn’t one. Just a bunch of assumptions trying to explain why they would try to follow plot points from DotU, even when it didn’t follow their own lore.

It could have been done. They just didn’t.

[canonvoltronurl]

If Shiro isn’t emasculated, why is he always the damsel in distress? As you’ve said above, that scene was very snow white-esque. Shiro is absolutely emasculated, both in fanon and canon. It stopped being mutual between Keith seasons ago. Now it’s one sided and Shiro is absolutely treated as an incapable damsel many a time.

Why is Adam not a Bury Your Gays? Also, I don’t get why you think Shiro is great rep when Lance could’ve been our rep

I’m gonna ignore the tone in this ask and answer your questions bluntly

Bury Your Gays is a trope specifically for queer romance where a (usually queer) author would only be able to write a m|m w|w love story if one of the characters dies in the end. This is due to homophobia, wanting to pluck at cishet heart strings to grab their attention for the novel, etc. That’s why so much LGBT media from the 1900s is sweet and sad and ends with the horrible death of one of them. Since then this trope has expanded to encompass fleshed-out queer characters who died for the sake of Straight guilt

Shiro and Adam’s relationship was done, finished, wouldn’t have made narrative sense for Shiro to still want to be with Adam; Adam was another voice that told him he couldn’t do anything since he was sick. Shiro didn’t think of Adam once during his time in space, not during his happiest memory, not during his video diary, and not when he asked Dr. Holt to punch Iverson. They were not a happy couple, they were exes for years and two drastically different people

Adam is also a character who we know next to nothing about except for these facts

1.) He was one of the most skilled pilots in the Garrison2.) He once loved Shiro until he got tired of Shiro wasting his “remaining” time on training and not with him 3.) He was one of the only pilots qualified to go fight a giant alien ship, hence why cadets are in charge of the next best super weapon after they pass

He has approximately ten lines, and then dies. He was not a fan favorite (fanon Adam is though), he was introduced and killed in the same season. The staff told us that Adam would not be a recurring character, and that was true. But most importantly, Adam was directly juxtaposed with Keith: “Don’t expect me to be there when you get back” scene then transitions to the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves that you can’t convince me is unintentional scene” where Keith is quietly waiting outside of Shiro’s pod for 15 seconds of silence before transitioning to another scene.

So no, Adam isn’t a Bury Your Gays. He’s a Situational Sexuality. Situational Sexuality is for queer characters who die, but it makes sense in the context of the story. This context is usually a horror story, a war story (bingo), or any story signaled to have an awful ending.

I’m personally not gonna judge Adam’s death till next season since VLD likes to work in pairs (introduce something in the first 13 eps, finish it in the next 13)

And as for why Shiro is an example of great rep, I cannot think of a single reason why in a society where LGBT characters are jokes and perverts why having the military male fantasy character who is also Japanese (and not emasculated because of it), disabled (but it’s one of his greatest strengths) chronically ill (and managed to fight stigma against him), who doesn’t display toxic masculinity (despite being very masculine), who respects women in earnest, who literally had his life torn to shreds and crawled out of it victoriously time and time again is a good example of rep and not the beanpole with pubes for hair, sorry 🤔

[canonvoltronurl]

Before vld I thought it was well and truly a farse that writers used symbolism and had messages, basically anything beneath the surface. I’m autistic, so I couldn’t comprehend there being anything more to stories than just what was there. My own personal feelings on the show aside, (the feelings line up exactly with what’s being said), I’ve gained invaluable skills like critical thinking, learning how to analyze art, which helps me when I go to make art, and i just have an all around better insight into how people work.

There’s value in analysis.

I don’t think there’re people who would defend antis (who arent antis themselves), so I thought we learned our lesson of what happens when we create echochambers in fandom.

