#edited on part of language so no one gets my ass for inaccuracies

[istherewifiinhell]

#never forget they used knockout instead of a different name they they had on the trade marks for SEXINESS reason. unreal.#<- can u explain that to me. anyways

yeah 👍🏻 although seems ive walked into a classic blunder of remembering something from a "the basics" video which ofc is from the wiki which ofc, its weirdly sourced and from a tf creator/company rep who. they have habits of just saying shit. ANYWAY. this is actually from the notes section on breakdowns page

the fandom concluded that Breakdown was meant to be Lugnut at some point in the episode's production. The Hub's Mike Vogel challenged this notion at BotCon 2011, claiming that Lugnut had been Knock Out's original name, which had been changed because "Lugnut" wasn't "sexy" enough for the character. The Prime Season 1 Blu-ray commentary, however, corroborated the original theory: Breakdown's place in the show was originally intended to belong to Lugnut, since a loyal Decepticon bruiser was desired, but the show creators wanted a land-based Decepticon instead.

That knockout was purposely designed as sexy seems to be a thing fans say a lot, tho i don't have a specific source to pull for that either. not that its particular hard to believe. and the tacit tf understanding here also being that. as the companies have to content with copyright branding, they prefer to use names they have on the books, and if the characters arent that iconic or new. any name seems to do, alas long as it fits the vibe.

also bonus fun(?) fact! botcon '11 also notable for when the writers said one of the most overly correctional homophobic things ive ever heard. (from knockout's notes section)(it DOES link the relevant youtube panel recording. but i have the wrong kind of mental illness, and would dissolve if i had to watch it, so lets take their word for it)

When asked at BotCon 2011, the Prime writers said that there is no designation for gay, or straight, for that matter, on Cybertron, where Transformers are created by the AllSpark, not through sexual reproductions. They also said that Knock Out is a knock out, and that the Nemesis is a very "don't ask, don't tell" place. And then they jokingly deflected the matter, claiming that Knock Out's mannerisms are not caused by any particular orientation, but are simply eccentricities caused by "a glitch in the AllSpark" the day he was created...

[bi-dazai]

okay here’s the 3 roots to all the problems in the writing in vld s4:

hi so right from the bat i was realising all these problems with uh. everything (including the art style?? who the fuck was in charge of drawing keith?? he has the same inaccuracy as fucking clone!shiro lmao). anyway if there are problems in writing, then you can actually trace it back to its roots and address the problem there, instead of just judging the outcome of the roots. 

there are also other tinier aspects of the show’s writing - like some moments of complete tonal whiplash (watch this video on star wars rebels if you’re curious about tonal whiplash) - which are just simply bad writing. but if you were wondering exactly what the fuck the vld writers’ deal is with s4, then this post will tell you. 

anyway, take this as a guide in how to critique s4, and how to not make these mistakes in your own writing.

1. loss of balance as the writers divert all writing to plot writing. 

so when you write a story, there’s a balance you have to find between character writing, relationship writing, and plot writing. depending on your story and your style, you’ll have more focus on one or two and less on another, but for a good story it won’t go to massive extremes and it will have a reasonable amount on each. for example, boku no hero academia is pretty much almost completely character writing, with a large focus on relationship writing from about the sports carnival arc onwards, but the plot is still really good because it isn’t forgotten about. avatar: the last airbender is character and plot-driven, but there’s still relationships built up and not forgotten about. 

so what is voltron: legendary defender? across s1-3, it had a HUGE focus on plot, a focus to the point that it was uh. risky. that focus is so much that you should only approach it if you know how to maintain that balance. vld’s focus on plot was toeing the line of too much - to the point that character writing was almost completely void, and relationship writing was extremely subtle. however, with keith’s arc in s2 and 3 and the developing relationships between keith and lance and lance and allura coupling in with subtle character development which allowed these relationships to develop and fuel the plot, vld actually handled it quite well. it’s why ive been saying this whole time to stop railing on the writers so hard because they chose a balance that’s extremely hard to keep and they actually pulled it off in a pretty impressive way when you factor in that difficulty. i regard s3 as a masterpiece - in 7 episodes the pacing was perfect despite plot accelerating massively and character relationships and development proceeding at a similar fast pace. 

where did s4 go wrong, then? well,  the writers forgot about that balance. they had plot points in mind, and they were sidetracked by these grand plans for t h e p l o t. pidge finding her brother, the introduction of the rebel alliance, keith leaving voltron, lotor being exiled, naxzala being attacked. all these plot points are really good!! and the plot was actually really good. but what went wrong is (mainly) the writers forgetting that they need that equilibrium, that balance (other reasons to do with plot are described below). they chose a balance that is much more delicate than many other stories, and this season they dumped a ten tonne weight on it because they forgot how fucking delicate it is. (i actually have a feeling this has to do with the way lok was written and i think they got used to that, send me an ask if you want me to talk about it more).

