#also the actual endgame romances they are in are badly written and boring

[rwbyconversations]

The Scarlet Letter: Let’s talk about RWBY’s male LGBT rep

I have been sitting on this post for nearly four weeks waiting until the 15th due to the Before the Dawn spoiler rules.

So let's start with a blunt statement: RWBY's male LGBT representation has not been good. If the series' handling of female LGBT rep is good (which... well there's worse shows) and the general standard for how you write LGBT characters in a show like this, its handling of male rep has been... how not to. And Before the Dawn kinda solidified the idea in my head that the show's handling of its male LGBT cast just isn't good enough, either by the standards of when RWBY began in 2013, or today in 2020 when compatively massive steps have been taken over the past decade to show a more diverse list of characters... or at least a more diverse list of female characters.

I don't wanna make this a pissing match over how over-or-under-represented male or female LGBT characters are, but I feel like it's safe to say that the majority of the trend-setters for modern romances, especially in western animation, have been between women. Korra and Asami from Korra, Chloe and Max from Life is Strange, Marceline and Bubblegum in Adventure Time, (insert the relevant Steven Universe characters here, never watched it), and more recently, Adora and Catra in She-Ra and Luz in Owl House.

Compatively, while studies have shown that in general male LGBT characters get more appearances on a purely numerical level, in general they're more one-off characters there to pad a roster, or played more for comedy (see Josh Gad in the Beauty and the Beast remake or the gay guy in Avengers Endgame that was more notable for how hard China and Russia snapped him out of existance). The only big male-LGBT focused media I can think of from the last decade would be Yuri On Ice, Moonlight, IDW's Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye (Chromedome/Rewind best pairing fuck you Roberts for issue 16) Love Simon, and the anime adaptation of Banana Fish.

So it's no surprise that RWBY basically follows these ideas. It's big romance is (unless the writers are very stupid) going to be between Blake and Yang, their first out character was Ilia, Coco got sent to the Book Dimension where she confirmed "I use my sunglasses to perv on women without their knowledge" which uh... yeah you can definitely tell RWBY is written by men... and Volume 6 had Saph and Terra being a good example of an LGBT couple without any real drama. In the last three years alone, the show has drastically increased its lesbian and bisexual characters, alongside even including its first out trans character in May Marigold (albeit only revealed on Twitter). In general, these depictions of sexuality have been pretty OK. Would have liked it if Ilia wasn't immediately written out of the show after Volume 5 as it made her feel a bit more disposable than intended but whatever, subject for another day.

RWBY's male rep though is a bit spottier. There's the plant bois in Volume 5's premiere, we nearly had Pilot Boi until some last-minute revisions, and... Scarlet.

Why Scarlet's a bad launchpad for male LGBT rep

I don't like Scarlet or how his sexuality has been handled. Scarlet's homosexuality wasn't revealed in the show, or by the writers, or even in anything that's actually canon. He's confirmed gay in his sole of dialogue in a non-canon fan anthology, where the manga's Twitter team had to say that Miles suggested the idea and approved of it.

In short, Scarlet is Dumbledore'd, where his sexuality is revealed in out-of-show material and in a way that doesn't make it supremely obvious (Miles himself never commented to confirm this so this news was limited in how far it could spread. I'm genuinely curious how many people still don't know Scarlet's gay), and Scarlet himself is a nothing character who was written out of the show after Volume 3 and only reappeared in Before The Dawn, half a decade after he vanished. Compared to Ilia, as this came out after Ilia's entire arc in Volume 5, it's not a great starting point for mlm rep. But things would have been forgiven if it had gotten better, if the show did have more male LGBT characters introduced, even just on the Saphron/Terra level of just being around for a few episodes before leaving. Then it would have been a misfire but then we could all say "Things got better."

