#or ignoring the fact that shiro is still gay

[atsualek]

i am ever so sorry to bring up voltron in the year of our lord 2024 but. listen. im so sure this wasnt even done on purpose but i cant stop thinking. abt. it.

the symbolism of lance's first moment related to keith being him recognizing his mullet, (ignoring the fact of how gay it is to recognize your ""rival"" from his back alone when youre up on a cliff but,,,) when you think about it? its the perfect introduction to their dynamic - lance easily recognizes keith from afar, but even after talking to him, keith doesn't even remember they were on the same class. because of course he'd recognize keith's back, thats all he ever saw of keith- always behind him in everything. always second to him, but then ! as their dynamic shifts (back when voltron writers still cared abt giving them consistent character arcs-) and when shiro goes missing, lance becomes keith's second, but only because he now sees them as equals.

[harukamitsuki]

I'm procrastinating writing at the moment, so I decided to create a list of the things I hate about Voltron, a show I can't help but love and rewatch 200+ times. I mean. I've been pretty damn vocal about one thing in particular, but I should probably remind people I hate other things too so...

This list will be long, so read more under the cut!

1 - Okay, let's just get the obvious one out of the way: Lance. Reasons why can be seen here, here and here. The first link really goes into the details, the second one is more confusion as to why people think Lance is treated the worst, and the last is more why Lance would be horrible as Black Paladin. MOVING ON TO NEW POINTS!

2 - The ships. Specifically... ahem... Klance, Sheith, Allurance, Lotorance (Lotor/Lance), Shidge (Shiro/Pidge), Shance (Shiro/Lance). Those, in my opinion, are the top offenders. I've explained my grievances with Sheith in a post here. It's not that it's paedophillia, it's the bond. As for the rest, while I dabbled a bit in Klance and Allurance in the aforementioned posts against Lance, I've yet to actually explain.

First of all, the fans are awful. Tip: If you keep trying to force people to like your ship instead of letting them get to their own conclusions, they're just going to hate that ship even more. This isn't a Voltron-specific thing, but it's still rampant.

Second of all, Lance doesn't treat either of them well. He's constantly antagonising Keith, even when Keith stops biting back in season two. The closest he gets to respecting Keith is telling him to suck it up when he's upset that the Black Lion chose him. Keith does try to be amicable to Lance, but it doesn't work because Lance is always picking a fight.

And Allura. Lance is constantly ignoring her boundaries and invading them. There isn't a single moment where they're alone together and they feel like friends, much less pining, before season seven. The only time is when Allura encourages Lance to take up Red, and he didn't even notice she was upset that Red rejected her. In fact, Lance just keeps talking about himself and how he was rejected, ignoring how Allura was rejected twice, and by the Lion her father piloted. Allura also never reacts well to Lance's flirting, always ignoring him and frowning when he does. If Allura, at least, used to laugh at his terrible attempts at flirting, maybe I could try to believe it.

Third, general grievances with these ships.

Lotorance. Lance hated Lotor from the get-go. They barely have a scene together without Lance glaring at him. If they shared some sort of chemistry outside of Lance hating him from afar, and if the writers didn't make Lotor a twist villain for no reason, then maybe. As of now, I only like it as a complete crack ship.

Shidge. Pidge is fifteen. Shiro is twenty-five. You do the damn math.

Shance. I can definitely see Shiro being Lance's bi awakening, if I believed canon Lance was bi. (Canon Lance was straighter than a chopping board, but fanon Lance is a walking bi flag). But them being together? Ignoring that Lance is 17 and Shiro is 25, if you can do that, it wouldn't feel like a healthy relationship. Lance is blinded by hero worship and, from his canon personality, he likely wouldn't realise if Shiro isn't faring well or would just constantly pile his troubles onto him without thinking about if Shiro could handle it. So, yeah, don't like this ship.

So, yeah. I don't like any of the popular ships, which is surprising. I don't hate all of them. I do like Kallura, (should have been canon), and Shallura, (surprising, because I really do like gay!Shiro), and Shunk, (who doesn't, honestly?). But I tend to prefer the nicher ones. Katt (Keith/Matt), Heith (Hunk/Keith), Hance (Hunk/Lance)...

3 - The writing. Usually, I would respect the writers because it's hard as fuck to plan and write an entire series, but they just kept missing. They would set up so many interesting plots and ideas, only to do absolutely nothing with them. This, in and of itself, is not enough to make me lose respect, but that's not all. Plot holes, terrible escalations, too slow pacing, (slow burns are good - great, even - but not when things are supposed to be happening), horrible romances... It's to the point where, for a long while, I avoided the show and only read the fanfiction. There are so many people who don't watch the show, only exposed through fanfiction and social media posts, because the writing just isn't good.

The writers get things right few times. I'm sorry, but if your entire job is to write a coherent, well-thought out story, why did they do such a bag job at it? I'll tell you why - they let the fans control what they did. Shiro was never supposed to come back. He was supposed to die at the end of season two and never come back, but the fans wanted him back so guess what? The writers brought him back! In doing so, they cut right into Keith's character arc and made him go through it off-screen. The fans built Lance up as the main character and fan-favourite? Well, the writers just decide to hand him everything. Reward him for being the fan-favourite and then ruin his character by never making him work for what he got.

The writers decide to pull a J.K.Rowling and went 'aw, yeah, Lance is bisexual!' despite him never showing an interest in a guy throughout the entire show, other than being a big fan of Shiro. They throw in gay!Shiro at the literal last minute with some background character who only ever had one line. Thanks, DreamWorks. It's not like you could've just let Adam live so Shiro could be going home to SOMEONE.

Unexpected things always happen. An actor being unavailable, a sudden irl event making it so the episode you planned would appear tone-deaf, the joke you wrote was less funny and more offensive... So on and so forth. Sometimes you have no choice but to change what you have planned because delaying it would just make the studio and the fans mad. Just... TRY to make it make sense. And don't fold to the fans, dammit. Shiro should have stayed dead because he just doesn't do anything when Allura and Keith saved him. The main character should have stayed as an ensemble, rather than pushing Lance as the central focus, because it would have left less reasons for me to hate Lance and give other, specifically Hunk, the development they deserved.

The show also never adresses traumatising shit, (*cough cough* Keith's sacrifice attempt *cough cough*), but that can be forgiven because it was aimed at children. I do, however, like that LM corrected an interviewer when they asked about Keith 'attempting to kill himself'. It was quickly corrected to 'sacrificing himself' because that's what it was! I'm sick of people acting like he was suicidal because he wasn't. He was actively scared of what he was going to do, i.e. sacrifice his life for everyone's sake. He tried to do it for the greater good. Would you call one of the many who died during wars suicidal? No. You would call them noble and heroic for their sacrifice, because that's what they are. That is what Keith was trying to do. He saw the only way out and decided one life in exchange for the many is a damn good deal and took it. Saying he was depressed and suicidal is undermining the actions he took.

So, yeah. In my eyes, the writers did two good things. Correcting the mistake belief that Keith was suicidal, and creating this shit-fest of a show. (God, I love/hate Voltron).

4 - How Pidge is treated by the fandom. Pidge is so mean. She's rude and callous and selfish and that's okay. What's not okay is acting like these traits make her a queen. She's rude, fine. She's callous, fine. She's selfish, fine. She's incredible for this? Um, no? Stop treating her like she's just sassy. She's mean. I mean, not long after Shiro's death/disappearance, she calls Keith, who is mourning Shiro so deeply, a 'loner'. Without even getting to know him. She just deems him a loner, even though Keith is just so genuinely kind?

Don't get me wrong. I love Pidge. She's great and she's an absolute joy to write. I admire her tenacity in trying to find her missing family members while also able to put the universe before them. Watching her break down about Matt when she thinks he's dead is so utterly heartbreaking because I really did like her.

But acting as if she's perfect because of this? No way.

(Also, I refer to Pidge as 'she/her' only in these posts. I much prefer gender neutral or trans Pidge.)

5 - Hunk's treatment. He deserved SO MUCH BETTER! This sweet, precious boy. He's the only one who reacted approppriately to becoming a child solider. He's an anxious, terrified kid and he's still able to swallow that fear and fight on because there are people, people like Shay, who have no idea what freedom means and if the sky is blue.

He's the only one who has to find and fight for his family when they get back to Earth, which makes me sad. Very sad. He cares so much about his friends. Even if he's scared, he'll still put himself in danger for them.

But the narrative treats him like garbage, reducing him to the comedic, fat joke, while Lance never treats him like a best friend. He deserved so much more than what he was given.

6 - The people in charge were so obsessed with doing every character dirty. They wanted to keep Shiro death, wanted to kill Keith after admitting to not knowing where they were going with him, tried to kill Hunk who did nothing wrong to deserve this, and actually killed Allura off when they realised Allurance would not work in the long-term because Lance would not be able to part from Earth for so long while Allura would not be able to stay confined to Earth at all.

7 - Lance fans would hate him if he was white.

[silentwillowwhisperer]

Don't Start Now

This is after the events of s8

-----------------------------------------------------

For some reason, my brain can picture Keith singing Don't Start Now at the top of his lungs when Lance tries to ask him out after Allura dies.

Like, yes of course he still has feelings for Lance, but the fact that he only noticed Keith after Allura is gone hurts a lot.

So Keith makes the spontaneous decision to start singing at the top of his lungs. Lance just stares at him in shock and awe, and Keith gets the feeling that Lance is even more determined to go out with him now.

He should have remembered that Lance loves Dua Lipa's music.

They end up in an all out 'please date me' war of random pop songs.

Lance randomly pops into the room one day while Keith is talking to Shiro, and he yells the chorus of Heat Waves.

Lance's songs- Shower, Halo, For Him, Make You Mine, Talk Too Much, Delicate, etc.

Keith's Songs- Crush Culture, I Knew You Were Trouble, Flowers, Bad Blood, We Are Never Getting Back Together, FRIENDS, etc. (Taylor Swift was very helpful, he can now sing most of her songs by heart.)

And the worst part is, Keith realizes that he does really want to date Lance now. It's kind of hard to ignore the gay panics when your crush sings love songs to you while staring soulfully into your eyes.

This is literally the stuff of Keith's dreams.

They're sitting on the couch with the rest of the team, watching some really cringey Altean rom-com. Although they have all diverged onto different paths, they meet up regularly.

When the credits roll, Keith starts to sing again. His voice is sore and rough from all of the belting he's been doing, but right now it's soft, and under his breath.

Lance turns to him, and he quickly catches on to what Keith is singing.

They completely forget about the rest of the team as they sing Feel It Twice as a duet.

It's perfect for them, and Keith is surprised to find his eyes watering.

Neither of them are looking at each other, but rather at the wall straight ahead.

When they do finish they turn their heads to watch each other's faces.

