#they have a lot of good chemistry i just don’t see lance and allura i don’t

[mizu-writes-kumo]

Shance au: lance is secretly a celebrity in cuba(maybe a child actor who got really famous in Cuban novellas and still does an a movie or to now). Went to the garson undercover to get some hands on knowledge for an up coming roll. Somehow accidentally got involved in actual science fiction movie. Basically when they get back voltron realizes how famous and rich lance is

Oh I really, really, really like this!  It kind of fits.

I could see Lance getting into acting because like one of his grandparents is a very well know Cuban actor, and sort of small time actor internationally.  So Lance grew up being able to go to sets and the general back stage of a lot of stuff.  And his start in the acting world was sort of an accident, when he was in needed as an extra/stand in because a child actor was too scared to do something.  And from there he was hooked.  His parents let him do because he so clearly loved it.  And then he got a reoccurring role working with one of his grandparents on a show, and just pretty instantly stole everyone hearts.  He worked on that for a while, but he also started getting roles in other things, and he was pretty well know.

He managed to score a huge role in a big blockbuster sci-fi movie, which is super exciting. (Because one it was a massive role, and two he got to kind of be like his Hero, Takashi Shirogane) Only he felt he had to do a lot of research for it, because he had been acting his whole life, he didn’t know make about the cadet role he was taking on.  The Garrison was a good fit for him to go “undercover” in.  As he would be in a school getting an educations, he would be learning to fly (something he wanted to do), and he’s get a fell for what it is like to be a cadet. And he also need to age up a bit more for the role (but like he was the first person cast, and stuff wasn’t scheduled to start shooting for a some time) It was all organized by the studio, and like only three people actually knew who Lance was and why he was there.  He did all the right tests and such, because Lance wanted to experience everything. He got into the Cargo program, which he was sad about, but it actually had a more flexible schedule that worked for screen and chemistry tests and script readings.  When he got moved to the fighter pilot program, but they worked it out.

Then everything with Voltron happened.

And yeah, that’s a huge snag, but Lance goes with it.  Because he was not seriously going to demanding to go home because of he had a huge movie role coming up.  Plus it was even cooler than his time and the Garrison.

During Voltron, Lance is the only one of the Paladins that handles the fame well.  Simply because he is use to it.  He just knows was to do and how to interact with fans, while the Paladin’s really don’t.  But he does what he can to help them out, by saying things that basically say no, in the nicest most kindest way possible.  Which everyone is thankful for.  And he gives a few pointers to Shiro, who was use to something a spotlight for his Garrison record, but actual fame.  Which Shiro is very very thankful for, because the advice is good.

After they all return to Earth, it takes some time for the Paladins to actually find out how famous Lance actually is.  (And when I say some time, I mean like until the end of the war (without Allura dying cause screw that)).  Like they sort of heard Lance talking to Veronica in passing like “I guess that movie deal is off”  or  “I am assuming my role was recast”, or “how hard do think it will be for me to get back in the game”.  Or Veronica being like “Why do you have to be such a method actor.”  They all things Lance is just being dramatic, or it’s some sort of joke in his family. 

And I am kind of torn on how I would want the Paladins to find out.

Option 1: Shiro witness some random people coming up to Lance for a picture and a selfie.  He assumes it’s for Voltron, until they are talking about things Shiro had never heard of.  And when Shiro asks Lance what they were talking about, Lance is just like “Oh some show I was in that is kind of a cult classic. And then like a popular Cuban film I stared like before the war.”  And just Shiro’s mind is so blown.

Option 2:  They all find out a via movie night.  When the Garrison is casting something to the Atlas, or like Coran randomly choose it to watch or something.  Everyone but Lance is there ,Lance busy on Earth doing another acting job, unknown to them.  And just like on the screen is Lance after like five minutes as like the friend of the main character.  And everyone is just stunned the whole movie where Lance is like a somewhat main character in the plot.

Option 3:  Lance gets another huge movie deal.  Pidge finds out when the trailer is basically released, and kind of spams everyone about it.  Only no one buys it, save Lance who writes back “I can get everyone tickets to the premiere it will be fun.”  So Lance does, and arranges for everyone to come and stuff, and he even gets them nice clothes to wear...which is kind of like “how did Lance afford this.”  Only for Lance to be like, “I’m literally a movie/tv star, have been since I was like 4...figure it out.”  Then takes them to the movie and after party and they all have a blast.

(This wasn’t overly Shance, but I am sure you call squint to see it..)

[dailyzzy]

What’s your opinion on Allura from Voltron? I personally have some beef with her for choosing my son Lance as a rebound and always thought of her as a Mary Sue, but I’m curious about what your thoughts are.

OH BOI-

Okay so I personally like Allura. Female characters are often portrayed in less interesting way than male characters imo, but creators managed to make her quite an interesting princess. Why's that? She's gorgeous, she's strong, she's clever, but she also has realistic FLAWS, that's why I like her.

She's a princess so I'm sure she was taught the manner of speech and yet she can be pretty rude at times xD like the first thing she says to Lance is that his ears are hideous!

She supports the team but she's sometimes not very considerate of their feelings. Especially in the beginning, when everything was new to paladins, and she literally threw them into training and war, getting angry that they weren't as good and cooperative as she thought they should be.

She's a person with much love to give but some of her feelings blind her at times. Like when she was upset when Keith turned out to be half Galra. Or when she went bananas and lowkey killed Lotor, not giving him any chance to explain himself - and she freaking had romantic feelings for him!

So yeah, even if she has a lot of strong and positive features, she also breaks down, cries, makes irrational decisions, and I LOVE it cause it makes her a relatable character.

Now *inhales* her relationship with Lance. She was never interested in him. NEVER. Through all these seasons, except for the last one. She did not blush once, she did not flirt back, she was not jealous when he was flirting with other girls. She had more significant and intimate moments with Shiro and Keith than with Lance. Then Lotor showed up and it was like an instant connection and chemistry between them. They had similar roots and Altea was what brought them together. Allura was happy in that relationship, she could share something she loved with Lotor because he understood her in a way no other person could. And I could not see a single moment when she regretted getting into that relationship. She did not think of Lance at all. Why should she? She gave Lance many signs she's not interested and their relationship got better since they started to build it on a more platonic foundation.

Buuuuuut sadly, Lotor's sins came out and Allura could not forgive him. Personally I think that this whole situation fucked her up for the rest of the series. I think she was genuinely in love with Lotor and when she'd lost it, it opened up a new chapter called Mourning for her, which continued till her death.

We know Allura is the most vulnerable when she's upset and she tends to make bad and rather selfish decisions then. And that was exactly what happened after Lotor's death. She was sad, lonely and wanted someone to comfort her. Who was out there waiting with opened arms? Our boi Lance.

I'd like to blame her more, but I really can't. Rebounds are never good, but it's easy to understand why people fall into such relationships. It feels better when you get something similar to something precious you've lost. In fact, I think Lance is more at fault here as he was the one who should have set up boundaries in their relationship for his own good.

And as I remember crestors said it was a slowburn. Slowburn my ass 🙃 Allura wasn't slowly developing feelings for Lance. They got closer, yes, but never in a romantic sense. She considered him as a romantic partner only AFTER Lotor died. She tried to trick herself that she was happy with Lance, that he was good for her and cared for her so it was a good relationship. But we all know it's not a true love if you have to convince yourself to that.

Their relationship was just sad. It was built on the fucking corpse of the relationship Allura and Lotor had so it couldn't be good. Allura took as much as she could from Lance 'cause she was upset and Lance was willing to give it to her even if it literally DRAINED HIM. He was MISERABLE the whole season. Tired, upset. Is that how the boy acts when a long time crush finally agrees to try? Not really.

The good relationship should make two people better and stronger. Allura was lying to herself that they work well and eventually decided to leave Lance anyway. At the same time Lance lost his happy side in that relationship and it stayed like that even after she died. She left him her mourning which he accepted, staying on Earth, ditching his dreams of being a pilot. Through all the seasons he tried to prove that he's not some insignificant side character and yet he became a living memorial of the great savior Allura.

To sum it up - I don't think Allura nor Lance were bad. They made mistakes, but it was their relationship that was a total disaster that hurt them both in an awful way.

I could write more but it's already a long post haha, Voltron is such a trigger word for me, you can't imagine 😩 I'm gonna be on my deathbed and I'm still gonna be salty about what they did.

[appleb18]

Cartoons Relationships Are Terrible

Back in the day of cartoons, the romantic subplots were simple and yet very heartwarming to see such as 

Katara and Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Phineas and Isabella from Phineas and Ferb 

But now, modern cartoons are taking romantic subplots into heavier territories that something that some live-action shows would do. While it does sound interesting that making relationships more realistic and complex but the way that has been written in the previous decade is pretty bad. The writers try to make romance relatable to the audience but fail on doing so such as making likable characters to really cringy and awful people, shoving down our throats of how cute it is and having the romantic subplot more focus than the actual plot.

Adventure Time and Regular Show 

So you must be wondering why I put Adventure Time and Regular Show together instead of separate categories. The thing about these two shows is they used to have bad romantic subplots but as the show progresses, they really did it well and I have to say it did better than most cartoons that failed to do which I’ll talk about later. 

For Adventure Time, Finn and Flame Princess broke up in “Frost and Fire” due to him deceiving her by having FP fight Ice King/Simon Petrikov for his amusement

After their break, he tries to rekindle his romantic feelings for Princess Bubblegum and thinks age is just a number in “Too Old”. However, it doesn’t end up too well that she has people to watch over and that’s when he realized that he really did donk up with Flame Princess. 

Although he apologized to FP in “Earth and Fire” to her it didn’t fully restore their relationship and Finn still had romantic feelings for her and Princess Bubblegum. 

Thankfully, Finn matures in later seasons.

Finn realized it’s better for him to be friends with Princess Bubblegum 

He then fully apologized and realized what he has done wrong to Flame Princess and she tells him that he really matured and hang out by playing guess who and rapping in “Bun Bun” 

and Princess Bubblegum, and Marceline. They both finally reconcile at the end of “Varmints” and start to hang out more which develops their relationship from being platonic to romance.

For Regular Show, in “Steak Me Amadeus' ' Mordecai asked Margaret to be his girlfriend and although she would like that, she can’t because she got accepted into college which broke his heart.

It didn’t last when he’s been reunited with CJ in “New Years Kiss”. 

As the show progresses, the two become a couple but then things get complicated when Margret returns. It made things awkward between CJ, Mordecai, and Marget like CJ always gets jealous and runs away when she sees Mordecai and Margret together. 

By the end of season 6, he dumps CJ in front of everyone in Muscle Man's wedding. 

Like Adventure Time, Mordecai and Margret hangout and realized they should stay as friends in “Just Friends” 

While Eileen and Rigby become a couple. 

Now it’s time to talk about other cartoons shows and their romantic subplot problem  

Steven Universe 

Steven Universe relationships can sometimes be well written but most of the time can handle poorly.

Such as Lars and Sadie were starting to develop their relationship in “Joking Victim” however it repeats itself throughout three seasons until the end of season 4 where Lars develops. Then there’s Sadie trapping him and Steven on the island in “Island Adventure” so he won’t have to leave and they don’t resolve and don’t even mention it ever again in later seasons. All they show was Sadie scar and that’s it

In “Steven Universe: Future”, Sadie and Lars didn’t get together and she’s now with Shep and they did it off-screen. So throughout the whole thing with Lars and Sadie, they don’t get together. The show kept teasing it and they might get together in the future but the writers just said screw it, let's have her date a nonbinary while Lars goes on a space adventure. It feels like a waste of seeing those two characters that the show keeps showing them together and not have them become a couple. Unlike SvTFoE, Shep just came out of nowhere with no proper introduction and doesn’t establish they and Sadie's relationship and it’s really bothersome! 

Connie and Steven's relationship was good for the first four seasons. It was really had good chemistry and she was a good partner for him 

then season 5 came in and it kinda got ruins by after Steven escape from Gem Homeworld and coming back to Earth, it starts off with Connie leaving Steven with lion and never to be seen for a month according to “Keven Party”. The Steven and Connie arc was really bad like why was it dragged for five episodes? The whole thing could’ve been resolved in one episode by having them talk about their feelings like how “Mindful Education” and “Full Disclosure” did by they talk about their emotions instead of running away. 

Then in “Gemcation”, Steven the most important thing to him is Connie's relationship than worrying about Lars and the Off Colours' safety. That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve heard in my life and I can’t believe Rebecca and the Crewniverse have written it like that. 

Then there’s Ruby and Sapphire. I’ll be honest, the relationship feels like old Disney love stories like Cinderella, Seven Dwarfs, and Sleeping Beauty and that’s not a compliment. In “The Answer”, after they accidentally fused, they escape and wander Earth that caused them to fall in love which kinda contradicts what Garnet said to Jamie about love, at first sight, isn’t good in “Love Letter”. 

In “Pink Diamond” Arc, the plot came to hold to make room for Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding. 

While it is revolutionary that they show an LGBT wedding live on television but as a narrative standpoint, it feels rushed. The reason for that is after that Blue and Yellow came in after the wedding. They were no build-up or anything, they just came.The reason why they did it so some countries can’t take it down due it the main story which is stupid. It’s nice they represent LGBT but why in the middle of a major story arc, that’s just sloppy. 

Voltron 

So Voltron has a reputation of queerbaiting the audience that Shiro is gay and he has a boyfriend. The writers keep telling us on Twitter that they’ll show his boyfriend in season 7 but when it finally aired. It was terrible 

The first time we saw Adam was a flashback but it was nothing, it was more friendship than romance. 

When he finally shows up in the present he dies. Shiro goes to the memorial and signs than that’s it. 

The writers really made a dumb move of hyping it up but they let us down by having him die. They try to make it up by having Shiro marrying some guy who has a very little screen in the final season. Similar to Regular Show with Mordecai marrying a batgirl but not dumb while Voltron trying to get brownie points for having LGBT rep. 

Lance and Allura were really forced. For six seasons, Allura was never interested in Lance and only saw him as a friend but in season 8, the two confessed their love for each even though there wasn’t any chemistry nor sign that they truly love each other and they insensitively become a couple for one date. I would’ve supported if their relationship was established back in season 2 

The Legend of Korra

The love triangle between was handled so poorly with bad timing, making characters look terrible, making things force and having it engage more than the plot. 

For the first season, there was a love diamond. Bolin liked Korra, Korra likes Mako and Mako liked Asami and those two go out. Korra and Mako kissed which broke Bolin’s heart but he got over it but when Asami finds out when Korra was missing, she gets jealous. I understand that she was concerned about her relationship with Mako but during when Korra, the avatar that is missing while Equalis are on the move? That’s not the right moment to get jealous when Republic City is gonna be under attack but of course, Mako and Asami break and Korra gets in with Mako. 

In season 2, things get worse when the happy couple keep nagging and they break up

Which he tries again with Asami 

After Korra got her memories back but forgot breaking up with Mako, she asked him if it was bad however though he lied and everyone judged him for that dick move, especially Asami who started to have feelings for him again. Thankfully they broke up because that was just an awful way to get someone back by having their mind erased. 

Also, Bolin was with Eska and it was abusive. Forcing him to be her man, changed his whole entire to match with hers and she forced him to marry her. 

What’s worst about it is no one is concerned about him being with her and instead they just laugh like it’s supposed to be funny. Being in an abusive relationship isn’t funny and I hate how the show treats it so. By the end, they just forgot the whole thing that ever happened and moved on with their lives. 

Season 3 and 4 kept the romance to a minimum with Bolin x Opal and Jinora x Kai but there was one romantic relationship that had to happen with no hints or build up and it’s Korra x Asami. By the end of the series, they decided to go to the spirit together while holding hands and having their eyes glazed toward each other and they become a couple. 

