#vld season eight

[13personalities]

sometimes I just want all those show production companies or whatever to just stop making new shows and stuff and like go back to some of the iconic shows that had a horrible ending and/or terrible season and just redo them. Grab a frickin time machine, blow something up, de-age a bunch of actors/actresses, acquire a new plot, revive some great author. I don’t really care, I just want the good shows to reign supreme

[inflammatoryfandomblog]

how bad was voltron, really? and what kind of bad is it? is it funny-bad like neo yokio, where you can just riff on it with friends, or is it frustratingly bad?

[pepplemint]

I don't know if I even dare post this but I actually reuploaded the Shallura animatic I did in 2016 after the first season of VLD, with the changes made after (unfortunately a bit of a stylistic mess). Kinda crazy it's been eight years.

[shiroallura]

anyway I'm once again saying that for anyone who was disappointed by VLD or wanted more for Shallura should check out The Dragon Prince on Netflix for

Multiple happy, developed, loving queer relationships that are also interracial and inter-abled, as well as two transgender characters and two nonbinary characters

Multiple disabled characters / characters who use and known Sign language who are all interesting with varying personalities

As well as a great, consistent, constantly evolving and over arching story with twists and turns who always return to their plotlines? And everyone gets their time to shine in the ensemble cast? With a great magic system? And detailed, developed, understandable and sometimes sympathetic but still asshole villains?

And for the Shallura, you get an overly sacrificial white haired elf girl who's so brave and sweet with an immense fear of failure and so much love in her heart despite all her grief, because you get characters who actually Talk about their feelings and what they're going through?

and an Asian guy who would Literally do anything for her and is haunted by his predecessor, and determined carve out a new place in the world for himself, and is so optimistic and loving while also not losing his edges? Possession, brainwashing, for best sweetest most selectively loyal boy?

and they're canon, like written in the stars + so much tenderness and trust + more than eight smooches canon, while still being best friends and working through their differences and no matter how mad they get they still always look out for and trust one another? yeah

There's also deep lore and varied loving but complex sibling dynamics and Beautiful animation and backgrounds and so much more I can't get into with big spoilers, but the latest season just came out and I cannot recommend it enough!!

also the fandom doesn't have ship wars, so... If you wanna learn more if this would be up your alley please shoot me a message here and/or at my actual TDP sideblog, @raayllum

[avidbeader]

I think a lot of Sheith fandom has noticed that there’s a sizable Korean contingent, still going strong even a few years after the show ended. And in doing the Great Sheith Reblog, I may have stumbled across one reason. I wanted to check the release dates and verify the time between S4 and S7 in an addition to someone’s observations, and I found this. I don’t remember seeing the last column before:

Now, I’m sure there were plenty of international fans watching on the North America schedule through sneaky means, if they weren’t waiting on their own country’s Netflix or other provider. But look at how it got delivered: three seasons instead of six eight. The first two seasons establishing the Sheith relationship as stronger and deeper than everyone else only to take Shiro away as a cliffhanger. The middle section with Project Kuron and culminating with the Black Paladins arc. And then nearly a full year later, the final drop and the unraveling. For any fans that weren’t as plugged into the online fandom, who didn’t know VLD before or only heard about it second-hand, the Sheith excitement would have built and crested during 2019-2020. And that may definitely be a factor in the staying power of Sheith approaching five years after the show’s original ending, given how many new Sheith fans talk about seeing amazing art online and looking for the source.

[velkynkarma]

I’ve been rereading Parallel by Proxy recently (just got an ao3 account and immediately made it the first series I bookmarked), and it occurred to me that we never see the actual moment the team and Ryou find out he’s a clone— we get a description of it when Shiro is waking up from the coma, but it starts in media res after that. Im curious how you imagined the moment of the reveal and the immediate aftermath (If you remember, I know Mirror Image is like seven or eight years old now? man that’s crazy! Which by the way, it’s so weird— in an GREAT way— to reread Mirror Image and see Ryou act like Shiro. It’s almost uncanny compared to how he comes into his own later on; it’s really interesting) Also, is there like an “add to playlist” sorta option for works? I’d like to organize all my old VLD gen favorites now that I finally (after like seven years lol) have an account!

