lunar-ellipses

[mintaikk]

Analyzing Tumblr sexymen so people stop asking, "WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THEM?" when people bring them up, Barbie Wire addition!

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[oh-boleyn]

katherine / infamy

words: 4880, one shot, language: english

anne / jane / katherine / catherine

TW: there are suicidal thoughts, slutshaming, victim guilt, minor ways of self harm, nightmares and some other things.

this turned to be a character study rather to any other thing but oh well, it's done

the commentary between scenes are things I got from internet about Katherine Howard.

Katherine Howard was just an attention seeker.

(…)

When they first arrived at the twenty-one century, Katherine Howard felt alone. It was a whole new world; one she didn’t have a clue of what was it about. Didn’t even have the advantage of knowing other women, except for Anna of Cleves, the only one she met during her short time as queen when they shared a dance, but nothing more.

The rest of them were just rumours while she was in court. Names nobody dared to say. Histories without faces, blurry memories. All of them carried themselves as queens. All of them except her, who was just a frightened nobody in the middle of five of the most powerful and celebre queens.

(…)

Katherine Howard was a silly flirt who actually did sleep around even after she’d married the king.

(…)

They had all been thrown into a small house. With thin walls, two bedrooms, loud queens and just one bathroom. She shared room with Anna of Cleves, this royal Germany queen who was the second divorcee, and Anne Boleyn.

A cousin she never really had the chance to meet, since Henry decapitated her when Katherine was still young. Anne Boleyn, her famous, notorious cousin, a mystery to this new world. Anne was perfect, smart, pretty, even her reincarnated version had the long dark brown hair and big curious eyes. She knew about politics, debate, could talk fluently in English and French.

In the new world, Anne Boleyn was an icon. A notorious woman who got beheaded because of her opinions and incapacity of keeping quiet was something admirable today, and everyone loved her, as the French court once did.

The opinion about Katherine was not the same. Not then, and not now. She was a traitor before, and now she was a naïve who couldn’t even save her own life. A foolish, provocative girl who warmed her way into the king’s bed, and other beds too. She didn’t have a legacy, didn’t left anything to be remembered.

(…)

Katherine Howard: Whore or Victim?

(…)

Money and finances were not something she was interested. She wasn’t good with numbers, Francis always said that. About how she was so lucky to be so pretty, or else nobody would want her as a secretary. With the years she had been discouraged to keep trying, so she just stopped.

Not every woman had been made to be good with it. Katherine considered herself more of a pretty face, rather than someone with a great intellect. It felt shallow, now more than ever. Her life was just like that, being a pretty face, smile, conceal emotions. She was raised by her step-grandmother to please. Emotion were not needed when trying to grant pleasure to someone else.

The other queens weren’t like her. And maybe that’s why they were so worried about making money or getting jobs.

The great salvation came by Catherine’s hand. Catherine Parr, not Aragon. Rewrite their histories, if everyone could make money out of it, why not them? It could be a way to reclaim what happened to them, set the record straight, be view as the real queens they were, not just six who banged the same guy.

(…)

Katherine Howard – The Material Girl?

(…)

“Catherine, almost moved into a nunnery, and then not.” Her voice sounded snob, trying to mock the other queen. “That could almost be really hard for you.” She concluded with a fake pout.

Her heart was beating faster every second. She was never good at arts.

Even when trying to please Manox, her first music teacher, he always wanted more. She could always be better, greater. It was never enough, no matter how high her voice went while singing, or how many times she practiced dancing, or how much her hand aches after playing one instrument for hours, she was not enough.

Not enough like the air in her lungs while performing. The rest of the group were natural, delivering their lines perfect, playing with the silences making it enjoyable and funny. But she wasn’t like that, she talked way too fast, pronounced words unintelligible and forgot that she had talk.

The musical, a fake competition, didn’t help her. It didn’t bring her release, or peace. Katherine felt always numb, there was no connection between what she was doing and her own story. Her past life just felt like a numb blurry dream.

(…)

Katherine Howard, a slut 17-year-old queen who was beheaded for being a slut!

(…)

It came to Katherine attention how much Catherine (of Aragon) hugged Catherine (Parr). They were usually together, helping or making each other’s hair and make-up. She knew Cathy was Catherine’s goddaughter, but the physical affection takes her by surprise anyway.

The idea of touch being something soft, delicate was so out of her range. Her father was bed-ridden and her mother died while she was young. After that everyone was rough. For the Duchess, touch was only a way of punishment. Katherine sometimes saw the ghost of bruises she would have when she didn’t behave like a lady, when her feelings were shown.

Touching was never something appreciated after that.

(…)

Manipulative, flirty seductress.

(…)

The show was doing well, so well that they bought a new house.

New is a way to say, because it’s old, really old. It needs to be fix, the stairs crack, it is too cold, and there are leaks in the bathroom. But it’s bigger, and each one of them get a room or something like that. Catherine Parr takes the basement, and Anne takes the attic. Anna decides to stay on the only bedroom that is on the first floor. And now Katherine is stuck between Aragon and Seymour.

The room feels impersonal, and Katherine is going crazy trying to make it feel more like her. She paints it, buys a carpet, a desk. When all of it fails, she starts pinning fanart to her wall, photos with Anne and Anna, tickets of plays and movies they attended. She is trying to make new memories but it doesn’t work, it feels like she is just pretending. As if she stole a life. It feels numb and impersonal.

An empty room could be a good metaphor for an empty brain. God knows she had never been bright.

(…)

The Tudors Season 3 episode guide says “As Henry presses for an end to his new marriage, a new sexual conquest emerges – young prostitute Katherine Howard”

(…)

“Kitty, I bought new chokers.” Anne says one day, entering her room.

Katherine doesn’t like buying new necklaces or chokers, maybe because she feels them dreadful. Still she wears them every day. The scar around her neck is a darker colour than her skin, resulting in a brownish tone to it. It looks grotesque. Internet, that magic source of information calls is a hypertrophic scar, thick and raised injured skin.

“Great.” She responds, smiling.

“I thought you might like the pink ones, after all you wear a lot of pink.” She started passing Katherine pieces of electric and baby pink fabric.

“And you wear a lot of green.”

“What can I say? It’s my brand.”

“Are you okay, Annie?” Katherine asks when she notices Anne does not have her usual energy.

“Yes, just Aragon getting on my nerves.” Boleyn sits on her bed. “I’m sure she hates me. It’s not news, we been knew for like, I don’t know, five hundred years. But I hoped it would change.”

“I’m sure she hates me too.”

“Why would you say that KitKat?” Anne frowns. “Did she say something to you?”

“No, but I’m sure she is not too fond of me. Mary wasn’t.”

The look in her cousin’s face does something to her stomach, twisting it. Anne loves her, and Kat knows she does. She uses pet names with her, and calls her Kit, or Kitty or variations of it. Anne tries to protect her. But Katherine knows she doesn’t deserve any of it. Why would she?

Even when she is trying her best, Katherine can’t love Anne back that easily. It doesn’t come natural to her. Giving her love to someone never resulted in anything good. Honestly, it resulted in death. She feels guilty about not reciprocating, but it’s the best way to keep the other queen safe.