While many of you may say that they hinted it since season 3, however, it looks like friendship. Blushing and writing to her isn’t enough to say they have feelings towards each other. That is what best friends do too. The creators even have to confirm that they are a couple and the comics showing their love while it’s nice and all but it would’ve been a lot better to show it either on streaming service or live television than buying volumes to see more of their pairing, it’s balderdash. Now it’s time to talk about a cartoon that has one of the worst romance I’ve ever seen in my entire life of watching shows. 

Star vs The Forces of Evil

Star vs The Forces of Evil has one of the WORST romantic subplots I’ve ever watched, it is even worse than CW’s Arrowverse romance and that’s saying something. The romantic subplot makes Star and Marco look like terrible people that only care about each other more than other characters. 

Jarco 

Out of all ships in SvTFoE, Jarco has the most establishment than most others. Marco liked Jackie when he was little and it was bound to happen that those two will date. Ever since season 1, the relationship has been growing to platonic to a romantic couple in season 2. 

Their chemistry together worked well but then “Sophomore Slump”. When Marco finally went back to Earth, he was obsessed with Mewni and Star and he won’t stop talking about and he still wears the cape. When Jackie told him to stop obsessing over Mewni which he tries to do but it got the better to him by he still wears the cape when he was on his date with Jackie. It’s really BS when Marco said to Jackie “You’re my best friend” which ruined everything that it established since season 1 and this, of course, caused them to break up.

 Then he left Earth to go to Mewni the day after their break up. It’s a real shame that building up their relationship and giving Jacie character got shoved aside for Starco. Although she returns and meets up with him again I can’t help feeling that it just for fan service and being inclusive for Jackie being Bi

Tomstar 

Before the show started, Star and Tom were a couple but broke up due to him getting angry very easily and he wanted her back for the past two seasons luckily he stopped trying in “Mr. Candles Cares”. Their relationship becomes healthier when Tom gives Star space and that causes them to get back together and not have feelings for Marco anymore.

 Tom went through a lot of development for Star and it was a Mewni x Monster romance which is similar to Eclipsa and Globglor and it fits season 3. After rewatching it, it was pretty good. However, like Jarco, it was doomed from the start due to fans wanting Starco to be canon even though Tomstar was getting good. Also, Star was a terrible girlfriend to him. 

Star never told him she kissed him, Marco did and when Tom confronted her about it, she got mad and tried to walk away. 

She mistreats him by nagging somethings, blowing on his face and angrily ask translate

She declined on going on a vacation with him so she can be with Marco.

Even his mom was afraid that she might break his heart again and her response “Everybody breaks up. That’s what teenagers do! Teenagers are dumb”. He went through so much development, changed his character and gave her so much but she never returned the favor. What an awful girlfriend 

Kellco

With Tom and Star getting together (for now) it left Marco feels devastated that she’s dating someone and can’t get rid of his feelings for her while Kelly doesn’t want to be with Tad which she broke up with him. They both have something in common and start to hangout and their relationship has developed throughout season 3 and he’s with her more than Star. 

They became officially a couple as “breakup buddies” in “Kelly’s World” and it also when they did a perfect synchronization between two partners. 

So they’re pretty much a good pair but everything changed when the episode “A Boy and His DC-700XE” and did an off-screen break up. I don’t care who or what you write but never, ever a major plot point or character development offscreen. Kelly finds happiness when she leaves Tad but they break up with no explanation. It was glossed over like for five seconds and Marco doesn’t even care about their break up, what an a*hole. 

This relationship feels like a real waste of time and serves nothing to the plot nor character development, it was just there to waste time.

Starco

Before I talk about Starco, I used to ship it and I thought they were enjoyable characters. They would've worked in a relationship if things were written better and would have been the next Phineas and Isabella but sadly the writers messed up probably the easiest romance to write. 

Season 1, Star and Marco became best friends. Although there weren't many romantic moments they still look pretty good together 

Season 2, As Star was happy for Marco that she’s finally dating Jackie, the girl he has had a crush on since preschool,

 on the other hand, she started to have feelings for him and she has trouble expressing it. 

In season 3, Marco started to have feelings for Star which caused him and Jackie to break up. Star told him that he wants nothing to do with him romantically in “Lint Catcher” and Tad told him that he does have feelings for her in “Lava Lake Beach” and he wasn't happy to find out about it at all. Then in Booth Buddies, they were held hostage by some freak until they kiss and they were completely in denial about having feelings for each other

Then season 4 is when Starco becomes really sour. Star and Marco always keep saying that they don’t want to have feelings for each other and yet the writers have several episodes before the end of the series

. They never showed any romantic interest until “Mama Star” where he confessed his feelings to her and then they kissed in the second last episode. By the finale, instead of either of them going back to their dimensions they went back to the World of Magic and held each other. It would’ve been more meaningful if they got together before the end of the  show. 

It’s very odd that they risk their lives for a relationship that just started. However, for some miracle, both of their worlds collide and become one with no explanation of what so ever. 

Starco could’ve been a lovely ship but the writers have to keep messing around with it till the very end. 

Conclusion 

Whenever a show presents a romance, I don’t mind as long it either fits with the narrative of the story it be fun but 2010s romantic subplots have been written very terribly by having it the main focus but sacrifice pacing and quality of the story, forcing characters to become a couple without establishing it enough in the show, and having characters go off for the sake of drama. Romantic stories can be simple and cute like Kim x Ron from Kim Possible, Suki x Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Starfire x Robin from Teen Titans and that’s all right. I do hope that this generation will fix what the previous decade of cartoons has failed to do. 

[fangirlauthor]

vld season 8 [SPOILERS]

Okay, so these are my thoughts on voltron season eight and a little bit on voltron in general. I’m not here to hate on canon, or the voice actors, or the writers, or hate on anyone, really; they’re just my opinions. If you haven’t seen season 8 or don’t want spoilers or don’t want to read my opinions, stop here. 

I’m going to split my thoughts into sections, so here goes. Sorry this isn’t lok themed, I promise I’m still writing things for lok, but I guess I’ll be writing things for other fandoms now as well; my brain can be kind of erratic, so what I’m writing depends on what I’ve been doing recently. 

Also, if you have different opinions or thoughts or anything you want to ask about my opinions on Voltron, feel free to send me an ask. 

Characters

Hunk - Honestly, I thought he was pretty cool. I liked his ending mostly, and how he got to continue to do the things he loves while spreading peace and promoting cooperation between people and using his cooking to accent that. I also don’t have any particular headcanons or anything for him as of right now, but maybe in the future. 

Pidge/Katie Holt - I didn’t have any problems with Pidge’s ending either, I actually kinda liked it, and headcanons... she definitely pursues a career in a STEM field, and I think she goes on to do super cool science things I wouldn’t understand. 

Shiro - I didn’t hate his ending as well, I do wish they hadn’t killed Adam though, so maybe I’ll pretend he’s alive somewhere. I dunno. I’m really glad they made him happy, and let him finally find peace. I kinda have a headcanon that he’ll run a space orphanage or something that works with the Blade of Marmora humanitarian relief thing or whatever they are now. I hope he gets to take all the naps he needs.

Keith - I also liked his ending a fair amount, I think it’s cool that he’ll get to help people and I think that it’s in alignment with his character arc from what I can tell. He went from suffering to helping make sure no one else does, and that can a difficult jump to make, from what I understand. 

Lance - Okay, so this is a hot topic. Honestly, I don’t agree with him being a farmer forever; I think at some point he’s going to start to heal and grow again and that he’ll start travelling the galaxy. Maybe he’ll continue to teach about Allura, but in different places and in different ways, all across the galaxy, like I said. Maybe, at some point, he’ll discover that happiness doesn’t have to be something to remember, but that it can be something to discover once again, even if it’s different then before. At some point, he’s going to continue to grow and spread light and love and maybe even find his own. 

He could have definitely had more character development in the show, instead of them spending the last season focusing on changes due to romance rather than other forces (or even the effects those romantic feelings had on him after could have been handled better). That’s why, in case this wasn’t clear the first time I said it, I think that he’s going to go around the galaxy, maybe even with Keith and the Blades, to teach not only about Allura but about other heroes, about missions he’s been on and the things he’s learned from war. I don’t think he’s going to be a farmer forever, but I think that some time to rest before he gathers the courage to start growing as a person again will help him/is necessary. 

Allura - Okay, I’m going to say right off the bat that I don’t think she should have died. I do like that she was designed as a strong, brave character who makes her own decisions. Yeah, I really don’t like that she died and I don’t think she should have, but she did, so yeah. I think that she was smart enough to find another solution and that her death was unnecessary, like I’ve said, but I respect that her sacrifice was on par with her character/character traits/personal values. I’ve got some other things to say in a minute, but we’ll get to that. 

As a group, after the show ended - I definitely think they saw each other more than once a year, and that they all still treated each other like the family they claimed to be during battles. Bonds made in war are hard to break, and theirs is most certainly unbreakable. They’ll be a team for their lifetime, even if their jobs take them to different places for a time. 

Ships

Okay, so this is also a hot topic from what I can tell. I’ve gotta say I don’t a) ship Pidge with anyone and b) I’m not here to hate on any ships unless they’re legitimately abusive or wrong in the manner of, y’know, pedophilia and such. 

Allurance - I don’t hate this ship, and I don’t hate it being canon. I don’t actively ship it and I don’t think that, even if Allura had lived, they would have been endgame anyway. I do disagree with people who say that they don’t have any chemistry at all, because I think they have at least some. I definitely don’t ship it as an endgame ship, but I think they were/could’ve been great friends. I do feel like it was a little forced in the beginning, and I feel like it sends a slightly negative message about men being overly persistent after a woman says no and negates Allura’s individual strength a little bit. I do think that if it had been done slightly different, it would have seemed less like Allura was guilt-tripped or practically coerced into the relationship and could have shown that people don’t need a significant other to make them whole because people are their own, whole person; it could have shown that bonds between people make two whole people stronger, in a sense, with both people respecting that the other person is their own person and makes their own choices/has their own opinions. (As long as those opinions aren’t harmful to the other person or to other people.)

Klance - Okay, so if you couldn’t tell, I ship klance. I personally think they have a lot of chemistry, especially in some scenes, and I think that (in accordance with my Lance headcanon) that they’ll eventually start working together in humanitarian relief efforts/teaching trips and either end up together or even just be friends. I think they have a great relationship either way, and that they support each other really well; Lance being Keith’s impulse control guy and Keith being Lance’s confidence. Like I said, they definitely have great chemistry but as long as they end up working together some way and benefit each other, I’m good if they stay friends. 

Shay and Hunk - Is there a ship name for this? I haven’t seen one, but I might’ve missed it. Anyway, I think their relationship is pretty sweet and I don’t ship it aggressively but I really do think they’re cute. 

Shiro and Curtis - I think they’re cute as well, I’m glad Shiro’s happy and hopefully he gets lots of time to rest while still helping others.  I do miss Adam and I’m sad he’s dead; I’m also cool with a ship with Shiro in a relationship with both of them or all three of them in a relationship with each other. I’m sad we didn’t get to see Curtis and Shiro interact with each other before the wedding, but again I’m trying not to be salty even though I don’t like that we never got to see a dynamic between the two. 

The Ending

Okay, I’m a little confused on what happened at the end. I’m pretty sure that the lions are circling the planet, minus the blue lion which is not, but I can’t tell. It is a little bittersweet to me that they don’t still pilot the lions, but I understand that things have to come to an end for other things to take place. Still bittersweet though. 

Overall

Overall, I’ve gotta say I didn’t hate it. There were a few things I would have preferred to be canon (like klance or better character development for some characters) or preferred not to be canon (Allura dying) but I came in with low expectations so it kept me fairly entertained. Like I said, not here to hate on anything just my opinions. 

So that’s all I can think of right now, I might talk about my thoughts on Lotor later, maybe on lotor x allura as well, but I’m running out of time so that’s all for today. Also, sorry for the long post.

[yellowmechanicalcat]

fic: Take It Easy (plance, gen)

what up guys have a non-queued post! This fic takes place after Chapter 3 of Waiting, Wishing but can be read as a standalone. Set sometime between Seasons 3 and 4, it features one-sided (...for now) Pidge/Lance, platonic Kidge, dubious skincare techniques, and awkward bonding experiences, but everything turns out okay. 

Summary:

Lance flashes finger guns at her and jogs off, leaving her standing in the middle of the corridor in her dust-covered armor, beads of sweat dripping down her face, trying to figure out what she’s gotten herself into. Oh, right. The conversation at breakfast the other day. The face goo. She’d agreed to try it.

Which means, apart from the weirdness of putting the substance she regularly consumes for nutrition on her face, that it’ll be the two of them. Making conversation, the way she’s tried her best to avoid ever since their little heart-to-heart on Olkarion. And it’s fine. She can do it.

Find it on AO3 or below the cut.

Take It Easy

Allura clears her throat with just enough authority that the team automatically turns towards her as she leans across the table and gently but firmly places a hand on Lance’s arm.

“Lance, what is wrong with your face?” the princess asks.

Simultaneously, they all stare at Lance as he guiltily looks up from his breakfast goo and – yeah, okay, Lance’s skin is practically sparkling, which is definitely not normal.

“N— Nothing’s wrong with it!” Lance sputters, flushing red. Somehow, blushing only makes his skin shimmer more brightly. It’s like he’d morphed into a human disco ball overnight. “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Keith says from the end of the table, letting his spork clatter into his empty bowl. “You look like you rolled around in glitter. Like a chinchilla, or something.”

Shiro looks faintly alarmed at the prospect of Lance having somehow located enough glitter to do so. He sneaks a side-eyed glance at Pidge and quirks an eyebrow, like he wants to find out whether she knows anything about it but isn’t brave enough to actually ask. Pidge just shrugs, because she definitely doesn’t keep track of all the weird things Lance does in his free time, thank you, Shiro.

“You’re a chinchilla,” Lance grumbles half-heartedly.

Keith rolls his eyes at him but Lance doesn’t notice. He’s too distracted by the fact that Allura’s hand is still resting on his arm. This is the longest they’ve ever touched outside of training in probably ever, give or take a few doboshes.

“Do you mean you did this to your face on purpose?” Allura clarifies. In his dazed state, it takes him a moment to process what she’s actually asking, but Lance eventually nods. Satisfied, Allura pats his arm and returns to her breakfast.

“That’s fine, then. I thought you might have contracted a Glass Virus,” she says cheerfully. “That’s when the skin on your face slowly cracks open because the layers underneath have solidified. It looks a bit like glass before everything starts to, ah, leak.”

Shiro finally finds his voice. “Allura, that’s awful.” Allura shrugs. “No worse than your— what do you call them? ‘Pimples.’” “Not that I don’t love learning about gross alien diseases while eating, but I’d like to know why Lance is sparkly,” Hunk interrupts.

Lance groans. The blush is starting to fade but he’s still obviously flustered. “It’s not a big deal. I was trying out a new face mask last night, it’s probably just some residue or something. But it worked great, check this out!”

Expectantly, Lance angles his face towards Hunk and waits until he reaches over and pats his cheek, his skeptical expression giving way to awe. “Whoa, smooth.”

“I know, right?” Lance says smugly. “I grabbed some of the junk you and Pidge brought back from that rando market you found last week, the one that’s kind of like cinnamon?”

Hunk frowns. “What junk— wait, that brown powder? Lance, I got that for eating! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find spices that are actually edible?” “Calm your pants, I didn’t take that much. Anyway, the one I used was more yellow-ish–”

They’ve all gotten used to seeing Lance walk around the Castle with a blend of Altean goo slathered on his face. He’d grilled Coran about its nutrients long enough to conclude it’d be just as good for the outside of a body as it was for the inside. Incorporating secondary ingredients into his face masks is new, although from his impromptu speech about Altean food goo’s seemingly extended-release hydrating properties, he’s clearly put a lot of thought into it. For someone who frequently claims to have slept through every single one of his science classes, Lance understands a lot more chemistry than he thinks he does.

