#bob koplar

[dynared]

Granted, if you mention this to Bob Koplar or the people at WEP, this will likely be their reply.

I have never seen a company so desperate to erase a show from their history. With the news that the show will be leaving Netflix in late 2024 (due to contracts expiring, no conspiracy theories), and Koplar pushing everything including a big budget Amazon Studios movie directed by the guy who directed Red Notice and Dodgeball, which he has publicly said will resemble the 80s show in aesthetics, along with an official Voltron beer that uses the classic Voltron imagery, it’s clear they want to forget this trainwreck.

[violethowler]

Wait. What happened with Bob Koplar and Voltron? There were reasons as to why it was so bad?!

There absolutely are. 

And before I go any further, I have no clue if you already know who Bob Koplar is, but if you do, then this little explanation will just be for anyone reading this who doesn’t: Bob Koplar is the current head of WEP (World Events Productions), the company that made the original show in the 80s and owns the Voltron brand. Dreamworks at the time of the Netflix Voltron series’ production only had the rights to adapt the existing Voltron material and did not own the brand outright. All scripts/episodes for VLD had to go through Bob for approval (by his own admission, although the video where he acknowledges this has sadly been deleted from Youtube). 

So with that explanation out of the way, the reason the final season of Voltron is so bad was because the showrunners and writers at Dreamworks had a very specific story they were trying to tell, while based on comments made by cast, crew, and Koplar himself over the years, Bob wanted 1) a glorified toy commercial to sell toys to 6 year old boys, and 2) a successor to the previous Voltron series, Voltron Force. 

Based on all the evidence found in and around Seasons 7 and 8, the crew’s plans for the final seasons would have involved revealing that Lotor was still alive in the Rift, that he was innocent of the crimes he had been condemned for, and that he would reconcile with Allura and Team Voltron before joining them in the final battle against Honerva. 

Bob found out about this while the crew was making Season 7 and ordered them to change it. Based on interview comments and the history of the Voltron brand, the most likely reason was because he wanted Lotor to remain a villain so he could be reused as the antagonist of a sequel series. The crew complied and removed much of the content surrounding this plotline from Season 7, but then reworked it into Season 8 and tried to push for their planned ending anyway, banking on the fact that by the time Bob found out they’d defied him it would be too late for him to do anything. Instead, the showrunners were forced to cut out multiple episodes’ worth of footage and then rearrange what was left in order to have the number of episodes their contract with Netflix obligated them to release. (A summary of the most notable evidence of changes within the season itself, along with a rough outline of what the final season should’ve looked like based on what was removed, can be found here)

And this all happened after production was already completed, as even the animators and most of the voice actors were surprised by the version of the final season we got. 

Bob has also been implicated by multiple interviews with cast and crew as pushing back against the crew’s desire to include queer characters and relationships in the show, and prevented them from including any same-gender romance between the paladins. 

If you’re interested, the group of fans behind much of the research into the Bob-mandated editing of Voltron Season 8 has put together a few reconstruction videos depicting an approximation of what the unedited versions of certain episodes would have looked like. 

[erithel]

So about the Voltron movie. Though I agree with some of the points made about the live action remakes there are some things that have been done well.

I'm excited for Voltron but I do hope it's more along the lines of Transformers rather than whatever Disney thinks they are doing. Their remakes are the worst of cash grabs. Those who watched them as kids now have kids of their own and are willing to spend money on the things they had as a kid on their kids. Profit off of nostalgia. Which is why they don't alter the scripts.

Though it is still a cash grab Transformers wrote the script for the movies with only the base of the storyline and adjusted to the times. They put more effort into the remakes and they were entertaining. There is a chance if Voltron movie did this, it could be good. (I swear this is Bob Koplar goal. Transformers was a marketing dream. He wants that level of merchandising.)

The thing that bothers me the most about these conversations around the movie is that the VLD fandom seems to think that's all there is.

DreamWorks didn't destroy Voltron they just messed up a reboot. There are still a lot of old fans but most are not in the VLD fandom circles.

I do understand that VLD did hurt a lot of people. I too pretend seasons 7 & 8 don't exist but it didn't stop me from being a fan of the giant robot space cats at all. It's like reading a bad fanfic you just try to forget it and hope the next one is better.

I just don't think it's right to wish a future project to be canceled over a bad reboot. The movie doesn't even have anyone from the VLD working on it. It will have nothing to do with it and I just wish people would stop bashing something that hasn't even started.

Apologies for ranting, it's just so frustrating to be excited for something but you have to hide it because others haven't healed their hurt.

Sorry it took me so long to answer this. I was moving and was without internet for a while.

So you do have some points in here that are valid, of course.

And I of course understand the feeling of being excited for something, but having to shove those feelings aside because all you get in response is anger and annoyance.

My original point wasn't to bash the reboot, but to express my annoyance at the need to turn every animated thing into a live action, because animation is still not considered a "serious medium." I am a huge fan of animation and I feel it holds the most possibilities, so my main annoyance at a live action Voltron reboot was the "live action" part of it.

The disconnect I have with your post, here – although I do understand the point you are making – is that, for me, I enjoy watching things for the characters and not necessarily the plot or the action. That's what interests me as a viewer.

Obviously not all people are like this, and that is perfectly fine.

But I got attached to the characters from VLD – understanding they are one version of these rebooted characters, through the years. And a live action version of Voltron would not have these particular characters, it would have a completely new version of them. This is fine on its own, but I think this is why many people may not be jumping at the prospect of the live action reboot – because the characters may be the same base archetype as the ones from VLD, but they will not be the same versions we grew to know and love.