Noah fence, fulla fence, y’all’re always telling us if we don’t like something, move on/don’t interact. So like ( : Why does that not apply to you when you see our opinions/crit posts?

okay the angry defense of seven that lashes out at fans who are being more critical looks more and more like sunk cost fallacy

I can see how it would be for some people.  A lot of us, myself included, have invested years at this point into the show.  We did it because we bought into its promise early.  The first few seasons held a wealth of potential and the promise of a pay off for so many of those future potentials seemed to be bankable.  We had fun moments, we had edge of your seat moments, we had character interaction that explored motivation, we had loss and we had some serious wins for the team.  Season one and two in particular set us up for what we thought was the promise of more seasons like them and we liked that!  So we invested ourselves and our time, our money and our free promotion of the show, into that as well as creative talents and our ongoing interaction during periods between seasons.  We got attached to characters and storyline threads and we knew there would be pay off for them in the future.  Sure, it was irksome that Shiro was the only one that never got to use his bayard and show us what cool form it would take - but the wait would make it worthwhile when he finally did get to use it.  Sure, Pidge spent a lot of time so focused on her family she did questionable moral things and relied on the memory of them for motivation but once her family was rescued and safe, she’d soften to the rest of the team and being them into her circle of what she fiercely considered family.  Sure Lance wobbled a lot between ‘is he growing in maturity’ and ‘comic relief’ but the pay off would come when he stepped forward into his position as the heart of the team they all knew they could rely on. 

We sat through a lot of seasons waiting for the payoff we knew had to be coming because every good story gives you the growth needed and then shows you how that growth is achieved. Writers, and stories, rely on their audience to stay alive and in exchange they promise to fulfill certain needs the audience has.  If a story promises ‘found family’ the audience invests and trusts that investment will pay off.  If the audience loses that trust, they walk away and a story needs to keep its audience.  The story doesn’t have to fulfill their expectations the way they think it will - but it does need to follow through on the promises of things to come it made when it started.  VLD promised a lot, mostly about the power of friendship and teamwork and how you can overcome even the worst past to rise and become a hero no matter how many times you get knocked down.  It’s basic story promises but audiences have loved it for so long there’s a reason its basic story building blocks.

And now, here we are, at the end of all things, seven invested seasons in, a couple years later, a shitton of meta and headcanons, roleplay and fanfiction, fan art and cosplay created - and we don’t believe in the promises we were given at the beginning, that we hung on to to get through the ‘what’s happening now?’ story issues, that we came all this way to see the payoff for.

Damn straight people are mad.

And also damn straight people don’t want to have come this far for nothing.  Put all that investment in for no pay off.  Denial is a strong defense mechanism in the human psyche.  If we say it loud enough, long enough, maybe we can change things just by sheer will alone.  It might not be logical but it is one of the most human reactions to loss or defeat.  We don’t want Voltron to suck so bad it can’t even pay off its most basic promises.  It had so much potential and we saw what it was capable of when it began.  It even now, still has diamond shards in the mess its become.  Surely - surely - all the promise of seasons one and two, all the glints of delight in seasons three through seven, must lead up to some kind of satisfying pay off even if this past season was terrible.  Look.  I know this past season was terrible and, if it was terrible and the EPs decided it was gold, there is no way season eight is suddenly going to reverse that - and yet, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was still clinging to a bit of hope that, somehow, the last season is going to make it all right.  Or at least bearable.  Or even, for the love of God, please just pay off one or two of those promises, those open threads, we followed all this time to get here.  So if people are ferociously defending the pile of steam we got for season seven as ‘great’ or even ‘good’ I get why they are.

Heck, I can even believe that some people really did get everything they wanted out of the show in season seven because what they went in for was something that wasn’t one of the many points a lot of us were there for.  Hunk fans, if they’re just here for Hunk alone, have every reason to be delighted with season seven for instance and I would never fault them for that.  I’m a Shiro fan myself and if this season had been great for him, I might have set all my other issues with the show on the back burner and told myself that I was okay with what I did get even if it wasn’t all I felt the story had promised at the beginning.