It... didn't. Which is why when Before the Dawn released in 2020, a full two years after Scarlet was first confirmed gay, while the franchise had more than doubled its wlw rep, Scarlet remained the one male character in the entire franchise who had a name and liked men. I remember vividly a fake leak for After The Fall which claimed Yatsuhashi would come out to Velvet and admit to having a crush on Fox. And I remember as well how many people were disappointed when it was said to be false, because it would have been nice for Yatsuhashi's character, especially after the fleshing out he gets in the CFVY books. If Yatsu had come out as gay in the books I'd like his writing enough to say he's a good case for rep, albeit with the caveat of "This is all in side material." But in reality, the leak was fake and Coco was confirmed gay instead.

Unfortunately, Before the Dawn proceeded to ruin Scarlet and made me at times feel genuinely uncomfortable as a queer man! Let's talk about that.

Before The Dawn is crap and Scarlet's writing is borderline offensive

I hate Before the Dawn. It's... bad. I read it while on a vacation and the only solace I had about the entire thing was that I'd bought an M&M chocolate bar. The bar was finished before the book. That bummed me out. It's not a very well written book, the prose is very Early 2010s YA Writer, none of the characters are memorable and there's various Fun Incidents like "NGDO using children as bait for Grimm," and "Neptune's hydrophpobia being used as a threat to torture him and the scene is played for comedy."

Theo was cool. I can't wait to see him as written by good writers, he should be a highlight of the Vacuo arc.

I had two hopes for Before the Dawn- "Don't be bad," and "Let Scarlet and Sage be well written." I'd liked how After The Fall had handled some of its characters (barring, y'know, Coco perving on women), especially Fox and Yatsu who were surprising in how much I liked them. I was looking forward to seeing Myers give Sage and Scarlet similar treatment- two relatively nothing characters meant he'd have a blank slate to write them however he wanted, he could give them unique personalties and if nothing else it could be cool to see their Semblances.

And then I read the book. (Sage fans I am so sorry for you, you got baited harder than Johnlock fans)

Scarlet's a giant dickhead in the book. It's his sole character trait and his inner monologues go on, and on, and on about how much he hates Sun, how he revels in mocking him. Most of his dialogue is sarcastic put-downs about Sun and how lame he is, and Sun is never properly allowed to defend himself or point out how going with Blake meant he was able to help save Haven Academy.

(hey remember when Sun in Volume 6 expressly says to Blake "I was a bad leader for ditching Neptune and the others, and I need to work on that" only for Before the Dawn to have him staunchly refuse to accept that he let the team down? I don't think Myers did but I do)

Scarlet being a ratty bitch would be one thing if, again, the franchise had done more rep. He'd still be a badly written character, but it wouldn't sting as much. But because Scarlet is still the only expressly confirmed male LGBT character in canon (the book teases that Nolan is gay but there's never confirmation either way beyond him smiling at Scarlet), it means that he has to represent that entire ideal. So when the one gay man in Remnant is being an asshole and a snide loser, that means that by extension, this is how the franchise sees gay men. And that fucking sucks! I wanted to come out of Before The Dawn singing its praises, I wanted to like the book, but it was a massive letdown, especially coming off of the other big 2020 RWBY controversy involving gay characters.

Yeah. We're doing this.

Clover and Fair Game: Technically not queerbaiting. BUT:

Let's pre-empt this: Clover wasn't queerbaiting, and Fair Game, while cool and I dig it, kudos to them for becoming one of the top 5 RWBY pairings on AO3 in one year that's fucking impressive (I say with mild malice as an IronQrow main), never had a chance. The writing never seriously boosted it barring one interaction which was flirty (them talking in the lobby of the Schnee Manor), and everything else was out of show boosting through the social media teams and CRWBY hyping it themselves by saying they liked it. If you wanna blame people, blame the animators who went off-script with stuff like Kim Newman adding the wink as a deliberate nod to the Volume 4 waitress, or the social media team deliberately using the same policies for Fair Game as they do for Renora and Bumblebee.

It wasn't Eddy's fault that things escalated, and he himself has said that in retrospect, he should have warned people that this never had a shot.