I actually do think if the Voltron remake happens, it probably will be similar to Transformers. I think they will focus on the action and the plot and not as much on the characters. And this is fine for people who enjoy that type of story.

But that is why I don't think I will go out of my way to watch a live action movie of Voltron, if it does get made.

As with any of these asks, I can only offer my opinion, so I am not saying it's not something others won't enjoy. All I can say is why I don't think it's a great idea, in terms of what I would like.

[crystal-rebellion]

Hi so I just discovered the whole teampurplelion thing you guys are doing and can I just say I love you all for it. I'm so bitter and upset with how the ending of voltron turned out, I think its absolutely ridiculous. I would love to see a different version of season 8 (season 7 too but I digress) but with me just discovering TPL, is there anyway you can catch me up to speed with everything?

Dear Anon,

First, we’re so thrilled you picked up on our stance and are as invested in the original version of Season 8 as we are.  (And 7, of course.)  As far as catching up to speed - buckle up.  Even as a tl;dr of the past six months, this is going to be a long post.  Before I throw it under the cut, I will say that everything we’ve worked on is now housed at: https://www.teampurplelion.com

This includes all meta, Red Pen Series, the Season 7 Finale restructure and where our Season 8 reconstruction will be, as well as some guest posts.

As far as where to begin?  Allow me to break it down for you!

[Image description: Princess Allura in her flightsuit standing surrounded by glowing interface screens in the Castle of Lions. Subtitle reads, “This should help!” End ID.]

I’m going to try and start from the beginning, bear with me.  Before diving in, I’m going to highlight some key players because this is A Mess™.  

TeamPurpleLion consists of five core members: @LeakingHate, @FelixAzrael, @Dragonofyang, @Voltronisruiningmylife and myself.

DreamWorks is, well, DreamWorks Animation.  They are the overarching production company responsible for creating Voltron: Legendary Defender, and overseeing the process from start to finish.

WEP, LLC, formerly known as World Events Productions, is the current Intellectual Property holder of Voltron.  This is critical because DreamWorks has contracted the rights to make new Voltron content, but they do not own the brand itself. WEP controls all past iterations of Voltron, including Defender of the Universe, Voltron: The Third Dimension and Voltron Force, as well as controlling the direction the many different comics took. If WEP was not the Executive Producer/Writer themselves, those who were had to run everything by WEP - including anyone involved with Voltron: Legendary Defender.

The current CEO of WEP, LLC is Bob Koplar, and before him, his father Ted Koplar, held the title.  Tiffany Ilardi is the Head of Licensing.

Okay, keep a pin in those people, they’re gonna come up again.  Let’s dive in.

We were all fairly incensed by what we saw as Season 8, and it didn’t take LeakingHate long to catch on to some pretty intense animation errors.  TeamPurpleLion didn’t officially come together until February 23rd, but the members were far from silent before then.

LeakingHate was first out the gate with her “Chasing the Ghosts of Season 8” meta where she debuted the first round of “shit was edited” evidence.

Independently, FelixAzrael dropped a piece talking about the structure of narratives, specifically Dark Youth/Light Youth and Anima/Animus storylines in their “Death of a Dark Youth” meta.

By December 19, the fandom has pretty much caught on that stuff is shady.  FreeVLDS8 was created, the petition was well underway, including a signature from the wife of one of the animators from Studio Mir (and is currently well over 30,000 signatures) and CallVoltron on Twitter was advocating for angry fans to call or write letters to the people responsible and offered to send letters for those who could not.

There were several tweets/comments going around from VAs and animators, all seeming to indicate that the finished product either isn’t what was expected, or that the Executive Producers had their hands tied.  Details can be found on this timeline created by Twitter User Eros. (Far too many examples for me to list here and have it be succinct.)

There was an interview with AfterBuzzTV on February 18 where a voice actor was the first to go on record stating “I’m pretty sure like the toy company that owns the Voltron IP is like this show it’s for boys and their dads.” Never before has DreamWorks marketed VLD towards that demographic, and the actual demographic for the show skews way, way differently than “boys and their dads.”  It is, however, a consistent theme for the Intellectual Property owner. (We’ll come back to this.)

By February, #TeamPurpleLion had grouped up and made its debut with a speculative piece.  In “Interdimensional Executive Meddling: Voltron Style”, I pulled apart the symbolism of the game show episode ‘The Feud’ in Season 7, and alluded that perhaps the episode was actually commentary on what was going on behind the scenes.  I also hinted that the person pulling the strings and controlling the gameshow: the alien Bob, and the CEO of World Events - the IP for all of Voltron: Bob Koplar, might have more in common than just their name. 

[Image description: A small green alien with four arms sitting in a hovering chair floats before a glowing screen backdrop featuring the alien text title “Garfle Warfle Snick”. The subtitle over his head reads, “Bob!” End ID.]

Curiously, I never said they or Bob Koplar are responsible; I only pointed out that they might know who is - and as the overseeing CEO of the franchise - one would expect him to.  The VoltronStore on Twitter, WEP’s official account, which was never referenced in the meta, was quick to tweet that they are just the store and that they had no creative control.  (Both have since been factually disproved - it IS the Intellectual Property owner, and they DO have the highest tier of creative control and have even admitted such in the past - happily.)

In the same week, LeakingHate’s “Seek Truth In Darkness” meta debuted - the 20,000+ word analysis on the major edits and reconstruction of the episodes of Season 8.  If you’ve heard about “That Meta,” it’s probably this one, and if you read no others, please read this.  It breaks down each animation/story flaw.  While each incident could be explained as an animation error on its own, when they’re collectively grouped, the evidence is quite damning that not only was Season 8 edited, but it was done so painfully post-production.