“I still can’t believe you were willing to put all that stuff on your face,” Pidge says once Lance has finished.

“Don’t knock it ’til you try it,” Lance sniffs. He shoves a sporkful of food goo into his mouth.

And Pidge, much to her own surprise, says, “Fine.”

Lance looks up at her with suspicion. “Fine? What doesh ‘fine’ mean?” he says through a mouthful of goo. “It means I’ll try it.”

The room goes awkwardly silent for a moment as the others pretend they aren’t all staring at them. Pidge makes sure to keep her expression perfectly neutral, even though she’s dying inside because she knows that any moment someone’s going to make a big deal out of it.

Lance swallows, considers it, then nods. “Okay, cool.”

And… that’s it. Everyone starts talking again and breakfast goes on, like nothing unusual had happened.

-

Voltron’s sent to a volcanic planet to scout out a Galra base that is less of a base and more of a campground. The place appears long abandoned. Allura attempts to put a positive spin on it by pointing out that at least they’ve discovered a planet the Galra are not currently occupying, but even that doesn’t do much to raise morale. The air is full of ash and everything is bone-dry. Their helmets filter out most of it, but not enough. By they time they get back to the Castle, they all feel like their mouths are full of dirt and dust.

Lance loudly announces to the team that his skin is in need of some serious downtime after being exposed to such harsh conditions and leaves first, ostensibly to go back to his quarters for said downtime. Pidge ends up trailing behind him because there’s really only one way back, although she tries to maintain enough distance that it won’t seem like she’s following him, because she isn’t– and just for the record, she’s getting very tired of having to put so much thought into every single one of their interactions.

Lance looks back at her and she stops in her tracks. “Oh, hey, you still in?”

She isn’t sure how to respond to that, so she nods. Lance’s face lights up with excitement.

“Sweet! We’ll have a mini spa day, it’ll be fun. Meet me in the kitchen in a varga!”

He flashes finger guns at her and jogs off, leaving her standing in the middle of the corridor in her dust-covered armor, beads of sweat dripping down her face, trying to figure out what she’s gotten herself into.

Oh, right. The conversation at breakfast the other day. The face goo. She’d agreed to try it.

Which means, apart from the weirdness of putting the substance she regularly consumes for nutrition on her face, that it’ll be the two of them. Making conversation, the way she’s tried her best to avoid ever since their little heart-to-heart on Olkarion. And it’s fine. She can do it.

-

She can’t do it.

-

“‘Nooooo, Pidge, you are definitely overthinking it. Seriously, this is all we ever talk about anymore! Can you please just put a lid on your emotions instead of letting them ooze all over the place?’ …I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what he’d say. And that’s why I can’t ask Hunk,” Pidge concludes, switching back to her normal voice as she peers around her trash sculpture of Hunk.

Her audience, nestled in junk-Shiro’s hair, is not impressed. The blue space caterpillar chirps.

Pidge frowns down at them. “Excuse you, my impressions are great.”

She flops onto her back and stares up at the ceiling, cataloguing her options. She can’t think of a good reason to cancel on Lance that wouldn’t make him suspicious and she’s running out of choices to ask for backup. She’s already ruled out Hunk, and she’s not sure about asking Allura or Shiro–

That’s when it hits her. Well, technically, her sweatshirt hits her, right in the face, because the caterpillars have just dropped it on her, but it coincides with figuring out the solution. She pulls her sweatshirt over her undersuit and shoves her feet into her boots, because being half-changed is as good as it’s going to get.

“Thanks for your help, guys!” she tells the caterpillars, hurrying out of her room.

-

Pidge catches Keith in the hallway. ‘Catches’ is not an exaggeration because she actually latches onto his arm to make sure he doesn’t get away. It’s taken her nearly half a varga to track him down, and she’s nearly out of time.

He looks down at her, clearly startled, and still in his paladin armor. “Uh, what’s up?”

She levels him with a hard stare. “You owe me.”

He doesn’t get what she’s talking about right away, but embarrassment is contagious. She figures if she keeps staring at him long enough, he’ll eventually remember what she’s talking about and she won’t have to rehash the whole awkward event.

It works.

Keith’s eyes widen before his face settles into a mildly pained expression. It sort of reminds her of the time they’d guessed his birthday and gotten Shiro to confirm it and spontaneously decided to celebrate at dinner. Coran had made them all wear silly hats he’d dug out of some storage cube because he remembered hearing about Earth traditions and party hats and he’d forced Keith into wearing the most ridiculous one. Once he’d realized there was no escape, Keith had sat through dinner with that exact same expression.

“… okay, and?” says Keith.

“And I’m cashing in. So I told Lance I’d try his face mask thing, right, and he invited me to do a spa day but there’s no way I can do it alone because things have been so weird since Olkarion but if I bail it’ll make it worse, and that’s why I need you to come with me.”

It’s more information than Keith probably needed and he has to close his eyes as he processes everything. She watches as he takes a deep breath, muttering something under his breath that sounds a lot like ‘patience’, then opens his eyes again.

“This isn’t really a good time, Pidge. I’m leaving for a mission with the Blades first thing tomorrow and I have a lot to do before I go–”

If there was anything that would convince her to back down, the reminder that sometimes Keith left their team for another one was definitely not it. She tightens her grip on his arm.

“Don’t worry. This won’t take long, I promise,” Pidge lies, tugging him in the direction of the kitchen.

-

Lance had changed back into his civilian clothes. His eyebrows raise questioningly when he sees Keith trailing behind Pidge, and the boys’ eyes meet as silently, Keith dares him to say something, anything, just to pick a fight and give him an out–

Until Pidge slugs him in the arm, breaking his focus.

“Keith was just telling me how he’d been dying to try this stuff too, weren’t you, buddy?” she says blithely. “So I brought him along. Hope that’s okay, Lance.”

Lance looks skeptical but shrugs. “Sure, I should have enough. Let me grab another cup.”

Keith glares daggers at Pidge the moment Lance turns his back to them. She smiles sweetly at him in response.

Lance’s spa day supplies are lined up on the counter, covered by a blanket. Before they begin he makes them swear they won’t reveal his Top Secret methods to anyone. This is apparently something he genuinely worries about, because, as he tells them with the utmost seriousness, what they are about to experience will change their lives forever.

Pidge thinks this is dumb, and tells him so. “Seriously, who would we even tell?”

“Just swear!” Lance insists, scowling.

Keith huffs impatiently. “Fine,” he says, clapping one hand over Pidge’s mouth before she can say anything else and raising the other hand in an approximation of a Scouting salute. “We swear.”

Lance waits until she, too, raises her hand in an actual three-fingered salute, but seems satisfied. “A little sloppy, but I’ll allow it.”

Pidge tilts her head up slightly and blinks up at Keith. “Lemme go or I’ll bite you,” she says through Keith’s hand. Keith releases her in a hurry.

Lance pulls the blanket off with dramatic flourish and animatedly gestures to the setup on the counter. “Okey-dokey, here we go! Just three easy steps for guaranteed results: Steam, scrub, and soothe. Nothing to it!”

There’s a covered basket, the corner of a towel peeking out; a tea kettle and cups; a couple small containers, one of which contains something that like goo; and two short Puigian scarves that Lance holds out to them.

“You and Keith can use them,” Pidge says.

Lance looks doubtful. “You sure?”

Pidge quirks an eyebrow at him, a wordless reminder that she specializes in finding solutions to the most challenging situations, and this is far from challenging. Who does he think he is to question her ingenuity?

Lance’s mouth twists wryly in response, but he offers one scarf to Keith, who just stares at it.

“Why do I even need this?”

“Watch and learn,” Pidge says grandly. She pushes her bangs back with one hand then slides her glasses up to rest on top of her head. Matt’s old glasses are surprisingly sturdy. This isn’t the first time she’s used them as a makeshift headband.

“That works,” Lance says, looking impressed as he knots the other scarf behind his head.

Reluctantly, Keith copies him. “This is weird,” he mumbles.

Pidge goes to stomp on his foot, but Keith slides both his feet out of the way before she can reach with her unfortunately shorter legs. Lance notices their scuffle, glancing from Pidge to Keith.

“For someone who ‘really wanted’ to try this you sure are unenthusiastic about the process, dude,” Lance says dryly.

“Not unenthusiastic, just tired,” Keith says, poker-faced. It’s hard to argue with that, considering the morning they’d had, so Lance drops it.

They pull out the multipurpose chairs from under the counter, unfolding the legs, and settle in; they’re more like stools than real chairs, but their low backs made it safe to tilt back without collapsing.

The covered basket turns out to hold heated cloths. Lance instructs them to drape a cloth over their faces, something about preparing their skin for cleansing by steaming away ‘toxins’, a term he seems to believe is defined as ‘gross space dirt’.

But Pidge can’t even bring herself to argue with him right now because Lance’s cloth trick is magic. She can feel her sinuses clearing as pressure lifts from her head; she hadn’t realized just how much the dust had affected her. She makes a happy little noise of contentment, settling into her chair.

“This actually isn’t so bad,” Keith says in mild surprise, voice muffled under the cloth.

“Yeah, well, that’s kind of the whole point,” Lance sniffs. “Skincare: it’s actually not so bad.”

“Shut up,” Keith says amicably, leaning further back in his chair so he can prop his feet up on the edge of the counter.

They sit there until the cloths on their faces start to cool. Then they all have hot tea, because apparently they need to steam the toxins out of their insides, too. Lance fusses about the amount of sweetener Pidge puts in her tea because it isn’t healthy or something and before Pidge can argue that space sugar doesn’t count, Keith points out it isn’t even real sugar so it’s probably fine. Lance complains about the two of them ganging up on him, but she can tell he isn’t actually that upset about it, so she sneaks some more sweetener into his tea when he’s not looking.

Once they’re mostly done with their tea, Lance pulls out a small container, twisting off the lid to reveal something similar to glue, or maybe wax.

“This is for exfoliating. Just, uh, don’t ask me what it is, Coran explained it to me and it made my head hurt,” Lance says. He smears some on his forehead and around his nose. “Anyway, you wait about thirty ticks and then peel it off. It works great on blackheads.”

He demonstrates, holding out the used strip as proof. Keith declines to look, but Pidge leans in closer. Whatever the exfoliant is made of is definitely effective.

“Gross,” Pidge says appreciatively. Lance beams at her.

She dips her hand into the adhesive and manages to cover half of Keith’s nose before he squirms away, baring his teeth at her like a cat in a bath. He sulks his way through the thirty ticks, at which point Lance has to help Keith peel the stuff off his nose because Keith apparently can’t manage it on his own and Keith nearly punches him when Lance tells him not to be such a baby before Pidge intervenes.

In the end it takes all three of them to get the exfoliant up because it turns out that Keith really wasn’t joking about it not coming off.

“Are you crying?” Lance says incredulously, eyes wide.

“No,” Keith snaps, hands protectively cupped around his nose.

Pidge takes it upon herself to settle with science whether the exfoliant was really that awful or if Lance was bizarrely immune to its effects. She dabs some onto the sore spot on her chin as the boys watch closely and peels it off with the same results Lance had. Bonus: one less zit.

Lance grudgingly concludes that he should probably test his skincare routine efficacy more thoroughly before trying to patent it. Keith is overwhelmed by the idea of Lance ever patenting anything. While they bicker, Pidge seizes the opportunity to examine the exfoliant, having noticed that the jar actually has two separate compartments and that Lance had only opened the lower one.

She twists open the top lid and peers inside, but she doesn’t see much before the lid slams shut as Lance unceremoniously plucks the jar from her hands. “Nope, nuh-uh, bad idea.”

“Why?”

“Told you, it’s Coran’s, and you really don’t want to know any more. Trust me.”

It’s probably the worst thing he could have said, because even if Pidge wasn’t already curious, it pushes Keith’s suspicion to an all-time high.

“Let me see that.” Keith grabs the jar from Lance, ignoring his indignant yelp of protest. He twists open the lid just enough for something to tentatively wiggle its way out before hastily pulling back as Keith slams the lid back down.

“It’s alive!” he chokes out.

Exasperated, Lance throws his hands in the air. “I tried to warn you!”

-

Finally, Lance unveils his piece de resistance. His latest concoction of face mask goo is a muted lavender color instead of the familiar green. He pushes the bowl towards them and tells them to cover their faces, demonstrating proper technique on his own. Dubiously, they copy him until their faces are all not-quite-Galra purple.

“Now what happens?” Keith asks, mask applied.

“Now we wait,” Lance says, reaching for the kitchen timer and setting it. “Twenty doboshes, then you rinse it off. I usually listen to music but I only have the one set of headphones.”

“Imagine that,” Pidge says dryly, because he seems to have forgotten that they’re her headphones and at some point she does expect to get them back.

Lance ignores her. “So. Ideas, anyone?”

Much to their surprise, Keith does. “We could play that game.”

The game is a slightly more competitive variation of Twenty Questions mixed with Rock, Paper, Scissors. The rules are simple: Everyone has to answer, and more rules can be added at any time. None of them remember who’d come up with the game in the first place, but it’s ended up being both a good way to kill time and a much less invasive bonding experience than the Altean mind-meld gear. They haven’t been able to settle on a points system yet, so no one’s ever officially won.

Pidge and Keith shoot for the category, her rock crushing Keith’s scissors. She ends up going with ‘favorite things’, even though it’s kind of a cop out choice because it’s so vague.

She and Lance shoot next; paper covers rock, Lance wins. He does a drumroll on the table.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the first topic of the evening iiiiis: Halloween candy!” he announces with entirely too much enthusiasm.

Keith looks confused. “Didn’t we do this one already the other day, with Hunk?”

“Nah, that was… food, I think? Favorite foods? Totally different concept.”

Keith shakes his head. “I don’t get why people are so into Halloween. It just seems so– so over-commercialized.”

“Maybe because it’s fun, you weirdo? Also, free candy. Anyway, you’re up, Pidge, loser answers first,” Lance decides arbitrarily. He nudges her with his elbow, which wouldn’t have been a problem if Pidge wasn’t also downing the last of her tea.

“Really, Lance?” she chokes out, coughing furiously.

Lance thumps her back sympathetically. It doesn’t help. “My bad.”

They wait for her to finish hacking up her lungs before continuing with the game. Admittedly, it is not her finest hour. Then again, they’re all sitting around the kitchen with food goo smeared on their faces, so at least she’s in good company.

She clears her throat. “Um, I like peanut butter cups. Matt and I used to fight over who’d gotten more whenever we went trick or treating and I usually ended up stealing his.”

“Same for me,” Lance says cheerfully. “Lucky for me, no one else in my family liked them that much, so I never had to fight for them. Remind me never to go trick or treating with you. Keith?”

“Sour gummy worms,” Keith says, without elaborating. “Point of order, are we shooting for every topic?”

‘Point of order,’ Pidge repeats, silently mouthing the words, because trust Keith to be extra-formal with what is the world’s least formal game.

Lance bares his teeth in a fierce grin. With the face mask, the effect is slightly terrifying. “Bring it.”

The boys shoot. Keith’s scissors win.

“Favorite pet,” Keith decides. “Or pets, I don’t care. Go.”

Pidge zones out as Lance continues to ramble about a giant goldfish he had when he was nine years old and wonders whether she should pick the space caterpillars. She’s not sure they count as pets, though; they’re self-sufficient enough that they’re more like freeloading alien roommates.

Lance still hasn’t settled on his answer by the time she tunes back in. “—although we already had a turtle and two finches and sometimes a cat by the time I was born and they were all pretty cool, so I’m torn–”

“Wait, how do you ‘sometimes’ have a cat?” Pidge interrupts, frowning.