Lance won't let go of this. He's already lost one partner, he can't let another slip through his fingers.

And looking into Keith's starry eyes, he realizes something.

Allura was beautiful. She was funny. She was witty. But she never Lance this comforting feeling in his stomach, or the longing that is clawing at his throat. They had something together, but Allura barely glanced at him, she shrugged him off like he was some annoying roach half the time.

That was great, but this is right.

"Please," he whispers. "I'm so sorry that I dismissed you, that I didn't take this chance before. But please, please, please, I just need one chance to prove myself to you. If not, then you can break up with me, never speak to me again. Just one more try."

They both have tears on their faces, but neither cares.

And before they know it, their lips are pressed together, and Lance can feel hope blooming throughout his body like the first flowers in spring.

If Allura was fireworks and the 4th of July, then Keith is warm hugs and wind blowing through trees on a crisp day in fall.

Keith is safety and steadiness.

"Um, cool, glad you guys finally did that. The singing was starting to get on my nerves. Do you, like, need a moment?"

Both men jump apart to see Pidge watching them with an inquiring eyebrow.

Lance stammers while Keith shoves his reddening face into a pillow.

"N-No! You're good! We-We're just gonna-"

Lance can't even finish his sentence before grabbing Keith's hand and dragging him out of the room.

The head up to the observatory, which is a large glass dome which offers a wide view of the milky way above them.

Keith falls asleep being hugged around the waist by Lance.

Apparently being his boyfriend means that Keith is bound to snuggles.

Warm arms around him at all times and plenty of kisses.

Keith can live with that.

[headspacedad]

Coming to you because I know you’ll get me. I was talking to my friend’s fiancé this weekend as we went camping for their Jack/Jill party and we somehow ended up talking about the IMDB ratings of voltron and I was laughing (crying on the inside) about how their season 8 score tanked so badly and this poor man was like “yeah isn’t it a coincidence it was the season one of the characters was revealed as gay tho”, and started directing it towards the belief it was homophobes tanking the score.

I was like ok yes sure partly that but I am so so sorry that you are not prepared for all the ways I passionately feel it was not just the homophobes but the majority queer tumblr fans who were so very and despairingly betrayed by the story, especially the way they treated that gay character (and also the only main woman of color on the team). He triggered the disappointed and mad about it voltron fan within me and neither of us were quite prepared for it.

oh I SO get you!

There was SO MUCH wrong with seasons seven and eight and blaming it all on homophobia just ignores SUCH egregious issues with all the rest of the story! It's literally reducing Shiro to 'the token (again)' and ignoring the way the writers utterly trashed his character long before that point and the way they sidelined him from his own story and ignored him as a main character or even a character at all. It completely ignores the way they kept knocking Allura further and further down, taking her from the leader to a follower to a girlfriend to sitting everything out until she needed to be sacrificed. Hell, even Lance got downgraded to 'supportive boyfriend and nothing' and they had already taken his plot beats away from him seasons before. The villains were given excuses for what they'd done expect for the one villain that had an excuse and he was written as the 'final evil' for a unnecessary 'bad guy maneuver' while his abusers were both let slid and given happy endings. And that's even before the fact that the story literally made no sense by the final season. It was pretty, it was flashy - and there was absolutely no sense in anywhere the story went. The story beats didn't connect, the characters weren't in character, the lines of the story didn't make sense. Things jumped from situation to situation without any rhyme or reason.

VLD's last seasons were a horror of terrible issues, and people not being happy that Shiro was LGBTA+ was such a drop in the very large downpour of reasons people ended up not being happy with things. I feel you SO hard! I think I'm over how frustrated that show makes me and then someone says something and it all bubbles up and I'm right back where I started. I can feel pity for your friend. He put his foot into something he couldn't have begun to realize how deep it went. People who didn't go through it with the fandom can't begin to fathom how entrenched we were and still are. It's disheartening to think that writers and the EPs of the show are getting excused for the drek they passed off as professional paid-for writing simply because people are excusing the backlash it caused as 'its because that one guy was gay'.

[s-cornelius]

Congratulations, You Played Yourself

OR Why we shouldn’t be having this conversation about Adam

I’ve seen a lot written in the past few days about Voltron not deserving the hype it got for revealing that Shiro is queer, both on this platform and Twitter, and on geek news/opinion sites. Most arguments revolve around Shiro’s ex-boyfriend, Adam--both Adam’s brief screentime and his death--or the conversation between Shiro and Adam in the flashback in 7x01, and it not being explicit enough.

I am of the opinion that the conversation between Shiro and Adam was explicit confirmation of Shiro’s sexuality, and I treat it as such in this meta. I also won’t deal with the widely circulating idea that because Adam and Shiro don’t reconcile, the representation is bad. This just reinforces the idea that queer people are defined by their relationships (and sexual activity), rather than all of the other parts of their personality. As a queer person, seeing these criticisms is very frustrating.

So, I’m not going to focus on those things, because I think that they are more subjective. Instead, I am going to talk about the major complaints I’ve seen regarding Adam’s brief appearances in the show, as well as Adam’s role in the wider story Voltron is telling. 

The major complaints I’ve seen are that Adam is an example of queerbaiting, and/or the Bury Your Gays trope (see #VoltronLegendaryQueerbait on Twitter, for example). These complaints seem to stem from an expectation that after 7x01, Adam would play a larger role in the story, and even might be the endgame romantic partner for Shiro. Then, when that expectation was not met (because Adam barely appears in the season), the complaints of bad representation began.

In this meta, I discuss queerbaiting and the Bury Your Gays trope, and show that Adam is not a good example of either of these issues, through examining his character and his role in the story. Also, this is my take (after long conversations with @messier51) as a bisexual woman and as someone who thinks a lot about how stories are structured/executed.

What is ‘queerbaiting’?

Queerbaiting, as I’ve always understood it, is the practice of ‘promising’ LGBT+ content, but not following through on that promise. The ‘promising’ part is usually nods and winks from the show, but then the characters end up in relationships with members of the opposite gender, etc. The important assumption behind the idea of queerbaiting is that showrunners and production companies want to cash in on LGBT viewership, but don’t want to alienate the majority straight audience. Therefore, the showrunners get as close as possible to a same gender relationship, but never intend to follow through.

I’ve always been skeptical of the whole notion of queerbaiting, to be honest. I think in order to make an argument about queerbaiting, you have to know the motivations and intentions by the showrunners/writers/directors/cast. You also have to assume bad faith; the showrunners are thinking more about ‘tricking’ their fanbase, than trying to tell a coherent story. (sidenote: I think the bigger issue at hand is that queerness is still not normalized in fiction, and consequently, characters are straight until proven otherwise. Therefore, close same gender relationships that never become romantic are more of an issue of lack of imagination, than an willing attempt to hurt people.)

So, let’s think logically for a moment: If queerbaiting is hinting at a relationship between same gender characters, but never intending to follow through, Voltron does not qualify as queerbaiting. If the showrunners of Voltron intended to queerbait, they would not have fought for the dialogue between Shiro and Adam that makes their romantic relationship explicit. Similarly, Bex Taylor-Klaus, a queer person themself, championed explicit, in-text confirmation that Shiro was in said relationship, and then was proud of the fact that that confirmation was included.  Are those things not the opposite of queerbaiting?

Voltron promised, metatexually (i.e. showrunners in interviews, at conventions, etc.), to include LGBT+ representation. In 7x01, Shiro was revealed to be mlm, and had a mlm boyfriend. Therefore, Voltron is not an example of queerbaiting.

What about ‘Bury Your Gays’?

Bury Your Gays is a trope in fiction where queer characters are not allowed to have happy endings. Historically, this trope has referred to the practice of killing of wlw (which is why it was called Dean Lesbian Syndrome before Bury Your Gays gained prominence) going back to pulp wlw novels in the mid-twentieth century. Bury Your Gays was a staple of stories about queer people because homosexuality was (and still is by some) considered to be immoral; characters cannot be rewarded with a happy ending, because in doing so, queerness is being rewarded.

This trope has been in the zeitgeist in recent years, following the death of the wlw character Lexa on the show The 100. The anger and frustration in 2016 stemmed from the deaths of queer female characters. GLAAD notes in its annual Where We Are on TV Report:

“Since the beginning of 2016, more than 25 queer female characters have died on scripted television and streaming series. Most of these deaths served no other purpose than to further the narrative of a more central (and often straight, cisgender) character.”

This is not to say that the death of queer male character can’t be an example of Bury Your Gays, but that this trope historically refers to dead wlw in books and film, and in recent years, outrage with the this trope has concerned dead wlw on television. 

So, where does Adam from Voltron fit in? Well, he is a dead queer character, but whether or not he qualifies as an example of Bury Your Gays is questionable. He didn’t die to further the narrative of a more central cis, straight character. He also wasn’t a well-established character, and he died in a scene where many other characters also died. For these reasons, I’m hesitant to claim that Adam is an instance of Bury Your Gays.

Just because a queer character dies does not mean that it is an example of Bury Your Gays. In an article from SYFYwire, the author argues that: “as the criticism moves forward, consistently reducing our stories into binary tallies of whether we live or die does a complete disservice to the potential for three-dimensional, nuanced characters within genre storytelling that we yearn to see more of ourselves in. “

I understand that the death of any queer character on TV is upsetting to some fans, because there are so few queer characters overall. However, as we get more queer characters (and GLAAD has shown increasing numbers of queer characters in the past few years--up to 6.4% of regular characters in 2017), it’s important to question whether good representation is just a matter of a living or dead character, and if the death of an LGBT+ character is just that character’s demise, or part of a bigger trend (see 2016 and wlw deaths). 

Therefore, I think we have to evaluate whether or not the trope is in effect depends on the context of the death. I think to really decide whether or not a death of a queer character is Bury Your Gays or not, it’s important to answer the following questions: What is the purpose of this character’s death? What are the genre conventions? Are there other queer characters and what happens to them? Are queer characters dying on other shows in large numbers?

In the next section, I will discuss Adam’s role in the story, and try to answer these questions.

Adam, the character?

Before addressing these questions, I think it’s important to discuss who Adam is as a character, and his role in the overall story.

All told, Adam appears in two short scenes, totaling no more than a few minutes of screentime. While on screen, we learn that a) he was Shiro’s boyfriend, b) he broke up with Shiro due to a culmination of issues in their relationship, c) he was a pilot, and d) he died in a Galra attack. As far as characterizations go, it’s pretty skimpy, but ultimately who he was as a character is unimportant. Adam does not exist on the show to explore any big ideas about gender and sexuality; Adam is a plot device, and he serves two purposes:

Adam confirms that Shiro is mlm. By showing Adam and Shiro’s breakup in a flashback, the show is telling us that Shiro is mlm, without having Shiro say “I am gay.” (sidenote: This is called good storytelling, by the way. Shiro’s story is not a coming out story, so if everyone in canon knows that he’s gay, why would Shiro tell anyone his orientation? Since we have no reason to think that other characters don’t know he’s gay, introducing Adam does the work of confirming Shiro’s sexuality to the audience in lieu of Shiro stating his orientation in dialogue.)