As an example: play the Where’s Hunk game in this screencap:

[Image description: A split-screen from season 8 on Netflix, featuring from left to right: an Altean pilot, Merla, Keith, Hunk’s shoulder, Pidge, the top half of Allura’s face, and the top half of Lance’s face. On the top, right, and bottom of this screencap is dark pink background with the black lines of the split-screen extending to the edges of the colors, marking out where the rest of Hunk, Allura, and Lance should be visible if the view had not been cropped. With the lines extending out, Keith’s portion of the screen is also extended, leaving a completely removed section of the split-screen remaining, which is highlighted purple in this image. End ID]

(In no other season are the split screens this cut off; each character is centered in their respective frames and visually balanced against the others.)

FelixAzrael followed up with a meta analyzing the symbolism in the episode Clear Day, in “Clear Day: Aftershock,” highlighting all the symbolism between DreamWorks, the workers underground, and the moment when the people working behind the scenes can say “clear day!” and continue forward with the true plot of S8, which would include an empowering feminist narrative for Allura, vindication for Lotor, and impart important lessons to the Paladins and showing that abusers don’t have to be forgiven.

LeakingHate later unraveled that the LGBT+ representation was hacked out of Season 8 in order to eliminate a relationship between Keith and another male Paladin in her meta “Legendarily Defensive: Editing the Gay Away” which ultimately ended with Shiro’s own story becoming truncated as a byproduct.

Surrounding this series of meta, the Executive Producers conducted two previously unscheduled AfterBuzzTV Interviews. (Transcripts of these interviews can be found here, courtesy Dragonofyang.)  One occurs before ‘Interdimensional Executive Meddling’ on February 25 and the other happens after ‘Clear Day’ on March 4 of this year.

While the interviews were riddled with some sometimes painful commentary, I urge you to remember that the Executive Producers are under NDAs, and are legally obligated to say whatever the contract holder wants them to, short of anything actually illegal.  Dragonofyang broke down NDAs in her meta here.  

The Executive Producers also say in no uncertain terms that the IP Holders called for changes, that they were after the season was completed, and they reiterated that they had no time or finances left to really do it, so they did the best they could.  They also mention that the IP Holder had a vision that Voltron was a show about making “toys for boys and their dads.”  It’s worth mentioning that at no point prior to Season 8 was this demographic or need for toys ever mentioned by anyone other than Bob Koplar.  In the February 25 interview,  Joaquim Dos Santos even begins talking about Lotura and how good it was before Lauren nervously reminds him “that’s getting into dangerous territory.”

The second interview on March 4 is especially interesting because it was two hours instead of one, and the first hour they actually just talk.  They confirm again that the controlling party is the IP Holder and they were the ones that pushed back on the gay representation and other things, and DreamWorks actually fought to be more inclusive.

Deep breath - with me so far?  (This has been a hell of a ride for us, too.)

[Image description: Shiro to the left standing tall, with Coran, Lance, then Hunk looking exhausted and slumping, and Pidge grinning on the far right, in front of a backdrop of space debris. End ID.]

There was further rumbling from the WEP side of things when CEO Bob Koplar responded to a letter a group called #JusticeForAllura wrote to him, expressing their sorrow for Allura’s treatment.  In his response he claimed that Allura’s death was a greatest honor bestowed upon her character.  

He also went on to state that he was shocked by the negative reception Season 8 received when he returned a fan’s phone call and the fan posted a summary of the conversation.

So about the end of March, the VoltronStore (and WEP, LLC’s official Twitter) replied to people and claimed they have no creative control, and Tiffany Ilardi - who answers the phone at the Voltron Store - claimed that the store is only a store and that they aren’t WEP.  Ms. Ilardi, as you may recall from the beginning of this post, is WEP’s Head of Licensing, as per her LinkedIn profile.  (She also admitted in a telephone conversation with a fan that ‘a lot was left on the cutting room floor’ and agreed that a Director’s Cut of season 8 would sell well in early April.)

TeamPurpleLion continued with another round of meta. FelixAzrael posted “Breaking the Prince’s Curse” - a meta that outlines and breaks down all the iterations of Voltron (including VLD) and Lotor’s place in them, as well as emphasizing the differences in how he’s portrayed, be it a true, one-dimensional villain, or someone more complex and also redeemable - and how that reflects on who was the creative force driving the show. 

(Spoilers: When one or both of the Koplars took on the roll of Executive Producer, he was treated as a monstrous villain.  When another writer was involved, such as Peter Keefe for Defender of the Universe or Tommy Yune for the Robotech Crossover comic, Lotor was a vastly different character, nuanced, morally grey, and entirely capable of redemption and learning from his mistakes.)

[Image description: Prince Lotor and Keith from Defender of the Universe, with Keith facing away from the camera and Lotor facing toward while smiling. End ID.]

[Image description: A screenshot of the Voltron comic book by Devil’s Due Publishing, featuring Lotor as a child and his mother Lora, surrounded by an escort of Drule. The text in the speech bubble reads, “And arriving on behalf of King Zarkon of the Drule Empire, his royal consort Lora and his son the crown Prince Lotor!” End ID.]

In all but two of these cases, each of the non-Koplar EP’d series was cancelled right before the narrative turn in the story where Lotor would no longer be considered the main villain (if he ever was to begin with) and even begin his arc to a redemption.  One was the Robotech crossover comic where Lotor only ended up back where he began the story of Defender of the Universe in 1984, which is speculatively why it was allowed.

The other?  Voltron: Legendary Defender, and I’m fairly certain we have the contract with Netflix/DreamWorks to thank for that, as Netflix was contracted to air 78 episodes minimum, but it certainly didn’t stop Lotor’s storyline within the show from being excised. 

