#vlds8

[cockybusiness]

Space Uncle! Shiro feat. Keith’s children (and Keith!)

(themes: implied komelle, divorced! Shiro, post s8 compliant)

[khayart]

Mah theory/parallels about end of Voltron

warning: this has klance, but not just klance, it has some cool curiosities, if you don't want to read about klance, you can stop at "Here klance starts", and I'm not an animation expert or anything, just a fangirl shipper sad that he didn't get over a show that ended almost 2 years ago and that he noticed some things, and yes, i use traductor, so, sorry for the bad english.

Okay, I didn't see any blogs talking about it, so I decided to write. At this point I think that almost everyone already knows the theory / parallel between Allura and Bob about their silhouettes in the stars.

and that led to the theory that Allura didn’t die, but became someone as omnipotent as Bob (this isn’t a theory of mine, but someone else I don’t remember where I read it, sorry, if anyone knows where I got it, please leave us comments). My theory is based on this and parallels between this episode and the end of the show.

Parallels

First we have the vote from Allura to Pidge, Pidge integrates teludav (which is an Altean technology) with Earth technology, thus continuing what Alfor and Allura built.

Pidge's vote for Hunk, who in the end becomes a diplomat who "brings everyone together in the universe".

Hunk's vote for Allura, who became a leader (says Coran).

Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4

[stephstaub]

“Lance.. I’m okay.” Lance is just worried about his boyfriend

That fight would’ve left them exhausted  since there was low oxygen levels on that planet.

[zuspacey]

and then there were none (who stood up for him)

[lemongogo]

ANYWAYS... allura’s off rebuilding the universe as altea’s new queen :3c

[peachypidge]

I miss Voltron so much! :’(

[average-trickster]

Feels like a goodbye

[gendice]

If anyone should’ve died it should have been the Voltron writers’ careers. 

[violethowler]

A VLD Production Timeline

A common view I often see expressed in the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom is that the production of the series was rushed. This stems from the fact that the entire series was released on Netflix within two and a half years, with as little as 2 months passing between new seasons dropping on Netflix. In debates among the fandom regarding the legitimacy of the final season being the showrunners’ true endgame, this timetable has been used to argue that the season couldn’t have been edited in such a short period and was therefore the creative team’s plan all along. I would like to address this point, but in order to do that, I first need to correct some common misconceptions about the pace of VLD’s production. 

What a lot of people may not realize is that an animated TV episode is produced up to a year or more before the audience ever sees it on their screens. Netflix broke up the seasons the way they did in order to get audiences “more Voltron more often, so we don’t have to wait so long between each drop[1],” but this doesn’t mean that the episodes were being made in an equally short time-span.

While Netflix chose to release Voltron episodes over the course of two years, production began between April and June of 2014[2][3], and by the time Season 1 dropped on June 10, 2016 production had been completed up to at least Season 4[4]. 

On average, the production of an animated series is typically 1-3 years ahead of the episodes that are broadcast. 

For example, work on Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2005[5], but the first episode of Season 1 did not air on Cartoon Network until 2008.

The DuckTales reboot premiered in 2017 but production started back in 2015[6]. 

The development of an animated show is generally broken up into three stages

Pre-Production: Scripts are written and finalized. Character and layout designs completed. Storyboards made for each episode to plan out shots. 

Production: Episodes are voice acted and then animated once voicing is finished.

Post-Production: Music and sound effects added. Individual scenes stitched together into a complete episode. Color correction done as needed. 

Due to the different tasks involved there is a great deal of overlap where different episodes or even seasons are being worked on in different stages of the process at the same time. For example, at the same time that the Legend of Korra was doing post-production for Season 2, production of Season 3 was already underway and Season 4 was entering pre-production at the same time[7]. The production of Star Wars: The Clone Wars followed a similar pattern, with pre-production of what would have been Seasons 7 and 8 being underway while Season 6 was being animated at the time of the show’s initial cancellation. Here’s a chart to help visualize what the process generally looks like: 

[A huge thank you to @CrystalRebellion for putting this chart together] 

Another thing that some fans may not be aware of is that there is a difference between a broadcast season and a production season. Episodes of an animated show are produced in batches that do not always correspond to how they are presented to the audience. For example, episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars were produced in batches of 25-26, but the first four seasons to air on Cartoon Network were only 22 episodes each. In every season there were an average of 3 episodes that had been created as part of a separate batch[8]:

Voltron: Legendary Defender was contracted with Netflix for a total of 78 episodes. Though they were released as 8 seasons (6 13-episode arcs), they were produced in batches of 26. Seasons 1-2 on Netflix are considered Production Season 1. Seasons 3-6 are Production Season 2. And Seasons 7-8 are Production Season 3. This fits with the voice actors for the MFE pilots - who were introduced in Season 7 - mentioning in an interview with Let’s Voltron podcast that the lines they recorded for their characters were supposed to be for the third season[9]. 