Point being, there is never an excuse to attack other fans that don’t agree or to try to silence voices that don’t fall into goose-step with what someone wants them to.  Group-think is a disease, not something to be proud of, and if someone’s views can’t handle being challenged, or even someone agreeing to disagree, then they don’t really believe in them in the first place no matter how much they’d like to.  .Everyone takes something different away from fandom experiences and from audience experiences and debate and throwing around different ideas and theories is a healthy part of that.  The same mindset that has people burning books because they don’t agree with their message is the one that tries to shut down everyone who doesn’t agree without reservation with their own opinion.  I can understand the emotional reason someone would be tempted - but that doesn’t make it right or acceptable.

[canonvoltronurl]

AutisticKeith here (i can’t put critical stuff on my dashboard),

Copy and pasting this necause im adhd (they just made the results from neuro tests last week and im in the 13th percentile for attention. Ordering thoughts is like. V hard for me, so just take the spirit of this, cus it doesn’t exactly perfectly line up, but im feeling major keith woes rn.)

”I will die on sheith hill. But this.

Though whats so ironic is that their stories are tied so close together that you cant drag down one without the other. Their arcs used to be linked equally. That Keith was happy in Red, he floruished, and he routed for Shiro in black, gave him vonfidence when no one else, even shiro himself at times, would. And GHAT was revolutionary. THAT was the Keith I fell in love with and stanned. This masculine man who had all the makings to be Hero, but his true place, where he was a hero of his own story (not necessarily The Hero, in classic and western view, where There Can Only Be One). That sent a message that we all have a placr on a team and each place is vital. A leader is only as strong as his team, and Shiro was strong on his own, but having the team, esp Keith supporting and defending his tightful place? Thats what made me care about a sjow about mech when I dislike mech itself for trauma reasons.

But then Keith became leader and everything revolutionary about him was thrown away.

Not even to mention, you destroy Keiths character and Shiro goes woth him. Cus Keith was his right hand, Shiro was Keiths leader.

Forgot to add that toxic masculinity makes all male friendship be competition (watched really good video the other day explaining this through Big Bang Theory), so Keith never going after black, nor wanting her, was another subversion of competition between guys, even friends. Not to mention when he didnt rise to Lances poking at him (for the most part. In the start at least). Keith was not there to be the best. He was a man who said no to the notion of stupid competition.

Giving him black made that feel cheap. Its like the story was saying that even in abscence of competition, theres still gonna be competition.

:/ Keith meant so much to me.

I felt represented for the first time.

It was like, "oh, theres a (canon can allow me to intrepret as) gay, asian man. He wants little to do with toxic masculinity. Hes quiet. Seems autistic in many ways. He loves people, just.. doesnt understanf them. Was a loner not by choice, but because he didnt know how to people." I never ever ever thought Id see myself.

And well. Guess I was right in the end.

I’m gonna have an aneurism if I see one (1) more twist of Keith (im looking at the writers too) being a loner, asshole, badass, etc. He was set up as a loner because he was an orphan, didn’t know how to deal with things, bounced around homes (possibly?), had trouble controlling emotions, (*tosses autistic headcanon in*), but we saw him heal and flourish through his opening up and relationship to Shiro, and then the team. But they kept shoving him in lonewolf and now the fandom is doi (1)

doing too. : / The space episode where he yelled about alfor was so ooc. Not just because, keith is.. not socially graceful, but because it was never an established thing that keith had beef with allura, and especially over alfor? Like??? That was never a thing. But i guess whatever. We need a badass lonewolf ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ///the same time they pushed him into black and being leader is the same time they really went ham for the lonewolf thing. Like, writers, just say you hate keith, its ok.

nah lmao they love Keith. it’s just that they love their own specific version of him: Edgy Badass Loner with Anger Issues. they never bothered to give him a meaningful arc where he overcomes his fear of abandonment and learns to relate to people because the EPs don’t think he needs one. they think he’s cool and perfect and awesome just how he is in S7.