A poorly-sourced and wildly subjective article by SeanZ and hosted by GeekDad was published and treated as factual, and TeamPurpleLion’s Eliza (Voltronisruiningmylife on Tumblr) was quick to point out all the logical fallacies in it in her meta “From the Teacher’s Desk”.  TeamPurpleLion reached out to GeekDad with concerns for the legitimacy of the unsubstantiated claims in the piece and offered to write a rebuttal.  

We received no response.  

[Image description: Lotor from VLD, body turned away from the camera and his face turned toward it to look over his shoulder with a derisive look. End ID.]

This piece became the jumping off point for the teachers in our squad to begin their Red Pen Series - a deconstruction of each episode and commentary on narrative flow and plot.  Currently, Season 8’s episodes 1, 2 and 3 are up.

While simultaneously working on the Red Pen Series, FelixAzrael also published “Phantoms of the Space Opera.” Which consists of a detailed analysis on the use of musical motifs throughout the entire series, and demonstrates where musical cues, including renditions of Lotor’s theme in apparently Lotor-less scenes are echoes of where he should have been in the unedited version of the season.

Dragonofyang then published a comprehensive meta on the Heroine’s Journey narrative, titled “The Heroine with a Thousand Faces.”  While we had mentioned Heroine’s Journey with reference to what we should have seen in Season 8 for Allura - and how quintessentially tied into that Lotor was, Yang takes it a whole football field further and really cracks into the steps along the path, the symbolism and hammers home what was missing and why Season 8 felt so empty.  (Spoilers: It’s because it was.)

FelixAzrael caught on that the Season 8 Episode 2 “Shadows” was originally a part of the Season 7 plot and was moved to Season 8 when the second round of edits happened.   (LeakingHate outlines the three rounds of edits timeline in her Seek Truth meta.)  We believe that it was originally tied to Season 7 Episodes 7 & 8 “The Last Stand”, as there are two core maternal arcs ongoing; Honerva and Lotor, as well as Katie and Colleen Holt.  The juxtaposition of these two then segues into the actual cliffhanger for Season 7.

[Image description: An edit of two screenshots of VLD with a diagonal split going from right to left. On the left half stands Honerva before the Kral Zera. On the right are Sam and Colleen Holt in the Galaxy Garrison, looking concerned. End ID.]

To help people visualize how this all fits together, we created a reconstruction.

Part 1

Part 2

Season 7’s Corrected Cliffhanger

Aside from Dragonofyang continuing to produce transcripts of interviews past, that concludes to date what we currently have published.  We have much more in the works and even just recently closed a casting call for voice actors to help us build a reconstruction of Season 8 - utilizing the talent of comic artist @pridearts to help us fill in all that “got left on the cutting room floor.”

LeakingHate has a meta in the works on Why everything happened the way it did and why WEP decided this was the best image for their brand.  Meanwhile, as a tie-in to that, I’m working on a piece outlining the life and vision of Peter Keefe: the Executive Producer of Defender of the Universe.  It may seem like it would be unrelated to the situation with VLD, but I assure you it’s not.

Everything we’ve worked on can be found neatly organized on our website: teampurplelion.com.  You can search all our work via tag, topic, or type (eg. meta, reconstruction, transcript, etc.).

In summary to date: 

The Executive Producers and some of the Voice Actors both say the IP Holder (which is WEP) called for changes at the last minute, and mark that WEP believes the show is marketed to “boys and their dads” and exists so that toys can be made and sold to them. They also say that DreamWorks was easy to work with. (ABTV, March 4, among other interviews)

The Korean animators don’t recognize the finished product as the one they worked on, and the wife of one of the animators even signed the petition for the unedited seasons.

The writers continue to show support of DreamWorks, Tim Hedrick even continuing to work for DreamWorks as an Executive Producer for his new project.

WEP has also simultaneously said ‘nothing was edited’, ‘everything was used’ as well as ‘a lot was left on the cutting room floor’ and ‘a director’s cut would sell well.’  They have mocked hurt fans and have joked about the security of their customer’s credit card information: they told one fan complaining of being hung up on that it wasn’t them and someone off the street must have come in and answered their phone.  They have claimed to have no creative control as well as stated how proud and thrilled they are to be involved in the project. Bob Koplar has expressed confusion as to the negative reception of S8, but has made no official public statement on it to date.

WEP is a Limited Liability Company.  It is a private business that has no shareholders and no networks/parent companies to pander to.  Therefore, when ‘WEP’ makes any decisions about narrative, storyline, or what is ‘right’ for the brand, it’s really Bob Koplar himself making those decisions.

Bob Koplar claims that he is the “steward of the property”: 

“I take very seriously my responsibility to maintain the integrity of the show and all its characters.  We must do so while at the same time evolving the show to reflect the changing makeup and sensibilities of modern audiences. This at times can be a perilous path, but we walk forward as best we can, knowing the biggest risk is not taking any at all.”

The risk he took was to hamstring creators rather than trust them, mock the very consumers that pay to view his shows and purchase his merchandise, and force artists to completely reconstruct a season that would have, indeed, reflected that very changing makeup and sensibilities of modern audiences that he vowed to support.

[Image description: Lotor in his personal cruiser floating before a planet, looking annoyed. Subtitle reads, “It appears that the reality of Voltron does not live up to the legend.” End ID.]