But I can't blame the Fair Game fanbase. Because Fair Game took off like wildfire. It came right as the fanbase began seriously asking for more male rep, Qrow's pretty hot, and the Clover wink came right after the Great IronQrow Reawakening of November 9th, 2019. The rocket was primed, and they rode it to the moon. Finally, to these people, after seven years RWBY seemed to be doing something with mlm rep in show. People started getting into RWBY just for Clover and Qrow's interactions. And if heroes were boring, Watts and Tyrian also had a fantastic dynamic that made Nuts and Volts one of the more popular villain ships overnight. Things seemed to be turning around! RWBY was remembering that gay men existed! You could hear the choir sing!

... And for those people, that meant that episode 12 hit like Truck-Kun.

People got pissed. People were horrified. And it didn't help that some members of CRWBY had said in the build-up that episode 12 would have some shots that made them nauseous (probably the Tyrian thumb thing) Out of context, it looked to these fans like CRWBY were basically laughing at their suffering, like they were saying "Lol, you thought you had a chance, get fucked, I hope your vomit burns on the way up."

Yeah, Fair Game was never gonna be canon, and I think some people ran too far with it. But in the wider context of how desperate RWBY's mlm community had gotten for basic crumbs of content? I can see why they'd run with what they had. The writers aren't at fault for what happened, but CRWBY didn't help matters. And that desperate mix of what felt like official backing from the crew, jokes about how cute the ship was, and the hope that finally the show would have onscreen rep? I can see why people ran with it.

So why is the show more lackluster in depicting mlm characters?

Money. Let's be honest, most RWBY fans don't care if the show doesn't have good male rep. I'm willing to bet some of you reading this won't care and just dismiss it as not being that big a problem. I don't think the writers care if the show doesn't have good mlm rep because they're not poaching that market. They're after what they see as a bigger, more lucrative market, which in this case is female LGBT rep. That gets people buying games, watching shows, raising awareness and boosting awareness of your property, which means you make more money. In short: Two women kissing hits more markets and generates more attention than two men.

Am I saying that Miles, Monty and Kerry deliberately sat down seven years ago and said "We're not doing gay men because it won't generate enough ad revenue and traffic to be worth the loss in revenue from homophobes?" No, that's silly. But I'm saying that it's less important for them, and it shows in the things that are small and add up. Things like Miles not verifying Scarlet's sexuality or retweeting the manga account's confirmation to spread the message (compared to how he enthusiastically confirmed Ilia being a lesbian himself during the Reddit AMA). It shows in how Pilot Boi would have been the first mlm character only to die in his second full episode until M&K were told about the Bury Your Gays trope. It shows in how Shannon believes that Ozma is "megaqueer" and Miles jokingly laughs it off instead of confirming it, leaving it to just be Shannon's headcanon. It shows in how actor shipping is compared between the mlm and wlw ships, where Arryn and Barbara's frequent pushes for Bumblebee are seen as "official confirmation that it's endgame" while Michael and Kerry saying they enjoy Seamonkeys is treated as "well it would be cute if they did it, but they're never going to."

I'm not gonna say anything like "CRWBY are gonna have Qrow end up with a woman like Robyn out of spite against the bad apples of the Fair Game crowd." I'm not gonna say that I don't think CRWBY cares about male representation in the series. It is, however, definitely a low priority for them, and because that leads to gaffes like Scarlet's writing in Before The Dawn being offensive in his depiction, it only makes the contrast between the sexes all the more painfully apparent.

I'm kinda tired of waiting for Rooster Teeth to show that they do care about mlm. I'm kinda tired of RWBY's male rep being written like it came from a 1993 time capsule where I have to enhance the screen to see a guy holding a sign of Sun's abs or be content with the only onscreen rep still being the plant bois in Volume 5. I'm tired of how often the crew dances around answering basic questions about sexuality (and age, and birthdays, and heights, and so on) by treating it as a spoiler question, as if just wanting to know what way people swing would ever be a spoiler. I'm just... tired of all this. When the best mlm rep in Rooster Teeth's history remains the two dads in Camp Camp who show up in a few episodes, that should say something really bad about your company and your biases (To say nothing of the recent Red vs Blue seasons and their blatant queerbaiting for Grif and Simmons and the whole can of worms that is Donut).