“I love this pink.” She tries to change the conversation.

(…)

Michael Hirst describes her as a “Lolita figure”.

(…)

Not even in court, where nothing was private, and people would get into anyone’s problems, people had so much opinions. Nowadays, with social media and phones, everybody had a word. Parr said something about it, about Warhol and how we imposed the new “five minutes of fame”. Social media helped to convey that.

While she was dead, people made up their minds about her. It would be nice to say that they found her just to be someone trying their best, but for the most part it wasn’t. They described her as this femme fatale. A sexually active, young woman, who seduced a whole court.

Five hundred years later, she was still nothing more than a common harlot.

The movies, and TV shows helped with it. Always naked, disposed to just fuck. A toy. A possession. The king’s favourite flower.

Katherine couldn’t be really mad about it, because that was all about her. Even her solo was about how she was the ten among these three. Aragon was the faithful wife, Boleyn the witch who made England break the church, Seymour the one he truly loved, Cleves the great queen of the castle, Parr the feminist writer.

Katherine Howard was the pretty one.

There was no personality to it, just a pretty face that happened to be compared with real queens. Of course, she would never win.

(…)

A nymphomaniac.

(…)

The first time she doesn’t feel drugged or numb comes after a show.

They were just heading out, tired out of their minds. Katherine just felt tired, as always. With that voice in the back of her head telling her how she was weak for not giving more every performance.

A man took her by the wrist, and a wave came from it. Her whole-body getting tense. It comes from her wrist, all through her arm, to her shoulder, finally getting to her neck. And now she can’t breathe. His hand is still there, firm, while she is trembling.

It could have been hours, or minutes, or seconds, but her mind was panicking and racing. She couldn’t seem to hold on to a thought, instead everything became overwhelming, a dizzy feeling. Her body not responding her calls.

“Kitty, can you hear me?” A voice quietly talks. It must be Anne; she is the only one who calls her that.

“We should take her inside.” Another voice speaks. “It’s not safe here.”

“Outside air can help, Jane.” She starts focusing in what the queens are talking. “Kat?”

She manages to break the amount of nervous on her and starts breathing heavy, as if she just ran a marathon.

“I’m okay.”

She sounds raspy, more tired than before if it was even possible.

“Can we go home?”

Parr gives her a hand to take and stand up, but she refuses and decides to stand up by herself. Instead of going to Anna’s car as she would usually do, she heads to Aragon’s, sitting in the passenger seat, making sure to set distance between her and the other queen. Luckily nobody makes questions, and Parr rides with Cleves and Boleyn, so the car is not packed.

(…)

A girl whose only education was into how to please a man.

(…)

She didn’t think it was possible, but it gets worse.

Now, instead of feeling nothing, she feels too much. Way too many bad things. She feels something raw coming from inside of her. It’s so sad, it’s eating her from inside. Her limbs are so tired, but now she can’t sleep. There are nightmares keeping her awake.

It results that feeling was not good after all.

But at least, it makes her feel alive.

After a night full of nightmares, she would just go to the kitchen and serve herself, and usually Cathy Parr, a cup of coffee. If it wasn’t enough, another cup wouldn’t do any harm. She sometimes drank energy drinks if her first cup was not even of a little help, but tried not to rely on them. It was not healthy.

The rest of the queens didn’t bring up what happened, nor her new sleeping habits. Anne would shoot her concerned looks, but nothing outside that. No words.

She must not care. Katherine thought. She knows I’m Katherine Howard, too idiotic to even be sad.

She managed. Pretended to be happy, to have energy. To be oblivious.

(…)

A reckless fool.

(…)

“Jane, just stop it, okay?”

They were alone in the theatre, the rest of the queens were heading out to a bar, instead Seymour and Howard were going home. Katherine was just so tired after just two hours of sleep, and Jane simply didn’t liked bars as much as the rest of them.

“It’s cold, put on a coat or something more, you will catch a cold.” She tried to give the teenager her pink sweater, but all she got was rejection.

“Just don’t.” Katherine bitted her lip, but couldn’t help herself and snapped. “Stop acting as if I’m a child.”

“You are nineteen.” Jane stated.

“I am like five hundred years old.” There was bitterness in her voice. “Nobody cared about me being nineteen when the king beheaded me. They didn’t even care when I was younger, why now?”

“Because I care about you.” The blonde tried to look for Katherine’s eyes, but she was too focused on the ground.

“You shouldn’t.”

There were just too many connotations to what she was saying. She felt trapped inside her own mind, a mind that was useless. As long as she looked pretty, nobody should care about anything else. It was more than enough. Feelings were too complex and ended in tragedy, and whoever cared for her would have to see her downfall.

If she didn’t take them down with her.

After all, Thomas cared. Or so he said.

(…)

Cold, calculating and ambitious.

(…)

The nightmares would just not stop, even as much as she tried.

She would just wake up, agitated and breathless, with the images still going through her mind, even when her eyes were open looking to her bedroom celling.

Katherine tried all the things internet said about sleeping without nightmares. Don’t sleep on her stomach, drink something warm first, try to be warm. Nothing worked. It just got worse and worse, to a point were her still shaken up body would not response once she was awake, instead looking at dark figures that painted the walls in her room.

Internet calls it parasomnia, she calls it her brain just can’t seem to work properly.

It’s one night when after an episode she hears a knock on her door. Heavily moving aching muscles, she opens it, revealing Aragon with a bag of crackers.

“I heard you were having a nightmare.”

Katherine lets her in.

“Why the crackers?” She asks, while sitting back on her bed.

“They say that if you talk about a nightmare without eating something first, it will become true.”

She offers one to Katherine, who accepts.

“I am not sure it was a nightmare.” She takes a deep breath. “I don’t want to talk about it either.”

They fall into a not so comfortable silence.

“Why are you awake?” the teenager asks.

“Nights are a hard time for me. I can’t close my eyes without a memory appearing. Tonight, is Mary.”

“I remember things about her.”

“I do too. I still can remember when she was a baby, you should have seen her. Her hair was so soft, and her skin looked like porcelain. Like a doll, too perfect to be real.”

“I wasn’t even born when she was a baby.”

Aragon laughs unpredictable. “You got me there.” Her face turns darker. “I can’t wrap my head about the things she had done. What they say about her. Bloody Mary, a ghost story. She was just so kind before.”

“Life in court can change you.” Katherine establishes. “Those were other times; other things were allowed. Things people now would consider monstrous.”

“No, that is still no excuse.” Catherine smiled even with eyes full of tears. “I won’t keep you up any longer, there’s no need for it.”

“You can stay here.” Katherine spoke before thinking. “If both of us have problems sleeping, it might be good to be together.”

It becomes a thing, when they heard the other one was up, they would get a bag of crackers and go to the other room. Spending nights talking about meaningless things, trying to take their minds out of dark places.