Keith, in many ways, has gone backwards rather than forwards. whereas in S1-2 he was sort of… endearingly awkward but trying; clearly struggling with fear of abandonment but making the effort; had flashes of anger, but was working on it… by the time we hit S7 the EPs have just doubled-down on all the Edgy Bad Boy Loner aspects of Keith’s personality and erased any complexity or warmth. he meets and connects with his mother, which in theory should be the catalyst for him mellowing out, if his anger is a product of being abandoned/left as a child? but nah he’s… yelling at people, now. because the writers think that’s edgy or something? “oh let’s have Keith scream some really hurtful personal shit at Allura, wow we’re so dark and edgy” okay but now Keith just looks like a massive asshole. congrats i guess? 

if VLD had actually followed through on its themes in S1-2 (found family, self-acceptance, “owning who you are will make you a better Paladin”), Keith’s arc could and should have been about him growing closer to the others as friends. he could have worked through his fear of abandonment; got a handle on the anger. connected genuinely with a team of people who accept him for who he is, with all his quirks and issues. and it would have been really nice and wholesome and a wonderful message for kids watching at home.

the reason that didn’t happen is because the EPs actually prefer the Edgy Badass Loner Dickish Angry Asshole version of Keith. that’s the character they wanted to write all along. we’re supposed to see him dual wielding and rushing off with his cool space wolf and be like “wow!! so edgy!” and then overlook all the shitty ways he treats other people. seriously we’re seven seasons in and Keith’s patronisingly telling Lance “don’t miss?” Lance is the team sharpshooter, his bayard weapon is literally a sniper rifle, what the fucketh is the point of this? except to make Keith look all Broody and Edgy and Badass, i guess.

it’s really sad because in theory Keith would have been a cool character. as of S7 he’s just a massive dick - but that’s being presented as “growth” for the character, and we’re supposed to marvel at how “mature” he is and how he’s “grown into the role”. honestly why couldn’t we have had dorky awkward Keith who doesn’t know how to do a Voltron chant and who gradually learns how to make friends and not yell his feelings whenever he gets stressed? missed opportunities, man. and to be fair it’s not just Keith that suffered for a lacklustre “character arc” and botched characterisation, but that’s a rant for another time.

[canonvoltronurl]

Forgot to add that toxic masculinity makes all male friendship be competition (watched really good video the other day explaining this through Big Bang Theory), so Keith never going after black, nor wanting her, was another subversion of competition between guys, even friends. Not to mention when he didnt rise to Lances poking at him (for the most part. In the start at least). Keith was not there to be the best. He was a man who said no to the notion of stupid competition.

Giving him black made that feel cheap. Its like the story was saying that even in abscence of competition, theres still gonna be competition.

: / Keith meant so much to me.

I felt represented for the first time.

It was like, "oh, theres a (canon can allow me to intrepret as) gay, asian man. He wants little to do with toxic masculinity. Hes quiet. Seems autistic in many ways. He loves people, just.. doesnt understanf them. Was a loner not by choice, but because he didnt know how to people." I never ever ever thought Id see myself.

And well. Guess I was right in the end.

bbtree replied to your post “Vld aka Voltron: Legendary Keith,& I suppose the other paladins r…”

everything was pitch perfect right up to s7e1 the rest legit feels like a retcon in a reboot of a reboot… i mean re shiro and keith and their roles relationship etc, there’s obvi some good stuff in there too