“Julio was his own man, he liked to do his own thing. Kind of like Keith, actually,” Lance adds unnecessarily, much to Keith’s displeasure. “Anyway, Julio visited lots of people around town. I’m pretty sure we were his favorite family because my sisters gave him cans of tuna.”

“So he wasn’t actually your cat, he was just a stray,” Pidge clarifies. “That shouldn’t count as a pet.”

To their surprise, Keith disagrees. “Actually, I think it should. We had a cat like that too. Technically it had us, I guess, because it’d been living out back before we moved in. Ours was just called Cat, though. He’d have been my pick.”

Lance looks faintly impressed by Keith sticking up for him. “Gotta say, I never would have pegged you for a cat person.”

“We fly giant robot lions. I think that makes us all cat people,” Keith deadpans, much to Pidge’s delight. She offers him a high five that he returns after a split second of hesitation, while Lance loudly groans at the pun.

Pidge turns her attention back to Lance. “I know I’m going to regret asking, but what actually happened to your goldfish?”

Lance heaves an overly-dramatic sigh, putting a hand to his forehead in an obvious pantomime of Tragedy. “My sister Rachel fed him to Julio when we were out of tuna fish. Anyway, now that I’ve shared my tale of woe with you all, it’s Pidge’s turn.”

“Well, we have a dog, so I guess it should be her…” Pidge trails off when she realizes with a sudden pang that there’s no way to know if Bae Bae is even alive anymore and tries her best to ignore the thought. “…but I’m going to have to say that Kaltenecker’s my favorite.”

Lance’s face falls. “I should have said Kaltenecker! Can I change my answer?”

“Too late,” Pidge says smugly as she and Keith face off again.

Keith wins once more, this time playing paper to her rock instead of scissors, and grimaces as he realizes he’s stuck picking the topic once again. “Uh… movies?”

Lance leans forward, already on the edge of his seat with anticipation, and Pidge rolls her eyes at him because she’s pretty sure she already knows what movie Lance is going to pick.

“…that don’t have a sequel,” Keith adds at the last moment, which means Pidge’s selection is also null. Her face falls.

“What? No!” Lance complains, slamming back in his chair. “That’s hard!”

“What about remakes?” Pidge asks anxiously. “Do remakes count?”

Keith lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Sure, remakes are fine.”

“Yessss,” Pidge and Lance say in unison.

“Team Remakes!” Lance crows, holding his hand up for a high five. It’s ridiculous, but she slaps her hand against his anyway.

“Team Remakes!”

-

The Castle alarms go off before they can finish. “Galra cruisers spotted near the Balmera. They’re moving into attack formation, the Balmerans need us to head them off while they prepare their defenses,” Shiro announces over the Castle’s comms. “Everyone to your Lions! Wormhole opening in ten doboshes.” Keith’s yanked off his headscarf and is already halfway to the door by the time Shiro’s done talking, face mask and all. “On our way, Shiro.” “Hold up!” Lance hollers at him. “At least wipe the mask off, you’ll get your helmet all messy—” Keith pauses and turns, holding out a hand to catch the towel Lance is already throwing to him before Lance is even fully in his line of sight. Their motions are perfectly synced. It’s kind of impressive. “Thanks. See you guys out there.”

Lance passes Pidge another towel as he pats at his own face. “Remember to wash your face when we get back, okay? That way you’ll at least get something out of it.” She nods, face already half-buried in her towel, and rushes back to her room to collect her armor, grimacing when she remembers she hadn’t fully cleaned it after that morning’s mission, but there’s nothing she can do about it now.

By the time she gets to the Bridge, her face is mostly clear of goo. She jams her helmet on on the way, leaving the visor flipped up. The others have all reported in as en route to their Lions – all except Lance, who’s standing by the doors with his helmet tucked under his arm, like he’s waiting for something.

Or someone?

His eyebrows raise when he sees her and he taps his cheek. “Hey, you missed a spot.”

“So did you,” Pidge points out, looking up at him.

“Hold still.”

Lance reaches out and catches her chin to swipe at her face, his thumb gently brushing her cheek before he lets go. It’d be an intimate gesture, under different circumstances, and Pidge isn’t entirely comfortable with how frequently she’s thought about what that might be like.

Her hands are already moving before she realizes it and she carefully brushes a smear from his nose. She can’t help grinning when he goes crosseyed to try to see what she’s doing.

“Much better,” she teases, poking the tip of his nose.

It isn’t actually much better. Their faces may be slightly cleaner, but now they’ve both got purple goop on their hands and it’s going to get on their gloves.

An unreadable expression flickers across Lance’s face and his shoulders drop forwards. “Look, Pidge, I don’t know how to say this…”

Seeing him so serious wipes the grin from her face and makes her stomach clench. Her emotions are oozing again, and her mental version of Hunk is displeased.

“Can it wait? We really need to get going.”

“I know, I know, just give me a tick,” Lance says. He reaches up, scratches the back of his head with his free hand. “I wanted to tell you that I had fun hanging out with you today. We usually end up doing stuff you like, but this was the first time you actually wanted to try something that I’m into. And that was cool. So… yeah. Thanks for that.”

He flashes her a small smile and heads inside before she has a chance to process what had just happened.

Then Coran’s voice is in her ear reminding her to get a move on, wormhole opens in one dobosh, and soon all her attention turns to the fight.

-

Pidge heads up to the Bridge for debriefing, Keith’s quick footsteps echoing half a step behind her. They aren’t the first ones back; Hunk’s already deep in discussion with Shiro about how many consecutive layers of metal the Yellow Lion’s armored claws could cut through while Coran checks in with the Balmerans. Pidge removes her helmet, shaking out her sweat-damp hair.

Hunk’s back is to the doors, so Shiro spots them first. He nods in greeting, then squints at them.

“What happened to you two?” he asks suspiciously, which is a bizarre question from someone who’d observed the entire fight.

“Shiro?” Keith says questioningly.

Shiro holds up a hand to stop him. There's a funny expression on his face. “Actually, never mind. I think I’m going to let Hunk handle this one.”

Shiro claps a hand on Hunk’s shoulder before striding off to join Coran at his station. Hunk turns around, clearly perturbed by his sudden responsibility.

“That was weird,” Pidge comments. Keith grunts in agreement.

Also weird: Hunk is staring at them.

“Did you know that you both have a little bit of, uh, something? On your faces? It’s red,” Hunk informs them. “Oh! Not like blood or anything, it’s more of a… marinara sauce kind of red? Or maybe more like a sunburn? Hang on, let me pull up a feed real quick.”

Hunk helpfully activates the camera in his gauntlet and aims it at them so they can see themselves.

There’s a moment of silence.

Finally, Keith speaks up. “I have no idea what this is.”

Keith looks like someone shoved a very runny cherry pie in his face. Pidge’s face is mostly solid red, except for a curved line running down her cheek that’s about the size of someone’s thumb. It hadn’t been visible through their helmets’ visors, but there was no mistaking it now.

“I do,” Pidge says grimly. “It’s Lance’s face mask. There must have been a dye in whatever he mixed into it, and we probably rubbed it into our skin when we were wiping them off earlier.”

The video feed abruptly cuts off as Hunk triumphantly slams a fist into his palm. “I knew he took the brown powder!” he says excitedly. “I’m pretty sure it’s more like beets than cinnamon ’cause it stains like crazy. Great substitute for food coloring, though. It really only glitters when you mix it with water, which… actually, that’s how you’d rinse off a face mask, isn’t it? Huh, that explains a lot.”

“This stuff stains?” Keith demands, voice cracking. He buries his head in his hands. It doesn’t do much to conceal the fact that the the tips of his ears are turning a shade of red that very nearly matches his face.

Pidge takes a slow, deliberate step away from him, just in case he decides to blame her for their unfortunate new makeovers. Keith’s only embarrassed now, but that’s not to say he won’t be mad later.

“Is it permanent, Hunk? Please tell me it isn’t permanent.”

“It isn’t permanent,” Hunk replies immediately, looking increasingly sheepish as he twiddles his thumbs. “Probably.”

“Probably?” she echoes in disbelief.

“Well, it’s hard to say. I haven’t had enough free time to work with any of the new spices enough to know for sure...”

From behind her, Keith speaks up, his tone low and warning. “Pidge.”

She rounds on him, scowling, because this is definitely not her fault.

“What?” she snaps defensively.

“Red is really not your color.”

A pause.

She stares at him, not sure she heard him correctly. Keith stares back coolly.

She narrows her eyes and looks closer, studying his splotchy red face. And– there. The edge of his mouth is twitching, like he’s trying to hold back a smile. There’s a glimmer of mirth in his eyes.

He’s teasing her.

Pidge lets out an incredulous bark of laughter, breaking into a wide grin as Keith starts to laugh, too. It turns out laughter is even more contagious than embarrassment, because once they start they can’t seem to stop laughing.

“‘Three easy steps for guaranteed results!’” Pidge quotes, imitating Lance, jazz hands and all.

Keith snorts. “Yeah. Guaranteed to look ridiculous.”

“I’m sorry about your nose. Does it still hurt?”

“Nah. The mask thing actually made it stop stinging.”

“… I can’t believe I ever agreed to do this.”

“Well, I can’t believe you dragged me into it!”

“Well, I, for one, hope Lance learned his lesson and doesn’t steal from me again,” Hunk adds with affected sternness, arms crossed, and that only sets them off again.

They barely manage to pull themselves together when Lance and Allura finally get back. They’re both in full armor, deep in conversation until Lance pulls off his helmet and Allura abruptly cuts off mid-sentence.

Half of Lance’s face is a bright, solid firetruck red. The other half looks like an abstract painting. There’s a pale stripe along the bridge of his nose with a larger dot right where Pidge had poked him.

Allura looks over at the others; Pidge and Keith wave. Hunk shrugs.

Without a word, Allura turns on her heel and heads over to join Coran and Shiro, leaving a bewildered Lance behind.

“What’d I do now?” he says plaintively to the room at large.

Hunk coughs. Lance looks up and finally notices Pidge and Keith, identical smirks on their bright red faces, Hunk standing behind them and unsuccessfully trying to hide his own amusement. Lance’s hands fly up to his own face as he realizes, with dawning horror, that something has gone very, very wrong.

“Aww, quiznak,” he mumbles.

-

After a long shower, Keith heads back to his room. His face is back to its normal color but still faintly shimmers under direct light, which Lance and Hunk both promised would fade within the next day. Keith can’t really bring himself to be that annoyed about it because his skin does actually feel pretty good, although he’ll never admit it. Even so, he’s immeasurably grateful for the full coverage of his Blade mask. The less to explain, the better.

There’s a piece of paper attached to his door, some kind of drawing. He pulls it down and tries to figure out what he’s looking at. It looks like a humanoid shape in red with one foot on the Black Lion and one foot on the Red Lion, like it’s waterskiing through a sea of stars. Which is impossible. Keith squints at it and realizes it’s probably supposed to be him. Huh.

Below the doodle is a note in Pidge’s familiar scrawl:

Thanks for helping me break the ice today. I think everything’s finally back to normal, and it wouldn't have happened without you. You’re a really good friend.

She’s signed it with her usual self-portrait, the one she likes to embed in her code, except she’s colored her face in red.

Keith bites back his smile and folds the note neatly, stashing it in his pack to take with him.

--

 I believe that we're in this together.

- Mika

[dent-de-leon]

Anyway Lance also got some pretty good solid development in season 6?? I mean, just off the top of my head you’ve got:

Lance literally sacrificing himself to save Allura, that’s like?? Some prime heroism right there?? He saw that she was in danger and he put his life on the line, that’s huge. See also: how Allura cries for him, how she refuses to accept the fact that he may be gone, how she cradles him in her arms and stares at him so sweetly afterwards, ect. There’s a genuine connection there, and it’s been building for quite a few seasons now. 

Lance legitimately completely getting over his playboy phase--something everyone wanted--and acknowledging that his feelings for Allura were so much deeper and real. Even better, he never tells Allura, he never burdens her with his feelings to guilt her or make her uncomfortable. He instead acknowleges that she liked Lotor and instead tries to work through his own (supposedly unrequited) feelings in a very healthy way. 

And, above all else, he literally says his love for Allura makes him “want to be a better person.” That’s literally such a turnaround and easily some of the best character development he’s ever gotten. 

Lance seeing M&M as just a “nerd game” but then giving it a chance and actually having tons of fun with the character, which also leads to him having a genuinely good time. We get to see some more of Lance’s creativity with how he gets into character and loves acting (reminds me a bit of how his comic is narrated from his perspective as like this high fantasy adventure). At the end, he says to Allura, “We have a lot of fun together, don’t we?” And she happily agrees

Lance is the first one to tell Romelle that they can’t just open fire on Lotor’s ship because Allura’s on board and he’s not about to let her get hurt. 

When Lotor and Allura come back from their trip to the rift, Lance is the only paladin that pulls his bayard on them. It’s just Keith, Krolia, and then Lance that have their weapons at the ready. “Allura, step away from Lotor.” She gets understandably upset with him, but he does it because he knows her safety is at risk and he feels it’s the best option for her. 

You can tell Lance looks really concerned for Shiro when he’s being taken over by Haggar and tries to fight it. He’s also the one that regains his footing first and delegates orders--which the team immediates follows, “Allura and I will secure Lotor. Hunk, help Shiro. Everyone else, get down to the hanger and stop those guys.” 

Lance is also the only paladin with his bayard out at the time, and even when Shiro attacks him, he doesn’t fight back, and instead asks what’s going on--he knew Shiro was obviously going through something very bad and didn’t try to hurt him. 

Doesn’t question Keith’s leadership like he did in earlier seasons. Like, as soon as Keith asks if they’re ready to go, Lance’s response is just, “We’ve got this.” He puts his very immature one-sided rivalry aside and understands that, yes, Keith is a good leader, and he’s willing to accept that and follow him. 

This isn’t season 3 Lance very callously and maliciously accusing Keith of using the loss of his best friend to take over the team, or season 4 Lance complaining that Keith is ruining their parades. Like, there’s some very real growth and depth here.

Lance is the one who comforts Allura after everything that went down with Lotor, and he never once tries to make it about himself or uses it as some sort of opportunity to make a move on her. He’s focused enirely on her feelings and validating them, on making sure she knows none of this is her fault and that he’ll always be there for her. 

“Allura, it wasn’t just you who trusted Lotor. We all did.” “Let me tell you, as someone whose made a million mistakes, all you can do is get up and make it right.” Really, that heart to heart was so good and cathartic for her, you can tell by the way she hugs him and thanks him. This is Lance building up his teammates and being someone for them to lean on, and really just sort of living up to the legacy the Blue Lion prepared him for. 

Lance was very viscerally affected by hearing about what happened to Shiro--especially after that moment when he opened up to him in the previous season. At the time, Lance tried to reassure him by convincing him he’d be alright and getting him to try and rest--which isn’t by any means an awful or uncaring thing to do, but he regrets it nonetheless. Even when there wasn’t much more he could have done. 

“He...he tried to tell me, but I didn’t realize. I’m so sorry, Shiro. I--I didn’t know. I could’ve...” Lance cries for Shiro, Lance feels for Shiro, and he’s clearly someone who hates seeing his friends hurt and really takes that to heart. We then have this lovely little moment where Allura reaches out and silently reassues him. It mirrors how he was the one to comfort her when she was crying, and it’s just another subtle thing that hints at how their relationship has really been developing. These two seriously have amazing chemistry and character devlopment together, and it’s one of the highlights of the season. 

So yeah, I really don’t understand this sentiment where people seem to think that season is somehow objectively bad for Lance, or how he just got no content or character development. There was honestly some really solid and well thought out progression for his character, even if it might not neccessarily be what some fans wanted to see--it’s still very much there. 

[shima-draws]

Alright

I have a lot of things to say so it’s all under the cut

First of all, wow. What a finale. What a fucking finale, man...