At some point during the production of Seasons 7-8, changes were ordered to the season that resulted in more work for the animators, resulting in the creation of S7E04 The Feud as a filler episode with limited animation to give the animation team a break. As a byproduct of this, some episodes ended up being moved around from the order they were originally intended[10]. 

So with all of this in mind, the timeline of VLD’s production looks roughly like this: 

2014

Writing begins for Production Season 1 (Netflix Seasons 1-2) between April and June

2015

Writing for Production Season 1 (Netflix Seasons 1-2) finished

Animation for Production Season 1 (Netflix Seasons 1-2) begins

Writing for Production Season 2 (Netflix Seasons 3-6) begins

2016

Animation for Production Season 1 (Netflix Seasons 1-2) finished

Writing for Production Season 2 (Netflix Seasons 3-6) finished

13 episodes of Production Season 1 released on Netflix in June as “Season 1” 

Animation for Production Season 2 (Netflix Seasons 3-6) begins

Writing for Production Season 3 (Netflix Seasons 7-8) begins

2017

13 episodes of Production Season 1 released on Netflix in January as “Season 2” 

Animation for Production Season 2 (Netflix Seasons 3-6) finished

Writing for Production Season 3 (Netflix Seasons 7-8) finished

Animation for Production Season 3 (Netflix Seasons 7-8) begins

7 episodes of Production Season 2 released on Netflix in August as “Season 3”

6 episodes of Production Season 2 released on Netflix in October as “Season 4”

Animation for first half of Production Season 3 (Netflix Season 7) finished

Changes ordered to first half of Production Season 3 (Netflix Season 7)

2018

6 episodes of Production Season 2 released on Netflix in March as “Season 5” 

7 episodes of Production Season 2 released on Netflix in June as “Season 6”

Changes to first half of Production Season 3 (Netflix Season 7) finished

Animation for second half of Production Season 3 (Netflix Season 8) finished

Kimberly Brooks and Jeremy Shada called back into the studio in July to record new dialogue

13 episodes of Production Season 3 released on Netflix in August as “Season 7”

The epilogue is created sometime in the fall

Screencaps of the epilogue are leaked on the internet in October

13 episodes of Production Season 3 released on Netflix in December as “Season 8” 

In June 2018, many of the show’s writers announced their departure from the production team. Because this occurred shortly after the last 7 episodes of the second production season were released on Netflix as Season 6, many assumed that this meant that the writers had no input on Seasons 7-8 and that this was the reason for the decline in the show’s writing quality. However this is observably false as the same writers who left are still credited in all episodes of the third production season. Most notably, Tim Hedrick is credited with S7E04 The Feud, one of the last episodes of Season 7 to be created. 

The changes that resulted in the creation of The Feud would have happened after the scripts for the final production season were already finalized. This means that once those new episodes were complete there was nothing left for the writers to do before the remaining episodes dropped on Netflix. That is when the writers left: after their role in the production process was officially over. Not right in the middle of it like so many assume. Their job was done, so there was no reason to stay. 

Critics of the #FreeVLDS8 campaign claim that those involved, particularly Team Purple Lion, are saying that the entire season was reanimated, which is incorrect. If that were the case, the animators at Studio Mir would not have been surprised at the season we got in December 2018. 

If you’re looking at this timeline and going “but there still wouldn’t be time for them to edit the season, you would be correct if you are only thinking in terms of new animation being created. Because if the editing of Season 8 was accomplished by new animation, there truly wouldn’t be enough time to make new animation for an entire season. And that’s because they didn’t. 

So if there was no new animation, how was the editing done?

Exhibit A:

[Sorry for the glare from the ceiling lights in my bedroom.]

It was done by cropping the split screens. Taking out pieces of episodes. Using stock photos and static images to put characters in shots they weren’t originally there for. Dos Santos even mentioned cutting and pasting mouths from one character to another[11]. He claimed at the time that it was specifically for the epilogue, but that’s impossible because with the exception of Shiro’s kiss there was no movement in the epilogue whatsoever. (I refer you to @dragonofyang’s piece on NDAs[12] for more on how those early 2019 interviews were misleading). The only “new” animation as casual fans think of it would be places where one character is traced over another in a few key shots that had to be left in to meet the required runtime and ensure that the final season met the minimum number of episodes mandated by their contract with Netflix. 