The Shiro-Keith relationship was great, the idea of it that is - two individuals who are always loving and supportive of each other, and always saving each other. But since S3 I feel like its being written from a one-sided Keith perspective. It would have been so much better if they made Shiro a brainwashed sleeper agent instead of a clone, there would have been less plot holes and everything would have been more impactful particularly The Black Paladins episode. But what we got from S3-S6 was the clone’s perspective and they try to justify that with a convoluted “he has Shiro’s memories” explanation. Shiro’s perspective was from inside the Black Lion, he had memories from there but that doesn’t seem to matter in the story. And even if they had  Shiro absorb all of the clone’s memories, those things also don’t matter in the grand scheme of VLD’s overall story. So now it feels like Shiro is just there to serve Keith’s story. His place in the narrative doesn’t matter because he was just there to serve as Black Lion’s placeholder. His own arc doesn’t matter because Keith has to finish that for him too. Sure, sure Keith killing Sendak for Shiro was supposed to show the lengths Keith would go to for Shiro, saving him “as many times as it takes.” But again, that is from Keith’s perspective. Shiro’s perspective doesn’t seem to matter, its so inconsequential its interchangeable with an “Evil Clone”

[canonvoltronurl]

I will die on sheith hill. But this.

Though whats so ironic is that their stories are tied so close together that you cant drag down one without the other. Their arcs used to be linked equally. That Keith was happy in Red, he floruished, and he routed for Shiro in black, gave him vonfidence when no one else, even shiro himself at times, would. And GHAT was revolutionary. THAT was the Keith I fell in love with and stanned. This masculine man who had all the makings to be Hero, but his true place, where he was a hero of his own story (not necessarily The Hero, in classic and western view, where There Can Only Be One). That sent a message that we all have a placr on a team and each place is vital. A leader is only as strong as his team, and Shiro was strong on his own, but having the team, esp Keith supporting and defending his tightful place? Thats what made me care about a sjow about mech when I dislike mech itself for trauma reasons.

But then Keith became leader and everything revolutionary about him was thrown away.

Not even to mention, you destroy Keiths character and Shiro goes woth him. Cus Keith was his right hand, Shiro was Keiths leader.

bbtree replied to your post “Vld aka Voltron: Legendary Keith,& I suppose the other paladins r…”

everything was pitch perfect right up to s7e1 the rest legit feels like a retcon in a reboot of a reboot… i mean re shiro and keith and their roles relationship etc, there’s obvi some good stuff in there too

The Shiro-Keith relationship was great, the idea of it that is - two individuals who are always loving and supportive of each other, and always saving each other. But since S3 I feel like its being written from a one-sided Keith perspective. It would have been so much better if they made Shiro a brainwashed sleeper agent instead of a clone, there would have been less plot holes and everything would have been more impactful particularly The Black Paladins episode. But what we got from S3-S6 was the clone’s perspective and they try to justify that with a convoluted “he has Shiro’s memories” explanation. Shiro’s perspective was from inside the Black Lion, he had memories from there but that doesn’t seem to matter in the story. And even if they had  Shiro absorb all of the clone’s memories, those things also don’t matter in the grand scheme of VLD’s overall story. So now it feels like Shiro is just there to serve Keith’s story. His place in the narrative doesn’t matter because he was just there to serve as Black Lion’s placeholder. His own arc doesn’t matter because Keith has to finish that for him too. Sure, sure Keith killing Sendak for Shiro was supposed to show the lengths Keith would go to for Shiro, saving him “as many times as it takes.” But again, that is from Keith’s perspective. Shiro’s perspective doesn’t seem to matter, its so inconsequential its interchangeable with an “Evil Clone”

[canonvoltronurl]

Remember when everyone was like, Allura returning to the Castle of Lions would be a regression for her. It’s sending the message that women should just stay at home while all the men do the fighting. When it turns out Paladinship did the same thing for her. She now has to fall back in place while all the men do the leadership thing.

[canonvoltronurl]

Reblogging on sideblog, too tired to get yelled at by mutuals on main:

Keith from s3 and on? I don’t know him. Or, anyone, actually. When I write and think of the characters (aside from Hunk and the Heith ship), it’s almost always their personalities and situations from s1-2. Keith in s2 didn’t blink nor snap when Lance got in Shiro’s face about Keith being too hotheaded to check out the marmora. This Keith who is cruel? That’s not the Keith I know.