I'd like to not feel like I'm borderline unwelcome because I'd like to see two men in this show kiss, and that the sole thing that represents people like me in this show is some British twat who complains about sand.

I'd just like to feel like my sexuality isn't a joke to Rooster Teeth (or at the very least, be like Donut and have it be a funny one). But at this point after the last few years? I feel like a very uncomfortable punchline to them. And it just sucks.

[skybird13]

Clover and Qrow (or: The Importance of Relationships in Fiction)

I started writing this in response to @fairgame-is-endgame​‘s post here, but I figured I hijack enough of his posts and this got rather lengthy (🤷‍♂️ it’s me, so go figure). Please do go see the post so you have context. It’s a super short but very meaningful observation that I’ve been wanting to address anyway, so here it goes.

What gets me about this particular complaint is the fact that apparently, in the minds of some people, relationship building isn’t multifunctional in storytelling. People constantly accuse shippers of caring about nothing but the romance (and I admit, there are some shippers who are totally in it for the enjoyment of the romance, and there is nothing wrong with that, just let people have their fun for god’s sake). But a good percentage of us are running around performing doctorate level psychoanalyses and writing what could easily turn into Ph.D. theses (if some of us were so inclined) on not only the interactions between these two characters, but the ramifications on the individual development for each of them, the implications behind their connection, and how all of that can work together to build a stronger story overall.

Yes. Qrow’s screentime in volume 7 has been all about his connection with Clover (outside of that beautiful scene he had with Ruby in chapter… 4, was it? I don’t remember but y’all know which scene I’m talking about where he actually reassumes the role of the adult in their relationship, so much love for him). You know what lies inside that connection?

His healing, for one. Volumes 3-6 took Qrow through one hell of a character arc. He went from having a purpose to losing it, to falling into a serious depression and a bad, bad place with his alcohol abuse, and finally to a place where he started to drag himself out of that hole. CRWBY could have taken him literally anywhere in volume 7. Hell, they could have left his development right there for the entire volume and had him present solely to support Ruby and the others. But what did they do instead? They carried on his arc by giving him one of the many things he needs to heal: a healthy and functional connection with another human being. He hasn’t just been some background shadow there to back up Ruby (which would have been poor writing); he’s had his own development, brief but very carefully crafted to showcase how the end of volume 6 changed him and what he’s trying to do to cope with his mental illness and addiction. He’s openly acknowledging his problems and trying to deal with them. He is working with another person without complaint or fear that we have seen, and we all know how huge that is for him!

Story possibilities run rampant because of his relationship with Clover. Qrow has always been one of the most interesting and dangerous characters in RWBY, and that was as a depressed alcoholic. Can you imagine his potential as someone who is actively working towards being healthy? I’ve brought up the possibilities of what we might see if Clover can somehow help him gain control of his Semblance, and I don’t think that can be overstated. I find it very hard to believe that two characters who, especially when together, can manipulate probability won’t be instrumental in whatever RWBY and JNOR have to do to take down Salem.

And that’s not even getting into the potential impact that Qrow might have on Clover’s development. Some of y’all complaining because we don’t have much on him yet, but good lord, he was just introduced! And his introduction came in a volume bursting at the seams with plots and subplots and a hundred different things going on. Give him some room to breathe and develop over the next couple of volumes. (I also argue that if you have any critical thinking skills whatsoever, we actually have quite a lot on who he is as a person at the very least, even if we still know nothing about his backstory. Speaking of which!!! Did we get Ren’s backstory in volume 1 or 2? No! It came in volume 4. How about Ruby’s or Yang’s? Nope. Their backstory was piecemealed out across the earlier volumes. Weiss’s? Same thing. Blake’s? Same thing. Qrow’s? … you get my point. If you want a straightforward biography, don’t watch fiction.)

*deep breath*

Anyway, my point is that I’ve seen more than one comment complaining about shippers and even romantic relationships in canon because, somehow in some people’s opinion, interpersonal relationships (particularly romantic ones) detract from the story. But do you want to know what story is built on? What the best stories absolutely revolve around? Character. Wanna know what you have to have for good characters? Individual mental and emotional development. Change. And yes, relationships.