Hey anon! Welcome to AO3 proper! Being able to bookmark things is amazing.

So I never actually wrote that "actual moment of discovery that this is in fact a clone of Shiro" moment because back when I actually was writing Parallel by Proxy, S4 had just come out. That meant 2 seasons already where fans suspected the returned Shiro was a clone, but we didn't have official confirmation yet. Everyone on the Kuron train had already written that scene, and I didn't really want to rehash it when I wanted to get into the actual horror elements of the story (i.e. Shiro being trapped in his own head and then the inverse side from the clone perspective).

At the time I wrote Mirror Image, there had also been no plans to turn it into a whole series with Ryou. Mirror Image was originally written for a Halloween-themed PlatonicVLDWeek event, so at the time I was just having fun writing spooky horror stories. The original crux of Mirror Image was supposed to be a mental horror story of a character thinking they're fine but getting messages to wake up. Ryou wasn't originally even supposed to be in it, but the clone theory worked well with the idea of Shiro constantly seeing himself telling himself to wake up, so Shiro's subconscious warnings to himself were upgraded to an actual other person trying to pull him out of the situation. Because of that, HOW Ryou got there wasn't really as important to the story as WHAT he was doing there, and I never felt the need to get into it.

After that when I decided to write more stories with Ryou and turn it into a series, he'd already been established as part of the team, so I just rolled with it from there.

How would it have actually gone? More or less how it's described as an afterthought, but with a lot of tension. "Shiro" would have realized after they lived through the Naxzela debacle that Haggar had arranged for them to be there somehow. He'd look into their data and their intelligence and eventually realize the changes and the nudges always came from him, but he didn't remember doing it. He'd start putting two and two together with some other facts that never lined up (why did Black teleport him into Galra hands? Why did he wake up on a table with too-long hair and a beard when he'd only been gone for a couple months? Why did he see another him on a table in his escape? What was the deal with that whole control blip with Black? Why did he always have those awful headaches? etc etc). Once he began to suspect, he'd bring it to the team honestly, because even if he's starting to realize he's behind all of this, he still cares for them, and he's horrified at the thought that he's the reason everyone could have died. The team does more in-depth digging once they know where to look, and...well. Shiro's not real.

There's probably a lot of mixed emotions at that point. They definitely would not have trusted "Shiro" at first, but he'd have been pretty compliant with their demands because he'd feel guilty and is in the middle of having an existential crisis about not being "real." They need him and his ability to lead and pilot though, so they eventually deal with any mental conditioning or control left in his head and grudgingly work with him to find Shiro and keep Voltron running. Even in Mirror Image, you can see everyone is kind of awkward with him at first, and he realizes he's more or less filling in for the real thing. He's helping them look for Shiro out of guilt and obligation, because he stole this person's life.

As for your other AO3-related question, I'm not sure what you mean about a playlist. But you can tag bookmarks, add comments or notes for yourself and others, and either leave them public or make them private. That would let you organize them on your end. I recommend against making "collections" as this can take control away from the writer (for this reason I never agree to let my works be put into collections when people ask).

Happy reading anon!

[headspacedad]

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

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

oh I SO get you!

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

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

[chibi-pix]

Okay. There’s a lot going on. But, for those who watched VLD, namely season eight, you may recall Katie there seeing the past/memories on Olkarion to find out what happened to it. Well, sometimes that hits my mind and I wanted to work with that for her in a VF siblingverse setting.  And. Letting her see the past in some areas.  So, while rewatching Five Forged, episode 19, of Voltron Force, I was thinking of the forge and the blacksmith. And what if walking around there, Katie starts seeing glimpses of the past, including the blacksmith, before/around when Voltron was created? I don’t think Pidge realizes his sister is seeing these things. Perhaps she hasn’t told him yet? Because I feel like she already knows this is a thing, not consistent, but it’s probably happened a few times prior, but mainly/only on Olkarion. Just thoughts, though.

Anyway, I hope y’all enjoyed this one. Until next time!