[ptw30]

Have you read Bob Koplar's response to the Justice for Allura movement? Like I appreciate the intent but he didn't address the harmful messages of Allura dying, still sort of telling that LM just brushed off the complaints cause somehow women being the martyr is "feminist". At least, Bob's response was more thoughtful than that crap, but his corporate talk doesn't make anything better :/ (If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's on tumblr justice-for-allura)

Well, first question is - is it real? I don’t know the person is running that website. I thought I did, and I just did a quick check - and I’m not sure. So is it easy to make a letterhead and type a letter? Yeah.

But it has a good mix of corporate speech and someone wanting to sound sympathetic - even if their words aren’t. So I’m going to assume it’s real. 

Is it nice for someone to get a letter back? Sure, but I don’t understand why WEP would respond with just one letter. In marketing - a general rule of thumb is - every letter = 3,000 people who share the same opinion. Again, that’s just general assessment. If so, then however many letters this person sent - if I remember correctly, it was a letter-writing campaign - then you aren’t reaching all the people who agreed that Allura’s death was horrifying and unnecessary with one letter. And you’re assuming one person who sent the letters will share your words. 

Again, not the best tactic. Furthermore, in a day of digital age where people have Photoshop, you’re assuming your words aren’t going to be changed. 

But again, I don’t think that happened. I’m just saying - I don’t know why WEP would respond in this fashion. An interview with questions already decided and a sympathetic interviewer, complete with a DreamWorks’ rep for a united front, would have been a much better response. 

Going a bit more in depth - the letter read, “Sorry you feel that way,” which is legally saying, “We aren’t taking responsibility.”

Plus - good intentions? Who judges “good”? If your idea of “good” is to “kill all the queer, disabled, and ethnic minority characters to put the ‘white’ male paladin in leader,” well - then your idea of “good” is not shared by a majority of people in the world, let alone the fandom.  

Second - “Allura will be back.” How? As the strong, non-white leader we met in Season 1 & 2, or white Allura from previous incarnations who struggled in her lion, was captured several times by Lotor, and eventually got with Keith?

Bob’s words didn’t soothe anything. If the words are true, then they are nothing more than corporate rhetoric of a man trying to sell more toys and shirts because that’s his bread and butter. And what he said didn’t put down any fires but just inflamed the garbage pile of after-series commentary. 

Will someone, somewhere, in some exec capacity, say, “We’re going to fix it”?

“Reflect on VLD as a whole?” …did Bob? Because if he watched the same show we did, then he should have realized as a whole, it was a cluster. 

And no letter is going to change that fact. 

[iwontmakeuasandwich]

Me as I stand in the doorway of Bob Koplar’s office waiting to have a “little chat” with him about his letter

[spiftynifty]

so TIL that Dreamworks no longer owns the rights to Voltron cuz they opted not to renew them lol

[ikimaru]

Looks like the "exploratory development" thing was from when Universal had the rights to the live-action movie several years ago lol. As for exploratory development, oversimplified it just means they're experimenting with new stuff. It's unclear if that's still the case with where the movie is now at currently. Bob Koplar being more heavily involved might mean it's back to basics instead of anything new and exciting.

Anon: Exploratory development just means they are trying out things the company has never done before instead of automatically going with what's established, usually tech-wise! Lots of studios do it, it's nothing to be worried about. My bet is they were trying to make the Lions and Voltron itself look more natural and not so obviously cgi lmaoo

ohh I see I see so like figuring technical stuff out most likely

omg lmao just make the lions look like the ones from the live action TLK.. imagine.. what if everyone has a mullet, then it will be truly back to the basics, like in the 80s 😌👌 jk jk

(also I bet it will be a super condensed storyline due to the movie-length)

[curtashiism]

VLD is officially deader than disco

So here in this interview, Bob Koplar states that Dreamworks let the rights to Voltron expire.

What does this mean?

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, Voltron: Legendary Defender is effectively dead.

Of course Dreamworks still owns everything Legendary Defender, BUT they don't own the rights to make new entries, and WEP doesn't own the rights to VLD. This means neither has the ability to continue the VLD continuity at all.

It is THEORETICALLY possible that a new deal could be struck, allowing a new entry- but the fact that Dreamworks let the deal expire (opting out of the live-action movie that was part of the original deal they made) indicates that there are SERIOUS problems. For them to walk away from the agreement suggests that something is broken and they feel it's easier to walk away than try to fix it. I don't just mean "broken" in terms of VLD's story either. Something has destroyed the idea of Voltron being profitable in DW's eyes.

If they didn't want the deal they already had halfway done, there is no reason at all to believe they would have interest in a new deal, either.

So... this means VLD is now the exclusive playground of the fandom- fans are the only ones who will ever make VLD content again.

Whether that is a good thing, a terrible thing, or something else depends on your perspective, but those are the facts.

As for Voltron itself, new iterations can easily continue to be produced- but they will either be DOTU or something new entirely.

VLD is deader than disco.

[dragonofyang]

Is it true that Dreamworks no longer has the trademark to Voltron? So they won't release the true verisons of S7 and S8?

DreamWorks has never publicly held the trademarks to Voltron, what they have is the copyrights. They still have those. The rumor that DW lost the rights to Voltron comes from a Reddit thread that linked to a video of Bob Koplar at VoltCon 2020 discussing the movie rights for Voltron, and that DreamWorks has opted not to make a Voltron movie. Movie and TV rights are separate, and it appears from what Bob said, if he can be believed, that he is now shopping the movie rights around again to other companies. So far as we are aware, DreamWorks still has the television rights. And DW will always own the copyrights to VLD (and Voltron Force for that matter) until and unless they are purchased from them by someone else. The copyrights will not expire within our lifetimes.