They supposedly resolved Keith’s rivalary when he said, ”Leave the math to Pidge.” Which, was still charged with the( rivalry Lance started)ir rivalry, so it was patronizing. But it was progress. And then suddenly in s7, him AND THE WHOLE TEAM drag Lance? Or don’t defend him anyways?

Yeah I base mt characterization off the first two seasons. Near everyone was ooc in s7.

(Keith belonged in red because he spent the first part of his life as, well, his own leader. What he needed to learn was how to be a teammate. Once it became a hierarchy, with black as the lead, and forced him there (despite his own protests), any hope for him was gone.)

I’m gonna have an aneurism if I see one (1) more twist of Keith (im looking at the writers too) being a loner, asshole, badass, etc. He was set up as a loner because he was an orphan, didn’t know how to deal with things, bounced around homes (possibly?), had trouble controlling emotions, (*tosses autistic headcanon in*), but we saw him heal and flourish through his opening up and relationship to Shiro, and then the team. But they kept shoving him in lonewolf and now the fandom is doi (1)

doing too. : / The space episode where he yelled about alfor was so ooc. Not just because, keith is.. not socially graceful, but because it was never an established thing that keith had beef with allura, and especially over alfor? Like??? That was never a thing. But i guess whatever. We need a badass lonewolf ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ///the same time they pushed him into black and being leader is the same time they really went ham for the lonewolf thing. Like, writers, just say you hate keith, its ok.

nah lmao they love Keith. it’s just that they love their own specific version of him: Edgy Badass Loner with Anger Issues. they never bothered to give him a meaningful arc where he overcomes his fear of abandonment and learns to relate to people because the EPs don’t think he needs one. they think he’s cool and perfect and awesome just how he is in S7.

Keith, in many ways, has gone backwards rather than forwards. whereas in S1-2 he was sort of… endearingly awkward but trying; clearly struggling with fear of abandonment but making the effort; had flashes of anger, but was working on it… by the time we hit S7 the EPs have just doubled-down on all the Edgy Bad Boy Loner aspects of Keith’s personality and erased any complexity or warmth. he meets and connects with his mother, which in theory should be the catalyst for him mellowing out, if his anger is a product of being abandoned/left as a child? but nah he’s… yelling at people, now. because the writers think that’s edgy or something? “oh let’s have Keith scream some really hurtful personal shit at Allura, wow we’re so dark and edgy” okay but now Keith just looks like a massive asshole. congrats i guess? 

if VLD had actually followed through on its themes in S1-2 (found family, self-acceptance, “owning who you are will make you a better Paladin”), Keith’s arc could and should have been about him growing closer to the others as friends. he could have worked through his fear of abandonment; got a handle on the anger. connected genuinely with a team of people who accept him for who he is, with all his quirks and issues. and it would have been really nice and wholesome and a wonderful message for kids watching at home.

the reason that didn’t happen is because the EPs actually prefer the Edgy Badass Loner Dickish Angry Asshole version of Keith. that’s the character they wanted to write all along. we’re supposed to see him dual wielding and rushing off with his cool space wolf and be like “wow!! so edgy!” and then overlook all the shitty ways he treats other people. seriously we’re seven seasons in and Keith’s patronisingly telling Lance “don’t miss?” Lance is the team sharpshooter, his bayard weapon is literally a sniper rifle, what the fucketh is the point of this? except to make Keith look all Broody and Edgy and Badass, i guess.

it’s really sad because in theory Keith would have been a cool character. as of S7 he’s just a massive dick - but that’s being presented as “growth” for the character, and we’re supposed to marvel at how “mature” he is and how he’s “grown into the role”. honestly why couldn’t we have had dorky awkward Keith who doesn’t know how to do a Voltron chant and who gradually learns how to make friends and not yell his feelings whenever he gets stressed? missed opportunities, man. and to be fair it’s not just Keith that suffered for a lacklustre “character arc” and botched characterisation, but that’s a rant for another time.