Katherine discovers Aragon knows a lot of history, things that people have already lost, or that she never heard of. Spanish proverbs and idioms, details of her time as queen. It becomes their night time stories. Talking about the older queen’s past but never about the younger. There is something so appealing for Katherine about history, a curiosity she didn’t knew she had inside her.

It helps.

(…)

It is easy to see Katherine as a spoilt child, a child saying “I want, I want…” all the time and sticking out her bottom lip and sulking if she didn’t get her way.

(…)

Anna is objectively pretty. She doesn’t have the fine gestures of Aragon, or elegancy as Parr. She doesn’t have striking green eyes like Anne. But Anna is still attractive. Full lips, dark skin, and short hair. She chopped it off as soon as they landed to the modern times, and never let it long again.

Anna was also the only one who could remember her time as queen.

Still she doesn’t talk about it, she just ignores history all together. Cleves is great at support, noticing when they are tired and buying stuff for make them feel better.

They are friends, or so she thinks, still there is a lot that is out of the line. Things they never talk but all of them know. About her own past as queen, how Jane’s actions have led to Anne getting beheaded, about Parr’s implications with Elizabeth.

Katherine wonders if they had Googled her. If they have seen the show made about Henry. She is afraid because nobody talks about her truth, is either morbid retellings on how she was abused, on how they pimped her way into Henry’s arms, or about the teenage, spoiled brat she was.

Kat doesn’t think she is either of them. She is not just someone they used to climb their way into court, nor just a teenager who had everything she ever wanted.

Maybe she is something in the middle, constructed by pieces of it. Just pieces because she knows she is not whole; she is breaking beyond repair. Every day it passes it’s another piece, another fragment missing. A nightmare long forgotten; a night lost from her mind.

A rose without a thorn was unnatural after all.

(…)

No other wish but his.

(…)

Katherine realizes her costume is the smaller one, and not only talking about size.

She sometimes feels exposed, and wishes for pants or a better skirt, but the costume designer assured her it was better that way, to play the seductress and then surprise the audience with her real story.

Whore or victim, no in between.

At least she loved pink.

“Kitty, you ready?” Anne asked.

They were at a big studio, and their performance was going to be on TV. All the queens were so anxious the house was as loud as ever, even at night.

“I’m a little bit scared.” She admitted, punishing herself for admitting that.

“Don’t be, you do perfect every night, today is just one more day.”

Emotions fills her for a moment. And it’s not as usually the horrible, dreadful feeling, but rather a warm one.

“I love you Annie.”

Her heart is beating fast, fearing rejection by her cousin. Instead Boleyn hugs her, procuring not to squeeze her in any way she might panic.

“I love you even more Kitty.”

They stay for a while. It’s been hundreds of years since the last time someone hugged her and talked about love. But it felt real. A family bond that she never thought she could have again.

“Now, get prepared, you are going to kill it tonight.”

(…)

Had many characteristics of a juvenile delinquent, who was spoiled, fawned upon, and flattered.

(…)

Jane is the first one to start seeing a psychologist.

She has a survivor’s guilt, even when she was the one who died. But it was honest that she was also the one who came back. Katherine wants to help, but doesn’t know how. Dying is easier when you wish for it. When you leave no one behind.

“How was therapy?” Kat asks when Jane gets home after the first session.

“It’s good, I think. Talking about it was like releasing a breath I didn’t knew I was holding. I know there is still a lot to work on, but I feel like it is a good decision.” She smiles. Jane lets her hand in the table, offering it to the teenager without a word. She takes it. “Thanks for asking, Kitty.”

“Can you not call me that?” Katherine pleads, giving Jane’s hand a little squeeze. “Annie calls me that, and I like it being a thing with her.”

She knows it’s cold to just say that, but Anne has been the only one to call her that. From the moment they arrived, while everyone called her Katherine, for her cousin she was Kitty. It gave her a feeling of comfort, of belonging to a family. Boleyn was her family.

“No problem, we can look for another nickname.” Jane smiles. “I want to bake cookies, what do you think?”

(…)

Could this ‘whore in the bedroom’ really be a virgin?

(…)

“Are you okay, Catherine?” Kat asks.

The survivor was still in the kitchen, even when it was past midnight. Her face was slammed on the table, illuminated by the cold light of her notebook.

“Yes, just can’t seem to get this done.” She straightens her spine.

“What is it about?”

“Just about Spain history, and the colonies.”

“Can I read?”

“Yes. I will make tea.” Parr handles the computer to the fifth queen.

Catherine takes two mugs, and chooses peppermint tea for them both. When the water is hot, she serves it, and takes the sugar to the table.

“It is good, really.” Howard says.

“I can sense a “but”.” Catherine laughs.

“You are only taking one side; you should know how Spain sent a lot of people from the church on missions to re-educate the natives. Las misiones Jesuitas. Politics and religion were more connected than what this make it look like.”

“That’s… Very true. I didn’t know you were interested in history.”

Kat can feel her face getting redder and warmer, embarrassed.

“It’s great, if you ever want to work together, you know where to find me.”

Work. Work together.

The teenager is not sure about how to react.

(…)

If only she had been willing to put her pride and title aside, (…) she may have lost her title as queen but kept her head.

(…)

When she realizes how much her life had changed, it’s more than half a year since they arrived.

There is still something obscure, twitching inside of her. The voices of a million ghosts, and even more people now with their opinions.

Researching history with the first and the last queen helps her. She starts noticing the changes in the discourses, how things that could be empowering before now are just mere normal things. The idea of a part of history she missed is attractive, and she spends hours on Wikipedia and blogs before talking to Parr about trivia facts she finds of the years they were dead.

The house gets better by the time. Having it painted, changed the plumbing, renewed the stairs. It also gets better with them, slowly growing into a group, learning how to deal with each other.

It’s slow, but it gets better.

(…)

I have to conclude that Catherine was incredibly stupid and foolhardy.

(…)

Katherine decides to start therapy. Jane talks highly of how it affected her, how she resolved so many things about her past. And the youngest queen just wants that, to be liberated, to step out of her own shadow.

At first therapy was good, having a chance to talk about her feelings, about living with people who were totally strangers. Adapting to a new world. Having a cousin. It all comes easy, it’s just the way it is. It gives her a short feeling of release, of being liberated, but it always quickly vanishes.

Not everything can always be smooth sailing in her life.

“What is a child?” Her psychologist, a woman in her middle thirties asks.

“A child?”

“Yes, what do you consider a child?”

“A really young human, I guess.”

It’s a weird question, and she feels as if she was being interrogated. That is what exams must feel like.

“I can’t really remember a lot from my childhood.” Katherine starts. “It’s just things. My mother died when I was five. I loved dancing; my father let me study it. I was never good at important things, such as math or music.”

“Why you weren’t?”

“I’m not sure. Manox always told me how I wasn’t enough, how I should try harder and be better. Francis was also like that, telling me to be quiet, to please. My grandmother also was like that, wanted all of us, the ladies to be better.”

She waits, thinks how to continue.

“I think what I always wanted to do was to make them proud, to be always better. I wanted to be liked, just that. I thought that if I was better my father was not going to leave me in a place full of people I didn’t know.”