I’m warning you now this is not a nice rant so if you really love Voltron and don’t like seeing other people hate on it do not read this lol

Let me be honest, Voltron really isn’t that great of a show. I’ve pretty much stayed here watching the new seasons out of obligation and my love for the characters. Even then the writers still fucked that up so I’m stealing them all and they’re mine now. I’m not even sorry.

Voltron has always been a really tough show to keep track of and follow along with;; I never really know what’s going on and they introduce characters and planets so quickly that I forget about them right away and there’s like maybe 3 that are really memorable. So honestly the whole series has just seemed like an EXCESSIVE amount of filler that nobody needed. Even starting season 8 I had no fucking idea what was going on because the end of season 7 was just THAT unmemorable lmao. And they brought back so many characters I was like “Who the FUCK are you??” And it just made it ten times more confusing.

There was just so much unnecessary content we didn’t need in there. In season 8 they fought Honerva in her giant robot for like three or four episodes straight and that got really tiring really fast. Honestly most of s8 was just robot fights and I’m like “Are they writing a meaningful story or just 7 billion eye candy action sequences” TAKE THE TIME TO DEVELOP YOUR CHARACTERS, UNIVERSE, AND PLOT MORE INSTEAD OF DEDICATING 15 OUT OF 20 MINUTES OF SCREENTIME TO ROBOT FIGHTS THANKS. There are SO many plot holes and questions left unanswered that we’ll never get answered so that’s fantastic. Not to mention all of those fights were so fucking repetitive I got so bored watching the same thing happen over and over again. Voltron always wins, what’s fucking new?

Also man jesus christ they fucked over their characters SO MUCH. I’ll get into Allura last but let’s go down the list, shall we?

Lance was reduced to not only the comic relief but the super boring love interest. His relationship with Allura felt so forced and unnatural and there was no chemistry between them whatsoever. It was almost as if the writers were like “We need something for Lance to do in season 8” and then they decided “Let’s just make him a foil for Allura and make him her boyfriend!!” Like it was SO unnecessary and I’m sorry to any Allu//ance shippers out there but I felt so uncomfortable watching their romantic interactions. And I’m not SUPPOSED to feel that way. I actually did ship them until I watched this season but now I’m just really put off by it because WOW they wrote that romance horribly. I know people hate comparing Voltron to ATLA but take Sokka/Suki for example. Their dynamic is very similar to Lance and Allura’s and it’s a PERFECT example of what a good healthy relationship is like that isn’t forced or super awkward. If the writers had written their relationship like Sokka and Suki’s I’m sure I would like it SO much more! I was so upset to see Lance lose pretty much ALL of his development and be reduced to just a foil or a background character they could beat up on and use for fodder about Allura’s death. So fucking uncool. On top of that Lance became a FARMER?? REALLY?? He had dreams of becoming a famous pilot and yeah a war will do shit to you but I CANNOT imagine him living that sort of boring life it’s just not Lance at all!! So immensely out of character and not what he deserved. Lance deserved a real, true happy ending kicking ass in space and being in love with someone who really loved him back.

And Shiro—god, they fucking abused the shit out of him and treated him like a punching bag. Not to mention the awful queer baiting with Adam and then, to rectify their awful mistake, the writers made it so that he got married at the end of the series. Great. I don’t even know who the other guy is. Congrats Shiro, but it really doesn’t mean fucking shit if it was added on last minute and seems like a way to appease fans rather than to actually give Shiro a good ending. They could have brought Adam back and let Shiro marry him but nope!! They fucked that up too

Also all character development for Hunk went down the drain and he was also reduced to comic relief. He didn’t end up with Shay like I was hoping and just god so much racism I’m too irritated to even get into that

Keith and Pidge were the only ones who really got semi-decent endings and even still they were written badly too. (Doesn’t mean I’m not proud of them tho, good kids.)

And Allura.

FUCK. THE WRITERS.

They absolutely did not need to kill her off like that it was so pointless and utterly stupid that I’m sitting here rolling my eyes into the back of my head. They literally killed her for dramatic effect and that’s it. Yeah whatever she saved the fucking universe but they could’ve done that another way! That’s just lazy ass writing and it really offended a lot of people including myself so yeah! Not happy about that! It’s really racist and also pretty misogynist too?? Also Allura during the last season was not my favorite character at all she was written so terribly and out of character that I just ended up hating her and she deserves so much better than this absolute fucking bullshit

If they wanted to have a good final season, they should have kept Allura alive, given everyone actual GOOD character development, not threw in a super forced and uncomfortable relationship, and gave the characters proper happy endings with the people they SHOULD have ended up with. Not that romance is that big of a deal since Voltron isn’t about that but man they could have satisfied so many fans doing that but they just took the show and spit on it

So yeah I’ve had a really great experience being part of the fandom and creating content, and there’s definitely some good parts to the show. Voltron is a bad show lmao but I still had fun, and I’m still gonna make content that the fans actually deserve and want—and forget canon even exists. I’m salty and disappointed but I’m not surprised. Even so the show did end on as good as a note as it could have considering the circumstances and while I’m not 100% satisfied it was what I was expecting so. I’m like, iffy about how I feel towards the finale.

Anyway Klance is canon king, Adam and Shiro are married, Hunk is a universally famous chef with his gf Shay, Allura and Romelle are the new Altean Queens, Pidge is fucking amazing being herself and everyone’s happy the end

[elenirlachlagos]

Voltron Season 8 Re-watch

Ok, I'm giving this another go. Re-watching season 8. I'm not a hater, but I remember the season having its issues.

So if you want to read a non-extreme opinion, come along. If you haven't seen it yet: there will be spoilers.

Launch Date

It's the last day before the Atlas and Voltron leave Earth to help free the planets still under Galra occupation.

Hunk makes Lance finally ask Allure for a "date" (dinner at his parents) and Romelle makes Allura agree. Honestly that's not an ideal onset for a date, if you ask me... 😕  And what kind of date is a dinner at your parents anyway? Coran makes a fuzz about things and Altean customs, indicating that someone not Altean and not Royalty might not be suitable. We don't really see why he changes his mind about Lance.

The famous sunset scene with Keith and Lance. Keith gives another pep talk (to Lance) - he’s gotten really good with them and dishes them out quite freely. Must have practiced in the quantum abyss. 🥰 I know this episode focuses very much on Lance, but am I the only one wondering whether Keith spend the whole free evening alone with his wolf? I like to think that he later on had a nice dinner with his mum and Shiro.

The "girls" go shopping with Allura for a date outfit. We get to see some of Colleen Holt's evilness. The Holt's are one weird, badass family... Pidge finds another one of the videogames her and Lance loved to play but gives it away to pay for the outfit. D’aww, Pidge.

Lance's family is... well, family. Veronica asks to be set up with Keith - something that is never touched upon again, so it was probably some kind of joke from her side. Afterwards Allura and Lance go to a more date-like evening stroll. She admits that she found strength in the Paladins and their own disconnectedness and now back on earth feels more lonely than ever because she realizes they do have families - while hers is still gone. Hello? Everyone seems to forget about Keith and Shiro...? But it did make me realize that there are similarities between the Paladins - lightyears from their home with no way back and only five of their kind - and Allura and Coran - thousands of years from their destroyed home and the only two left of their kind. I never really realized this before.

Lance tells Allura that he loves her and would follow her to the end of the universe (which is kind of an empty promise if you've already been there together, isn't it?). They kiss. To be honest, I think there's not much chemistry between them. Sorry Allurance fans.

While Allura is away, the Altean robeast pilot wakes up (Murphy’s Law and that...). Since Romelle knows her, they send her in to talk. The pilot clearly had been suspected to a very different narrative, considers Romelle a traitor and Voltron evil. She talks about how Honerva sent her - and upon mentioning the name dies. In some good old spy fashion.

Now they know that Honerva is involved. Allura wants to change their mission, but Shiro insists in their original mission of liberating words. Honerva will find them one way or another. Pragmatic Shiro is pragmatic.

What I liked about this episode was the inclusion of the old Voltron series - really cleverly done. And the insight into how earth looks and functions now. But the whole date part was extremely meh. I really would have preferred if Voltron did not go down that path. I think it doesn’t need a relationship in that show (yes, I’m shipping Klance, but I still stand by what I say and I’m including them). There’s just too much else going on; it could never be dealt with in a satisfactory manner.

Shadows

Flashback episode explaining what happened to Zarkon and Honerva and how Lotor grew up. Is that supposed to make us feel sorry for Lotor - like he had a tought childhood so excuse him for being a mass murderer? (Actually, it seemed to have worked on quite a lot of fans. Vader syndrome, I guess.) I found all that a bit confusing because the flashbacks are not in chronological order.

Honerva apparently killed the cat for some ritual to find out about what happened to Lotor. 😨 That’s some sick shit. Seriously, killing off animals is... 😠

She calls the Kral Zera but instead of choosing a new emperor she kills all applicants, dealing a bad blow to the Galra. She then finds the Altean colony and has a surprisingly easy time taking them over. Also she apparently leads them to Oriande. The Alteans make this their new base and build robeasts out of those giant guardians.

Well, that was easy... All the security measures around Oriande, the white lion - everything just vanished or was useless? WTF? 🤨

[fenrhi]

And they didn’t come back from the war

A list of plot points that never got a proper resolution or any resolution at all, inconsistencies and other things that frustrate me in VLD

Warning: really salty and long

So.... on the top of my head:

We still don’t know what Operation Kuron is about. Why did Haggar needed clones of Shiro? What kind of future did she have in mind for him? We will never know, because this plot point was thrown away just like Jiro

I know it has been said hundreds of times but...they just never mention Jiro again. You guys were playing monster and mana with him. Then he tried to kill you. Then he died and you used his corpse to host Shiro’s soul. That seems like a lot to process. Unless you’re in vld, then you just shrug and move on

They moved on so much that they forgot to have emotional reactions to things happening to them. Which made them look cold and uncaring. Which is not a good look for protagonists. This has been a consistent problem since s3

They moved on so much, Keith was the only one still looking for Shiro in s3 while the others didn’t bother. Can you feel the friendship tonight?

Eight seasons in, and the paladins don’t always look like friends. The comment Keith made in The Journey Within hurt because it rang true. Their friendships is underdeveloped and the strongest friendship in the entire show got tossed for... what exactly? A wedding added in the last minute?

For sale: Lance’s Altean broadsword, never used

I still don’t know if Narti was a willing spy or not. I still don’t know why the writers thought the ‘betray Lotor except not really it was just an act haha’ thing was a decent idea

Keith spent two years on a space whale with his mom but we never got to see meaningful conversations between them, only shards of them. Did Keith’s anger and loneliness from being an orphan just disappeared like this? Dermatologists hate him

Shiro’s floating arm is ugly. His new look in s8 is uglier. Shiro, sweetie, I’m so sorry

Regarding the conditions to pilot the black lion: did we seriously go from ‘a leader whose men will follow without hesitation’ to ‘you’re perfect for the black lion because you’re Galra like me’ ?! Shiro never stood a chance.

While I’m on it: Shiro and Keith never talk about the black lion again despite Keith making it clear he didn’t want to pilot it. Somehow Krolia helped him get over it. I guess

They never talk about the Black Paladins fight again despite Shiro nearly killing Keith. Pfft, yeah it wasn’t even that big of a deal anyway. Tis but a flesh wound!

Apparently Shiro was supposed to teach Hunk how to be a diplomat? Where did that plot point go?

The BOM and Voltron not communicating in the Kral Zera was dumb af

I’m neutral towards Keitor but damn, we have more than 60 episodes in vld and still not two minutes to spare for these two to talk? Hard to be a keitor stan in this economy

Lance’s awful behavior towards Keith is never brought up again because......These guys like to move on. They have a degree in moving on.

Coran tells Lance hes not good for Allura because he’s not Altean so of course he magically becomes Altean. Yeah this is totally how genetics work I read it on the internet

The complete annihilation of the found family theme is just fascinating to watch. In a morbid way.

Shiro has no blood family, unless you count the hundreds of clones that turned into ashes. This is just mean

We had to wait until s8 to have a name for Allura’s mom

We see Allura say she has no family and no home. We see her cry, struggle with nightmares, screams...and then she dies and joins her family. Here, have some salt on these fresh wounds

Remember the thing about Keith quintessence sensitive? Neither does vld

Macidus who?

How did Ezor went from ‘hihi lets torture children :3’ to ‘violence is bad’ ? Well.....it was written on the script.....

Veraxca has more chemistry than Shurtis and that says everything

The thing with the Colony is still kinda confusing. What the fock was Lotor doing to these Alteans? Well I hope you didn’t plan to ask him, because he’s a rotten corpse now

The way they reused past monsters, locations and plot points felt....awkward. I get this was supposed to be an hommage, but I saw lack of creativity instead.

I was waiting for an epic Haggar arc and battle but the paladins just told her ‘killing is bad’ and then she’s crying and repenting? That’s it?

I know Lotor has done terrible things but I thought he wouldn’t....you know....die offscreen in the rift. Well.....At least he had the dignity to cry in private

The lions used to have a personality. Where did it go?

I hate how vld is punishing me for loving both Keith and Shiro. I also hate how vld is punishing Keith and Shiro, its favorite punching bag

S8 had too much filler

Everyone forgot about Naxzela, even though Keith almost died in a desperate attempt to save everyone. Thank you guys!

Allura is supposed to be the only one to have the power to open wormholes yet and in one episode in s8, Shiro orders Coran to open a wormhole. What is the truth?

We really went from ‘nothing will happen to you’ ‘if it wasn’t for you my life would have been different’ ‘Shiro was the only one who never gave up on me’ ‘I love you’ to not a single fucking friendly conversation in s8. A strong friendship between two of the main charas is sooooo boring. Let’s add more explosions

Allura is punished for.....well everything. Being Altean? Wanting to be in love? The audacity! Have some death instead.

And the paladins are having a fucking picnic near her memorial! Do you also want to put Christmas decorations on her face?

Lance is punished for daring to be a human in love with an Altean. He will live with the constant reminder that he couldn’t save Allura and stay by her side. Because that’s the law of equivalent exchange in alchemy

Luca dies in the very episode we learn her name. She was too cool to live

Allura is only allowed to be close to two Alteans but even then she’s on thin fucking ice

Alfor: Coran pls take care of my daughter. Allura: *dies*. Alfor: what did I fucking say

You know things are bad when you genuinely want more Slav scenes

[sage-nebula]

27, 26, 21, 13 (the generals), 10, 5, 4, 2, and 1 for Voltron? For The salty meme thing? (Also apologies if these were answered previously)

I’m just glad that you said what meme this was for, because this was long enough ago that I completely forgot, haha.

27.) Least shippable character?

Answered.

26.) Most shippable character?

I honestly have no idea. Maybe characters like Regris or Matt, since they have barely any personality and thus could be paired up with almost anyone if written well.

21.) What are your thoughts on crack ships?

They’re fine, and have been around in every fandom for the dawn of time. I strongly disapprove of anyone attacking anyone for whatever fictional ships they have no matter the reason, because as squicky as you might find someone else’s ships, that’s absolutely NO justification for sending death and/or rape threats, doxing, or otherwise harassing and engaging in nasty behavior. But that said, the idea of people doing this just because someone ships two characters who have never met before is especially ludicrous. It’s unacceptable in general, but when people come down on the ideas of someone writing an AU where two characters who didn’t meet in canon meet and fall in love, it’s pretty obvious that the only reason why they take issue is because this is “competition” for their ship, a concept which is especially asinine when you remember that fanworks have no bearing on canon, and as such ships can’t really be in competition anyway.

So my thoughts are: Everyone needs to stay in their own lanes. No one has to like every ship out there—god knows I have some NOTPs of my own—but that’s no excuse for harassing, attacking, threatening, and otherwise being nasty to others. Tumblr Savior and the block feature exist for a reason. What other people ship doesn’t affect me, and the same goes for everyone else.