The relationship between Clover and Qrow (or Nora and Ren or Blake and Yang or anyone else) doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s all a part of the tapestry of the story that is RWBY. Pull the relationships out and you have something threadbare and boring as hell. I love the plot. I love the fight scenes. You have no idea how excited I am to see Qrow in action in the next episode, particularly as a member of a team again. I want some Harbinger action as much as the next person. But that’s not what keeps me coming back every week. I want to see Qrow fight because I love him as a character. Because I want to see how he’s changed, how he’s developed, how he’s going to function in this team unit after being alone for so long. The fights mean nothing to me if I don’t care about the characters involved. And a plot not driven by character motivation and change (while possible) too often feels forced and contrived. You want a good natural, genuine feel to a plot? Then what you’re looking for is a plot that is character-driven. And what did I just say about the things needed for good character?

Look, if some of you are totally fine checking in every week just to see some combat action, that’s cool. Whatever works for you is what works for you and I’m not going to criticize you for it. But don’t you dare come after those of us who are here for characters and character development like we’re some substandard blight on the fandom. Can shipping get out of control? Absolutely. Are relationships written badly in fiction all the time and are thereby guilty of detracting from a story? Of course. But the relationships in RWBY, and particularly the relationship between Clover and Qrow, are not guilty of that. (Hell, this is a show all about relationships and the strength we can get from those we love and care about! What the hell do you think activates Ruby’s eyes???) This relationship, like every other one in the show, is there for a reason, and as much as some of us (myself unapologetically included) might screech about the eye contact and the flirting and the potential meaning behind the tiniest interactions, there is a depth inherent in their connection that goes beyond a surface level romance. It’s all about who they are, what drives them, what they have to overcome, what changes they might still need to go through, what roles they still have to play in the story, and how they might push each other in new and different ways to become who they need to become in order to do what they need to do.

And that, my friends, is what we’re actually here for.

[bladesoflightandshadow]

what are your thoughts on the three li in rod?? who are you romancing?

i actually started writing this a few days ago and only managed to catch up with rod yesterday, so HERE are my final thots on the rod lis now that ive already revealed myself for the fool that i am

(this ended up being mostly an excuse for me to rant about logan because. i love one (1) man) (also it’s literally so long i’m sorry you probably weren’t expecting all this anon)

so initially my plan was to string logan along so i wouldn’t get bored while waiting for mona’s diamond scenes to start showing up bc she was meant to be my endgame but……..i ended up liking him way more than i anticipated ! and now he’s my prom date and i guess my final choice 🤡

for real though he’s literally so sweet, and his and mc’s relationship felt like it developed really naturally? like logan is obviously really hardened from living as a criminal and from having to fend for himself pretty much from the moment he was born, but underneath that exterior there’s this desperate need for connection and a desire for normalcy that makes all of his scenes with mc really sweet and also really tragic. i think logan’s genuine devotion to mc is what sets him apart–while colt is occupied with proving himself to his dad and later avenging him, and mona’s detachedness makes it difficult to get her to open up, logan has pretty much worn his heart on his sleeve around mc since they met. he has no issue telling her exactly how he feels about her, and even when he has to lie to her, you can tell exactly how much it pains him to have to do so.

logan so very rarely lets people in, but you can kind of tell by how easily he seems to fall for mc that it’s more of a case of people never giving him a chance, and always hurting him when he does try, rather than a genuine lack of desire to connect with someone, if that makes sense? this boy is literally so starved for love, not just romantic, but also in the sense of wanting a family and crew that cares about him. (you can literally TELL how he has to grit through his teeth when he tells mc that the crew meant nothing to him; no matter how much he says otherwise, he wanted to find a family in them, wanted to trust kaneko, so badly.)

outside of that he’s literally the sweetest and most supportive boyfriend you could have?? he’s never condescending to mc, aside from lying to her initially lmao, and even when he does eventually admit it he completely accepts that it might be the last time he sees her, never forcing her to choose him. from their first interaction he recognises how strong and intelligent she is, and he’s always reminding her of it. he supports her dreams and ideas, he helps her study, he’s literally willing to go to jail so she can get a better life, like!! logan’s genuinely so devoted to mc and i’m literally getting emotional just thinking about it, i love him so much.