[canonvoltronurl]

i think... for me a big part of the tragedy with kuron is that i feel like he really deserved the fullest extent of life. idk how to explain but, it's why the idea of sharing 'space' with og shiro in his own body or being integrated into black's consciousness feels inadequate. the existential+body horror of being literally lab-grown and abnormally developed with a sense of history that isn't authentic to him... in trying to 'fix' the story they brought this unnecessary suffering into being lmao

It’s Frankenstein’s monster.  The question that echoes back about as far as human kind goes.  Once something is sentient, once it has a sense of self, once its self aware and interactive, is it not human and worth all a human is worth and allowed all the rights and dreams and hopes a human should be allowed?  Look, we joke about our pets running our lives and yet its because we recognize that, even not human, they have thoughts and desires and needs all their own and we should respect those.  ‘Stabby’ is a fictional construct of a roomba with a knife taped to it that I have seen spread across multiple fandoms that all adore nothing but the concept of a vacuum cleaner.  People say they get inspired by bees who fly even though they’re not designed to be aerodynamic.  It is human nature to feel empathy for the world around us, to assign rights and standards to even fictional creations because they reflect us in some ways.

And the clone’s tragedy is all the worse for the fact that, being a story written intentionally to move us emotionally (or what’s the point of a story), we are expected to not be moved by the clone’s struggles and ultimate fate.  That writers that want us to laugh with and cry with and feel through the characters of this story set this one single character aside (two if you count Shiro) and tell us ‘yes, feel for all of them but not this one’.  And, that’s not the way stories work.  That’s not the way characters work.  And that’s not the way giving us a good at heart character, struggling to do right despite the odds and telling us not to care whether he wins or loses works.  Of course we care about the clone!  We’re humans.  He represents so many of our own struggles and our own fears and he’s trying so hard.  We want him to win.  And - he doesn’t.  He isn’t even mourned by people that call him their friend.  He’s dismissed as if he never matter and all his struggles and pain never mattered.  And as human beings there is a part of us that will always stand up and say ‘that’s not fair!’.  It doesn’t matter that life isn’t fair.  We still know when something is not fair and we want our fiction to give us what life so often doesn’t.  ‘That’s not fair’.  And its not.  And we’re expected to not care.  Somehow.  While being expected to care about every other character.  But not that one.  Not the one that’s Shiro , whether he’s Shiro or not.

@voltron and @dreamworksanimation  introduced a character to us, had us spend multiple seasons with that character and then, when it tossed the character aside as nothing but a plot point, expected us to not care.  But that’s not how stories work.  The clone was a part of our story, he was a part of our team and what happened to him was horrifying, watching him fight against it was heart-breaking, watching him succumb to it was terrible.  As it should have been.  Except then the story gave us nothing back.  There was no reward for his struggle.  There was no mourning for his loss.  There was no one in the story itself to remember him or care that he was gone.  There wasn’t even any acknowledgment that what happened to him was wrong.  We had no closure and neither did he.  VLD storytelling is deeply flawed at a lot of very basic levels, something I would expect Dreaworks at least to be more professional than.  The clone saga is just a very obvious, easy to spot example of it.

[canonvoltronurl]

Over a year later and I still think Allura should’ve been the black paladin

[canonvoltronurl]

Y’all at professionals with shiny titles, resumes, and plenty of accolades to help them feel validated in their skills: Omg, we can’t critique this media, that’s hate.

Me, a beginning writer: b,,blz I,,, I- , If anyone is out there... I.. I wish for your honest,,, feedback that I,,, may grow,,,

[canonvoltronurl]

i literally feel myself ascending to a higher plane of existence

[canonvoltronurl]

Bury your gays is malicious for many reasons,

But facing the constant threat of murder it’s a big slap in the face.

I’m a trans man but I’m gay. I pass, for my voice, facial hair, and I’ve changed everything from my stance to my stride to my clothes (I have a largw wardrobe full of all sorts of ’female’ fashions. I love clothes and makeup. But for my safety I don’t touch any of that stuff). Today I decided to have the courage to wear my backpack purse. It’s... pretty femme, but borders on maybe-sorta-if you squint-oops, didn’t know this was for *women* lol silly me, t’was a mistake. And damn. I had people double take. And each time, I tensed up.