The big difference here is that a copyright protects original work, and a trademark protects the things that make a brand that brand. Like Tiffany Blue (a trademarked color), or McDonald's slogan "It just tastes better" (a trademarked slogan) as opposed to the ship designs in VLD (original designs made for and copyrighted by DreamWorks).

[dynared]

One thing in the back of my mind is JDS and LM may be on the kallura is a mistake and allurance should have always been cannon. Lance insting it should be lance and allura not keith and allura made me think that. Though ending with allura dying seems to go against that. I mean they basically wasted the first and given WEPs disapointment only time allurance is cannon.

From everything that's been said about Voltron Legendary Defender, there are actually multiple stories about why it all fell apart and the license is now with Amazon (although like I noted yesterday, there is a greater than zero chance the Filipino GMA Network may not just release its live-action Voltes V, but a live-action Daimos before Voltron hits theaters).

If you believe Bob Koplar's Voltron panels, the man hated what Legendary Defender did in multiple spots. He hated Allurance, hated the race swaps, hated Shiro, and hated that the giant robot show was allergic to the giant robot. The relationship fully fell apart when Universal rejected a David Hayter-penned live-action movie script that used Legendary Defender as its base, and if Koplar is to be believed, while he has nothing but respect for Solid Snake (the man did write the screenplay for the first two X-Men films), the final product, AND I QUOTE, "Did not get Voltron". So once Universal/Dreamworks let the license expire (by not greenlighting any sort of continuation or separate adaptation), the rights lapsed and reverted to WEP, with Bob all too happy to take the license back and shop it around. That being said, the romance element was one of many things Koplar hated, rather than it being the only thing he thought was bad. And judging by the commercial, non-Tumblr/Twitter response to the film in comparison to the utterly insane bidding war the pitch that was based on the original show garnered, Bob was correct.

The actors behind the show presented a much more mundane reason for the show falling apart during a panel in 2021. During said panels, the actors CLAIMED that Legendary Defender was supposed to have a movie about an older Lance going to find Allura and reviving her. However, in their account of the story, when Dreamworks signed a deal with Hulu, they were legally unable to make the movie happen. And then the license expired due to reasons they were unaware of.

Bluntly put, while it's feasible, the story doesn't really add up.

Yes, Dreamworks did sign an exclusivity deal with Hulu (that seems to have since expired). Only that deal did not prevent the continuation of numerous Dreamworks animations, including the Boss Baby show, which is running to this day, and She-Ra, which after it ended and bombed, went to Amazon Prime for its next incarnation, not Hulu or even Peacock (which is owned by NBC Universal, Dreamworks's parent company).

If the Legendary Defender deal did expire, absolutely nothing was stopping Universal, had they wanted to, from putting a new Voltron show into production to retain the license, even if it was some sort of Teen Titans Go-esque comedy.

Universal itself at this point was actually going through significant cost-cutting. They actually dumped a few films they were going to distribute, most notably Detective Pikachu, to save on marketing costs.

I'm of the belief that there was a VLD animated grand finale movie in the cards, but after the show tanked commercially, the movie production went south, and it was clear Koplar was pissed and Universal thought the license was dead (by their own hand), Bob took the license back through the license expiration clause, and when he set out to restart the live-action movie, made it a point to make it the opposite of all the things he hated about Voltron Legendary Defender. Which seems to be "most everything," although yes, that does include the romance in the show.

[violethowler]

I posted 11,097 times in 2022

That's 7,720 more posts than 2021!

27 posts created (0%)

11,070 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@prismatic-bell

@hyena-frog

@blowingoffsteam2

@athingofvikings

@pixel-creates

I tagged 4,280 of my posts in 2022

#kingdom hearts fanart - 771 posts

#soriku - 556 posts

#kingdom hearts meta - 307 posts

#voltron legendary defender - 288 posts

#voltron fanart - 258 posts

#sheith - 232 posts

#current events - 228 posts

#kh sora - 227 posts

#signal boost - 182 posts

#kh riku - 157 posts

Longest Tag: 89 characters

#but it always feels like they're trying to use it to invalidate ppl who ship soriku alone

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Constructing Kingdoms Episode 12 Now Live On YouTube

My original plan was to wait until saturday to post this, but since the video’s done and the big Thanksgiving gathering I’ll be attending doesn’t start for a couple of hours, I figured “why not?” and decided I’d surprise my followers by publishing my newest Constructing Kingdoms video 2 whole days early.

As you can see from the thumbnail, this month’s video is dedicated to our Mistress of All Evil herself and the role she plays in the context of the series’ overarching narrative. 

31 notes - Posted November 24, 2022

#4

Wait. What happened with Bob Koplar and Voltron? There were reasons as to why it was so bad?!

There absolutely are. 

And before I go any further, I have no clue if you already know who Bob Koplar is, but if you do, then this little explanation will just be for anyone reading this who doesn’t: Bob Koplar is the current head of WEP (World Events Productions), the company that made the original show in the 80s and owns the Voltron brand. Dreamworks at the time of the Netflix Voltron series’ production only had the rights to adapt the existing Voltron material and did not own the brand outright. All scripts/episodes for VLD had to go through Bob for approval (by his own admission, although the video where he acknowledges this has sadly been deleted from Youtube). 

So with that explanation out of the way, the reason the final season of Voltron is so bad was because the showrunners and writers at Dreamworks had a very specific story they were trying to tell, while based on comments made by cast, crew, and Koplar himself over the years, Bob wanted 1) a glorified toy commercial to sell toys to 6 year old boys, and 2) a successor to the previous Voltron series, Voltron Force. 

Based on all the evidence found in and around Seasons 7 and 8, the crew’s plans for the final seasons would have involved revealing that Lotor was still alive in the Rift, that he was innocent of the crimes he had been condemned for, and that he would reconcile with Allura and Team Voltron before joining them in the final battle against Honerva. 