13.) Unpopular opinion about the generals?

Acxa: While I personally only ship Acxa and Keith platonically and do not read or write romance into their relationship at all, I don’t think it would have been horrible or the end of the world had she and Keith ended up as endgame. I do think that more work should have gone into their relationship if that was to be the case, but I think that the vitriol and hatred that was spewed Acxa’s way for “getting in the way” of other potential relationship options for Keith was pretty gross and misogynistic. Acxa deserved better, full stop.

Narti: Literally the only reason why the majority of the fandom cared that she died was so that they could use her death as a reason to vilify and demonize Lotor. They never actually cared about her, and it makes me angry whenever I see her name leave any of their fingers. They don’t deserve to talk about her, tbqh.

Ezor: She’s as cruel as she is bubbly and energetic. She’s kind and loving toward those she likes, yes, but she was the one smirking when Lotor commanded Throk to be sent to rot with the ice worms, and she had no problem tossing helpless village leaders around and getting threatening when one of them disrespected Lotor. Ezor is genuinely outgoing, but she also purposefully allows people to underestimate her and let their guards down around her so she can make them pay for it later. In some ways this makes her crueler than even Zethrid.

Zethrid: According to galra beauty standards, Zethrid is widely considered the hottest and most attractive of the group. Additionally, while she has no qualms about smashing skulls and actually does like explosions and fighting, she’s also protective of those close to her and does her best to look out for them. She’s the most group-oriented member of the team.

10.) Most disliked arc? Why?

Seasons five and six. Season six in particular was so bad that it’s what caused me to drop the show. If I list out all the reasons why I hated these seasons we’ll be here all day, but suffice to say that season five did a good job of making me despise pretty much every member of Team Voltron (and the protagonist-centered morality of the show became unbearable), and season six pushed the idea that a child abuse survivor without a good parental figure will end up evil like their parents. As a child abuse survivor myself, I didn’t take kindly to that.

5.) Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

I never shipped them romantically, but I stopped being able to enjoy Keith and Shiro’s platonic, familial relationship due to all of the wank and nastiness in the fandom. It’s sad, because when I first started watching their familial relationship was my favorite relationship in the show, but between the Shiro stans who bashed Keith because they felt he only had value when he was an accessory to prop Shiro up, to the antis who used Shiro and Keith’s platonic relationship to further their romantic ship(s) of choice, it just got to the point where I couldn’t enjoy it anymore and no longer wanted anything to do with it. It’s sad, but what can you do.

Oh, and while I never shipped Keith/Lance, fandom antis made me go from neutral on that one to full on cringing whenever I see it. So there’s that, too.

4.) Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?

Romantic Keith/Shiro has always squicked me out, because I always saw Shiro as an older brother, promoted-to-parent figure for Keith, like Guy to Luke in Tales of the Abyss, or Nani to Lilo in Lilo and Stitch, et cetera. That was the vibe I always got from their relationship in canon as early as season two, and while I tried to see where the shippers were coming from in rewatches (I really, really tried), it just squicked me whenever I thought of them romantically because of how Shiro acted like a guardian figure for Keith. Given that season six confirmed that Shiro did in fact play a part in raising Keith and that Shiro and Keith met when Shiro was an adult and Keith was a foster orphan, I can at least say that my feelings were right on the money with that one. In any case, this is one of the fandom juggernaut ships and it’s a NOTP for me, so yeah.

That said, Keith/Lance is also a NOTP for me. Aside from never seeing any chemistry in canon because Lance would barely allow Keith to even be his teammate, much less his friend (much less his boyfriend), the fandom ruined it for me as mentioned before. It’s unfair to those who ship it without being nasty, I know, but Keith/Lance became the flagship for a group of people in fandom who behaved very nastily even to people who weren’t in the fandom at all. It’s the biggest ship in the fandom and I also can’t stand it, so. There’s that.

2.) Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?

Shiro and Keith, but as mentioned the fandom ruined it for me after all the Shiro stans I saw bashing Keith, and all the antis that made platonic content only to turn around and either a.) use it to further their ship (usually Keith/Lance), or b.) behave atrociously toward other fans / voice actors / staff members / etc. Like I’d want to go look at platonic Shiro and Keith content and have a nice time, but I’d have to worry that OP was a terrible person the entire time I did, and it was just … no fictional relationship is worth that kind of stress. So yes, I’d still see them as a brotp, but it’s not one I can have fun with anymore.

Acxa and Ezor is another one, though mainly as I write them in Paradigm Shift. Here’s another cup of unpopular tea: Acxa and Ezor’s canon dynamic is basically Keith and Lance but with girls. The only reason it became as popular as it did is because both Acxa and Ezor are pretty by our human beauty standards (although I guess the personality dynamic of “Keith and Lance but as girls” didn’t hurt among the antis). That said, while I keep their differences and the way they grate on each other in my writing (in that Acxa sees Ezor as immature, Ezor sees Acxa as a nag), they have an older sister - younger sister dynamic going on. They really do love each other, it’s just beneath a lot of arguing because one is so responsible (Acxa) and the other is … not (Ezor). 

1.) What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

If it’s a popular ship in the Voltron fandom, you can pretty much bet I don’t ship it, lmao. Romantic Keith/Shiro, Keith/Lance, Allura/Lance, Acxa/Ezor … if it’s big, odds are I don’t like it. Only rare pairs are shipped in this house.

Note to Everyone: DO NOT reblog this to start discourse or wank or so help me god, I will block you immediately, no warnings and no regrets. Thank you.

[fara-arts]

So. My Rewrites for Voltron. (and general thoughts)

Thoughts below the read more (so I don’t bother my normal followers lol)

1. Shiro shouldn’t get married to a fuckin rando. Like, ok, it’s the new guy we get to see in “the grudge” and on and he seems cool from the little we get from him, but like?? Did they even show they were interested in each other at all?? It looked like a strictly working relationship. If he and Shiro had had some banter and some obvious chemistry or something I’d be fine? Or there’s Keith. That’s a viable option too. Don’t come for me.

2. Speaking of Shiro and Keith--Their best friendship was like. Nonexistent in this season. Which feels like wiplash after the past 7 seasons, especially the last 2. Like I don’t give a shit about shipping when I bring this up, it was just distant and weird man. We got a lot of Keith and Lance bonding moments, which was wonderful, but not even 1 with Shiro and Keith who are apparently ride or die for each other? Fam.

3. Honestly a LOT of the dialogue and interactions felt so fuckin forced or dull or just off, you know? Like the cheeseiness is something we can expect from a show like this, but it was off anyway. Like all of Lance’s “i love you so much Allura” spiels were uncomfy sometimes. But maybe that’s just me being allergic to love lol i dunno

4. Ok i was gonna go off with Lance apparently staying on Earth to be a farmer?? But I think when they say “spread Allura’s message” they mean he’s just traveling around the universe talking about her and taking in the thing she gave her life to create. So that’s beautiful and I’m ok with it. That better be what they mean.

5. Allura shouldn’t have died. Like. Story-wise I get it. But she shouldn’t have died anyway. Like it’s cheesy dumb Voltron! Have her appear on Altea once all’s said and done and she’s like “My parents... Zarkon and Honerva and Lotor... They all gave themselves up to bring me back...” Cuz that would have been wonderful!! It would have fulfilled their stories of protection and redemption!! Allura and Lance could actually try to create a relationship outside of war!! Or she could just live her life as she wants for fuckin once!!! I dunno!!!!!!

6. Day Fourty-Seven was probably my favorite ep. I love my boy Kinkade, and it was nice to take a break from the main cast for a bit while still being involved. I still love these characters and I had a blast watching the season tbh, but it was all so messy. And I’m straight up Banana Fishing this show cuz I’m just not here for the ending. Leaving it open would have been their best bet for everyone involved, but we do love a good old-fashioned “where are they now” sequence, right? 🙃

Now I never want to talk about this show again. 👍🏾👍🏾

[blue-likethebird]

Vee El Dee: The Good The Bad and The Ugly

If you’ve ever been on this hellsite, you’ve probably heard of Voltron: Legendary Defender. You’ll find the characters and the ships (and the discourse. Dear God the discourse) in tag after tag and on blog after blog. Now that the show has officially come to an end, I’m reviewing the whole damn thing. Talking about what I think worked, what didn’t, and what exactly the show did to make even the fans look at it so harshly now. (Just a warning “The Ugly” section discusses racism, and homophobia so if any of that triggers you I’d suggest you skip it)

Review under the cut

The Good

The Character Potential:

   Voltron’s characters had so much potential at the beginning. Their motivations, potential subplots, and clues to their arcs the first crew left us were actually interesting. How did Coran know Allura before they were frozen? What happened that caused Shiro to lose his arm? Is Lance going to reunite with his family? The show didn’t answer all of these questions mind you, but at the time they were introduced, those questions felt like they were worth sticking around to hear the answers.

The First Season:

   The first season is the only season that genuinely sticks out for me, way back in ye olden days when Voltron was a character driven show as opposed to plot focused. In season one, the plot took a backseat and the characters were what held up the show, and it’s probably not a coincidence that most of the character development and more emotional/memorable scenes occurred in season one, when there was time for the characters to develop. Likewise, the character focus allowed for everyone to get their day in the limelight -not just the characters who were valuable to the plot at the moment-.

The Balmera and The Return to The Balmera:

     I am never gonna be shy about my opinion that the Balmera arc is one of the strongest arcs that Voltron has had. Allura using the story of her people to inspire others and using Altea’s ancient connection to the Balmera to save an entire damn civilization! The goddamn adorable chemistry between Hunk and Shay! Believable suspense! Unlocking Lion Powers! The Balmera arc had it all and I was fed. Plus, Balmera gave us the introduction of the most blessed couple in Voltron history, hunay.

The Bad:

The Timeskips:

In theory, there’s nothing wrong with a timeskip. But you’ve gotta be able to show that the characters and show’s universe changed in some way during that timeskip and you can’t use them just to avoid actual story and character development. Take season six (? Or was it five? I don’t remember and I don’t wanna) when Keith and Krolia take a two year camping trip on a space whale while Voltron is off doing God knows what. Presumably during that time they developed some sort of mother-son relationship but we don’t get to see that development happening, or how that new relationship changed them, or really any proof that the timeskip happened at all besides Keith getting Galra marks and a teleporting space wolf. That particular time jump felt more like a cop-out to avoid writing Keith bonding with his mom.

Pacing:

To put it plainly, the pace is way too fast for anything to stick. The writing cycles from one season's worth of plot twists and WTF? moments to the next at the speed of light, leaving no time to address how the previous events affected the characters involved or not the show’s universe as a whole. So Lotor was actually evil all along and was using Allura to achieve his goals? Well there’s no time to mention how Allura feels about that, we’ve got three more surprise twists and a magic robot to shove into the plot! On the flip side however, the pacing is slower than a geriatric snail during fight scenes. The giant robot fights are usually the most exciting part of anything, but in Voltron, the fights are so formulaic that they just kinda… blur together into a boring fog. Lemme know if you can name this Voltron fight scene: the team’s fighting some random baddie, there’s a lot of yelling, someone gets a power up just big enough to defeat the current baddies when a bigger, eviler baddie appears who’s more powerful than the power up they just got, new baddie whoops Voltron’s ass, the support team watches in horror, someone else gets a power up that’s powerful enough to defeat the new bad guy, Voltron reins triumphant. What fight scene was that?

The Filler Episodes:

The fast pacing also means that they need to set aside breather episodes just to allow characters to interact besides in battle. That’s all well and good and there’s nothing wrong with filler episodes, if done right they can be some of the most memorable episodes a show can have (The Tales of Ba Sing Se anyone?) that is, if done right. But Voltron filler episodes don’t have that going for them. Filler episodes in vee el dee are an oasis of mud in the desert that is canon, they’re a generally unhelpful standstill point amidst a constantly changing series. I’ll admit that they can be funny at times but for the most part filler episodes are bizarre, unnecessary, and more often than not, poorly timed. If we just heard about a millenniums old empire folding in on itself and we’re just about to see a major character attempt suicide do we really need to see Coran go batshit while planning a space Disney On Ice?

The Ugly:

Racism:

#justiceforallura

I must confess that I am whiter than a polar bear in a snowstorm, but even I know that killing off a black girl (or black coded as the case may be), constantly torturing the Japanese guy, reducing the Samoan guy to food and fat jokes, and having the latino guy flirt with everyone before turning him into a farmer isn’t the best way to handle writing characters of colour. Denying said characters of colour arcs and screen time in favour of giving your white characters the same story in a different hat over and over again is also not the best treatment you can offer your poc characters. That’s not even mentioning other horrible treatment and stereotypes you’ll see the Voltron characters of colour experience. Let us also recall #notallgalra, the “what if the genocide victim was actually the bad guy” au mess in s3, all those “lol lance is stupid” jokes, the black character Kinkade speaking mainly in grunts, Allura dying to redeem the two genocidal dudes responsible for most of her trauma, and Hunk’s (half black half Samoan) family being enslaved at a fucking concentration camp like goddamn what the hell were you thinking Voltron that’s like hetalia levels of fucked up when we remember what kind of genuinely awful shit this show’s done to it’s minority characters.

Homophobia:

If you’re reading my review in the Voltron tag, and you watched the whole series, then there’s no way in hell that you haven’t heard about Adam dying and the backlash against Voltron for it. If you are somehow the .000001% of people who don’t know, Adam (a gay moc) was Shiro’s (another gay moc) fiancé who got a grand total of forty five seconds of screen time before dying when the Galra invaded earth. Meanwhile, L*tor and Allura’s relationship got almost triple that despite being abusive as fuck. But Shiro got married at the end of season 8! In a credits scene, to a guy in the background of a couple of scenes Shiro was also in. When lgbt fans expressed outrage at their rep being hyped up despite having no bearing on the plot or even Shiro as a character outside of one scene, instead of owning up to their mistakes, the crew of Vee El Dee said (or implied) that it was the fault of lgbt fans for hyping ourselves up. Yeah okay. Except after that we got confirmation that Ezor and Zethrid were a couple! Yay! Clearly a win for us El Gee Bee Tees right? Well… not really considering that both of them were depicted as psychotic torturers who also died a couple minutes later. Gotta love those crazy dead lesbians amirite?

Klance:

But why is klance in the “ugly” section!? You cry, I thought you were a klanti! I am an anti and I did ship klance but that’s not what I wanna talk about right now. When I put klance under ugly I wanted to discuss two things, the crew and the shippers. First let’s talk the crew; several folks on the Voltron staff have at the very least, not reacted negatively to the omnipresent ship that is Keith and Lance. I’m sure you’ll also remember that Lance’s VA Jeremy Shada was considered a KICK icon before that went south. The crew was also purposefully misleading when they talked about possible romances for Keith and Lance, the language they used was ambiguous enough that shippers interpreted it as proof that klance would become canon. When it inevitably didn’t and shit hit the fan, the staff backpedaled again. Stating that klance was never meant to be interpreted as romantic and we were all fools for thinking otherwise. That’s happened in the past so it’s a reasonable defence, except for the fact that scenes with Keith and Lance tended to contain unnecessary parallels to canonically romantic relationships, (the bonding moment paralleling an allurance scene in season six and their talk at the start of season eight paralleling two scenes, hunay in season one and l*tura in season five). So it’s not unreasonable to be a little suspicious there. Klance was huge on the internet, it’s impossible for the crew to have been completely unaware of what they were doing.

Next I wanna talk shippers. I’m not saying that being disappointed that a ship didn’t become canon is a bad thing. But when you act like that’s the worst thing Voltron did amidst the sea of ableism, racism and homophobia it gets a little tiring. The fact that so many klancers rushed to demonize Allura after season seven and eight and add on that I saw more people complaining about klance not becoming canon king than Allura dying a completely unnecessary death to redeem L*tor of all people was the final straw. I washed my hands of klance and Voltron as a whole.