Adam puts a face on the casualties of war during the first attack by the Galra. By killing off Adam in this scene, the stakes have been raised. Volton (both the show and the robot) kills faceless, nameless characters in space battles. I know that the paladins mow down robots all the time, but when Voltron destroys a Galra cruiser or the like, I find it hard to believe that there are only robots on board. But since we, the audience, and they, the paladins of Voltron, don’t know who those people are on board those ships, it’s hard to get emotionally attached to their deaths. The same is true when we see the Galra attack Earth: there is no emotional attachment when the Galra raze major cities, but there is narrative weight to Adam’s death. Now, it’s not just the case that the Galra have killed humans, but that they have specifically killed a human that was important to one of the main characters. The same effect is achieved with Hunk’s family in the work camp.

Ok, so back to those questions: What is the purpose of this character’s death? What are the genre conventions? Are there other queer characters and what happens to them? Are queer characters dying on other shows in large numbers?

To answer the first question: Adam’s death is representative of the end of an era. Adam represents the past: both Shiro’s past with the end of a relationship, and the Garrison’s past with his death as the result of old Garrison defense tactics. His death marks the end of that time in Shiro’s life, and for Earth pre-Galra attack. As mentioned above, Adam’s death also raises the stakes of the Galra attack. Once a character the audience knows dies, that signals that other characters could die too. After Veronica doesn’t get back on the train, the audience genuinely thinks she died. This doesn’t work if the only characters who have died so far are faces on a screen or in background explosions.

To address the second question: Voltron’s genre is part action-adventure comedy, and part war story. The second half of this season feels more like a war story than any part of the previous seasons, despite the fact that Voltron (and the Coalition) has been at war against the Galra since the first episode. In a war story, anyone can die, so it’s not terribly surprising that characters we know end up dying. For example, the Blades of Marmora have had four named characters die (before the timeskip): Ulaz, Thace, Antok, and Regris.

As for the third question: Adam was not the only queer character on Voltron. In explicit text, we have Shiro, one of the main characters, is an Asian mlm with mental and physical disabilities. In less explicit text, we have Pidge, who at the very least could be considered gender non-conforming, and Zethrid and Ezor, who’s relationship appeared to lean romantic.

And the fourth question: LGBT+ representation is really making strides in shows aimed at children and teens. However, there is definitely still a place for questioning whether TV more broadly has a Bury Your Gays problem. In this respect alone--that deaths of queer characters is a trend--could Adam’s death be considered problematic. It’s unfortunate that a queer character was killed in a general media landscape full of dead queer characters, but in the next section, I discuss why I am not so upset by his death.

So what?

What conclusions can be drawn from the context of Adam’s role and his death? Adam is a emotional connection to the toll of the war, both for the audience, and for our mlm main character, Shiro. I do not consider Adam’s death an example of Bury Your Gays, and I don’t think we’d be having this conversation if a heterosexual character had filled Adam’s role in the story. Ultimately, Adam is not the LGBT+ representation fans have been clamoring for, and the showrunners promised to provide--Shiro is.

So, why doesn’t Adam get a happy ending? Because it does not matter if he gets a happy ending or not; it has no impact on main characters or overall storyline. The showrunners could have introduced a different character from the Garrison that we (the audience) cared about, and then kill them in that first battle, but using Adam streamlines this process.

I know a lot of people wanted Adam and Shiro to reunite, and they’d be each other’s happy ending, but this would be Bad Storytelling. Shiro and Adam’s break up is at least 2 years in the past for Shiro. During those years, he has not pined for Adam, regretted his decision, etc. that would indicate that their relationship is not 100% over. In the lead up to season 7, Lauren Montgomery said: “until Shiro made the unfortunate decision [to leave], and they drifted apart and that was the end … for their relationship.”

As I mentioned before, Adam represents the past for Shiro. Shiro has been through so much since their break up, and we have no idea how Adam would have even reacted to the Shiro that makes it back to Earth. If Shiro does get a happy ending in the form of a romantic relationship, it does not make any narrative sense that he would go back to his old boyfriend. Shiro has grown and changed and matured, so a satisfying end to that arc is not going back to where he came from, but forging ahead with a partner who has witnessed that growth and change (if Shiro does get a love interest).

At the end of the show, it will matter if Shiro lives or dies, and whether his ending is happy or not, because he is our explicit LGBT+ representation, the one that was promised to us. But I honestly have complete faith in Voltron. Time and time again, the showrunners, writers, directors, VAs, etc. have shown their commitment to a diverse cast of characters, and representing diverse experiences. There has never been any indication of bad faith on the part of TPTB; they want to make the best possible show for us, and give us representation not found in other television shows.

So, Who Should We be Talking About?

Shiro.

I do think it is important to discuss how harmful tropes manifest in media and why queer characters keep ending up dead. However, I don’t think the solution to this problem is immortal, flawless gay characters who get happy endings just because they’re gay. The best thing we can do is normalize queer characters, and normalizing means creating characters who show the full gamut human experiences. Queer characters can be good and bad people, and have good and bad relationships, so (as long as we don’t get one version of queer people), I think there’s room for a wide variety of queer characters, who have a wide variety of ends to their stories.

So, then there’s Shiro, a heroic leading character the likes of which we haven’t seen before. Shiro is a main character on a non-queer-focused show Asian mlm with mental and physical disabilities, and his presence is normalizing queer characters for a whole new generation of fans.

Shiro is groundbreaking representation, and not just on a show aimed at younger audiences. As GLAAD notes in their report:

“The LGBTQ characters who make it to TV screens tend to be white gay men, who outnumber all other parts of our community in representation on screen ... It’s long past time for television to introduce more diverse LGBTQ characters on multiple levels: more queer people of color (who have long been and remain underrepresented), characters living with disabilities, stories of lesbians and bisexual women, trans characters, characters of various religious backgrounds, and characters who are shaped by existing at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities.”

Shiro is that intersection of multiple marginalized identities, and a main character. By showing experiences of queerness and disability and the intersection of the two, and not relegating him to a supporting role, Voltron is telling Shiro’s story, not someone else’s story with Shiro along for the ride. 

We should be asking of our media “whose stories get to be told?” On most shows, the answer is white cis-men and women, and maybe a token minority, if you’re lucky. Voltron is telling the stories of people who usually don’t get their stories told--women of all kinds, people of different ethnic backgrounds, queer characters, and intersections of these categories. Voltron has not settled for tokenization, but rather given us multi-faceted representation, crossing these intersecting issues.

[the-ferocious-kittyrose]

My complicated opinion on Keith Kogane

Keith Kogane is definitely one of the more popular characters in the VLD fandom. People love brooding emo bad boys.

My feelings on Keith are... complicated. I definitely don’t hate him. I have a lot of problems with the character but I don’t think I could ever bring myself to actually hate him. Mainly because I kinda relate to him. We both have problems controlling our emotions, interacting with people, and making friends.

And we both have trouble believing there are people who truly have our best interests at heart and won’t abandon us because we’re a burden.

What I do hate is the way his character was written and the way it negatively impacted the characters around him.

There are definitely a lot of factors that contributed to VLD ending up the way it did. But to me, Keith and the writers insistence on pushing him to the forefront was the poison that killed the show.

Ok, before we get into this whole rant I feel like I should talk about the things I do like about Keith.

I like the premise of Keith’s character. He’s half Galra and never really fit in on Earth. He didn’t act like the other “normal” kids so kids made fun of him and adults didn’t want to deal with him. So in order to protect himself from the pain of rejection he would put up a tough angry facade and push people away and reject them before they could reject him.

This is something that really resonates with me personally having grown up neurodivergent. It’s awful growing up in a world that isn’t made for people like you and not knowing how to interact with or connect with your peers. Especially when you don’t know why you’re like that.

You learn to avoid social interaction because it always ends up negative. You put up walls because you don’t feel like anybody understands you or what you’re going through.

I know the writers probably didn’t intend to code Keith as neurodivergent. They just wanted Keith to be a hothead with abandonment issues, but nonetheless, this interpretation means a lot to me.

I also really like his relationship with Shiro. Keith is so used to being left behind and abandoned that when he meets someone like Shiro who’s patient and genuinely cares it’s new and strange. He’s so ready for Shiro to abandon him, even telling Shiro to send him back to the home, but Shiro refuses to leave him and tells Keith ethat he’s never going to give up on him.

It’s also interesting to see how their relationship develops over time. It’s clear Keith trusts Shiro, but you can tell that that fear of abandonment is still there deep down. In S2, Keith tells Shiro that he’s like a brother to him, and then in season 6, he takes the extra step and tells Shiro that he IS his brother and that he loves him. And for someone like Keith, telling their friend they love them is a big scary thing.

And also it’s just great to see a platonic “I love you,” especially between two guys. Don’t be afraid to tell your bros you love them!!!

Now let’s talk about the stuff I didn’t like.

Keith doesn’t have much going for him in terms of personality. He’s just sorta brooding and serious all the time. He does make jokes occasionally but it’s rare. The writers were more focused on making him cool and badass rather than fun.

I always loved the idea of Keith as a cocky carefree asshole who doesn’t give a shit about rules/laws and is kinda rude/aggressive but has a heart of gold deep down and would do anything for the people he cares about. (Just like a cat.)

I would also make him more alien esc. In terms of design I like the idea of Keith having red eyes with narrow pupils and fangs. And also just small things like the way he walks and holds himself. He growls and bears his teeth when he’s angry, his hair puffs up when scared, he’s fast and agile, disappearing and reappearing without making much noise, small things.

Then you have his race and sexuality. I have no doubt in my mind that Keith was intended to be a straight white dude. A lot of people see him as gay and Asian but there’s no evidence for this in canon. Acxa was originally intended to be his love interest and his race was never mentioned in canon. His name isn’t even Kogane in canon. (And the race of the voice actor doesn’t equal the race of the character. If that was the case Shiro, Hunk, and Lance would be white.)

They should’ve totally made Keith Japanese like he was in the original. It would’ve been so easy! Just canonize Kogane as his last name and have the book say he’s half Japanese half Galra. They could’ve also done what they did with Shiro and keep his og GoLion name. Just have him be Akira Kogane. Definitely cooler than “Keith.”

And as for his sexuality, I definitely think they should’ve had Keith be gay. But well get to that Later...

I also don’t like how they handled the whole Krolia thing. Not only was it crazy rushed, but it completely goes against the shows theme of found family.