MOVING ON to the other lis bc i actually do love all of them,,,,

MONA is an absolute babe. like i have a lot of Thoughts™ about the way she’s so far being written as just a side character who has little to no bearing on the plot (though with her ‘betrayal’ in the latest chapter this might change?). i can think of plenty of ways they could’ve made her more involved earlier on (which deserves its own post lmao), but as she is, she’s genuinely fascinating as a character. mona makes her intentions very clear from early on; she has no desire to form attachments with the crew or to the mc, and her loyalties will shift very easily depending on her own interests. even when she flirts with mc initially, it always feels like she’s deflecting, never letting mc know more about her than she wants her to. her relationship with mc feels just as, if not more volatile than colt’s because of her alleged lack of loyalty; she barely offers her a glance before driving off after kaneko’s death, which kind of sucked, but it was definitely her way of protecting herself from getting hurt any further. 

it makes the genuine moments she does share with mc all the more special. it’s pretty much a running theme with all the rod lis that they’re emotionally constipated yet have a deep desire for connection, even if they don’t show it–with mona, it’s subtle because she’s a lot better at hiding her feelings, yet her vulnerable moments (right before she shuts down, anyway) really leave you screaming let me love you goddammit because you know she’s been through so much shit.

there’s also the fact that she literally went through the same thing that mc is going through right now?? mona was an honor roll student who fell in love with someone who only brought her trouble, and now she’s stuck in this life of crime that she can’t leave, can’t imagine leaving. it makes her so-called 'betrayal’ in the latest chapter (if you can even call it that) a lot more poignant because the girl she was in love with betrayed her as well; now she has a chance to right those wrongs, to actually use being part of the brotherhood to help the crew and mc. like the poetic cinema of it all.

outside of that she’s honestly just really fucking hot. people kept going 'mona hot’ but like, i only now realise they’re absolutely right.

i can’t speak much on colt mainly because i didn’t really romance him, and i’m sure plenty of other people have spoken about his character, but i really like him as well (even if he is a giant ass). where mona deflects with apathy, colt deflects with anger. he’s unpredictable, and his ability to be as cold as he was during the ardizzone job was kind of scary. he’s absolutely relentless in his path to prove himself, yet underneath it all you can tell he’s doing it because he thinks it’s the right thing, or at least the best he can do given his situation. he tries to hide the hell out of it but he really does care about mc, and you can tell even if you don’t intend to romance him. he’s also just genuinely funny in his own obnoxious, smartass way, and i love him. my son.

[blayzez]

I'm sorry, I know I don't usually post discourse on my blog. I'm just... really hurt right now.

At the age of 24, after spending my entire childhood forcing myself to believe I was straight because that's what my family and religion said I was supposed to be, I finally acknowledged that I was bisexual. Even then, I was still second-guessing myself: What if I only think I'm bisexual because the internet/social media makes it seem like the "In" thing? What if my sexuality is just a mask and not who I really am? What if, what if, what if. It was hard.

Then I saw Voltron. Lance seemed to have a bisexuality arc laid out for him, and it was obvious that he didn't quite know he was bi and/or wasn't emotionally ready to acknowledge it.

That was just so validating. It made me happy to know that being confused about your sexuality -- not being sure if you're the sexuality you think you might be -- was common enough to include it in a kid's show and it made me feel so much better! I was so happy, and with Lance's help (and the help of my friends and therapist), I was able to finally accept my sexuality for what it was. And I'm an adult. Think about how many kids his arc could have helped! Kids who were questioning, kids who were unsure, kids that might not being surrounded by a good support system and have to hide who they are. Lance was shaping up to be someone kids could really look up, admire, and in turn accept themselves for they are because of him.

And now that's washed down the drain. It meant so much to me, perhaps meant so much to a lot of kids that needed that role model, but it clearly meant nothing to the writers and that is just so disheartening.