Katherine can feel herself thinking again, trying to put her thoughts into words once, and once again.

“Why do you do this to yourself, Katherine?” Her psychologist watches her straight to her eyes. “Why are you hiding things for me? You think, and think, and think again, trying to control what your saying, how you move, how you act. I can’t judge you, and I won’t. You need to be real here, or else therapy is not going to help.”

“When I was real, I died.” Tears are streaming down her face; a pout is there and she doesn’t want to look so much like a child, but she feels small.

“Were you real? Why did you love him?”

(…)

She must have had rocks in her head.

(…)

It takes time after that, to really open up.

It takes even more time to notice that a lot of her thoughts weren’t hers, but rather thoughts she had attached herself to. It becomes difficult to realize that she is made of other people’s opinions. That she is just a victim of an adult game. It doesn’t come easy, and when it comes, it breaks her.

It breaks her to the core, to a point she is not sure how to act because that’s all she has ever knew.

(…)

Katherine had been shameless. She had been deceitful. But that was all.

(…)

Anna is there when she gets back from one therapy session.

“How was it today?” Cleves asks.

“Was I just a child?” Katherine returns a question.

“Explain that, please.”

The queen who lived the longest makes the youngest sit on the couch.

“Was I just a child when I arrived to court?”

“You were. You were so young and knew so much about things I couldn’t even imagine.”

“I thought I was an adult.”

“That’s what older people want to make you believe to manipulate you. “You are wiser”, “Too mature for your age”, “You know better than others”.” Katherine is trembling, but that doesn’t stop Anna. “They made you believe you were ready so they didn’t have to live with their own guilt. But you are just a victim.”

The teenager starts crying, and Anna hugs her.

“I thought it was my fault.” She admits. “I thought it was me.”

(…)

There is so much that is not known about her that I am still thinking of all the ideas that people have suggested.

(…)

Dealing with trauma is not easy. Katherine slowly learns to manage. Sometimes is harder, when breathing exercises are too much for her panicking brain, or when nightmares can’t seem to stop. But she still gets out of them, learns not to blame herself.

She learns to be loved. Truly love. Not to fear emotions.

Katherine gets mad, and forgives, taking matters into her own hands. She learns to be young, to be carefree.

She learns to unlearn everything she knew, to question other people opinions about herself to the point she knows who she is, and can’t bring herself to care what an history book or some random person on internet has to say.

It’s hard, but she learns to own and embrace who she is.

[novelconcepts]

Okay, but all silliness aside: I owe a ridiculous amount to Critical Role. Or, more specifically, to having found CR when I did. I came in around the beginning of the second campaign, and I had no idea what this thing was. I didn’t know a damn thing about D&D. I didn’t watch gamers stream. I think I’d been on Twitch a handful of times to watch Jim Lee draw, and that was...it. 

I came into Critical Role having seen a handful of gifs on my dash from people whose opinions I trust, and I realized Ashley Johnson was involved. That was my full base of knowledge: Ashley “hey, I know her from Recess/Growing Pains, I like her” Johnson was the whole deal. And that could have been a breaking point early on, because the first thirty episodes of Campaign 1 are a little rough if you don’t know what you’re getting into. The audio is questionable in places, it can be hard to track what’s going on, there’s the whole...obvious cast issue. And if you came in knowing only Ashley, you didn’t even get that lifeline the whole way through. 

But here’s the thing: this was 2017? I had just gotten married, and while I married the love of my life, who I had been engaged to--we originally had a slapdash courthouse wedding the day after the election, because it was the only safety net we could grab hold of. At least it would be a legal marriage, in case something really cataclysmic happened before our actual wedding date. I was obsessively refreshing six different news sites every hour while at work, and falling down the darkest political rabbit holes on Twitter every night. I was have terror dreams of nuclear fallout and panic attacks over climate change...and, on top of all the fear and the anger broiling in me, my dysphoria was getting worse by the day. My anxiety. My depression. I was sinking. Fast.  So I did the only thing I know how to do when things get truly bad inside my head. 

I hid inside stories. 

Namely, I hid inside Critical Role. The new campaign wasn’t quite on its feet yet, so I went back and started with Vox Machina. I went into these 3-5 hour episodes, letting them play in the background at work, letting these people I did not know or even really get yet into my head. And, at first, it was just the fascination of the concept. A long-form narrative built by upwards of 8 people, all sitting around a table, just...improvising. Not an inch of that is the way I tell stories, so it was brilliant and baffling, and curiosity had me straight out the gate. 

And, if it had just been the concept, that still might not have been enough to hold my attention. If it had just been the idea of it, it might not have been loud enough to drown out the voices in my head telling me the whole ship was going down, that there was no hope, that there was no point in even getting up in the morning to face more bullshit. 

But...it was Matt Mercer. Matt, with such an incredible array of characters and maps living inside his head, who could so easily have been That Guy--the English Major Asshole who knew he was smarter than everyone in the room and played it up--and instead chooses to be so kind. So utterly engrossed in the desire to give everyone a seat at the table, to let everybody into the narrative he’s weaving. It takes a certain kind of person to not only write the sort of stories he invents for CR, but to be open enough to lean back and let other people take the wheel every night, and to roll with whatever comes his way. 

And it was Travis Willingham. This huge dude who had to sit at the edge of the table because he was all muscle and thumping energy, who I kept expecting to be tight-lipped and brewing with that toxic masculinity judgment straight dudes are taught to value--and, instead of even a modicum of that, he was so excited. So invested in these characters and this game, in these friends, in playing the wisest dumbass ever to cross a screen. Travis, who hugs his male friends, and doesn’t pull the no-homo card, and stans his wife with such delight, there is no way you can watch even half an episode without falling in love with their love. 

And it was Liam O’Brien, who could have played the arrogant Cool Dude, and instead leaned so hard into having fun with his place at the table. Into deep-cut jokes, and his love for his friends, and such an affinity for Laura that I genuinely believed they were siblings. Liam, who wears his soft heart on his sleeve, and understands that sometimes the best way through tragedy is to weave it into a story, to let that be a kind of therapy among friends. 

And it was Taliesin Jaffe. Tal, who is just gonna be him, and not even fuck you if you don’t like it--he doesn’t even seem to notice. Tal, who is physical with his friends, and who laughs with his whole body, and who has the quickest one-liners in the world one minute and “life needs things to live” the next, and who just is such a joy to watch as he immerses himself at the table. He’s gonna have his hair, and he’s gonna wear mismatched socks, and he’s gonna paint those nails, and love his people, and inspire everyone around him to do the same. 

And it was Sam Riegel, who--I’ll be honest--I didn’t get for a while. He was hilarious, and he was a quick-draw, and I loved his songs, but I didn’t understand how much he cared, how truly in it he was. Sam has said he’d do anything to make these people laugh, and I don’t think everyone realizes just how valuable it is to have someone who understands the need of a good laugh in a bad situation. Sam lights up the table in the strangest, silliest ways--but he also brings some of the most vital human moments to the story. 