Bob found out about this while the crew was making Season 7 and ordered them to change it. Based on interview comments and the history of the Voltron brand, the most likely reason was because he wanted Lotor to remain a villain so he could be reused as the antagonist of a sequel series. The crew complied and removed much of the content surrounding this plotline from Season 7, but then reworked it into Season 8 and tried to push for their planned ending anyway, banking on the fact that by the time Bob found out they’d defied him it would be too late for him to do anything. Instead, the showrunners were forced to cut out multiple episodes’ worth of footage and then rearrange what was left in order to have the number of episodes their contract with Netflix obligated them to release. (A summary of the most notable evidence of changes within the season itself, along with a rough outline of what the final season should’ve looked like based on what was removed, can be found here)

And this all happened after production was already completed, as even the animators and most of the voice actors were surprised by the version of the final season we got. 

Bob has also been implicated by multiple interviews with cast and crew as pushing back against the crew’s desire to include queer characters and relationships in the show, and prevented them from including any same-gender romance between the paladins. 

If you’re interested, the group of fans behind much of the research into the Bob-mandated editing of Voltron Season 8 has put together a few reconstruction videos depicting an approximation of what the unedited versions of certain episodes would have looked like. 

31 notes - Posted August 29, 2022

#3

The newest episode of Constructing Kingdoms is now live on YouTube!

I’ve made no secret on the channel that I look at the series through a Soriku lens, and this is the month where I finally break down the narrative evidence for Sora and Riku to be the endgame romance of the narrative.

At just over 42 minutes, this is my single longest video to date. It’s been a labor of love for the last 2 months, with many nights spent staying up past midnight when I had to get up early for work the next day. But it was all worth it in the end, and I’m proud of this episode.

Be sure to stay to the very end for a post-credits surprise! ;)

59 notes - Posted February 26, 2022

#2

Constructing Kingdoms Episode 10 Is Live

The 10th episode of Constructing Kingdoms is now live on YouTube. In this episode, I’ll be discussing a particular character archetype I’ve noticed pop up in various KH theories several times over the years, the most common interpretation of how the series will implement it, and my own interpretation, incorporating key details that are typically overlooked. 

This will be my last episode for at least the next few months, as I’ll be taking a break once I upload this so that I can recharge and focus on other projects that I let fall by the wayside in the last eight months I’ve spent focused on making these videos.

71 notes - Posted March 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Timeline of KH Dark Road

So the whole time I was watching the finale of Dark Road, I was keeping track of when all of the “X years later/ago” scenes took place, both in relation to the main story and in relation to the rest of the KH saga. Since Xehanort’s conversation with MoM is specifically identified by Remind as being 75 years before KH3, I decided to use that as the base point.

So without further ado, here’s a timeline of Dark Road’s major scenes:

85 years before KH3: Epilogue scene of baby Xehanort on Destiny Islands with Player

78 years before KH3: Xehanort leaves Destiny Islands

77 years before KH3: KH3 Xehaqus chess scene

76 years before KH3: Main Dark Road story

75 years before KH3: Xehanort goes on his first world tour post-Dark Road and meets the Master of Masters

74 years before KH3: Xehanort returns from his first world tour

72 years before KH3: Xehanort goes on a second world tour to prepare for the Mark of Master exam (the 4 years later scenes)

70 years before KH3: Xehanort and Eraqus become Keyblade Masters. Eraqus is bequeathed Master’s Defender while Xehanort is given No Name.

69 years before KH3: An unknown crisis occurs in Scala that makes Xehanort desperate enough to try and summon Kingdom Hearts (his fight with Eraqus in the trailers)

21 years before KH3: Xehanort and Eraqus argue over Xehanort’s plans to start another Keyblade War, ending when Xehanort scars Eraqus’ face (as seen in BBS flashbacks)

12 years before KH3: Xehanort finds Ventus in the Keyblade Graveyard and takes him as an apprentice

11 years before KH3: Xehanort brings Ventus to the Land of Departure. BBS happens a few months later.

Some quick observations about the timeline of events:

In his conversation with MoM, Xehanort indicates that his training is nearly finished and the Mark of Mastery exam is coming up soon. But according to this timeframe, he didn’t become a master until 5 years after the conversation. Then I remembered that after failing the exam in BBS, Eraqus tells Terra that “there’s always next time”. Indicating that another Mark of Mastery will be held at a later date and Terra can retake it then. So there are two possible reasons for this discrepancy between the game’s stated timeline and what Young Xehanort says to the Master. Either something happened that caused Odin to delay the exam, or both Eraqus and Xehanort failed and they had to wait a few years before he would allow them to retake it.

The time of when Xehanort found Ventus means that Ven was only living in the Land of Departure for a few months before the start of Birth by Sleep, even though the prologue on Destiny Islands where Sora healed Ven’s heart happened when Sora was still a baby. Since Dark Road emphasized again that time moves at different speeds on different worlds, this means that while 4 years passed on Destiny Islands, only a few months passed in the Land of Departure.

107 notes - Posted August 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[diceerickson]

All my Keithtober stuffs! :’3 I feel so accomplished considering last year I only did 1 keithtober prompt. The prompts I went off of were Waywardbaz’s, 98littleducks’s, and creativelymaree’s. :) I referenced the pose for the picture of keith sitting on the roof off of @senshistock ‘s photo! Thank you for always making amazing pose references!! I just wanna say that I love Keith so much. He’s my fav VLD character and he made me soooo happy. I will never forget him :’3 Happy halloween/ happy keithtober! Under this is proper crediting and the terms of use of my art. If you feel like you should look over this, read more! :D

I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender or its characters! It is produced by DreamWorks and World Events Production. Its executive producers are Ted Koplar, Bob Koplar, Yoo Jae Myung, Lauren Montgomery, and Joaquim Dos Santos. It’s producers are Choi Goun, Kim Young Hyun, Kim Seul Ki, and Lee Soo Kyung. (I honestly didn’t know who to put, so I put them all.) I own nothing, but my fan art.