This isn't even about shipping. I love K/ance with all my heart, but I would be okay with any endgame ship so long as it was written well. This includes keeping the characters in-character and allowing the romance to help in their character development. Keith was the most likely candidate -- he really did make Lance a better person and vice versa -- but if someone else filled that role and filled it well, I would have been perfectly fine with that! But that's not what we got. Instead, the boy who has been insecure ALL SERIES has to spend his only romance building up his partner and have that not be reciprocated. That most-likely-candidate boosted him up more than Lance's actual romantic partner, and that is just bad writing. That's not a good relationship. Relationships are two-way streets; you can't have only one of the partners be supportive -- they have to be EQUALLY supportive. And A//urance was not that. A//urance was rushed, did not help the characters develop in the slightest, and took away TWO great role models.

I don't like Allura. I think I've made this clear before, but I really don't like her. I was neutral to her in s1, then the whole Not-All-Galra arc happened in s2 and my opinion of her started going down at that point.

But she didn't deserve the hand she was dealt. She was the only woman of color in the main cast, and they KILL HER??? WHY????? I may not have liked her, but that doesn't mean she was a bad character! On the contrary, she was a great role model and I'm sure many girls of color looked up to her. And then they just kill her? First they take away the great role model Lance could have been as a confused bisexual character, and then they take away the only woman of color on the main cast. WHAT. THE. FUCK. You can't just do that! I feel so horrible for the kids who looked up to those characters only to have it all ripped out from under their feet.

Oh, but there was a random gay wedding at the end, so that makes it alllllllll better~

Except it doesn't. Adding in a gay wedding/kiss with little-to-no build-up is more likely to cause confusion than anything else. And it doesn't erase how dirty they did Lance and Allura. Both characters deserved better.

On the topic of shipping, yes, it was queerbait. I refused to believe the showrunners were doing that -- I absolutely refused because I trusted the showrunners completely. Surely they wouldn't have ALL OF THESE ROMANTIC PARALLELS between K/L with other canon romantic couples for nothing. Surely they wouldn't have developed K/L's relationship more than any other relationship unless there was a really good reason for it. SURELY THEY WOULDN'T BE OKAY WITH VAGUING ABOUT THE SHIP MULTIPLE TIMES AND BEING OKAY WITH DW USING K/L FOR MARKETING PURPOSES IF IT WASN'T GOING TO HAPPEN.

But nope. All of the media techniques to subtly hint at a romance used specifically for K/L meant nothing. It was just bros being bros nothing gay here.

And that is BULLSHIT.

Honestly, the whole season just screams, "SHOCK VALUE," to me. They wanted to shock people, but I don't think they really considered the repercussions of how they were doing it. I get shock value, bringing up the interest and encouraging audiences to rewatch the series to understand why the shock was actually built-up from the beginning, but there's right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. Voltron took the wrong way and screwed it up royally.

To be clear, I am not against straight ships. Far from it, some of my favorite ships are heterosexual. Nor do I fetishize mlm relationships -- K/L is only the second mlm relationship I've come to really love (the first being Hau and Gladion from Pokemon Sun & Moon). It's just that K/L really struck a chord with me and with so many other people, and to take that away for the sake of a straight ship and some shitty shock value? Dirty thing to do to the show's audience. Don't build up proper LGBT+ rep UNLESS YOU ACTUALLY FUCKING HAVE IT. The only rep? Shiro, and a hastily-added Zethrid/Ezor ship. Blaytz, too, but that was glossed over tbh and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the audience (not on tumblr because we analyze everything to death lol) completely forgot about Blaytz's interaction with that make Galra. That's not proper rep. That's throwing it in and thinking, "It exists so our job is done."

Media in general has being doing LGBT+ rep dirty for SO LONG. Even when we had positive LGBT+ characters in media, they were still characters based off of gay stereotypes. They were good positive characters, but were still perpetuating a certain bias against LGBT+ by displaying these stereotypes as fact. Times are supposed to be different now. We're supposed to be progressing, making it BETTER. I really thought Voltron was going to be part of that progress, that it would give us a well-written, well-developed, well-loved LGBT+ representation for kids of this generation to look up to and admire and learn acceptance -- about themselves and about others -- from. Instead, the showrunners three half-assed, tacked on LGBT+ reps and called it a day.