Keith’s arc should’ve been about overcoming his abandonment issues and learning to accept the paladins as family. But instead they just get rid of the abandonment issues by just giving him his mom back.

I know a lot of people love Krolia but I don’t feel like she should’ve been introduced in anything other than flashbacks. Because Keith’s mom isn’t really that important. The show is about found family and friendship, not blood relation.

You can definitely have Keith learn about his mom and his family, but I feel like giving him his mom back was too much.

Personally, I always headcanoned that Kolivan was Keith’s grandfather or just a close friend of Krolia’s, and when Keith showed up at the Blade’s base Kolivan recognized the blade as his Krolia’s. Keith could learn about his mom through Kolivan telling him about her, how she was a great person and warrior who died fighting to make the universe a safer place for her son.

Another thing I didn’t like was the whole Keith leaving the team for the Blades thing. I know why he did it, he felt like the team was gonna reject him, he wanted to be more useful, and wanted to learn about his family, but I feel like you could’ve touched on all that without having him abandon his team.

One of the biggest problems with the show is that they did a bad job at establishing the paladins as friends, they feel like coworkers more than anything, and I feel like Keith being absent for two seasons contributed to that.

And his absence is hardly addressed. The team forms Voltron perfectly without him and no one ever says they miss him. Keith doesn’t even seem like he missed them after being gone for two years.

And a lot of the weight was taken out of that Keith v Kuron fight by the fact that Keith and Kuron hardly interacted.

That whole thing amounted to four things, Keith meeting Krolia (which I don’t think should’ve happened), them finding the colony (which was a dumb plot I don’t think should’ve happened), Keith aging up two years (which was weird and unnecessary), and Keith meeting Kosmo (which is... complicated).

I don’t think this plot was necessary. Keith should’ve stayed with his team.

Then you have his relationship with Lance. I know people are very sensitive about this topic. People have very strong opinions about whether or not Keith and Lance were intended to be romantically coded.

Personally, I do like Klance but I don’t believe they were romantically coded. I think if you want them to get together some things would have to go differently.

For example, the bonding moment. In canon, Lance tells Keith, “we make a good team.” I don’t see this as referring to him and Keith. I think he was talking about the whole team. If you want it to be about the two of them, I feel like it should be Lance telling Keith something like, “ya know, you’re not so bad after all,” and then Keith smiles and responds, “you’re not so bad yourself.”

Another example could be the scene where Lance comes to Keith with his insecurities. (Whether it’s as a leader or a friend.) This scene was weird in canon, Lance comes to Keith for advice and Keith basically tells him to just stop thinking about it.

I would prefer if Lance brought up to Keith how he doesn’t feel like he’s good enough or that he doesn’t have, “a thing,” and Keith is completely dumbfounded like, “what are you even talking about?” He goes on about all the good shit about Lance. Talks about how Blue chose him, how he’s a great shot, how he’s good at dealing with people, meanwhile Lance is standing there in shock as Keith says all these nice things about him.

Over all you would just have to develop their relationship more. More meaningful interactions. And if you want the relationship to be romantic you would have to establish that early on. Establish that one or both has romantic feelings for the other in like S1/S2 because if you wait too long it’s gonna feel forced/out of no where.

And then... you have the Black Paladin arc... I’m gonna be real with y’all, this is the arc that killed the show for me, for a few reasons.

One, even ignoring the whole quintessence bond thing, it makes no sense for Keith to be the bp. He doesn’t fit the role. I adore Shiro but choosing Keith as his successor was a dumb move. I get that he saw potential in Keith but they’re are fighting a war, there’s no room for favoritism.

Shiro should’ve chosen Allura as his successor. Not only does she have actual leadership experience, but you would only have one paladin in a new Lion instead of three.

If a lifeguard breaks his leg and can’t work, he should choose an experienced swimmers to take his place, not his little bro that’s still in water wings in the hopes that it’ll teach him to swim.

Two, Keith being the bp doesn’t help his arc. Keith’s arc is about overcoming his abandonment issues and learning to be a team player, he doesn’t need to be the leader for that.

VLD should’ve been about the paladins growing into the best versions of themselves they could be. Their development shown by unlocking new abilities in their respective lions, new forms for their bayards, and new Voltron bayard power ups. They shouldn’t have to change lions and themselves.

Keith and Red have a strong bond and work great together. Keith and Red are both temperamental, unpredictable, and have issues with trust. Keith having to fight to get Red to trust and open up to him mirrors how others have to fight to earn Keith’s trust and get him to let down his walls.

It would’ve been interesting to see them grow together. Keith has no emotional connection with Black.

We never even get to see them bond. Keith just suddenly becomes the “perfect” bp/leader because he got over his mommy issues

Three, it’s a MASSIVE disservice to Shiro’s character. Shiro put all the work in earning his position as the bp, he literally fits fought Zarkon on the astral plane to earn her trust, yet Keith is the true bp? What?

It sucks. Sendak told Shiro that a monster like him could never be a paladin and the writers went and proved him right. Hell Shiro didn’t even get to kill Sendak, Keith got that too.

And don’t tell me, “but he got the Atlas!” REALLY!? A massive Deus ex machina that required absolutely no effort from him to acquire!? Filled with a bunch of rando background characters no one gives a shit about!? You’re totally right, that 100% makes up for it.

I could go on and on about how the treatment of Shiro in this show (and fandom) is blatantly ableist but that’s a rant for another time.

It sucks. I want to like Keith! He had the potential to be an amazing character but the writers just kept on trying to turn him into something he wasn’t and it ruined him for me.

They kept trying to turn Keith into the main character and ignored that ALL the paladins are the main characters. It’s an ensemble cast! You don’t have to have everything come back to one guy.

[arodabi]

(This is not hate but i want to say sorry in advance if i’m being rude or anything) maybe it’s because I’m a cishet woman so I have no experience of the discrimination the people in the lgbt community suffer. but I wanted to say: if some people in fandom love to ship aro and/or ace characters with other characters or change a character's sexuality in general just for their ship, this does not take away the fact that that character is of that particular sexuality in canon, it doesn’t take away the representation. So I don't see where the problem is if the person in question is respectful of real people sexuality. For example I know that Shiro from Voltron is canonically gay, but at the same time I like to ship him with myself and I see a lot of people in the fandom who keep self-shipping with him or even ship him with Allura. and I don’t see a problem because he is just a fictional character and he still gay in the canon universe. Same goes for aro/ace characters like Alastor. And i think that most people will keep shipping this characters in romantic relationship regardless of their canon sexuality because it’s just fiction and ships make them happy. Again, sorry if I sounded rude, I hope you won't take this aks as hate or anything!

so i kno u said this isn't supposed to b rude, but I feel like u didn't read my post and came here to complain that I said “don't ship aro characters” (which i really didn't even say, the main point is to just listen to us and be a better ally) which is kinda rude. I literally talk about how aro character's identities are like barely ever respected. I talk about how people put shipping before us constantly. I talk about how many creative spaces, not just fandom, are hostile towards us. I've literally had people insult my work to my face multiple times because I'm an aro storyteller who won't focus on shipping in my own content. I've had multiple people in the notes of that exact post express surprise that the characters I listed were actually aro. 

i want you to imagine for a second, and since u brought up Voltron ig ill use that, what is shiro was one of like 5 popular gay characters in fiction, but every fan work of him presented him as straight, to the point people did not know and were surprised he was gay. Like do you think that's okay? because that is like classic erasure. why is it suddenly okay to do to aro people? bc we don't matter?

a small group of fans making a gay character straight is like not something ppl generally worry about because its not enough to even effect anything. like sure some people will take offense, but at the end of the day they can just ignore a small group of fans. but that's not what I'm talking about here. most fans are erasing aro characters identities, which leads to either people not knowing that character is even aro, or (worse in my opinion) thinking that erasing an aro characters identity is just How You Write Aro Characters. “aros are just like every other alloro person, except I have to throw in a few words like qpr once and then never actually research what that means!”

like I don't participate in fandom stuff for a lot of reasons but one of them is that those spaces are hostile or completely unaccommodating to me. and one of the major ways they're like that is centering romance and shipping above all. even when a character is like me and is not interested in that stuff. “nope they actually are bc if they weren't itd be boring!” I've literally seen ppl make aus where an aro character isn't aro and the tag for that is “X character has a heart” that's uhhh fucked up? i can call myself heartless all I want but random alloros have LITERALLY NO RIGHT TO DO THAT WHAT THE FUCK. you realize that in popular fandoms there are usually more fanworks than there is actual canon material right? so if something has a scene or two (or outside tweets from creators) talking about a character being aro, but 99% of fanworks portray that character as alloro, then they are written predominantly as alloro, and people will interpret them as such. why the fuck do i have to have the few scraps of canon content to see myself in while everyone else gets to rip that to shreds and interpret the character as not like me.

also at this point I literally do not give a fuck if erasing aro characters identities is someone's prime mode of happiness, it's a shitty thing to do and it shows that they do not care about us.

[narukouzumakinamikaze]

It was always so funny how the voltron fandom always spoke about lgbt representation but then straight up ignored shiro like he didnt exist. I already knew that the fandom didn't actually care, but the fact that people were acting like Adam was the only gay character in the series, was funny to me, and then they ignored how Adam broke up with shiro by giving him an ultimatum and then made shiro the bad guy and 2anted them to get back together despite the fact that the only scene of adam was him being unfair to shiro but they didnt care because adam can do no wrong and hes more gay then shiro or something because everyone ignores shiro being gay. And also how people were mad that the character they liked weren't the one that was gay, and when I say people I mean lance and klance stans who wanted lance to be Bi not because they cared about representation but because they wanted their favorite character to be Biso they can ship him with Keith or whatever, and then still ignored shiro or made shiro being gay all about kance being Bi

Man, the voltron fandom really did not like shiro.

[firelxdykatara]

Okay so theoretically speaking, if they did make Zuko (or any other character) gay in the live action just for the fan service and woke points (which they won’t, but this is just theoretical) to what extent are we allowed to just ignore it and go “yeah no that’s not canon” and keep shipping Zutara?

Honestly, like, at the end of the day, the Live Action AtLA is probably going to be on the very bottom rung of the ladder (well, ok, one rung above the movie that Shall Not Be Named, assuming they don't screw the pooch as far as casting goes) in terms of avatar canon, and no one is going to be obligated to follow it even if any of the characters are made explicitly gay. (Although even if they do add queer rep to the show, it's more likely to be ambiguous rather than labeling any of them with an exact sexuality, so like giving Zuko a boyfriend wouldn't do anything to change my HC that he's bi and falls in love with Katara.)