Also! Because I saved them to show a friend how I draw, I figured I’d show you my methods of getting to this point. At least a bit. So, that’ll be in the cut below.

Here we go! Doesn’t show the background or shading stuff, but!

Programs that work with layers are a godsend and a blessing. Because this shit takes a lot of layers in the end. 

Well, I hope y’all enjoy!

[gooddayfellowgays]

I’m in a mood to fight some fangirlies so welcome to...

THE CIRCULAR HELL THAT IS FANDOM!!! (a mini essay)

yes I’m taking this too seriously shut up.

When I was about 12 I had a surgery that got infected and was put on bedrest for 6 months, right up until my birthday. For a lonely 12 year old there was nothing better to do than catch up on a show my bestie suggested and browse Wattpad tags about it. And that show was Voltron. 

For anyone who doesn’t know, Voltron was a kids animated show that ran for two years and six months, with EIGHT seasons. EIGHT! It was my first proper fandom and if I had to describe the environment in one word, it would be unsupervised. The show itself was a simple space opera/ comedy.  It was fun, it was quirky and it gained a following really, really, quick. 

Because of how quickly the fandom built itself (and the fast release dates) Voltron became a hot bed for the worst sorts of discourse. Now I’m 1000% sure there was extra context from where these people came from before that would give some explanation but I’m only aware of this; A toxic mix of older fans harassing others and younger fans learning from them led to fans actively harassing a voice actor to the point they had security protecting them at cons. More than usual.  

But before I tell you that story; we must know what led up to it. What convinced fans to harass this poor actor? Well.

Within vld (Voltron) there was this huge shipping war  between Klance and Sheith. All you really need to know about those too is that a character named Keith was involved in both of them and there is only one Keith. The actor shipped Sheith. And Klance shippers had been harassing Sheith shippers for as long as they both lived. If you look at any posts from back then you can see just how violent the threats got. 

This actor shipped Sheith. And I still remember the open letters big name fans posted begging people to treat the actor like a person. 

But then Voltron ended in the worst way possible (honestly, look it up) just before my 13th and suddenly a whole bunch of disillusioned fans need somewhere to go, to try and heal.  And where did they go? 

She-ra and Dragon Prince. 

I really recommended watching the Choledoesthings seires on voltron to get an idea of what the fandom was like during its running and after. 

Now heres the circular part. The older fans came from places like Miraculos Ladybug, Hamilton ect. all the bad ones. And then they went to anime and queer kids shows (qks) fandoms, keeping there bad habits and teaching newbies how to act and, in the end, causing the burgeoning toxicity in the Owl House fandom. 

I’m writing this just before  my 18th. I, like so many others my age, got pulled into the same set of QKS fandoms with barely a second thought. Except I watched two season of She-ra and saw it was doing the same thing vld did and got out before I got hurt. 

I like to think I learn’t from my experiences on Wattpad (and boy do I have some stories). Namely that I don’t argue with people on the internet about ships or fanfic or whatever. I keep to myself and if I don’t like something I suck it up. 

But I know for a fact, if you go far enough back on some Owl House fans accounts, you’ll find VLD. Everytime. 

This is the problem. Fandom is great, but only if we work to maintain it. Personally, I'm probably gonna bail on the Owl House if things keep getting worse. But I really don’t want too. I’m going to keep my little buble as it is and recommend you do too. 

Stay safe out there loves. And remember, ships aren’t worth the harassment 

[42-because-why-not]

It has been one year since the end of Voltron.

[sasusoul]

Will I ever stop being salty? Probably not

[bravepaladinsedits]

If Shiro had his standard hair color and haircut

From @/bravepaladins on Instagram

[huffleduffle]

kinda funny how the other paladins had a lil self discovery journey while Keith thought he had lost his team & was living through one of the worst moments of his life

[spideypop]

fix it fic writers to s8:

[bluedestinyuwu]

[madeofstardust17]

You guys know what would've been awsome?

Season 8 ends. The screen turns white. And then, a voice.

"I don't like it" Bob says, his fingers intertwined as he watches the screen. He grins

"We can do better"

He snaps his fingers

"Again"