THAT'S NOT COOL.

This isn't about ships. This is about proper media representation for the LGBT+ community -- something that is really scarce, even now -- and how it affects the LGBT+ community when it's done badly. This also goes for racial rep. You can take two misrepresented groups and treat them horribly and then call it good rep. IT ISN'T. The poor representation of the LGBT+ community has proved to be detrimental in society's view of them. THIS DOESN'T HELP.

*sigh*

Off the topic of that, can we talk about how shit the writing was? Because it was really shit.

I'll admit that while I like s7, it wasn't written amazingly-well. Still, it wasn't bad and did have plenty of interesting episodes. Even with all of the asspulls we got in the last episode, it was still awesome because we got to see Shiro back in his element after losing almost everything in prior seasons. It was a mix of good writing and bad writing, but the good writing made up for the bad.

The seasons previous to that were well-done. Maybe not s4, but the other seasons were well-written and really enjoyable! There's a reason the show took off; the plot maybe standard, but the characters, character dynamics, and relationships were fantastic and were the true driving force behind the series and its success.

So why was s8 so all over the place? Why were plot threads that had been hinted at or outright confirmed left hanging or tied together hastily? So many things were alluded to in previous seasons only to lead to NOTHING. WHY???

Why did everyone BUT Lance get an arc?

What was the point of Lance getting a sword if it was never going to be brought up again?

Why was Keith's arc suddenly thrown to the wayside?

Why did Allura have to DIE for her arc to reach its conclusion?

WHY?

So many people complained about bad writing in Voltron, but I had always believed that the writing in Voltron was relatively good. Sure, it had its problems (like the entirety of s4, and the MFEs being boring as shit), but it was mostly a well-rounded show with well-rounded characters.

And s8... just threw all of that away.

All of that potential, all of those good arcs -- wasted.

The writing went downhill SO fast, and it's just such a shame. Something that meant so much to me has dissolved into the mess s8 was. It's disheartening.

I also want to apologize to all of my followers who followed me because my K/L optimism and metas. I'm sorry if I got your hopes up; I really thought K/L was the logical conclusion -- everything was building up to it, right from the first episode and even continuing in s7 (hell, even s8 added to it) -- and I truly thought the writers were going to follow through with all of the logical conclusions the previous seasons built up. I had faith in them, but I was wrong. For that, I apologize. I know it's just a cartoon show, but I also know how influential and meaningful media can be -- especially for marginalized groups -- so if my hype bringing you up made your fall harder when s8 was released, I am so sorry. You didn't deserve that; nobody in the fandom did.

I'm so jaded and disillusioned right now. Voltron has been a major inspiration for me; I originally decided to be a cartoonist to bring LGBT+ representation to children's media because of Steven Universe, but it was Voltron that really motivated me to reach that goal. I looked up to Voltron -- it was my muse, my main inspiration. I've learned so much about writing -- writing character arcs, relationships, etc. -- from Voltron and all of the analyzing people did. Seeing it devolve into what it did is upsetting. Something I loved so much has let me down, and I'm hurt and disappointed.

But more than ever, I want to create cartoons that don't do this; cartoons that tie up its loose ends, follow through with obvious character relationships, puts the main characters through complete arcs, and give proper development to them all. Cartoons that have proper LGBT+ and racial representation -- with LGBT+/characters of color that can be admired, that won't fall flat, that will teach the children of the generation about acceptance of others and acceptance of yourself regardless of sexuality, skin color, gender identity, etc. Voltron failed in that aspect; it was a compelling show that failed in everything it needed to succeed in. I refuse to make that same mistake.

With that, let's all look ahead to future and enjoy the fanworks that do these wonderful characters justice. Let Voltron's failure inspire you to create and make something better, something that will be much more impactful, much more meaningful.

Don't let it get you down; let it bring you up.