VLD pulled this with Shiro (complete with having the crew calling him a gay man but deliberately leaving his on-screen sexuality ambiguous so that anyone could project their own HCs onto him, which basically gave the fandom license to go after anyone still shipping him with a woman and it's incredibly irritating), and revealing him to be queer at the show's 11th hour did nothing to deter Shallura shippers, and they only had a year and a half or so of investment. (And then there are shippers like me, who eventually watched the show long after the hype and discourse died down and shipped Shallura bc I saw their chemistry early on in the series and loved the potential their relationship had, and since the show screwed them both over in the end I'd prefer to keep my 'bi!Shiro married to Allura who did NOT die' headcanons and ignore everything else lmao.)

So making Zuko into the show's token queer rep wouldn't have any affect on zutara existing as a ship, imo, even if they made him explicitly gay. That said, it would undoubtedly invite a whole lot of 'if you still ship zutara then youre homophobic' takes, but there are a lot of people who already believe that just because zukka had a popularity spike and they think that the only reason to still ship zutara instead is homophobia, rather than the fact that Zuko's relationship with Katara is very different from his relationship with Sokka, and shipping one because you enjoy their canon relationship dynamic does not mean you would ship the other. (Although there are a lot of people who really want one relationship dynamic, but they don't want to admit they like a 'straight' ship, so they superimpose that dynamic onto the other sibling, but that's a whole other discussion.)

All I can really say is that if the LA does go there, I recommend turning anon off and keeping it off for a while lmao. (But I really don't think it will. I doubt those are the kinds of creative differences Bryke would've left the project over.)

[marveltaughtmetoread]

Voltron was such a disappointment as a queer show because you had a widely accepted queer pairing on the show, which was heavily (unintentional) subtext and then the show went out of their way to make sure that couldn't be a plausible ship anymore which cost us both Klance and a satisfying pairing between Allura and Lance because they put Lance and Allura together to end the chance of Klance rather than letting them grow into the relationship they already had the potential for, it also harmed both Keith and Lance as characters because of how much of their character had come to be defined by that relationship (romantic or otherwise) then they threw in the fact that Shiro was gay and showed it through Shiro having dated a guy but couldn't explain why he had never showed up before or since in the story so had them break up, in the same episode he was introduced through a flashback, ignoring the fact that even if they had broken up he would still have cared massively about Shiro going missing and likely still have meant something to Keith if the random dudes relationship to Shiro had been as serious as the show shows it to be and then just killed him just to be even more homophobic, because we haven't seen enough of burying your gays, and then finally they had Shiro ending up in a queer relationship which felt even more unsatisfying than Lance and Allura ending up together because at least Lance and Allura had chemistry before being thrust into the relationship by writing alone, you didn't even see Shiro and the guy getting together just them getting married, like at least Allura and Lance being in a relationship made sense even if the lead up to and the fallout from that relationship was just the writer's trying to prevent Klance from being possible

It tried to pander to the gays but just ended up being homophobic due to all the ways they clearly didn't actually support the queer community

Also the sexism in killing the one female character whilst keeping everyone else alive (you can't convince me Pidge is female because they clearly do not care for gender even if the show was to anti-queer to admit it)

Like what was the show, it had so much potential and started off promising but then just wasn't

[klancekoganee]

ace shiro headcannons

i simply do not see enough ace shiro rep on this site and so i decided to put together my personal opinions

• shiro had crushes growing up in middle school and highschool but they were few and far between

• he figured out he was into boys pretty early on

• shiro always loved the romance in a relationship and dreamed of what his future husband would look like and what their favorite color would be

• shiro always thought it was cheap writing when people in movies would have sex on the first date

• he never participated in locker room conversations during P.E. because all the other boys seemed to want to talk about was what they did when they were "studying" with a hot girl the night before

• adults and teachers would always admire his maturity, and tell him so

• his favorite movie is Pride & Prejudice, but he always tells people his favorite is Captain America (which is still in his top 5)

• when asked about who he liked, he'd lie and toss the name one of the popular girls in school

• when he finally landed a date with a boy in freshman year of highschool they went to the movies. the boy initiated holding hands during the movie and shiro was so happy, and after the boy had kissed shiro, making him blush even more. but then the boy tried making a move on shiro and grabbing his ass, scaring shiro to make an excuse to go home

• he gave it another shot to go on a second date a week later but the same thing happened again. this time shiro tried to go along but as soon as they were lying on his date's bed and the boy started to take his shirt off, shiro left

• he shrugged it off that the guy wasnt his type anyways, ignoring the pang of hurt and guilt that still swirled inside his chest

• at somepoint later in highschool he realized "sexy" was, in fact, not synonomous with "really cool" and was extremely disappointed

• it was around this time he also realized those "sexy" ads with women in bikinis and men in "sexy" underwear commercials actually turned people on??? he was shook

• he was afraid something was wrong with him, having such a low libido

• he looked into it more and realized he's asexual

• the realization brought a bit of relief to his worries, that nothing was "wrong" with him, and there were others like him

• but still, the idea that no one would want to be with him if he wouldnt have sex with them wormed its way in his mind

• he gave up on romantics and started to focus on school more

• at the garrison it was earier to answer people whenever he was asked "who he's seeing" or "who he's interested in" because he'd say he's just focusing on his career or that he didnt have time for a relationship

• when he and his friends would go out, they'd try to set him up with a one-night-stand cause he needed to "loosen up" and "stop working so hard"

• he's turned down so many strangers at so many bars that he'd lost count

• he was nervous when he developed a crush on Adam and was mortified to learn Adam had a crush on him

• he avoided Adam for a good week and a half before Adam tricked Shiro and managed to lock them both in a janitors closet until Shiro confessed why he was avoiding him

• shiro spilled everything, about being gay, and ace, and highschool, and how he didnt want the rejection when Adam would find out he doesnt even like the idea of having sex with someone

• Adam is quiet at first until he aproaches Shiro and just hugs him and tells him he doesnt mind, and that he likes shiro for being himself, not (only) because he wants to f*ck him

• shrio may have cried a little

• they talked it out some more and start dating in secret (cause of garrison rules)

• Adam asks Shiro out on their first official date to a restaurant in town, then they go to a roller rink

• they become boyfriends

• when in public the most they do is hold hands, maybe a peck on the other's cheek, but when they're together alone they hold hands and kiss and cuddle

• Adam discovers Shiro is a heart filled romantic and a really big softie

• sometimes in makeout sessions, Adam gets a little too rough for Shiro and he has to tell Adam to stop

• Adam always apologizes, but Shiro does too because he feels guilty, like he's holding Adam back

• Adam reassures him with kisses on his cheek and on his hands

• Shiro doesnt believe him, and that's the root of their first big fight

• eventually they make up and they learn to communicate better- Shiro helps Adam learn where the line is drawn, even though he's not too sure himself

• They expiriment together the very rare times Shiro is willing to go further but it's never by much

• Shiro is the first to say "I love you" and Adam says it back without a second thought

[tayman001]

GrimmIchi (post epilogue): Includes some Anime characters and an original character of mine also using Anime terms. 3

Ririn and Kurōdo: The fuck you say?

Taylor (uses his spirit energy): I SAID BACK DOWN! Ririn and Kurōdo (scared): OK... Kazui: still sleeping GAY! Koga: Why yes I am thanks for cluing into that little boy. Ichigo: You do realize old man that he is sleeping. Kazui: still sleeping suck... cock... dad... Ichigo: ... Taylor: Don't tell me you let him over hear you and Grimmjow getting intimate, Ichigo. Grimmjow: This is why I've told you to always close the door honey but you never do. Ichigo: EXUSE ME GRIMM BUT ITS YOU WHO DOES MOST OF THE TALKING DURING OUR ROMANTIC INTERCOURSES LIKE YOU ARE BASICALLY TALKING IN 3RD PERSON AND TELLING YOURSELF TO CHOKE ON MY COCK! Kazui: still sleeping choke... on... dad's... cock... Dadjow... Orihime: You aren't being a very good father right now Ichigo. Riruka: In fact I don't think you should even have any children to take care of because you aren't very responsible. Rukia: Neither are me and Renji and you both don't complain about our parenting skills towards Ichika. Renji: Yeah. Chad: ... Noba: ... Koga: ... Ririn and Kurōdo: ... Taylor: Enough! Who gives a fuck if Kazui learns stuff ahead of time... Most people do. Well based on your reactions it would seem like out of everyone here I'm the only adult here that has. Ichigo: See if you wanna blame anyone blame Taylor. Taylor: Ichigo if I were to teach Kazui anything ahead of time I wouldn't do it behind your back. So your statement holds no grounds since its incorrect. Grimmjow: GO TO SLEEP EVERYONE ITS LATE! Everyone (except Grimmjow): Fine! The next morning Kazui: wakes up before anyone else and plays with Ichigo's fatness Ichigo: unaware of what Kazui is doing since he has become a heavy sleeper Kazui (thinking): Maybe if I suck on one of his moobs he will wake up. Kazui: puts his mouth on Ichigo's right moob and starts to suck it Ichigo: wakes up feeling uneasy and sees Kazui sucking his right moob Kazui what the fuck are you doing? Kazui: doesn't stop Ichigo: Kazui get your mouth off my right moob this instance, young man. Kazui: tries but can't pull his mouth off Ichigo's right moob Ichigo: OK what is wrong now... Ichigo tries to pull Kazui off but can't its like his mouth is glued to Ichigo's right moob Ichigo: WTF IS WRONG WHY CAN'T KAZUI RELEASE MY RIGHT MOOB! Everyone (except Ichigo and Kazui): wake up because of Ichigo's shouting Ichigo: Before you say anything, Kazui woke me up by sucking on my right moob so don't blame me for him being stuck here since I've tried getting him off since I woke up. Taylor: I kinda figured that since you don't look like you are enjoying your son's mouth on your right nipple so I can guarantee I never thought anything of the sort. Taylor proceeds to pull out a strange stick out of his pocket and waves it around which sends a light out from the tip and it hits Kazui which pulls his mouth off Ichigo's right moob Taylor (returning the stick into his pocket): There he is free. Ichigo: WTF WAS THAT STICK! Taylor: Oh its my magic wand which I don't use unless to undo someone's glue pranks since glue and skin just means that they are stuck together forever such as if I hadn't used it Kazui would be hanging from his mouth off your right moob for the rest of his life if I hadn't done that and my guess the one who did the glue prank was... starts looking around for something and finds what he was looking for and grabs what it was and holds it so everyone can see it ...Kon. Kon: Please don't hate me for it I wanted to punish Ichigo for being Gay by gluing his right moob since I wanted to make him and Grimmjow stuck like that forever unfortunately Kazui ruined the plan by getting stuck himself. Ichigo: I'm gonna kill him! Kon: NO PLEASE DON'T! Taylor: Ichigo stop... Ichigo: Why? Taylor: ...I have a better idea. Taylor leaves and returns with a special made Gigai that screams "Kon" Kon: Is that for me? Oh WOW! Taylor removes Kon's Mod Soul Candy and places it inside the special made Gigai Ichigo: And how is this better? Kon quickly starts to inflate with pounds of fat