And it was Laura Bailey, who was just so...warm, it bleeds straight through the screen and envelopes me every time I watch her play. Vex is cool as shit on the surface, but Laura is so full of affection, so quick-witted, so hugely into this game that she transforms herself utterly when she plays. Laura comes to the table to play with everything she’s got, and she’s so honest when she does it. Impeccable voice work one minute, flirtatious wink the next, and then she’s dying laughing at a dick joke. It’s so open, it’s impossible not to love. 

And it was Marisha Ray. Marisha, who took so much shit, and came out the other side standing taller than ever. Marisha, who commits wholeheartedly in voice, in affectation, in climbing up on her chair or lunging backward out of it. From day one, I was rooting for Marisha--I was inspired by Keyleth getting to grow up onscreen, as I’ve been invested in Beau slowly cracking open and letting herself shine out from the spaces she’s spent so much time shoring up. She loves these characters like true friends, and she loves her people, and she loves her husband, and she loves this craft to such a degree, I want to quit my job and come work for her instead. There’s such a strength and a dignity to her that I find myself needing to be stronger, too. 

And, of course, it was Ashley Johnson--deceptively sweet, intensely funny, so much tougher than she looks, and when she turns up in a game, the affection could fill a stadium. Ashley being in town or on Skype for a game is like coming into a party and finding a friend you hadn’t gotten to hang out with in six months waiting for you. Everything just feels brighter with her in the game.

And it is a game, and it is a story, but the family these people have built--people I’ll likely never meet, people who live on the opposite side of the country--is somehow big enough to let complete strangers bask in its reflected glow. I built a habit of listening to CR at work...and then talking about it to my wife, with all the hyper-fixation glee I can’t help when I fall in love with something...and then I was putting it on at home so she could fall in love, too. I was putting on Talks or Between the Sheets while I ran on the treadmill, or when I needed to focus on a project. I put on episodes I’d already seen when I was sad, or when I was lonely, or when I just needed something to fill the silence and keep the darkness in my head behind a wall. For two years, I’ve gone back to these people again and again. To the silly videos. To the serious conversations. To the Twitter feeds and the fanart people can’t resist making to commemorate these characters who feel so tangible. 

Matt always ends the stream with a claim of love, and with most shows, with most streamers, with most people, that just feels like words. With these guys, with the way they open up and share this lightning in a bottle family and story they have created with the rest of us, it feels honest. It feels like these are long-lost friends who may never be in the same room, but are always there when I am drowning because the world is a nightmare, because work is kicking my ass, because this gushing essay is the most I’ve written in months. They are so good. They are human, and fallible, and invested in telling stories that get dark and ugly one minute, and devolve into hysteria the next, because that’s what life looks like. Even life with gods and magic and talking swords and goldfish deaths. 

Critical Role keeps me throwing my shoulders back, keeps me laughing, keeps me insisting on showing the people in my life how much they mean to me. Critical Role keeps me on the board when the demons in my head have me thinking it’d be easier to throw the game. It’s a show, and it’s silly, but it’s given me such a safe, warm place to curl up in some of the bleakest times of my life, and I love them so much for being willing to share some of that light with the rest of the world. They’ve given me a place on the internet that truly does feel like home. 

[nacrepearl]

This anniversary, I wanted to pay tribute to the show by redrawing my favorite SDCC poster. With a few changes. It’s been 3 years since this poster came out on the internet, but it’s the poster for the first SDCC I experienced in this fandom. Below the cut is me being sentimental because I really love this show and its impact on my life is greater than one would think.

March 26th, 2015. I decide to watch Steven Universe after seeing gifsets of the first Stevenbomb on my dash from lingering members of the people who worked on my previous hyperfixation Attack on Space (A spinoff AU from the parent series Attack on Titan, which my interest in was fading quickly). I opt to watch the episodes that are on demand because they’re easier to access. I watch Alone Together first, Full Disclosure second (actual quote from me, who hadn’t known about SU’s musical nature: “Since when is SU a musical?!”). I then spend the next week or two watching the episodes on demand, then going onto KissCartoon to watch the series in order, in its entirety. (Quote when watching S1E05 Frybo: “I’m glad I’m watching these now before this inevitably becomes my new hyperfixation.” I have second hand embarrassment moments from this episode to this day). My brother decides to watch with me occasionally.

Fast forward to the end of March. I’m caught up with the series (back then only up to Joy Ride, which aired the day I began this journey). My friend Zac and I are now both into the show, and the following week Attack the Light comes out the same day that Say Uncle airs. Say Uncle is the first episode I watch live. I download ATL and finish it within a week. The rest of the weekly episodes (you heard me: weekly) were to follow and I was excited to officially be involved in the fandom. The beginning of April, I found the comics and I got to issue #5, the one where Pearl sucks in a gem-embedded book into her own gem and becomes ill from it. that was the day that I realized Pearl was my favorite character. Hurt/comfort is my way to tell.

I carry on watching the episodes throughout the month, and then after Reformed airs, we are faced with a hiatus. back then, a month and a half was a long time. Then, I got into the Pearl theories. I was all over the so called “nacre theory” right up until the theory had been confirmed in Back to the Barn (I still am, though the term “nacre theory” takes on a whole new meaning that I’m not sure will see the light of day now that we know more about Homeworld). You should have seen me go ham reblogging things about Pearl being lower-class, a lowly technician (ha), a maintenance drone. And all Pearls looked exactly the same back then in the fanart.

May 26th they announced the second Stevenbomb, half the fandom combusted. So did I. Sworn to the Sword happened and I had more fuel for the NT. I woke up that Thursday morning to a gifset of Pearl and Rose’s fusion dance because We Need to Talk leaked and spontaneously combusted right there. Then they announced Week of Sardonyx and our naive selves said “another one?” I went camping that weekend, which was also the weekend of SDCC. I nearly had a heart attack from my over-excitement when I got home that Sunday.

Week of Sardonyx came and went, with even more fuel to the fire for the NT. Cartoon Network does their greatest fuckup of the year by accidentally putting all of the Summer of Steven episode titles a whole year before they air. They changed the release date for the weekly episodes from August 6th to September 10th, and then we were graced by small Peridot on September 24th.

Back to the Barn airs. I die.

Then we go into a very long hiatus until Stevenbomb 4, airing in January 2016. This marks the first epsiodes to be leaked with the traditional screenshots + 2 minute clip. This was our first look at both diamonds + their pearls, and people were reasonably excited. Then we entered what we thought was the longest hiatus in fandom history–and we got the In Too Deep special earlier than expected.

Following the special, they announced the Steven Nuke/Summer of Steven. 4 weeks of episodes every night from mid-July to mid-August. Mr. Greg was the first musical episode and the crew hyped it up so much and yet it still had a huge impact on those watching that night. It was nominated for an Emmy one year later in 2017. We got some of the most intense episodes of the show in that bomb, with Amethyst’s arc, Bismuth holding the first half-hour special, the revelation that Rose supposedly shattered Pink Diamond, and Centipeetle’s corruption being explained further. Following SOS, there were weekly episodes and then another short hiatus, until Gem Harvest’s release in November. A short hiatus and then Three Gems and a Baby aired in early December.