———————————————

So that’s my review of V*ltron. I was gonna do a separate review of season eight but I didn’t even finish s8 and to be honest it probably wouldn’t have been any more than the words “Fuck Vee El Dee, Allura Deserved Better” in big pink letters. And I know I probably made someone angry with this review but if you actually managed to stick around my ramblings all the way to the end then I salute you regardless of whether or not you agree with me.

[pharaohzeth]

Ok so I watched VLD s8 and I have opinions 8 (and feels) be warned I’ll get a lot into the Allurance and Klance (I don’t recomend reading this if your otp is Allurance there’s a reason why I didn’t tag that -but don’t worry it isn’t anti Allurance is one of my broships after all-) + an idea for a Klance au at the very end

Don’t expect sth super profound/super analysis.

The season was ok. I don’t hate it but neither is my favorite season of VLD (because s3 am I right klancers ;3).

So Klance didn’t become canon, not big deal, never really expected it to become canon anyway (still hurts but whatev that’s what fanfiction is for) and the Allurance was... bearable (I’ll get to that in a minute) I’ve never been into romantic Allurance, I’ve always prefered them as best friends or siblings. I was still left with some questions, like about Chip and Lance’s FUCKING ALTEAN MARKS (don’t get me wrong I’ve always loved Altean!Lance BUT I NEED A EXPLANATION FOR THIS DREAMWORKS I NEED AN EXPLANATION FOR THIS. 

There were moments that I LOVED, like the only 2 Klance escenes obviously (I’ll also get to that later), all the flashbacks (I mean BABY LOTOR AM I RIGHT? cute cinammon roll that must be protected at all costs) and that one different reallity to were Honerva arrived (loved that, absolutely loved that).

Like Pidge watching 80′s Voltron, her and Allura dressing like their 80′s counterparts, Pidge immitating her 80′s Voltron self and giving autographs (that was simply great).

I ship Veronica and Acxa now too (what shall we call it? Veracxa? Arcxonica? Verocxa?)

I loved Lance so much this season (I mean I always do, but this season we got to see some things of him -personality/psyche- that absolutely adored).

Also the whole thing with the original paladis, love those guys.

Older Keith cannonicaly has long hair and I LIVE FOR IT.

Episode 7 “Day 47”? LOVED IT, favorite episode of the season hands down.

It gets depressing from here on so if you don’t feel nor want to check it it’s ok, there will be no anger, but it’s still me crying and being sad over fictional caracters so be warned. Allurance and Klance ahead. 

Also even later it stops being so sad so there’s that.

Now, about the Allurance (this part gonna get log, bear with me here).

It didn’t feel right to me (not because Klance is and will always be my otp) but because it feel too much one sided; yeah, Lance loves Allura we know, I can live with that (he pretty much has since season 1) but it made me sad because it didn’t feel like Allura loved Lance, to me it felt too much like Lance throwing his love at Allura and Allura just... thanking him for it. It hurts even more because of had the DW’s team had said about Lance and needing someone to whom he’ll be their first option, and that’s not Allura (that’s Keith but I won’t get into that).

Allurance honest to got made me cry and it was for the reasons I meantioned and I’ll repeat them again because that’s how hung up on it I am.

I didn’t like the Allurance because it didn’t seem nor feel like Allura liked Lance back, sure as a friend and family but the same way Lance loved her? NO

He was always there for her, to support and help and cheer her up, but she wasn’t for him (in fact the few times we saw him in need for that it was Keith who was there for him -I’ll get to in a tick-).

He just wanted what he tought was best for her but did she listen? NO and don’t get me wrong I love Allura, I would pay her to step on me (I just think I liked her better at the beginning of the show which is sad). Heck, she got the kind of men a lot of people would like to date, charismatic, caring, loving, sincere, but it didn’t seem/feel like she was enjoying/wanted/liked/noticed it that much, which isn’t necesarily a bad thing sometimes we just don’t want things not matter how wanted those things are, sometimes we’re not ready, sometimes it just isn’t a priority or sth we want at that moment in particular but we may want it in the future, it just made me sad because Lance honest to god loved her sincerely.

Now that that’s ‘done’. The Klance this season. 

Well, there were 2 major (and pretty much the only) Klance moments, both in where Keith is there for Lance. The first one is in the first episode when the whole Allurance date happened, it was heartwarming, because there he saw that Keith sees in Lance/the Lance that I don’t feel that Allura sees.

The second one was in episode 11 after a meeting, Lance needed some cheering up and kind of a reassurance that everything will be al rigth in the end, Keith cheered him up, Keith reassured him.

I don’t really care that Klance didn’t become canon (heck I’m used to it, few of my otps are canon) but it did hurt me, because it was hinted at, not only in the show but at certain things an comferences, and maybe I’m reading too much into it, maybe it was all filtered to me through my wishful thinking and stuff like that, BUT, they said the whole thing with Lance and the person to whom he’ll be first option and then he was Keith’s first option in the game episode in season 7, and I think that got a lot of us hyped with hope.

So it truly crushed me that they didn’t even hugged in the end.

And I think it hurted me more that other times because this was my first otp that, in my eyes, actually had an opportunity to be canon, that would make sense and that would give us some well deserved good representation. But like the majority of my otps, it didn’t happen. 

And I’m not even angry about... just sad.

Because while I pretty much expected Klance to not be canon, I seriously didn’t see the Allurance coming, yeah, maybe a date was to be expected, but I think must (if not all of us) thought that ‘well, maybe they will be together for a while and later break up cuz they’ll notice they aren’t what the other is looking for’or sth like that.

And because while I didn’t expect them to become canon, I still hoped for it, hoped more than any other of my otps, because it truly feel that would be possible, that it had the biggest opportunity/chance (especially of my otps) to become canon. Because you know, Klance is canon king, or at least the fake canon king.

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT?

I won’t stay depressed over it forever, and you why? Because in the end, does it really matter? Maybe, the representation mattered, but it was not the show for it, because Voltron is a show a bout a giant robot made of 5 lions to defend the universe, romance subplots aren’t the reason why I watched Voltron, why I continued watched nor why I liked it to begin with.

I like the story, I love the characters and I love the universe, and that’s what matters the most to me. Romance is not what the show is about and it’s not why I like it.

And Klance won’t stop being my vld otp just because it isn’t canon. That’s not what shipping is about. We (or at least I) don’t ship thinks just because they’re canon, I ship things because of the chemistry of the characters, their story, heck, even maybe just for crack or aesthetics.

And in the end, that’s what fanfics are for. I’ll just continue bathing in all the Klance fanart ad fanfics.

Now see y’all, Imma go cry over my otps (mainly Klance and Asheiji) and cry more over Banana Fish (y’all should watch it, unless you’re easily triggered by certain things, better investigate the show before watching it BUT IT IS REALLY GOOD) and the fact that next week is the last episode and cry even more because I know what will happen but it will still absolutely destroy me.

Heck what about a Klance Banana Fish au in where Keith is Ash and Lance is Eiji, that would be the most angsty au ever, I like the idea, Imma do this, BE READY Y’ALL FOR THE ANGST WITH THE VLD KLANCE BANANA FISH AU TO COME, should I do it in space or rigth like BF?

[the-amaryka]

Unpopular Opinion:  I enjoyed season 8

So first, I’m mostly doing this to sort out my own feelings, but I DO think there are some things worth considering here.

To be clear, Enjoying something and thinking that something was perfect are different.  I enjoy plenty of things that are garbage and I do think this season had it’s fair share of flaws, but it’s not nearly as awful as some of ya’ll are ripping into it over.  In addition, regardless of if it is bad or not harassment of the creators is never justified.  EVER.  So if you feel the need to take out your frustrations on the cast/crew stop what you are doing then DON’T.

Sorry in advance if you’re on mobile cuz this is a long one under the read more.

Why I was able to enjoy it:

Three major things I always keep in mind going into a new season:

1.  Don’t watch it FOR the ship, enjoy the show for what it is.  I think the primary thing that has allowed me to enjoy each season is I try to watch it without shipping goggles.  At the end of the day, shipping is fun but it is for fandom and not the reason I’m watching the show, especially a show made for 7 year old boys.  

2.  I (along with most of the fandom on this website) am not the target audience for this show.  Voltron may be an abnormally good kids show, but it is still a kids show.  I have never walked into a season thinking that it is content made for me, and the things that are important to me just aren’t important enough to 7 year olds to have the time I want spent on them.  I have to be okay with that because as much as I would love to have a whole episode of Shiro really struggling with what it means to be a leader, and the weight of Adam’s sacrifice, the 7 year old this show was made for is going to be bored shitless and decide “I don’t want that Voltron toy for my birthday after all.”  So yeah, that is going to change the choices the crew makes when they create these episodes.

3.  This is a reboot.  Several different companies have BIG stakes in Voltron.  Things like LGBT rep are only going to go as far as ONE important old white man who thinks (insert your fave here) is straight.  Anybody who has followed me for more than 3 seconds knows I ship Sheith, but knowing how the entertainment industry works changed how I thought the direction of the series was going from day one.  If it was so hard for them to get even ambiguous ‘Takashi, how much do I mean to you’ when both Shiro and Adam are legally original characters, there is NO WAY the powers that be will allow them to gay up big names in the franchise like Keith or Lance.  For that reason I never expected a canon gay relationship between any of the main characters.  No Sheith, no Klance, no Pallura, no Hance.  I do believe it was important to the creators and they did they absolute best with what they had, but ultimately it was not their decision and a lot of ya’ll need to stop acting like you are performing some kind of holy service by harassing them about it.  They did their jobs as best they could and the fandom was pressuring them the whole time to make promises they didn’t know if they could keep.

For these reasons I was able to enjoy the new season for what it was: a reboot aimed toward children that I shouldn’t expect a primary romantic plot out of.  And honestly?  Thats what I got.  The only big romantic plot revolved around Lance and Allura and even that was only a handful of scenes.  I think the main problem with this fandom has always been people putting unrealistic expectations on a show that wasn’t aimed at them.  Why people chose to put all of their expectation eggs in the Voltron basket specifically is beyond me, and frankly a bit unfair to the people who made it.  But we don’t have to get into that right now.

Things that I enjoyed:

1.  Hunk is best boy.  I loved his and Lance's friendship shining through and when he turned into team mom.  Some highlight include:  “It’s happening tonight, young man!” “I’m sorry I yelled at you.  I’ll make you dog treats later.”  When he made that Altean dessert because he is so sweet and knows how to bring people together.  What a star, what a diplomat, what a fine, fine man. 2.  BaBy LoToR 3.  Seeing all the paladins in their under armor.  I would feel robbed because Shiro was left out but the entire series has been Shiro fan service so I’m not even mad. 4.  VERONICA AND AXCA BONDING?  NICE.  Didn’t expect to ship them?  I do.  Nice. 5.  Everything about Day Fourty-Seven.  A filler episode I genuinely enjoyed.  MY only wish is we could have gotten Keith and Krolia in an interview together and she went out of her way to embarrass him like “while we were in the Quantum Abyss-” “Mom, why are you doing this to me?” “I have 20 years of Mothering to catch up on, young man.” 6.  Shiro feeling like a bad ass and looking cool during the arm wrestling competition.  What a good. 7.  This was really Allura’s season, wow, what a queen. 8.  Keith giving Lance a bunch of pep talks and opening up to become not only a good leader but a good friend. 9.  Keith YELLING at the Zarkon mech because he had leadership responsibility feels. 10.  I did not expect to have FEELINGS over seeing young Zarkon. 11.  Honerva’s motivations were honestly....so honest.  So realistically human, you know?  It seems so fitting that this whole thing began with a rift into another reality, and a broken family.  And it ended with a rift into another reality, and that family finally being able to be at peace.  That is the theme that has been following us form the beginning: family.  And even the final villain just wanted to fix the damage that had been done to hers.  Though I do feel like her turnaround was a little quick, I can forgive it for kinds show reasons. 12.  Allura getting to hug Alfor again. 13.  Lance getting the stamp of approval from the dad. 14.  Speaking of which, even I thought the Allurance scenes were pretty cute despite not being a huge fan of the ship. 15.  The character development that is evident.  If you compare all these characters to who they were in E1S1 they are all vastly different.  The only exception to this is Coran, though I do feel like Allura’s is mostly internal and she has a way of conducting herself that can make it difficult to perceive. 16.  I am VERY SAD about Allura dying...but you know what?  I think this ending actually suited her.  I don’t think she would be satisfied withotu making a grand reality wide sacrifice.  She restored Altea, and returned into the fabric of space-time itself with her family.  This has been being foreshadowed since Season 1 to be honest.  She is always taking risks and wanting to keep moving and bettering things.  She is perfect and we don’t deserve her and in my heart she is the goddess of reality itself. 17.  The scene where the lions all came to life and flew away, and then that lovely art of them going into the rift.  I really think they went back to Allura, and the next time the Universe needs Voltron, it will be her spirit leading the way.  And honestly?  I don’t think she would want it any other way. 18.  The MFE Pilots grew on me... 19.  MMMMMBIG ROBOT PRETTY 20.  We got Shiro and the rest of the paladins piloting all together again. 21.  ALMOST Galra Emperor Keith.

The things I didn’t think were great:

1.  What the fuck happened to Ezor’s voice?  She only said one word and I thought she was dying? 2.  Keith and Shiro like...didn’t even talk.  And even without shipping goggles that just seems wrong to me.  Their bond has been one of the points the story has turned on.  We got all the build up but none of the payoff.  No shoulder touches, no ‘I’m proud of you, Keith’, none of the usual friendship or dynamic they usually have with each other.  It felt kind of empty honestly :(  And whats more is...Keith has been sacrificing and fighting and loving Shiro for 7 seasons now, and Shiro never got to repay him.  Like he wasn’t in his hospital room when he woke up and nobody can fucking tell me when Shiro said “spend time with the people you love” Keith wouldn’t be spending time with Shiro.  It just....feels so dissatisfying to see one of the major emotional bonds in the show not even be acknowledged in the end.  It makes everything Keith worked for feel...not...there.  Like what did all that mean in the end?  As many times as it takes but he gives and gives and gives and the only one who returns what he gives is Krolia.  It used to be Shiro returned it too, but now...  Even without it being romantic, their relationship was done a dirty.  I didn’t need canon Sheith I just needed some kind of acknowledgement that all the suffering they endured was worth it.  I wanted to see them happy. 3.  Despite what I said above I am sad Allura is gone. 4.  Shiro was hardly in the season at all actually :((((((((((((((((((( 5.  Yeah, as cute as the scenes were I’ve never felt Allura and Lance have a chemistry that makes their relationship sit well with me.  But I guess it was necessary to show how Lance has matured as a person.  I always thought they have the POTENTIAL for chemistry but it’s always fallen short for me.  Allura just takes her life too seriously and her walls never actually came down enough for me to see a connection there. 6.  James and Keith never like...talked?  I would have liked for them to have had a reconciliation like Keith and Lance did. 7.  Lack of Krolia. 8.  Something was off about Kolivan’s voice 9.  TBH, I feel like The real fulfillment for Keith’s arc would have been his teammates encouraging and lifting him up as well.  Display his emotional availability which was completely closed off at the start.  I feel like they may have just dropped the ball on a couple of character’s arc resolution but...eh.  You gotta pick and choose what to focus on when you have an ensemble cast, and 7 year olds just aren’t always interested in that. 10.  Woulda been nice to get a bit more detail on the nature of the rift creatures and some more clarity for a through line from the beginning thousands of Years ago to now.  Along with that exactly what kind of entity IS Voltron itself?  A lot of seeds planted that made a half attempt at being resolved but weren’t quite clear enough to create something cohesive. 11.  I can’t put my finger on why but overall it just feels...Incomplete.  Like there is still a pit in my stomach that doesn’t feel satisfied by the ending.  I’m not sure how much of that is the season itself, and how much is I’ve been involved in this show for nearly 2 years and it’s hard to let go, especially on something that doesn’t quite feel like going out with a bang.