Kon: WTF YOU TRICKED ME YOU ASSHOLE! Ichigo: I never would have thought you'd trick him like that Tay. Taylor: He will remain mobile though. Meanwhile in the Soul Society At Squad 1's Barracks Shunsui: Hey Nanao? Got any word on Squad 13's status? Nanao: FOR THE LAST TIME NO CAPTAIN THEIR CAPTAIN IS STILL IN THE WORLD OF THE LIVING WITH HER FRIENDS. At Squad 2's Barracks Suì-Fēng (on the phone with Yoruichi who stayed in the World of the Living): Oh you are so naughty Lady Yoruichi! Marechiyo: still recovering from his last remark At Squad 3's Barracks Rose: playing his guitar Izuru: dancing At Squad 4's Barracks Isane: gets tripped by a Squad 11 member I'm sorry. Kiyone: ISANE THEY TRIPPED YOU THEY SHOULD BE THE ONE APOLOGIZING! At Squad 5's Barracks Shinji (on the phone with Hiyori): Admit it idiot you aren't returning to the Soul Society because Aizen is still alive but because the memories of the old days are too much for you to deal with. Momo: Captain I'm gonna go to Squad 10's Barracks. Shinji (ignoring Hiyori's yelling): Sure Momo go ahead. At Squad 6's Barracks Rikichi: Captain where is the Lieutenant? Byakuya: ... Rikichi (thinking): Oh great I'm so dead. Byakuya: He is in the World of the Living with his wife. At Squad 7's Barracks Tetsuzaemon: Atau? Atau: does the sign language for yes Tetsuzaemon: Have you seen Sajin? Atau: points to where he last saw Sajin At Squad 8's Barracks Lisa: Hey Yuyu, wanna go to the World of the Living to pester Taylor to get Line? Yuyu: Definitely! At Squad 9's Barracks Mashiro: Hey where is Kensei and Hisagi? Toshimori: They went home already since they said they wanted alone time since Lieutenant Hisagi is due to give birth early next month so they decided to take the last month off so Lieutenant Hisagi can take it easy and the Captain can be at his husband's side. Mashiro: UGH DO THEY NEVER LEARN! At Squad 10's Barracks Momo arrives at the Barracks Momo: Little Shiro where are you? Rangiku: Oh Hey Momo, If you are looking for my Captain he went to the Rukon District. Momo: So he probably went to visit his Grandma, how sweet. At Squad 11's Barracks Fighting can be heard inside At Squad 12's Barracks Mayuri: Akon you still doing ok down there? Akon (still extremely aroused): Yeah Captain in fact I love being trapped under you. At Squad 13's Barracks Sentarō: Its kinda boring here with the Captain out. Meanwhile in the World of the Living Noba (while no one is paying attention to Kon): opens a portal under Kon and it sends Kon into his stomach Kon (inside Noba's stomach): muffed screams Taylor: Noba if you are hungry I can give a bunch of clones to eat clones specifically designed for vore. Noba is thinking Noba: Sure releases Kon Taylor sends in some clones for Noba to do as he pleases with Noba: opens a portal under the group of clones which sends the clones to his stomach There is a knock at the door To Be Continued

[k7l4d4]

Kamen Rider Info and Ideas (Feel free to ignore)

As a huge fan of Kamen Rider, I always wondered about ways it could be expanded, and maybe not improved so much as become More. So, right now, I am gonna make a list of Kamen Rider Series, starting with Black and RX, and continuing all the way to the Reiwa Era! Everybody clap your hands!! *Cricket noises* Okay, here we go!

Kamen Rider Black, and its sequel, Black RX, details the journey of Kohtaro Minami, or Minami Kohtaro for those who prefer the traditional Japanese naming conventions, on his mission to defeat Gorgom, an ancient tribe/organization that has evolved into a cultic terrorist organization bent on world domination. While still holding to the Showa era’s tradition of having Cyborg Riders, Black and RX were the first in which, aside from Kamen Rider Amazon, the supernatural played a prominent part in the powers of the riders, as Kohtaro and his stepbrother Nobuhiko were the designated heirs to the leader of Gorgom, the Century King, and infused with the relics that contained his power, the Kingstones. Both Kohtaro and Nobuhiko were infused with the Kingstones, in the attempt to convert them into the Villains Black Sun and Shadow Moon, with only Kohtaro managing to escape.

One of the things that I felt could’ve been at least a little better in regards to the series was if Shadow Moon could regain his original self and rejoin the path of justice. It would’ve also been pretty cool if Shadow Moon gained his own upgraded form, which did actually happen in tie-in novels and manga, and if either or both of them gained the ability to unleash a final form that drew upon the power they wielded as the New Century Kings. Ah well, that’s what fanfiction is for!

Kamen Rider Kuuga details the battles of Yusuke Godai, the successor to the ancient warrior of justice, Riku, as the Kuuga. Kuuga’s powers are derived from Growth, allowing him to access a variety of forms and powers based on what he needs to grow into, and can be bolstered by mystical energy sources to ascend even further! Yusuke’s enemies are the Gurongi tribe, ancient monsters who abandoned their humanity to satisfy their love of death and conflict, and wished to have all of humanity become as dark and twisted as them, with the “honor” of being the Gurongi to start the process going to whichever of them managed to win their tournament, in which the Gurongi Tribal-members all battled to the death as a whole.

One of the things that bugged me a little, was that Kuuga never fully evolved all his forms, and that his true final form was even used in his series! I mean, seriously, what!? Once again, budget concerns limit the awesomeness of a series before it can bloom, sigh.

Kamen Rider Agito is the story of Shoichi Tsugami, a young amnesiac who belongs to an offshoot of the human race known as the Agito. Agitos possess incredible psychic powers and exist in a perpetual state of evolution, adapting to the changes in themselves and the world around them at an incredible rate.

My only real beef with this series was the limited number of forms Agito had as compared to Kuuga, and that one of the Extra Riders had the lazy name of Another Agito. You heard me right. All in all, not to bad, but a little frustrating.

Next up, Kamen Rider Ryuki, which also served as part of the inspiration for the list. Honestly, with how much I plan on covering JUST for Ryuki, I’ll probably leave this off after this and pick up more tomorrow. Ryuki is one of the first series in the franchise to fully exploit the nature of multiple riders, and basically invented the concept of Dark Riders, which I will also explain.

Ryuki involves the Rider War, a conflict taking place in the real world, and a parallel realm known as the Mirror World, populated by unfeeling monsters known as, you guessed it, Mirror Monsters, which must constantly kill when in our world in order to remain stable, or at least they are allegedly supposed to. The Rider War was a conflict set up by a man known as Shiro to revive his dead sister, under the guise of a tournament to the death for a reality-warping wish, which Shiro wanted for himself. The war brought together 13, yes you read that right, 13 Riders, all with variances in their styles and abilities. This selfish conflict is partially, if not entirely why I said that introduced Dark Riders properly to the franchise; Dark Riders are individuals who bear the same transformative powers of Kamen Riders, but instead of using them to fight against the wicked and monstrous, are instead put towards their own selfish ends, and none of them are the type of individual you wanna run into in a dark alley.

The Riders of Ryuki derived their power from two things, their Contract Monster, a Mirror Monster that they formed a bond with in order to exist without needing to bring about death, and an Advent Deck, a Deck of Cards that harnessed the power of the Mirror Monster it bonded to and allowed the Riders to survive in the Mirror Realm, which is inherently fatal for humans to be in. One of the key aspects of Advent Cards is how they work, each one draws and harnesses an aspect of the Contract Monster it is connected to, or wields a power specifically to fight other Advent Riders. Now, before I get to my thoughts and ideas, I am going to list each Rider from Ryuki, as well as the nature of their Advent Decks and fighting styles.

Shinji Kido: Kamen Rider Ryuki himself, and contracted to the fierce Dragon-Type Mirror Monster, Dragonredder. With a Dragon on his side, you’d expect him to be the powerhouse of the group, right? HAHAHAHAHA no. Shinji stumbled upon the Rider War by near-complete accident, and, being the nice guy he is, decided if he was going to be a part, he would protect the bystanders from the conflict and ensure as many of the Riders made it out alive as he could. Easier said than done. Out of all the Riders, Ryuki has the least straight-forward fighting style, not helped by his incredible clumsiness, with his deck emphasizing the ability to have as many options as possible; jack of all trades master of none, but better master of none than master of one.

Ren Akiyama: Kamen Rider Knight, and the contract holder of the Bat-Type Mirror Monster, Darkwing. He comes across as aloof, cold even, whose only in it for himself, but in truth he decided to enter the war to save the life of his ill fiance. Knight’s fighting style blends straight-up direct combat, and subterfuge based war tactics, with his deck emphasizing this by providing him with both weapons and special abilities that optimize getting the drop on his foes. Hmm... themed after a bat, a knight, and mixing close combat with dark and spooky tactics. Now where have I seen THAT before?

Masashi Shido: Kamen Rider Scissors, a Dark Rider, and the contractor of the Crab-Type Mirror Monster, Volcancer. A corrupt cop and detective, Scissors took bribes and cuts in illegal dealings, and used his Mirror Monster to liberally dispose of witnesses as he pleased. He ultimately died when his contract was destroyed and Volcancer turned on him. Despite his practices necessitating subterfuge, Scissors’ fighting style is rather extravagant, emulating that of a gladiator, with his deck providing cards that mix heavy combat with putting his enemy into an unfavorable situation to seal the deal, fitting for a backstabber.

Shuichi Kitaoka: Kamen Rider Zolga, one of the neutral and later heroic elements in the war, and the bearer of the contract for the Minotaur-Type Mirror Monster, Magnugigas, a colossal bio-mechanical behemoth. A shady lawyer with a lot of wealth, Zolga was diagnosed with fatal cancer, and desired to become immortal to continue living his lifestyle forever. While initially uncaring and selfish, he ultimately came to see the value in others, and lamented all the criminals that walked free due to his actions, hoping Ryuki would win. Cunning, intellegent, and crafty, Zolga’s fighting style favors both heavy defense and massive firepower, burying an enemy in a storm of blasts while he hunkers down, with his deck further emphasizing this with a bevy of long-distance combat cards and barriers.

Miyuki Tezuka: Kamen Rider Raia, a fortune-teller beyond compare, he enters the war to save lives and honor his deceased friend, and bears the contract of the Stingray-Type Mirror Monster, Evildiver. Raia’s fighting style places heavy importance on movement, offering cards that can offer him superior movement, and uses a whip as his principle weapon.