During 2016, I meet two of my best friends through the fandom - @always-make-it-gayer and @hackerperidot. Gale and J have been my friends since that summer and because of this fandom, I’ve been less lonely and have had a blast in the ever growing group chat we have (Reverse Garden of Eden). I love you guys, and of course everyone else in the chat.

Following 3GAAB, in early January 2017, the entirety of Stevenbomb 5 drops on the app. Pictures with the diamonds and the zoo and the famethyst were on the internet in seconds. I had been on holiday break from school, and the night this all dropped was the first school night when the break was over. I stayed up very late, watched the episodes when I woke up for school in the morning, and listened to What’s the Use of Feeling Blue on repeat in the cold, snowy weeks to come. This was also right around the time my mom bought a house and we were ready to move in.

I got another birthday episode–Rocknaldo, airing on February 24th. Could’ve been better. I’m not complaining though. SU was crucial during this time because I was feeling very depressed and closed off due to the move and missing the apartment. The New Crystal Gems was the last episode the apartment got to see, and I promised to show Pearl’s backstory when it eventually aired, but we moved too early for that to happen. I like to imagine it can see my journal entries (you can ask if you want, in short it’s a coping mechanism I developed). Thereafter, we had another hiatus leading up to the sixth Stevenbomb with Aquamarine and Topaz. That bomb ended with the saddest episode in the series, finalizing season 4. Then the Wanted event aired, and we got so much lore content and more hints to the Pink Diamond mystery.

There came the biggest hiatus in the fandom’s history to this day. We were so thirsty for content. It was dry as fuck and the only light in the dark was SDCC with the Lars of the Stars clip (which would then air months later) and the trailer for the first half of season 5′s kickoff bomb.

Gemcation airs, and everyone finally understands Pearl’s quirk with covering her mouth in discussions about the diamonds. We all were getting so antsy at this point to find out what was happening with Pink Diamond and the lore behind the show and by god where is White Diamond?

We get Stranded in January 2018, allowing us to spark the “diamonds get revealed in January” meme with the Pink Diamond face reveal. Of course, this is debunked by Legs From Here To Homeworld in July 2018.

We get more episodes in March, and then are plunged into the final reveal in May with the half hour event, Can’t Go Back and A Single Pale Rose. The fandom collectively freaked out with the revelation that Pearl and Rose were diamond and pearl and faked the shattering in an effort to end the war. The people who survived this saw the Heart of the Crystal Gems arc in July. This was the week that held the Rupphire wedding.

Reunited airs, and I am surrounded by 3 of my best friends ( @asassynerdnamedgabbs, @neroblackcat, and @hackerperidot who had been visiting New York from Australia that week ) so I hold myself back from reacting too much. I cried that night out of sheer joy that my favorite show was the first cartoon to show a lesbian wedding on national TV. Of course, we get the diamonds and then SDCC the following weeks, with Legs From Here to Homeworld. I am at my cousin’s graduation party the day of the panel and my phone is slowly losing battery percentage as I try to keep up with the tweets and posts about what was going on. It was a huge deal.

Now we arrive here. Nothing had been shown at last month’s NYCC which is unusual, but that’s okay. We are still on hiatus, and it is SU’s 5th anniversary of being on the air. I am patiently waiting for the show to come back, and I’ll have more memories to make with this fandom in the months to come.

Happy Anniversary, SU!

[themallexthings]

Season 7 was uff.... and I need some time to recover... but the toxic fandom...

Okey... this season almost killed me. Maybe I had to meny expectations for this season. Because of the information, spoilers and things that where said at SDCC18 from the staff. To sum it up I was a little dissapointed.

Still love the show tho but yea... this season had so much information and new faces, facts and bondings in only 13 episodes that it feeled forced to me. I mean the last 6 seasons had fun episodes with adventure and fun but with a red line to easily follow. Here you get a red bundle of strings and have to handle it. The story flow got from a river to a waterfal (you know whta I mean?). 

Then I saw how massiv the Fandom backlash for the fact that Adam was killed so fast. So much toxic comments to the writers for them to hype the fact that they killed Adam and discrimminate the LGBT+ community. WHY?! What do you want?! Yaoi action on the sceen? (that would be nice, but lets be reallistic)

Maybe I dont have a right to say that, for a type of person who still searches for her path, but isnt it too much to say that the writers are homophobic or discrimminating the community? Maybe you also had to many expectations like me after SDCC? okey I was like that too at first, but I got to bed after this and had time to drem and think about it for a few hours. 

It pisses me of that those people who are barking out loud they frustrations on the Voltron writers are the most toxic things I ever saw in a fandom! 

Wow thank you for the hate... I dont need that shit really.

Stay POSTIVEEEEE!!!

The show was fantastic with fights and action! I was so thirlled for the fight at the end (eaven when they make the ATLAS a Mecha too wtf?!). They just fought Sandak and BAM annother beast wooow!! (At first I tought that Lotor came back from the other dimension but then wtf!)

And Veronica is a Badass Sister dont you think so?! She is soo cool! My hero! UNCLE LANCE!! The cutest thing I ever heared! OMG! And please look at the way she stands! Its so similar to Lance!! Also Iverson is not an asshole as everybody thought. After the scene with him an Cosmo I was blown away by him 180 degree ;DDD

And I knew it! They made a time skip!! the scientist/Pidge in me is so happy! Because interdeminsional traveling must have an impact on the actual timeline! (okey Nerd sry). How long where they in space anyway? The journey was also fun a few bonding moments between the team except for the game show episode.. I hate Bob. Calling Lance dumb all the time just isnt funny after 10 times. (Also not okey that the team didnt say anything= LANGST FF?!) 

I enjoyed the animation and style. Story still not so much maybe after my 3rd rewatch, but all in all Is one of the best shows right now! I am hyped for season 8! (More LANCE and TEAM VOLTRON!!) I will watch this season again in a few days and enjoy it again.

I will let it sit down for a while and dont want to have this toxic around me. Social media is unfortunatly for all people... Its only a few people who spreads that shit but it still hurts me. For the fandom and creators of the show. I really love the show and I still need more Lance screentime because he is my Boy <3 

Shout out to all writers and creators for staying positiv and still making contend! I need you in a few days to fill me up with Lance and Shiro (my personal OTP) FF, Aus and wonderful fanart! 

Thank you.

[50cyg]

Taiyama week 2017, Day 1: When and why you like Taiyama?

Sorry I’m late... okay I’m seriously starting to see spots at this point from staring at a computer screen for too long... I have to apologize though cause there was this post that either @CourageSun or @Rainbow09 wrote that sold me on Taiyama which I wanted to link to in this post. I know one of them wrote it and it talked about episode 51 but I just cannot find it... if you have been following me long enough you will know I am absolutely terrible for this. I never bookmark anything and then when I want to find it again I spend hours scrolling through posts and usually still never find it... I’m really very sorry

Anyway, this might be overly detailed, apologies if it just seems like I’m rambling at some points.