Now mind you, I only wore it to one of my stores. The store where I have a good relation with the manager, and he’s gay. Because, even with all the tools to defend myself (i’m trained and competent in self defense), should anything go down, there’s ”trans/gay panic”. The person could try and blame me. And I’d need someone to vouch for my character/stick up for me.

So I worry not just about not being outwardly gay. But also about being discovered for not having a penis.

Listen.

Death is always on my mind. Always.

BYG is insidious because I’m alrwady imagining the ten ways I could be murdered for the day, and then we have fiction, in this case, supposedly lgbt positive, telling me I absolutrly am gonna die tragically.

Also I served two years in AmeriCorps testing for HIV, educating people about it, and trying to keep our current generation from falling victim to the same shit from thirty years ago. I may not have been alive but holy fuck. Holy fuck. Do I feel the sorrow in elders I speak to. It hurts so much knowing how we’ve lost near an entire generation (thus preceeding generations too) of queer people. We’re lost and hurting. Like.

I expect to be hurt by those against us. It doesn’t phase me past the threat of violence.

But what does dig me is when allies, people you absolutrly trust, and believe they’ll do all they can to ease the pain, are the ones causing it.

Do you think Santos releasing that letter was a good idea? I've heard that the letter has made things worse because you now have one side that wants to blame the shippers/entitled fan (including the ones that don't bully cast and crew members) for making him write the letter while the other side see it as a "We're sorry that you felt that way. We "didn't know" that people would get that upset about it." What do you think he should've done?

I think had he not released some kind of a statement, he (and eventually Dreamworks) would face significant excoriation. The backlash was already threatening to spill over, and he released his statement at the last possible moment to sway that narrative. 

It’s not exactly a complex trope, either. To whit:

Do you have only two gay characters, who are in a relationship, and of which one dies by some unexpected and often traumatic event? YES.

Does the death happen under circumstances which all heterosexual characters manage to survive? YES. No other protagonists are shown grieving for previously-introduced, named, characters lost in the war.

Does the death render the surviving character grieving alone, possibly also suffering some level of guilt for having caused the death somehow? YES. To quote LM: 

Obviously, [Shiro] going to live with this guilt of never fully knowing if he brought this upon Earth. If he did not come back for the Blue Lion, if he had not started this whole Voltron resurgence, would the Galra have ever attacked? There’s definitely, I think, a level of guilt there… 

I mean, the entire thing is textbook, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the ways Shiro alone has suffered repeated brutal fates.

When it comes to the apology… I think it was remarkably damning (and thus possibly ignorant of the optics) with its honesty about the trope and their choice to use it, anyway. I also think every word was selected deliberately and carefully to cast their intentions in the best possible light, sprinkled with a sideways tone warning. The emphasis on those felt like de-centering the offense in favor of litigating the EPs’ side. 

To JDS’ credit, he was careful to avoid the “we’re sorry you were offended” non-apology. Whomever helped pen that letter was aware that would only make things worse. However, I remain troubled by the absence of any mention of the dead lesbian couple, or recognition of the implication of giving Shiro a terminal disease, or what it means to reduce Shiro to being the lone LGBT+ token. 

As for others’ reactions, I’m not surprised there are people who’d rather blame just about anyone than the EPs. When you get attached to a work, it can be hard to reconcile that with learning its creators intentionally chose to cause real and active harm. All the same, belittling those hurt as ‘entitled’ or ‘shippers’ and blaming them for causing any unrest is, bluntly, blaming the victims. 

On the plus side, if you meet someone who wants to argue that JDS was forced by the malice of entitled fans or whatever similar bullshit, now you know the truth about that person. They are not an ally of the LGBT+ community.

Keep reading