Highly unpopular opinion in my neck of the woods:

That wedding at the end?  I’m happy about it.  Do I think its bad writing to marry off one of your main five to a rando we don’t even know the name of?  Yes.  Am I annoyed that the fandom was SO awful and so accusatory toward the showrunners they felt the need to shoehorn in a last minute wedding because they honestly felt bad when the truth is this has always been a glorified ship war?  MEGA YES.  They shouldn’t have felt like they had to make this bad writing decision on the behalf of fans who have treated them and their efforts like shit.  Shame on the people who treated them this way.  They tried so FUCKING hard to give us something and ya’ll threw it away and called them evil.  I get how you feel but damn why don’t YOU try to make social change happen in the entertainment industry and see how well your LGBT paradise vision goes over when there are dozens of other people with a say.  (I could go on about how poorly that was handled on both ends, but that is another point altogether.)

More than anything, I’m happy that some 7 year old kid who LOVES the badass Captain Takashi Shirogane is going to see him get married on screen and kiss a MAN.  Like holy shit, that is HUGE.  Do I think it could have been written better?  Absolutely.  But This show wasn’t made for me it was made for the 7 year kid out there is going to think “Shiro kissed a boy, maybe I’m not weird for wanting to kiss boys” and THAT is what Representation in children’s media is all about.  I’m going to celebrate this and everything else related to Shiro’s LGBT status because what matters to me way more than ships or satisfying romantic arcs is maybe when my little nephew sees his favorite character is gay he will be a little more open and comfortable when I bring my girlfriend to family dinner.

I think it would do the fandom (especially the Sheith shippers) some good to step back, take off their shipping goggles, and recognize this for the stride in Children’s media that it is. That being said I’m gonna be reading and writing the fix-it fics along with the rest of you, because fandom and how I enjoy the show can be whatever I want.

The conclusion and why I still love Voltron:

You know what?  Yes I felt a little let down by the writing, but Voltron is one of the first fandoms I’ve been so involved in and I have had such wonderful experiences while enjoying this show.  I’m never going to let some dissatisfaction ruin this for me.  The nice thing about fandom, is I can enjoy my version of the show however I want it, and it doesn’t have to effect how I feel about canon at all.  And when I take off my fandom goggles, this season was actually pretty enjoyable.

I encourage anybody who has enjoyed the show up to this point to put your bitterness aside and do what you’ve been doing from the start.  Create some content, consume some content, ship what you want, and don’t you dare let anybody ruin this for you.  You have good memories with this show, keep them good and move froward.

Peace out my dudes, I’m gonna be hanging out in Sheith hell for at least another 6 months.

It was an honor flying with you all.

[riverlovesyou1]

Voltron: An evaluation(spoilers) pt. 1

Written: December 15th 2018 4:18 AM

Can I just say a few things?

This season was unbelievably bad. I’m not even sure how I’m supposed to feel. But there were so many good things that came out of this show. this season had good moments. We should not avoid those good things.

They really did us in huh? Endgame Allurance wasn’t real. Allura died. OUR Princess, our Empress, is dead. Can you really believe that?  I can’t. Klance that was given hints at and parallels for ALL 8 seasons. Lance is basically not allowed to e happy. He really went through Voltron with no arc. He really went through all of that for nothing. He got what? a romance that ended as soon as it started? Lotoura couldn’t even e redeemed. They could have done something. They really ended it in the worst possible way. Fuck the ships though.

Shiro, Kuro, Narti, Lotor, Ezor, Adam, Lance, Keith, Honerva, Zarkon, and Allura all either died, was willing to sacrifice themselves, or was brought back to life.

Shiro was tortured, mangled, traumatized. He had PTSD.  He was fucking cloned. I don’t get it. He already went through so much. Why did he have to DIE? And not only that! His soul was fucking captured by black and he probably had to watch the paladins suffer and he couldn’t do anything. His soul was transferred into a body that was his clone and IT STILL TRIED TO REJECT HIM. I’m sorry that the only openly gay main character couldn’t be fucking happy. He was gay. He was engaged to a man. He married a man(even if we know NOTHING about him). He was done so wrong. Shiro is such a good character but after his arc, after him leaving his position of the black lion, his character felt forced and didn’t really have a point to be there at all.

Kuro is a clone. There are so many Shiro clones but he got to live with the paladins. He got to grow as a true Shiro in his own way. Yes, he was never quite Shiro but he was apart of him. He loved the paladins. I truly believe this. He got to see them as a family. They were his family. And in his last moments, as he struggled to control himself, you could see him fight. He didn’t want to hurt them. He wanted to keep them safe. Hell black let him pilot her. I don’t get it. They killed him. He’s dead. He had to fight Keith. And that hurt the most. He tried so hard to connect to Lance but Honerva/Hagger stopped it. (refer to lance’s paragraph) His body was stolen to contain the real Shiro's soul. It’s devastating.

Narti is Lotor’s blind general that could only see through a cats eyes, not her own. Narti did nothing wrong. She was loyal to Lotor. She hadn’t rebelled against him, the cat did. It holds a deep sadness that she was killed. It wasn’t her fault, Lotor shouldn’t have killed her.

Lotor was put through the most crap(alongside Shiro). He was neglected by his parents as a child. He was abused by his parents. That’s hard to live with. He’s biracial and that made him struggle so very hard to try to find love. His Altean side leads him to his mother's things, lead him to find the altean’s and make a colony for them. Yes, he took them and used them for quintessence but he could have been redeemed. He could have been taught what true love was. And he was. That's the worst part. He had changed. He changed. The only reason he went into the quintessence and went mad was that the paladins began to distrust him. If Keith had never shown up and told them about the colony, would he have gone mad in the first place?

Ezor is not proven to be a lesbian but it’s quite obvious that she and Zethrid are together. The thing about her is that its confusing. We all thought she died. The way Zethrid began to talk about Ezor in season 8 made it seem like she died, but then moments later she comes out. She’s alive. I can not express my relief at seeing her. But she should have never been thought to have been dead. 

Adam. He is Shiro’s ex-fiance and had no significance in the series at all other then he was Shiro’s lover. It didn’t change Shiro’s character at all. All it did was make queer baiting happen and gave the LGBT+ false rep. This isn’t the first time that the #BuryYourGays trope has been shown but it is one of the first times that a fandom has taken it by stand and Stood their ground because it was unjustified. He wasn’t even in the series for a full minute. It’s just sad that they did this to a character that should have significance but doesn't.

Lance is such a sad character. I’m not just talking about how his girlfriend of less then a week died. I’m talking about his character as a whole. He starts off with a one-sided rivalry with this guy that barely acknowledges him and as he proves himself to Keith they begin to get close. They grow into being the closest friends. They have a bond so similar to one that would be romantically coded and yet, their friendship ends there. That's it. No advancements. Lance died for the team and was revived by Allura. I found this so odd. Why would they make him die all of a sudden just to have allura revive him and then never address it? He’s insecure. I love lance. He's relatable and he worries just as much as Hunk does but in a different way. He shows concern about allura throughout the series, talks to the mice about how he loves allura but when allura finds out, it's obvious she doesn’t feel the same way. She chose Lotor. She loved Lotor, not Lance. What worse is that other than the first season, the lions switch, and season 8, they never really seemed to communicate other than in battle. They never joked around. Nothing. The only reason he died was so that allura could save him and then they could have at least one thing that point to romance. But there is no chemistry there.

Keith is my favorite character. But I’m not gonna lie he was an asshole in certain parts of the show. I know he was going through a lot with finding himself and finding his mom, but that's no excuse for the way he spoke to the other characters. But his near death scene was stupid. You might be thinking “no it wasn’t” but it was. It was vital that he take the shot, sacrificing his life. But he didn’t get the chance. Someone else shot at Zarkons ship and he was let go. Keith tried to die. And then what? Nothing. Lance and Keith both nearly died. Both never got a chance to talk about it. It's really sad. 

Honerva is such an important character. Are you shocked she’s on this list? Well don’t be She was redeemed. She had a redemption arc. Her arc was bigger than Lance’s! Common now. In the beginning all she does is cast some spells and work with quintessence but then you meet Lotor and you can tell she slowly growing her memories back, slowly becoming Honerva and not Hagger any more. She’s the villain we all wanted Lotor to be. The only thing was: It was too late. she had already caused too much damage. Honerva wasn’t a bad person. She went insane. It wasn’t her fault. Yes, she ruined the realities but there should have been a spell to change everything back. Even if that spell required her to die in the end. It should have been her alone and not allura as well.

You might be even more surprised that I put Zarkon on this list. Zarkon was a very important villain as well. But honestly, in the end, he wasn’t the villain. In the end, it was Hagger. Zarkon was once good. He loved Honerva so much, wanted Lotor to live so much, that he took her to the quintessence. He knew it would save her. He never knew the price for it would be. They all died from quintessence. Zarkon, Honerva, Allura, and Lotor. They all died in quintessence. They died the moment they stepped in there. Zarkon was good and he went bad quickly. He was power hungry. He didn’t even know how he was meant to live anymore.

Allura is the one that hurt the most. She’s a beloved character. She did nothing wrong. She tried to keep her life on track and she did an okay job at being the Empress/Princess of a planet and race that(at the time)  no longer existed. It’s crazy to think that she died for no reason. She died for a reason, but she wasn’t meant to die. Not yet. Not now of all times. Why did they kill her? I asked this probably a million times after I watched it. I looked in the mirror after crying for hours over this and I’m asking myself, “why?” But its pretty simple as to why. They needed a reason to end it. They needed a way that made sense to make all the realities come back and to not have it all ruined, but at the cost of her life? It just made no sense to me why Allura had to die of all people.

Idk guys this series has kept me in high spirits till now, but Right at this moment, I feel dead. They killed me and I’m not sure how I’ll recover from this one. And don’t tell me it was “just a show” because it was more than that. This was a cartoon made for 7-year-olds and up and they’re going to watch this and they’re gonna think that most of that are healthy. They’re going to watch Lotor kill Narti and think stabbing your friends in the back is okay. They’re going to watch Lotor and Zarkon and see how Zarkon doesn’t acknowledge him for the good he’s done. There’s not going to be a good memory with this show. I wish I could remember the good in these moments, but it’s all numb. I’m sorry for everyone who suffered as they watched this show. I thought I was ready. I thought I could handle it. I was wrong. We were all wrong. Nobody got a happy ending.

I’m glad Zethrid and Ezor worked things out though. They’re the only ones I feel happy for with the last season.

[coffeerebagels]

Tbh I'm legit disappointed Klance isn't canon

After reading the tittle many people will come to me complaining and shouting "VOLTRON ISN'T ABOUT SHIPS, GO DIE", I guess. But you know what? I have the fucking right to be disappointed by something and express my opinion, so if you don't like it, scroll away.

LONG POST WARNING!

Now onto the post. I'm really sad Klance isn't canon guys, and I mean, really disappointed.

When I was watching S7, I stopped right after the scene Allura blushes to Lance and I couldn't finish the season. I still haven't finished and probably never will. That scene just made me so sick, I couldn't understand why at that moment but now I see it.

It's because, it's such a harmful trope. Allura is liking Lance just because he was nice to her, not because they share interests or characteristics, neither because they make a great team. It's only due to Lance being a nice guy to her, and that's it. And, even if Allurance was executed better, I still wouldn't like it and you guys know why?

Because they're nothing alike each other. They're not compatible, these two are so different in terms of goals, ways of thinking and even what they enjoy doing that, seeing these two get together felt so wrong to me, and I felt so sick. I still feel sick about it. I think it's mainly because A//urance reminded me a lot of my first relationship and, as someone who dated a guy just because he was my friend and was nice to me, I can assure you guys these kind of relationships don't work. There's just so much more about romance, and constructing romantic subplots in stories, that building only a good friendship just isn't enough. So, I can only imagine Lance and Allura's relationship falling apart.

But I guess they won't do that, right? They'll still make this unrealistic couple happily ever after. Such a weird move for a show that claims to be realistic and dark and, how do they say, "about war" or stuff.

Now, moving on and onto the real discussion, Klance. Klance was my first LGBT ship, and I can say it changed my entire view about LGBT in general. I simply started liking them without knowing how to stop XD I guess many Klance shippers feel the same. But, it was mainly because they worked so well together. I saw those fanarts and those metas and those theories, and Keith and Lance as a romantic couple grew so naturally on me. I could see their potential and how each other could benefit from a romance, disregarding gender. But why I liked them so much in detriment of other canon couples you guys ask?

The answer is simple, they build one of the most compatible relationships of the entire show. Both share similar interests (becoming pilots), both are right hand mans, revealing their common characteristics (besides them constantly mirroring each other, showing their similarity), and their opposite differences complement each other, specially in team work, as this is shown by the show itself, and even with a clear statement by loverboy Lance himself, "we are a good team"

To make a good romantic relationship is to go beyond making a good friendship. Friendships don't exaclty mean relationships. Both Allura and Lance and Keith and Lance had great friendships, but the aspects I mentioned above are what make a friendship go beyond that into building a romantic chemistry. And Allura and Lance simply don't have that. They don't complement each other.

But I guess boy and girl friendships automatically means love... *sigh* And the showrunners made that very clear by developing Allura and Lance's friendship exactly the same way Keith and Lance's friendship was developed, but for some reason the first one is considered romantic progress... *shrugs*

So, I legit thought Klance would be canon. I legit thought they would be a surprise.

Because, aside from them making the most sense out in the show, the producers and voice actors kept teasing about it. Remember the drawing from LM, where they made Lance holds the LGBT sign with a nervous expression alongside Shiro? (Now that we know he's straight it feels so wrong...) Remember that interview where she straight up recongnises how compatible Keith and Lance are? (Meaning they saw the potential, but decided to go towards A//urance regardless) And how about that recent interview entirely about Klance where JDS said they are a natural progression? And right after that, telling about a similar dinamic in another series where the characters that parallel Klance eventually get together? And let's not talk about the fanarts they liked.

To sum it up, I legit thought they were teasing Klance like it would really be canon. And fans can't be blamed for it. The producers never acknowledged it, sure, but AL wasn't acknowledged but them either. It's funny cause, I trusted the EPs so much and A//urance seemed so out of the blue to me that I completely disregarded the possibility of them being canon. And to top it all they made all that teasing I mentioned above, allowing a second interpretation that KL would really be the path.

*sigh* I'm very disappointed. Not only did they fuck up with the romance subplots (with the exception of Hunay, but it was barely touched upon until S7) and LGBT rep, but only now I noticed how flawed and shallow was their story and how much character potential we lost. So I'm legitimately upset. They could've handled the whole shipping thing so much better. They could have at least clarified it wasn't going to be canon, but nope, they teased it instead.

But guys, these people are smart. Or do you think they wanted to lose over half their fanbase and popularity? They knew Klance was very very very popular.

So they used us as bait for their show instead.

So yeah, that's it. I'm just really disappointed by the show. I've become such a fan of it because of its characters, and Klance changed my view of things so much, but guess what? The characters weren't properly explored and developed, this including the relationships between them, and Keith and Lance's friendship wasn't fleshed out the way I personally thought it should have been. They composed one of the best team dinamics within the show, so even if they haven't made then love each other, I at least expected a proper development of their friendship.

That is all. I just wanted to vent my entire view about Voltron's romance subplots. In general, I think they suck. And the overall plot doesn't make it better either, since now it's mostly composed of emotionless fights, lack of character interaction, and use of flat drama for shock value.

And yes, I really think Klance had the potential to be one of the most amazing romances in cartoons, regardless of being gay or not.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.