Jun Shibaura: Kamen Rider Gai, an utterly selfish and monstrous beast of a man, he wields the contract of the Rhino-Type Mirror Monster, Metalgelas. A prodigy of computers and gaming, Gai sees the death match that is the Rider War as nothing more than a game, and the fighters as players he can wipe out at his leisure. Gai’s fighting style is a straight up rush of overwhelming force, with his cards emphasizing interfering with his opponent’s options to force them to fight him directly and his brutal power of himself and his Contract Monster gives him an edge.

Takeshi Asakura: Kamen Rider Ouja, and the main Dark Rider of the series, holder of the contract for the Snake-Type Mirror Monster, Venosnaker. A sadistic monster to his core, Takeshi killed his own family as a child, and left a bloody trail in his wake for years, remorselessly cutting down anyone who falls in his path in his bloodlust. Despite his seemingly simple minded nature, Ouja is immensely cunning, favoring a sadistic fighting style that emphasizes causing as much pain to his enemy as he can before they die at his hands, and he is far from afraid to get his hands dirty. Ironically, Ouja has one of the weaker decks in the war, bearing limited options to fight with, Ouja thrives due to his sheer brutality, fighting ability, and utter ruthlessness. “Fun” fact, unlike the other Riders, Takeshi never realized that a wish was up for grabs, he was just having a good time! When he finally learned that the winner got a wish, he decided his wish would be to have ANOTHER Rider War, so he could kill another pack of warriors! Ouja’s deck does have two solid advantages over the other riders; Ouja possesses extra Contract Cards, meaning he can add other Mirror Monsters and their powers to his deck, ultimately deciding to save them to take the Mirror Monsters of the Riders he kills, with his other big trick his Unite Card, which allowed him to COMBINE his Mirror Monsters into the horrifying Chimera-Type Mirror Monster, Genocider (ain’t that a name).

Odin: Kamen Rider Odin, a Rider not designated Dark only due to the fact he doesn’t have enough of a mind to be one, and wielder of the Phoenix-Type Mirror Monster as his Contract, Goldphoenix. Odin is unusual, in that he is essentially a puppet, a brainwashed shell that acts as Shiro’s representative in the war that occupies whatever body Shiro gives the Contract to. Out of all the Riders, Odin has the greatest immediate strength, allowing him to overwhelm just about anything in ideal situations, and if things go wrong, Odin (along with Shiro) can REWIND TIME to reset the war until Shiro gets the outcome he wants, only giving up when he accepts that he won’t be able to bring his sister back.

Satoru Tojo: Kamen Rider Tiger, a man who wants to be a hero, and wields the power of the Tiger-Type Mirror Monster, Destwilder. Tiger is a broken individual, lacking a LOT of basic understanding in regards to people, he wavers between good and evil in his desire to be a hero due to his incomprehension of what it means to be heroic, ultimately becoming a hero when he selflessly sacrificed his life to save a father and son about to be hit by an oncoming truck, finally realizing what it truly meant to be a human in his last moments. A highly inexperienced fighter, Tiger often lost, which didn’t help his instability, forcing himself to rely on ambushes to win, his deck favored close-range melee and offered him support in the form of ice attacks.

Mitsuru Sano: Kamen Rider Imperer, a self-styled mercenary rider, and wielder of the multi-type contract allowing him to command the power of the Gazelle-Type Mirror Monsters, with Gigazelle serving as the leader of his horde. Imperer was raised to believe that wealth was what was most important in life, completely missing the fact that his idea to be a mercenary in the Rider War was impossible as all but one of the contestants must die for it to complete and you cannot quit either. After falling in love, Mitsuru seemed to be realizing that there is more to life than money, he tragically died before he could act on his new views, trapped in the Mirror World, reaching out to the image of his love, screaming in fear. Imperer’s fighting style makes use of boxing, and bum-rushing his enemies with his massive swarm of Contract Monsters.

And, because I am starting to grow tired and this is REALLY LONG, I am gonna finish this later today before I burn out.

[bubleboobo]

I still think there was something incomprehensibly wrong with the vld fandom. Like a lot of shows have had absolute shit writing and disaster endings. They don’t all randomly and suddenly decide there was some massive conspiracy to edit the last season into something entirely different. Like I’m sure behind the scenes was a wreck but I also think maybe the show was just bad

this is long because fuck voltron, i have a lot to say.

i haven’t been in that many fandoms, so i can only speak from my experience as the lonely 16 year old i was back then, but i do know that the show sold itself as being inclusive, claimed it’d handle it’s characters of color with respect and promised they’d give them proper development over and over again (hunk was nothing but a joke, lance’s development never happened, allura was tossed around as a love interest and got killed off), and baited its audience (broadly comprised of lgbt teens) with the inclusion of lgbt characters.

from teasing the possibility of pidge being trans (she wasn’t), to being vague about making popular ships canon (they didn’t), to straight up announcing and hyping up a main character being gay and having a fiancé (and killing him after less than a minute of screentime)

by this point, it’s a known fact that the behind the scenes was a w r e c k, and the executive producers did absoultely nothing to actually try and deliver the show they promised or at least portray their characters respectfully (and were awful at planning and making sure the show had any cohesion at all)

DreamWorks, Joaquim Dos Santos, and Lauren Montgomery, after claiming to make content “as inclusive as possible,” failed to follow basic best practices on handling diverse characters respectfully, ignored clear warnings that their depictions were harmful, and attempted to blame external partners to hide their studio’s mistakes.

when that’s ^ pretty much the entire basis on which you sell your product, and then fail to deliver any of it, (and on top of that have AWFUL writing, plot holes, lack  any form of pacing, and fail to follow basic plotlines) it’s no surprise the audience grew more bitter with each season, up to the breaking point that was s8. (and there was the whole anti v sh*ladin divide which is absulutely not exculsive to the vld fandom, but was the first time i personally saw it, brought the worst out of everyone, had some people sending insults and death threats, had young fans arguing over very heavy and serious topics constantly, and made everyone involved in the constant discourse tired, angry and upset)

then you have the part of the fandom that refused to listen to criticism of other fans and claimed that ‘no, the show is great, actually’ just because it the bad writing didn’t include the characters they cared about, or they thought licking the boots of the showrunners would get them what they wanted in the end. there were people that insisted, all the way up to s7, that the show was good and the fans that were bitter were just being childish and entitled. but then, when in the last season the show failed to deliver what they had convinced themselves the story was building up to (two brothers marrying each other apparently), they raged like the rest of us (albeit for different reasons), and some were still in denial about it. so there obviously MUST be a secret s8 that they’re hiding from us. they tried to make it look like they were insulted at the protrayal of shiro’s sexuality, when some were actively cheering when they found out adam died, cause i guess he got in the way of the real, good lgbt representation

looking back, i don’t think any of this is exclusive to the voltron fandom. it’s not like each fandom has its own exclusive set of people. fandoms are the same bunch of people getting into a bunch of different shows and repeating the same behaviours there, good or bad. 

at the end of the day, i believe it was the promising, well thought-of, diverse characters + deplorable writing + disrespectful handling of its characters of color and queerbaiting + fandom tension that made the fandom so incomprehensibly unbearable.

i dont regret joining the fandom, since i met wonderful important people that are now part of my life, i got to produce content and have fun and join fan projects with people that loved the characters as much as i did. but i also feel exhausted just thinking about it. it was draining spending years of my older teens constantly being let down by something i had so much hope and love for. 

now i’m a bit older, and know how to interact with media in a healthier way, i’d like to think, i can look back and see what made this show the absolute trainwreck it was. it’s a good worst case scenario example when writing for kids animation imo. my goal is to be a professional storyteller and animator someday, so it’s interesting to think back to what made the show so awful as a learning experience. and i do still love the characters themselves, separate from the actual narrative of the show. other than that tho…

tl;dr: fuck voltron, that was wild huh

[dgcatanisiri]

This is too long for me to be comfortable to put out without a cut, but dear god, did I need to rant and ramble on this subject...

I always feel awkward when I want to complain about how video games portray and fandom reacts to queer men, because I feel like the conversation (at least here on Tumblr) gets focused on the female protagonists - you know, the Commander Shepard or Alexios/Kassandra debates and that sort. The things where there’s valid comments to make about how important these female protagonists are, especially in an industry that is deeply misogynistic, and, in the case of the Assassin’s Creed protagonists, keep being developed with an eye towards the female-only protagonists, only to have a male protagonist shoved alongside them, if not upstaging entirely (such as Jacob being the center of Syndicate’s marketing, or how Bayek was originally going to die and Aya be the central protagonist of Origins, or the creation of Alexios and probably male Eivor on the basis of “women protagonists don’t sell.”)...

BUT, when I want to talk about my perspective as a gay man, as wanting to play these games for that empowerment, get to enjoy these games for representing me as a gay man, because Shepard, Ryder, Alexios, etc. get to be played as such, that having these male characters who are able to be played as attracted to other men means something to me, and that leads me to not just play the male characters, but prefer them to the female characters, or even to talk about the subject of homophobia in both the games themselves and the fandoms surrounding them... I do feel like there’s this pressure to just effectively shut up and stay quiet and let the women have their empowerment, that the moment needs to be theirs, not mine, that “fandom” (meaning the monolithic entity that is ‘the fandom’ and not necessarily any singular individual who I’m referring to or anything) is pressuring for anyone who enjoys the male protagonists for whatever reason to be silent and let the women enjoy their win, even if there’s a win for underrepresented men in there as well, or even a need to address the problems of homophobia by not representing queer men. That in its way, it’s effectively saying that a win against the sexism against the industry is outweighing or more important than any win against the homophobia. (Or, since I brought up Shepard, racism, considering that Shepard, Ryder, any game with the character creator, can be different skin tones as well, but that’s outside my lane.)

Like, this isn’t a callout post or any kind of directed screed against anyone, just... I suppose it’s a cumulative effect, based on the fact that I remember what the internet in the corners I frequent was like when Odyssey dropped, focused very much (and understandably - let me be clear that I have no desire to step on anyone’s victory or enjoyment of these games here) on Kassandra, and it felt like the fact that I got to play a character I could portray as gay (don’t start me on the bloody DLC though...) was a victory celebration at a table set for one, while (to really stretch my metaphor) seeing this massive party happening across the dining room at the same time, and that (and again, I’m really straining my metaphor, I’m aware), if I wanted to join that party, they would not combine our celebrations, I would have to join in theirs, and, in my wanting to pay attention to my victory, getting laughed at for it. It’s one of those things that makes fandom feel a little alienating, because I don’t particularly have much of a place that feels like it’s a space for me to celebrate my victories, rare as they are, and on occasion, even end up with the impression that, so far as fandom at large cares, that victory I want to celebrate is somehow less important. That the importance of Alexios, playable as a gay man, meant less than Kassandra, period. And, with Valhalla and Cyberpunk’s release on the horizon, along with (maaaaaaybe?) a Mass Effect Trilogy remaster, I find myself bracing myself for this to start up all over again.