It is because there was no time to re-animate the entire season that Season 8 had as many visual and audio mistakes as it did. Post-production of the season would have already been finished by late June/early July of 2018. All the showrunners could do in the time they had was cut, paste, rearrange, and trace over in order to make sure this Frankenstein version of the season had at least the semblance of a coherent plot. 

This is why supporters of FreeVLDS8 are so confident that an uncut version of Season 8 exists. Because production was already over when the editing happened, and it was done in such a way that the odds are in our favor that Mir and Dreamworks would have backup files of the original episodes archived on a computer somewhere.

Sources: 

[1] Comic-Con 2017: Voltron Legendary Defender Season 3 is Only 7 Episodes But…; July 20, 2017. https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/20/comic-con-2017-voltron-legendary-defender-season-3-is-only-7-episodes-but

[2] Creating Voltron: Legendary Defender; June 10, 2016. https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/creating-voltron-legendary-defender/

[3] Tweet by Joaquim Dos Santos; October 12, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20200723131054/https://twitter.com/JDS_247/status/1050905860728213506

[4] Voltron Season 4 Episodes 1 & 2 Review w/ Joaquim Dos Santos, Lauren Montgomery, & Jeremy Shada; October 16, 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80SejQPuS9E&feature=youtu.be

[5] “starwars.com at Comic-Con 2005”; July 12, 2005.  https://web.archive.org/web/20080323023414/http://www.starwars.com/community/event/con/f20050712/indexp5.html

[6] DuckTales Cast Not Returning For Reboot; May 15, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150526071332/http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/news/Ducktales-Cast-Not-Returning-for-Reboot/

[7] Tumblr post by Bryna Konietzko; July 13, 2013.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130822050636/http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/55788253484/to-give-you-a-sense-of-just-how-long-it-takes-to 

[8] List of Star Wars: The Clone Wars episodes - wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars:_The_Clone_Wars_episodes

[9] Let’s Voltron, Episode 180: “MFE Pilots Interview with Anna Graves, Zehra Fazal & AJ LoCascio”; May 27, 2019. https://letsvoltron.simplecast.com/episodes/mfe-pilots-interview-with-anna-graves-z

[10] Voltron Legendary Defender Interview - The Garfle Warfle Snick Spectacular; October 24, 2018. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcJmq0sNGN4

[11] “Voltron Full Series Review with Showrunners in Studio”. Afterbuzz TV; March 4, 2019 www.youtube.com/watch?v=om_t8A99WJo

[12] From the Sock Puppet’s Mouth; March 27, 2019. https://www.teampurplelion.com/from-the-sock-puppets-mouth/ 

[keriossoul]

Can you belive that at the end of season 8 Lance wakes up next to his husband Keith and tells him all about this horrible nightmare he had where he was hetero and in love with their lesbian friend Allura? Wow, me neither. Great end tho

I wish

[littleaipom]

I can’t believe they actually animated a plot for Lotor as a paladin in Season 8 but we never got to see it T^T wanted to draw a purple paladin for myself

Yes, someone forcibly re-edited the last season post-production to remove Lotor from it, among other things. Read all About It Here (LONG post, but the most undeniable evidence is presented toward the mid-end)

[saik-ava]

and you’ve been here all along 

[freevlds8]

Was Season 8 of Voltron changed?

This masterpost gathers all the evidence indicating the technical weird aspects of Season 8, disregarding possible animation errors. It is not a post about theories of what happened or what’s the truth. By the end of this post, the goal is for you to form your own opinion.

The information gathered here was a collective work of many fans. If you know or found something relevant to this topic, please feel free to message us. We promise to respect the anonymity of those who give us more information. If by the end of this post, you believe something is wrong with Season 8, please consider signing this petition. Disclaimer: This blog condemns any hate towards the staff and creators of the show. Please channel your frustration to Dreamworks or Netflix.

Weird cuts and inconsistencies

Scenes from Episode 1 “Launch Date”

> First scene you have Keith, Lance, Allura. > Second scene you have Keith, Allura, Lance.

Scenes from Episode 5 “The Grudge”

> Audio description saying Zethrid points the gun at Shiro. (click to see the video)

> Audio description not acknowledging Ezor’s character. (click to see the video)

> Ezor is never acknowledged by other characters in these scenes.