Like many Digimon fans I did not ship them as a kid, I was a Taiora shipper. But, like with most of my ships as a kid, I didn’t ship Taiora hardcore and didn’t really care when they didn’t end up together in the end. I mean I was so done with 02 by that point I don’t think I cared about much of anything to do with the series which I think is part of the reason I never learned about Tamers and Frontier until years later.

Unlike many fans though, heteronormativity had nothing to do with my not shipping Taiyama, I was just as exposed to the lesbians and gays as a kid as I was as an adult (and was exposed to bisexuals, asexuals, transsexuals, etc as a teen). Honestly, I didn’t really like their dynamic as a kid, I thought their rivalry was contrived and held that belief firmly into adulthood. As for their friendship, it was fine, I liked some moments but was disinterested by other moments. I loved both Taichi and Yamato, but I liked them independently, not as a duo.

Fast forward to 2011ish, I’m talking to a Digimon fan and debating whether the Dub is really as bad as everyone claims (I still firmly believe it’s not) and then he starts talking about the different seasons and then about how he actually liked Frontier better because the kids turned into Digimon and therefore were more involved in the fights and I was like

“you know? Frontier, where the kids had spirits instead of partners”

“wait what?”

“Season 4”

“Season 4? They made 4 seasons?!?!?!?”

“They made 5… and the 6th is currently airing”

“What?!?!?!?!?!”

“but like every season after 02 has a new cast”

“WHAT?!?!?!?!”

Anyway, I rushed home to watch them (only ended up watching Tamers and Frontier, still haven’t seen Savers… can’t remember why)

So, Tamers was amazing and all but something interesting happened while I was watching Frontier

I met these two

And I fell in love with their dynamic and I started shipping them pretty hard. It was one of the few times I liked a ship enough to seek out additional fan made content like Fanfics, AMVs, etc.

Well I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but people who ship Takuya x Koji often overlap with people who ship Taiyama because of the similarities in their dynamics, I mean Takuya and Koji were basically designed to be Taichi and Yamato 2.0 (now whether that was done successfully is up for debate). Basically, where I’m going with this is that I was confronted with the fact that Taiyama is a pretty popular ship and started seeing them around a lot because people would have AMVs dedicated to both pairings… and my reaction may surprise you.

My reaction to Taiyama was

I didn’t get it at all, I didn’t like it and it was very strange to me (again I think I was just biased because I couldn’t get away from my childhood opinions of the duo). I was very surprised by it, I was genuinely surprised to see Taichi paired up with anyone but Sora because I had never encountered someone who was not a Taiora shipper (at least so I thought, I would latter find out that the girl who got me back into Digimon in high school was a low key Taiyama shipper). I ended up ignoring it and moving on.

Fast forward about 3 years (sometime in 2014), and I meet a girl at University who also loves Digimon and was once again drawn back into that world. I started re-watching the episodes of 01 and looking up fanart and I stumble across this image

And at first I assumed it was fan art (because it’s drawn in a completely different art style) so I move on

But then I see this image

And I go “wait, wait, hold the phone!!!!!! They are making a sequel with the original chosen children!?!?! NO WAY!!” and I get super pumped and wait impatiently for the first movie to be released on Crunchyroll (I wasn’t a fan of the animation, but as soon as I saw it actually in motion I was sold)

Then I started watching the movie and I see these scenes

And I think “aww yay, Taichi’s jealous of Sora and Yamato and want’s Sora to come to his game, aww it’s so cute, the Taiora feels” (I feel very differently about these scenes now, especially that first scene)

And then suddenly this scene happens

And I’m like

And then this scene happens

And I’m like “is Yamato gay for Taichi?”

And then this

What is going on? What is happening?

And then this

Anyway, I left thinking “well that was like super gay, and kinda weird, and out of nowhere, and like... for real what is going on?”

And then I watched Determination months later and this happened

And I was like “Okay this is too weird, like where is this coming from? They were not this gay in 01… but also I think I can get behind this pairing because it’s actually really cute in Tri” (I had fallen in love with Superhusbands at that point and I think the similarities between them and Taiyama played a part).

So, I googled Taichi x Yamato and as I found more and more fanart I got more and more on board, but I still didn’t like their dynamic in 01 and it made me unable to really fully ship them. Then at some point while scrolling through Tumblr and casually reading Taiyama stuff here and there I came across this one specific post that talked about episode 51 and I had this epiphany and finally started to appreciate the Taiyama dynamic in 01. I was sold from there on out.

Then I started reading more and more Taiyama analysis and I just fell in love with the whole idea that people had spent hours creating these amazing metas and headcanons and breakdowns of the boys interactions and it was so interesting and beautiful and the more I read the more I fell in love with Taiyama. I was particularly obsessed with @CourageSun and @Rainbow09’s works and am pretty certain I’ve read the majority of what they’ve written on the topic of Taiyama.

I used to hate Yamato’s fight with Taichi in ep 45 but after reading so many explanations, headcanons, and breakdowns of the scene I’ve grown to think much more highly of it (I still think it could have been better executed but I definitely don’t hate it, not even close). Also, I’ve grown to like and understand the two boys much better since being introduced to the Taiyama fandom.

So, unlike most Taiyama fans I wasn’t immediately on board after being introduced to it, I actually strongly disliked it, but Tri and even more so the Taiyama fandom, completely changed my mind and now I’m neck deep in it 😝 Taiyama is my OTP of OTPs

If you want a little more on why I love them so much you can read this post I wrote a little while ago

[rei-reviews]

Rei Reviews- Voltron Legendary Defender Season 1

Voltron: Legendary Defender is a Netflix reboot of the sci-fi mecha anime, Voltron: Defender of the Universe that came out back in the 1980’s. It was produced by Dreamworks and animated by Studio Mi, and its 11 episodes long first season was released in June of 2016.

Now, I bet the fact this show is a reboot is going to activate alarm bells to some people which is very understandable because reboots in general don’t have the best of reputation. Sure, some reboots end up decent and sometimes surpass the original, but most them are unnecessary at best and atrocious at worst. In other words: For every Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood there will be a Powerpuff girls 2016 and an Alice in Wonderland.

But Legendary Defender is different because it has two things most reboots don’t have. A lot of the staff who worked on Voltron, including the director, Joaquim Dos Santos, also worked on the highly beloved and acclaimed Avatar: The Last Airbender. And if was already talking about beloved, the reboot has a large and loving fandom which inspired fanart and the occasional shitposts.

So obviously these two aspects could show that the Voltron reboot was a success. Right? Well, that’s why I’m here to see if this reboot is worth your time! And keep in mind that I have never watched the original series or any of its other iterations. This review will examine how well this show stands on its own.