And I know some of this is based in the fact that Tumblr and the transformative elements of fandom in general are more of a space that is dominated by women in fandom, who are going to celebrate the wins for them. That’s just how things shake out, I understand that it’s as much the place I’m going for involvement and interaction with fandom at large as it is anything else. Just... I obviously don’t fit in to the areas of “straight male” fandom, and then getting to the places in the “marginalized” segments of the fandom, it still feels like I need to find my way over to the margins of the margins to feel like I have a place in fandom more generally.

Like, I understand that I have male privilege and that is a factor in things - the male characters are probably more likely to be the ones in the marketing, so I get to see that idealized image of myself individually all over the covers and posters and trailers. BUT that doesn’t remove the straight privilege of the people who are shutting down conversations about the importance of the male PCs being portrayed in M/M relationships, even starts going into the realm of casual homophobia - because no acknowledgement of how important it is for the portrayal of gay men, or bi men, IS homophobic. I mean, how often do these companies have their official accounts post images of the M/M pairings? I’ve seen BioWare account retweet FemShep/Garrus and FemShep/Kaidan things, on top of the MaleShep/Female LI pairings. I’ve even seen FemShep/Liara content, which... We could go into the way that F/F pairings get fetishized and tend to be there as either fodder for cishet male titillation or just because the female PC gets swapped in for the male PC (in the way of Peebee riding a non-existent dick in the FemRyder romance scene in Mass Effect Andromeda), I don’t mean to discount that being a thing, so queer women are getting a short stick too. But where’s the M/M relationships? Hell, remember the whole #MakeJaalBi thing? After we got that notice about the patch for his romance would come... Has any official Mass Effect account actually SHOWN content of BroRyder and Jaal?

I mean, remember the Citadel DLC? The appearances of Kaidan’s romance material included FemShep, and Cortez’s content included a split second shot of just him and Shepard holding hands, and since it was blink and you’ll miss it, that means that it doesn’t even make any effort to portray the M/M relationships. And since I brought up Jaal already, BioWare had to be publicly shamed into offering M/M relationships in equal amounts to the other pairings in Mass Effect Andromeda. Like, it’s bad that Peebee’s romance for FemRyder just had the model swapped in for BroRyder, sure. But at least that content was THERE, at release. For gay/bi men who wanted to romance male characters, we have to make sure that we get that patch downloaded (meaning if you play the game without an internet connection, you can’t get access to his romance) - and only because the outrage actually GOT a response, which is not necessarily the norm in this industry.

Hell, the disparity there actually GOT noticed - if you include Scout Harding as a romance, M/M romances are the lowest numerical romances in Dragon Age Inquisition as well, with only Dorian and Bull as options. And I didn’t even realize this until this past year, despite being disappointed in those two options. Even recognizing that Harding is more of a fling than a full romance, it’s still more than M/M romances had. The closest we got was being able to flirt with Cullen twice before he shuts it down (and the rants I’ve had on THAT subject...). 

And that’s just the focus with BioWare - I saw it all through the initial release of Odyssey, while I know that the official metrics are all saying that Alexios saw more play than Kassandra, Kassandra got a lot of positive response in the fandom that was often framed in opposition to Alexios, that she was the “better” protagonist. 

Like, I’m bolding this for emphasis, and so if anyone is TL;DRing this it’s eye-catching enough: My issue is the dismissal and denigration of the male PCs when building up the female PCs. It is not being against celebrating the female PCs. It’s just the way that people will, in their positivity towards a female PC, dismiss the audience who relates to and connects with the male PC. The way that I’ve seen since day one the common “joke” that male Shepard is unnecessary, condemning the voice acting, even asking why he’s there when female Shepard is “the real Shepard”.

It makes fandom a hostile place to be when you’re looking to that character as your representation, your inspiration. Yeah, it’s a joke, but when it is coming from all corners, or at least feels like it, all the time, the humor dies, and you’re left with just the words. The words telling you that this mirror for yourself is something that people don’t care about.

Again, it’s that feeling of already being on the margins and then being pushed further. You are the freak among the freaks. 

But it feels like saying any of this, like I have, is opening the door to be dismissed as being sexist, or misogynistic, or lesbophobic, or anything like that, because people want to boil down what I’m saying to no more than “but what about MEN? Why aren’t you talking about MEN?” in that dismissive way that so many MRA trolls attempt to derail the conversation - except, no, I am TRYING to have a genuine conversation, about men who aren’t represented, men who need these male characters as much as women need the female ones - queer men get the short stick in a lot of cases, like this goes back to the representational matters in a lot of kids TV shows - while we can absolutely talk about the bad representation it was broadly, I remember when Voltron concluded, having Shiro, having arguably the lead male character of the show, end the show marrying and kissing another man... That was heavily ignored by Tumblr. Meanwhile Tumblr EXPLODED for Korra and Asami or Bubblegum and Marceline. 

It’s seeing what is representation for me as a queer man being played down or ignored while the queer women are praised. And, again, I’m not trying to take anything away from queer women, or women in general, but... Where, exactly, am I supposed to look for that same empowerment? And, more importantly, when the same media offers the empowerment for both groups, like video games do, why does it seem almost expected that I as a queer man back off and allow this to just be for the women in general, when the whole point of a variable protagonist is that it allows that empowerment for EVERYONE?

I mean, I say it feels like “opening the door” to these comments because it has happened before, and likely will again. Because saying “this joke feels hostile to me, as a member of an underrepresented group, can we please not?” or speaking about my individual experiences and feelings - often even just in my own space, on my blog, frequently only tagged with my individual tags for organization in my space, rather than publicly shouting it through a megaphone by putting it in public tags, and somehow STILL getting attacked for these comments - is apparently all those things... That’s been the response I’ve gotten to saying things like this in the past. 

And, in case I haven’t been clear with the repeated comments and the bolded statement above, it’s not about me, a man, trying to take away this thing for women. Rather, it’s me, a queer person - and fine, yes, a queer man - who wants to celebrate being seen, wants to celebrate what is still not a common thing of seeing myself in my media, and then feeling like I’m being shoved out of the way because other people celebrating their representation is considered more important, to hell with me and my mirrors.

Like, I’m not saying any of this is anything actively conscious or even intentionally malicious. It does seem like a reflexive defensive position - “men have tried to take this from us, so we’re not letting ANY man through.” I don’t want to come across as flippant or not aware of the fact that this isn’t a walk in the park for women. I get it, I really do. I’m just... It does feel like my struggles are something that I’m being told to downplay in the name of allowing others to have their celebration.

Thing is, my own experiences as a queer person already leave me feeling like I’m getting that as well - I mentioned before (and have elsewhere) that Dragon Age Inquisition’s M/M romances didn’t work for me. But I have often felt like I need to downplay the fact that I don’t emotionally connect to Dorian as a character - in the immediate aftermath of the game’s release, you could not say ANYTHING negative about him without getting shouted down as either a homophobe or dealing with internalized homophobia. Meanwhile, I’m here, pointing out that, hey, the previous games did not really have any direct homophobia, and the little bits that did lean in that direction felt more like the writers living in a homophobic society and not able to wholly divorce that in their writing than anything in-universe. To me, Thedas was a place where being gay was a difference that made no difference. And then Inquisition tore away that escape from homophobia so bluntly.

So, Dorian doesn’t empower me, you ask, so what about Bull? Yeah, I identify with “queer man” because while I’m a man romantically attracted to other men, I’m also asexual - just regular vanilla sex is in the fringes of my comfort zone. Bondage is an outright catapult out of there. At mach three. So I’m left uncomfortable by both of my “options” in Inquisition. And the response I have always braced myself for when I bring this up, when I do add my voice to the conversation about the M/M options, is “well, they can’t please everyone, and this was good for some people, so you should be content with that.” Being told I can’t have everything, so feeling uncomfortable at best is just something I have to live with, because hey, THOSE OTHER PEOPLE got satisfied, and so you should just be happy for them.

It’s that pained metaphor I offered earlier - the victory celebration isn’t for me, I’m on the outside looking in EVEN STILL. I am the freak among freaks. 

Where is my place to belong, in all of this? Because it’s honestly hard to find, when all the spaces deemed “for me” still feel like an exclusionary party?

[plusfuckingultra]

*warning: VLD rant* I know it’s 2021 and Voltron ended in 2018 but I’m still upset

So after refusing to rewatch the 8th season of VLD since 2018... I started watching it again. And I’ve noticed how fucking toxic allurance is. I’m not hating on the ship, I’m hating the way it was written. 

Allura only took interest in Lance after Lotor died, that I already know. But during all the allurance interactions, Lance was just comforting Allura. During the dinner, during that episode where she hallucinated Lotor, he was just pitying her the entire time. And I know she lost her family, that’s a lot to go through, but a relationship shouldn’t just be one person crying on the other’s shoulder constantly. They should have been supporting each other, but Lance was just supporting Allura, not the other way around. Lance had never confided in Allura at all. 

The entire season, he felt the need to stay strong for her when he should have been able to share with her. A relationship is not supposed to drag one down like that. It’s supposed to be better for both people, not just one of them who is desperate and lonely. 

And the fact that they (the writers) immediately handed her to Lance after Lotor died is fucking irritating. Sure, I don’t really like Allura as a character, but it’s messed up to write her off as a love interest after all those seasons. If anything, they could have given her some fear of commitment or trust issues to make it realistic. It would have made sense to keep her single throughout the next season. I mean, if your boyfriend turned out to be draining the life force out of the rest of your almost-extinct race, wouldn’t you stay away from relationships for a while?? 

That’s not even all I’m mad about. That scene from episode 1 of season 8 where Shiro gave that speech to Earth. “we’ve lost many people and their sacrifices will not be in vain” and all that shit. During that scene, they panned to the memorial where ADAM and the admiral (that old lady from the last season). Guess who they panned to?? THE FUCKING ADMIRAL. So yeah, just fuck Adam, right?? It’s irritating how they deny queerbaiting and bury the gays(tm) but then fucking ignore the loved one of a protagonist. I get that Shiro and Adam broke up, but Shiro still loved Adam. They were still engaged at one point. Adam is still important. They only showed Adam’s plaque once throughout the series, the only time during season 7. I mean, if anything, Shiro would have gone to the memorial once before leaving Earth, especially since they were talking about how they might not come back alive. But no. Pan to the old fucking lady that sold them out to the Galra last season. 

ALSO Curtis and Shiro like never interact??? I’m sad?? At least have them talk once?? Please???

Sorry but season 8 made no fucking sense and it’s just a terrible ending altogether.