2. too much crammed into 6 episodes = destruction of pacing. 

i mentioned that the plot was good. it is. but it doesn’t feel that way, right? right. that’s because the ideas and the progression is good. but there is too much for this little screentime. lotor went from villain to “zuko” within 13 episodes, no, two episodes. that’s shit. do you remember actual zuko? that arc took years, and it began from the first episode. lotor? the redemption arc has taking uh. 40 minutes. and honestly, that is shit writing. 

another thing i had massive problems with - pidge’s episode. and that was my favourite episode for this season. this episode’s first bit is pidge finding and reuniting with her brother. and it’s really good! but i was watching it and thinking, “wow this is uh. this is moving a bit fast. we’re cutting away too soon on all of the scenes and shots. everything feels kinda cramped, time-wise.” well guess why!!??!!!?! the writers want to move the goddamn plot forward again!! the best episode of the season is completely ruined because instead of taking the entire episode to really dwell on pidge’s emotions and make us properly root for pidge’s journey (a la s3e5 - “the journey”), we take half the episode so that pidge and matt can reunite in two minutes and we can come back and do. PLOT RELATED STUFF. FUCKING CHRIST!!!! this is the episode that we have literally been waiting for since the first episode. and it’s fucking cut off by OTHER PLOTS. can someone please get briyan konietzko in here and explain to lm and jds what the fucking fuck CHARACTER AND RELATIONSHIP EPISODES ARE??!!?!!! HOLY SHIT!!! 

every shot in every scene in every episode of s4 isnt the full fucking thing!! listen - part of film language is how long you dwell on each shot, and how these shots are edited together. let me put this into layman’s terms - all the scenes and shots in s4 are just very vague, understandable descriptions of the actual scenes and shots. this aspect of the language of film is the difference between, “can i have water?” and “could I please get a glass of water?”/ “get me a glass of water now!”. you don’t get the emotion. you dont get the full effect. it’s just a summary of what happened. that was the entirety of how s4 was edited and put together, and it’s like that so that the writers could fit at least 13 episodes of plot into 6. with shortened, half-assed shots put together with cuts as transitions. i dont think i saw a single fade in/out/to in the entire season. all that i’ve described - it ruins pacing when it’s half-assed, and this was no-assed. the editing, the pacing - it’s close to fucking terrible b-movie standard. this is coming out of fucking dreamworks, out of tim hendrick, out of people from motherfucking legend of korra and avatar: the last airbender. the pacing of s4 is embarrassing.

3. getting too much into the current situation of the show, and forgetting about set-up.

after s1, 2, and 3, (particularly 2 and 3) people were making up theories, pulling from shot composition, pulling from hints. and guess what?! a lot of it paid off, or started to pay off! you know why? when writing s1, 2, and 3, every aspect of the writing (characters, plot, dialogue, etc) and even the film language referenced each other. voltron: legendary defender, across its first two seasons, established a subset of film language of its own. it’s because of that devotion to referencing past events and aspects of the show that things like @koganya​ ‘s massive klance masterposts could be made and believed. s4 is fundamentally not a vld season because it forgot its own fucking language. there’s no clever shot composition, no clever reference to past events or episodes, nothing. it’s so fucking flat. i don’t know what happened, but we got s3 - which spent the entire time pretty much worshipping its own film language to hint at stuff and then we got s4 - where the writers got tunnel vision of their own plot-related visions of grandeur that they forgot to write a season of voltron: legendary defender. this is so fucking ignorant of their own fucking show. fuck!!!

okay thanks for reading and please share!! this guide can help when critiquing the show and since there’s gonna be a lot of that then i feel it’s super important to have these posts!!