DON’T repost my art.

DON’T steal my art/ DON’T claim it’s yours.

DON’T trace my art.

DON’T color/edit/or alter my art.

DON’T sell my art.

DON’T use my art for youtube videos if you are making money off them. My art ISN’T for your benefit! If you are wanting to use my art for a video on YouTube like a voice over or just cute lil video edit, AS LONG AS YOU DON’T MAKE A PROFIT OFF IT AND GIVE ME CREDIT then I am all good with that. (Please link me too!)

If you want to use my art as a reference, go ahead! Let’s say I drew a pose you just love, then yes go ahead! Or let’s say you love how I drew the eyes, sure reference it! References are natural! Okay, every artist references, but what is NOT acceptable is when you COPY MY WORK! Don’t draw anything EXACTLY like how I draw it, that is plagiarism. JUST CREDIT ME.

If you have any questions about my art, please just note me. I am not hard to contact with.

[savewep]

Interview with Bob Keplar early in VLD history. Around the 34 minute mark he discusses the process, stating how much he trusts the team and the story.

(Sorry I do not have the transcript for this. If anyone would like to translate for fans who might need it that would be greatly appreciated!)

[mermaider00]

I just read "The tragedy of Allura in the seasons 7-8" and i hate Bob Koplar who wrote this disgusting sacrifice for Allura

I’m sorry you’re upset by it, though I’m pretty sure it was LM and JDS who wrote it. Tbh, I only reblogged that for the take on allurance because I can always get down with any post that crushes it because it was absolutely horrible in every possibly way. I can’t say that I was upset by anything other than Lotor and allurance after the tragedies of season 6. Very very few characters escaped my wrath by the time the series was complete. I think I only still like maybe four or five of them total.

I’m not so upset by Allura sacrificing herself (honestly who wouldn’t to get away from her cruddy rebound relationship with lance) but a part of me does wish they had done the thing where she came back as a baby so lance could take care of her. Because then you know for sure that whole awful ship would sink like the titanic and hardly anyone would like it. I can’t say I feel for canon VLD Allura the way I once did but I will always defend her when it comes to allurance

But Lotor comes first to me, always

[ptw30]

I would *like* to think there's some kind of logjam/power struggle going on behind the scenes at DreamWorks between old-school and modern understandings of media, and that's why we haven't heard anything about anything out of them since VLD imploded. There isn't a shred of evidence for it, afaik; but it's currently the only way my brain can justify holding out hope for a reboot.

Unless you know someone in DreamWorks, it’s hard to say what’s actually happening behind the scenes. Bob Koplar said back in December in the Let’s Voltron Podcast that WEP and DreamWorks were in talks to continue Voltron - which at the time seemed insane to me. DreamWorks’ most-watched show…doesn’t already have a sequel in the works? Say what?

But I’m thinking now the massive drop-off between Season 2 and Season 5 stalled any sequel potential, and the backlash from Season 7 and 8 only further urged DreamWorks to put the brakes on a sequel. 

However, I think the major issue - how would DreamWorks’ continue the show? Not that they can’t so far as what’s the storyline going to be? Like you said, it could be a battle in the back-end, but…also, tapping into my day job now, the customer experience actually means a lot to companies. 

Today, customers don’t depend upon advertising/marketing as their main source of information. In today’s digital landscape, most viewers depend upon other social media and other fans’ recommendations. Rotten Tomatoes,  IMDb, even Tumblr, which has created a community of like-minded individuals - they serve as a potential viewer’s first stop before ever turning on a show - and potential return viewers first stop, too, where they seek the advice/recs of influencers.  

And what will potential new/returning viewers see when they google “DreamWorks Voltron Legendary Defender”?

If you’re like me and like to see how a show ends, to make sure it’s worth it, what will you see? 

Okay, y’know what, though? Maybe you didn’t decide to check ratings since you have a different favorite channel for interaction. So instead, you googled “Voltron.” What do you see?

Uh…not good. Hey, wait. Let me check Twitter. 

First tweet that shows up is an awesome cosplay of Allura and Lotor (who don’t end up together, so now I’m tainted going in thinking they will be) - but the very second tweet - 

…so in every single channel where new/returning viewers can interact with each other and get information about VLD has a negative message right at the top. Even the VLD Wikipedia page discusses the terrible treatment of queer, women, disabled and non-white characters. 

Before DreamWorks can announce a new sequel to VLD, they need to clean up this mess first - either by addressing the issues or creating a sequel that will address the issues. And considering how DreamWorks has been operating - She-Ra had finished four, 13-episode seasons before it premiered and wrapped up production in May. Fast and the Furious has only shown a 10-second clip, and Mitch Iverson seems to indicate he’s moving on already from writing. So…there’s a chance F&F might finish production quickly after premiering, too. 

When did Voltron finish production? Three months before its final season premiere. 

Sounds like even if VLD does have a sequel in the works - it might be awhile before we hear anything. If it follows a similar tactic to She-Ra and F&F - and Bob was actually on the level about working with DreamWorks last December - then we’re a year, year-and-a-out from a premiere and at least six-months away from an announcement. 

At least. 

Watch them announce something tomorrow.