#oh to be santos in that moment. the vindication!!!!!!

[stemiwithme]

will never get over langdon’s reaction when robby interrupts him in the middle of screaming at santos. that complete and total ‘oh fuck oh shit’ look passing over his face. the way he goes stock still. the way santos just takes this all in with an air of grace and restraint. sooo crunchy and delicious

[ellieforstraw]

Not my post, don’t know how to reblog something that I’ve already rebloged? Either way, thank you ‘the-lightning-strikes-again’!

the-lightning-strikes-again

How Voltron: Legendary Defender Became Bad Philosophical Propaganda

Voltron: Legendary Defender has many good moments with great characters and villains, even into its final season. The s8 finale, however, contains multiple plot holes that result in a very dark and unsettling message at its end.

The core issue surrounds the foundations from s6, about the second colony. The entire reason Honerva rises to power in s8 is because of the power vacuum caused by Lotor’s death. He is no longer there to maintain the Galran empire or to protect the (first) Altean colony from her influence. The result is mass-universal destabilization, the violent death of billions, etc. And why? We never learned what actually happened to the second colony or why/how Lotor was using that energy. All we have is an accusation from Romelle, and the existence of the second colony, with the assumption that everything is exactly as she recounted.

So the entire catalyst for his death, and the subsequent foundations for s7 and s8, remain masked in mystery.

Regardless, even if Lotor were truly so evil to deceive Alteans and kill them maliciously for their energy per Romelle’s exact statements, s8 fails to produce the logic for its own existence. Characters spend several episodes demonizing Lotor in various conversations as a deceiver/liar/killer, as a way to justify the decision to kill him despite the universal destabilization. And then Allura, who so despised him at the end of s6, offers at the end of s8 a general statement that “he was misguided but ultimately, he wanted to preserve life. Honor your son.” And Honerva agrees to say, “He deserved better.”

So wait, why is everyone so buddy-buddy with Lotor now that his face has been melted off? Is anyone taking responsibility for his death and for the power vacuum that destroyed the universe? Why are the people saying “he deserved better” also the ones who directly caused said misery? Why are they “honoring” the “mass murderer” they just slandered for the last two seasons?

The reason for s8’s problems with mass destabilization and Honerva’s rise are inherently tied to the revelation of the second colony. And yet, we have no further information about what really happened or why Lotor should be killed and then oddly vindicated/justified for his decisions as some strange Joan of Arc character. There’s furthermore no relevation from Allura prior to that point showing how she suddenly understood Lotor’s dilemma.

In the past, the s6 decisions have been meekly justified as a way to make Lotor a “tragic character.” In other words, Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos admit that Lotor is a purposeful martyr for the overarching storyline. Such “tragedy” is the final straw to make Honerva lose whatever was left of her sanity in s8 to convert her into the big bad.

But is this tragedy? Or did they create something actually worse than tragedy?

Aristotle described tragedy as a means of obtaining catharsis—an emotional release of tension. That is the stated purpose of a traditional tragedy: to make you experience emotions of fear, pity, pain etc. within the environment of a fiction so that you can move onward in your real daily life (debatably, feeling better about your own life circumstances, feeling drained of bad emotion, or otherwise motivated to work on and understand your own flaws).

Catharsis in tragedy writing is achieved when a reason is given for said tragedy. Without a reason, there is no catharsis that can be achieved. Often, tragedies come to a point of catharsis when the tragic hero realizes his/her own fatal flaw that resulted in the disaster of their life. It provides a framework to understand their tragedy and therefore their position in the universe. VLD unfortunately never really explains why s8 had to happen (see notes above about the second colony). Furthermore, Lotor never admits to a personal failing. Allura/Voltron never admit to their politically immature moves or take responsibility for the power vacuum they created. Honerva never admits to her scientific curiosity going too far. The only person who perhaps achieves catharsis is Honerva’s mind-version of Zarkon, whose very existence is yet another strange plot hole to be discussed in perhaps a later post.

Given the overwhelming mystery and lack of reason for s8’s events, neither the characters nor the audience can achieve catharsis. This internalizes the emotions, resulting in the exact opposite of what a tragedy is for. VLD is missing catharsis entirely as its biggest plot hole in its questionable attempt to reach for adult themes and be edgy.

Additionally, a legitimate tragedy is couched within an overarching plot designed to instruct viewers in some greater lesson (ethical, etc.) Because the main characters in VLD never achieve a lightbulb moment about the reason for their pain, there is no instructive lesson or moral to be obtained. From a literary perspective, wisdom is central to tragedy. Wisdom must be revealed to both the characters and the audience, or else the entire story is meaningless.

Per s8, the only ultimate wisdom I could ascertain is that all good people fall to darkness for mysterious reasons, and the only escape to peace is death? There is no lesson or revelation from the protagonists that, “Hey, this is what happens when you create a power vacuum, and maybe we shouldn’t have done that.” Or, “Hey, this is what happens when we take scientific knowledge too far without question.” Or, “Hey, this is what happens when you play judge, jury, and executioner without due process.” Not one single character walks away with a deeper understanding of the universe or their circumstances.

Oh, but what about the show’s overarching lessons about teamwork and friendship? The stated theme of VLD is “strength in unity”—something that is repeated again and again in every single season. But in the end, writers break up the act in order to undo Honerva’s actions. Allura’s decision to sacrifice herself represents a direct contradiction to the heart of Voltron’s own theme. Ultimately, it isn’t strength in unity that saves the universe. It’s fragmentation and death.

Then a comic band-aid is slapped over the deaths and insanity, along with a shoddily constructed happy ending for a few living characters to make you forget that the show is influencing viewers to believe life has no meaning, ultimately undercutting the legitimacy of the happiness, as well as the ultimate value, of both the dead and still-living characters.  

Now, nihilism is an official and legitimate school of philosophical thought. There’s a lot of debate about nihilism, and a spectrum of more positive to more negative understandings about it. Some sectors of nihilism simply seek to reject traditional assumptions about reality and put the responsibility of making meaning on the individual—which can be very helpful and positive. Other sectors, however, assert that life has no meaning whatsoever, from both a subjective and objective perspective. Unfortunately, VLD’s outrageously incoherent structure results in a latter understanding.

So if you are sitting here, disturbed by Voltron’s finale without words to explain why, look deep into yourself. If you feel there is supposed to be meaning of some kind to life (whether subjective to you or objectively defined), then know that your disconcerted emotions derive from the fact that Voltron is trying to tell you differently.

Understand that Voltron: Legendary Defender is not tragedy because it cannot fit into the defined literary genre of tragedy. It is ultimately bad philosophical propaganda, because it offers no reason behind or meaning for its terrible events, and its contradictory construction does not allow for individual viewers to make a subjective, coherent meaning or achieve catharsis from its insanity.

And this kind of highly charged, slippery-slope philosophy has no place in a Y-7 children’s show.

Source:

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