The Substance

Voltron: Legendary Defender is a Netflix reboot of the sci-fi mecha anime, Voltron: Defender of the Universe that came out back in the 1980’s. It was produced by Dreamworks and animated by Studio Mi, and its 11 episodes long first season was released in June of 2016. Now, I bet the fact this show is a reboot is going to activate alarm bells to some people which is very understandable because reboots in general don’t have the best of reputation. Sure, some reboots end up decent and sometimes surpass the original, but most them are unnecessary at best and atrocious at worst. In other words: For every Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood there will be a Powerpuff girls 2016 and an Alice in Wonderland. But Legendary Defender is different because it has two things most reboots don’t have. A lot of the staff who worked on Voltron, including the director, Joaquim Dos Santos, also worked on the highly beloved and acclaimed Avatar: The Last Airbender. And, speaking of beloved, the reboot has a large and loving fandom which produces tons of fanart and the occasional shitpost. So obviously these two aspects could show that the Voltron reboot was a success. Right? Well, that’s why I’m here to see if this reboot is worth your time! And keep in mind that I have never watched the original series or any of its other iterations. This review will examine how well this show stands on its own. The Substance In the universe of Voltron, reigns an evil alien race of the Galra who are led by their emperor Zarkon. They have spent thousands of years oppressing many civilizations and planets and ruling the universe with an iron fist. However, there exists a powerful weapon named Voltron™, a giant robot that is operated by five pilots named The Paladins. it was said to be strong enough to face and even overcome the Galra empire’s power. But when the Galra attacked and nearly destroyed the planet of Altea, the lions were scattered across many different planets, and hope seemed to be lost. But 10,000 years after Voltron’s disappearance, five humans from Earth named Shiro, Keith, Lance, Pidge and Hunk become the new paladins of Voltron after a chain of events that entangled them in the Millennia-long War. Together with the help of Allura, an Altean Princess who was cryogenically frozen for thousands of years, and her advisor Coran, the Paladins become the last line of defense against the Vicious Galra, as they hope to defeat them through Voltron. The first season of Voltron mainly focuses on setting up the universe and its characters and the events that occur are standard for a genre: there’s an opening episode that’s dedicated to forming the main team and finding Voltron, a first mission to help a decaying planet, and setting up plot threads for the following seasons. The show isn’t very revolutionary in the way its constructs its events but what makes it all very entertaining is how things are executed. For the most part. For starters, Voltron is a show that knows how to handle and balance different tones. It knows how to make a comedic scene effective with its witty scripting and comedic timing and pull off a tense scene with good pacing and well established stakes and even manage to execute scenes that manage to be both of them. And not only are the scenes strong on their own, they also manage to consistently flow from one another without feeling jarring. And it also knows how to keep its audience hooked This is a feat that a lot of western shows and some anime tend to struggle with especially when it comes to tone shifts. Another thing this show manages well in its execution it’s his handling of the core cast because when you look at them on a surface level they mostly fit into standard super sentai archetypes. Shiro is the strong-willed leader Lance is the cocky and confident comic relief, Hunk is the vigilant yet kindhearted giant, Pidge is the snarky brains of the group, Keith is the rebel, Allura is the graceful princess and Coran is the butler and additional comic relief. Apart from Allura, who mostly subverts her trope with her more dominant attitude, none of the characters completely defy their archetypes. And sometimes that’s fine, not every character has to bring anything completely new to the table in terms of personality, and in this show’s case, the archetypes are very well handled. The great execution of these archetypes stems from two major factors: The first factor is the well written script. The dialogue between the characters sounds very authentic and is filled with strong one-liners and wit. Unlike other shows, the usage of one liners and slang doesn’t feel forced or like it was written by some cynical forty-something who’s trying to be “hip with the kids”. It really helps audience connect to the paladins because they speak in a very relatable way. The second factor is the chemistry between the main cast. Each character the show manages to bounce of off each other and much like the dialogue, their chemistry feels authentic. There are so much potential and different interactions that this show provides the viewer whether its Keith a scene with Keith and Lance, Shiro and Allura or even Hunk and Corran, the interactions are always fun to watch and make the characters very likable. These two factors are what made me care quite a bit about the main characters. It’s what made me invested in all the conflicts and developments they face during the show whether its individual or affects the entire group. And this is great because, a lot of shows try to make the audience care about their characters by flooding them with conflicts and backstories and not even succeeding with the two factors I mentions. It’s a very basic rule of storytelling that is unfortunately very neglected, but in Voltron’s case it manages to achieve it. However, I can’t say that the characterization of the villains is as strong as the protagonists.  The Galra empire do make for a good obstacle for team Voltron to overcome, but as of season one, they’re no more than just good obstacles. King Zarkon and his underlings feel menacing but they’re not fleshed out enough to interesting to watch. I only cared about them because the protagonists cared about them but the that’s only the bare minimum of what a villain should be. Another gripe I have with Voltron is the pacing of its pilot episode. Even though the pilot is an hour long, the pacing felt a little too fast because the show tried to cram in as much worldbuilding and set up as it could. That isn’t to say the pilot is bad but it could’ve slowed down a bit by giving the story and the audience some breathing room. The strengths of the show outweigh the negatives and the show makes for great popcorn material. But even then, the fast-paced pilot, and underdeveloped villains is what holds back the show from being truly great. The Presentation The animation of Voltron is top notch, though this fact isn’t surprising considering the fact Studio Mir also worked on The Legend of Korra. The rebooted designs of each paladin are well distinguished and really manage to modernize the character designs from the eighties while keeping their charm. In addition, the settings in which the character’s travel whether it be the different planets or the spaceship interiors are also well handled and have a lot of polish. But the animation truly shines is in the fight scenes, which are very crucial for an action show like Voltron. The hand to hand combat scenes are well directed and the fluid animation helps to make the fights effective and the same could be said for the CG mecha battles. I would even go as far as to say that the way the CG is rendered and utilized in Voltron surpasses over 90% of anime that use CG. It never looks too jarring or stilted for the eye and unfortunately that tends to be a rarity in 2D animated shows. While the background music in the show didn’t really stand out in my eyes, I am very fond of the show’s intro. Although the intro is shamelessly formulaic, introducing the characters one by one while featuring good fight scenes, the music manages to build up some excellent hype and the way the characters are introduced makes them look beyond badass. And then there’s the great voice acting. Every character’s casting is top notch because of how well they suit them and the way the actors deliver their lines really helps the characters to shine. The biggest stand out in my opinion would have to be Jeremy Shada as Lance because his snarky demeanor and great comedic timing really helped to flesh out the character. Final Verdict Although I’ve already mentioned that I haven’t seen any shows in the Voltron franchise, I can confidently say that the first season of Legendary Defender is a good remake and i'll definitely check out its second season. It didn’t blow me away with any extreme subversions of its genre but I still appreciate the amount of effort that went into making this series. The people who worked on this series loved Voltron and the mecha genre and it shows with the show’s quality. Even if there are major weaknesses in the characterization of the villians that could be mended. If you’re a fan of mecha anime I think Legendary Defender would be a show to your taste. There aren’t a lot of standout mecha shows that came out this decade so it could definitely fill the void. I also recommend this show to people who are looking for a good popcorn material show with great action and likable characters. And if you guys are planning to watch Voltron, then watching this show with a younger sibling or something alike would be a good choice! I binged this show with my younger sister and we both had a lot of fun with it. Reccomendation Level 3/5