> Ezor in season is voiced by Kimberly

Ezor’s voice from season 8 compared to Allura’s voice pitched up (click to see the video)

Ezor’s voice pitched down video (click to see the video)

> Zethrid’s “Trust Me” recycled from season 7 (click to see the video)

Scenes from Episode 8 “Clear Day”

> First scene you see the MFEs, Acxa, Veronica and “Curtis” in the background. > Immediately after, the next scene you have “Curtis” cheering for Shiro.

Scene from Episode 13 “The End is the Beginning”

> An important part of Shiro’s body seems to be missing.

"Curtis”

> Curtis’ name is only mentioned in subtitles

> “Man”

> "A brown hair guy” (click to see the video)

Audio description of Curtis being called Adam (click to see the video)

> “Atlas Crewmember”

The NYCC 2018 Poster

Curtis is the only character in a stock image pose.

The Wedding(s)

> First post related to the wedding is made by Ryu on September 13th.

> First leak of the wedding happens 22nd October

> Here’s a comparison of both weddings side by side: (Logos have been censored to prevent being taken down)

Barlee aka Carli Squitieri, a storyboard revisionist

10th August

> Ezor is dead

Credits of Episode 5 “The Grudge” (when Ezor shows up alive) with Barlee’s name on it

> Shiro being confirmed gay

11th August

> “They did what they could to patch it up”

Taekwonsonen’s tweets, a key animator from Studio Mir who worked on Voltron

> Twitter thread can be found here

Translation:

“After talking with a fan who honestly liked the show to the end, I thought about whether VLD was really that terrible enough to be spat on, with cool head.

I’m an animator. Not every animator likes what they’re working on. Some don’t even recognize what they worked on. If an animation is like a house, then animator is the one who does bricklaying. You can be proud of having made this house, but this house belongs to the designer.

Still, as a brick layer who built a house called Voltron, I am so proud and thankful of the series. Maybe if I hadn’t known anyone who cried and laughed along with the series, I wouldn’t be, but I’ve met people who thanked me personally, for laying the bricks. So I love this “house”, even though it isn’t mine.

So, if you ask me, if this house’s finishing touch is feeble, weird, and ‘the worst thing that ever happened’, especially compared to the magnificent, beautiful start, then yes. I agree completely.

But that ‘finishing touch’ is not a little thing. To me, every single brick of the last season is very upsetting. Everything else is good. No, everything else is wonderfully compatible and done very well.

But one small brick has such a different color with everything else, it’s disrupting the whole thing. It’s pulling out every little errors, even the ones I hadn’t noticed before, out in the open. Once again, this is only my opinion.

TBH, if I start rewatching the series from s1 and pick out little bits I don’t like, of course there will be. It’s only that they were so well made, even the errors looked compatible. Actually, I enjoyed watching season 8 to the end. Everyone tried their best and I sent lots of loves and thankyous to the creators. I want to make something like that. I wanted to make something like this, not only as a brick layer but as a designer too. I love this series so much.

The last brick shocked me so much, but still, at that point, I was like ‘that’s disappointing... but without it, it’s ok. They should’ve left it with open ending.’

Then I started talking with other fans, the people who loved and adored Voltron, the one who had high expectation of it. And I started agreeing with the. Yes. They are right. And I still think they are right. Passionate fans didn’t anything that isn’t true.

But on the other hand, is it okay to spit so much like this on the designer who didn’t know this last piece was going to fit so wrongly with the whole series? Maybe. You do you.”

Season Release Date Delayed? Why?

> Information linked to this Voltron shirt

> Text from this article

Lauren Montgomery

> Hours before season 8 premiered, Lauren requests fans to stay through the credits after the final episode, which shown the lions flying to Allura in the sky

> Lauren’s art for season 8

> Lauren’s quote from a video posted on youtube The video was originally deleted, but here’s a record

Quote from the video

“We knew where we wanted to head kind of early on, but then as things happened, and as shows progressed we started to realize that our visions were not the only visions going into this show. And where we thought we would end up was not always exactly how we were going to end up.

End of Voltron without the epilogue cards

We are stronger as a team.

Share this post and the petition through fandom and other fandoms!

[everdeenwayland]

but there’s something about us I wanna say, cause there something between us anyway. 

[lemongogo]

[peachypidge]

What if Pidge didn’t tell the team she was a girl?

“Pidge, Pidge!” Lance screamed running as fast as he could around the castle

“What do you want?” Pidge said coming out of their room

“I need to talk to you”

“Oh, sure, what’s wrong?”

“I- I’m, I’M GAY!”

“Oh, Lance, we suppo-”

“No, no, I don’t think you get it, I’M GAY FOR YOU, PIDGE GUNDRSON!”

“Oh... I-“

“I- I love you”

“Lance... I think we need to talk.”