vlegendaryd - Tumblr blog

[vlegendaryd]

My son (7) wanted to cosplay Keith in his Paladin form for Momocon this year. He wound up winning in the costume contest! Thanks to all the awesome people who made him feel so loved and appreciated. ❤️

His page is over at: http://Facebook.com/thecosplaykid

[vlegendaryd]

person at the garrison: who are those three over there?

person number two : them? oh, they’re kind of like the garrison’s very own golden trio. all of them are scary smart.

person number three: pidge is a complete tech wizard, and i’ve heard that hunk once made a robot using only a magnet, a cracker, some toothpaste and his left sock.

person number two: lance is a different kind of smart, but don’t let his flirty attitude fool you. that dude is a wicked strategist, and can think incredibly fast in tense situations.

person number one: oh wow. they sound pretty intimidating.

person number three: yeah. i’d probably be terrified if i had to hold a conversation with them.

meanwhile, at the garrison trio table

hunk, who has been staring at his peas in a trance-like state for the past ten minutes: do you guys ever think about how peanuts are just nutty peas? i mean, they basically have the same…hardware structure?

pidge, mumbling to herself: peanut hardware. peaware. hardnut. nut hard.

lance, laughing so much that the water he previously drank comes out of his nose: ohmygod you said nutty, pidge he said nutty and i’m dying-

[vlegendaryd]

CAN I HAVE UHHHH FUCKIN BADASS LANCE PLEASE btw your blog actually gives me butterflies thank for being grate

ohhh thank you so much :’) 

when lance shoots a couple of galra soldiers in rapid succession he always grins and blows away invisible smoke from his gun. the team are secretly impressed but make a big show of rolling their eyes

he can shoot multiple fast-moving targets 

shiro: ‘ok team, the galra on this base are going to try and stop us’ lance: ‘ha. they can try’ 

lance kicks down a drone running towards him and with his foot on its chest, shoots it point-blank

keith, who has been pining hard for almost 780 years now: ‘oh wow’ allura: ‘settle down keith’ 

he balances his sniper rifle on his shoulders 

lance’s bayard transforming into two pistols so he can dual-wield 

pidge is trying to shoot a couple of galra sentries while in the green lion but lance swoops in and takes them all out with one blast 

when a situation is important, he loses his usual joking complaining attitude and becomes completely serious, brows furrowed and jaw set

lance: ‘wanna see me land a head-shot on the training bot from 50 feet?’ keith: ‘haha yeah ok’ 

lance breathing in deeply and shooting it: ‘just like that’ keith wiping sweat from his brow: ‘hoo boy….’ 

the red lion is a lot faster than blue was, so once lance gets the hang of his speed, he can dodge blasts with ease and take out more sentries than anyone on the team

allura: ‘i need someone strategic and level-headed for this mission. pidge-’ lance: ‘i’m your man allura’ 

allura: ‘are you sure?’ lance: ‘for once, just trust me’ 

when he lands a shot with his sniper-rifle that even he wasn’t sure he could do, he always lets out a long low whistle

the team are freaking out because a lion has been captured, but lance clenches his fists and raises his voice over their shouting

lance: ‘listen to me. this is how we’re gonna get it back.’ 

he’s really good at strategy and planning and shiro always enlists his help in making plans to defeat the galra 

lance says casually ‘hunk, move your head to the left’ before taking down a drone over his shoulder with one clean shot

lance is happy with red and he misses blue, but he also wants more because he knows he can offer something else to the team. one day, he’s arguing with keith in the black lion’s hangar about the team’s future 

keith: ‘if what you’re saying about shiro is true, then i don’t- i don’t know what to do. if something happened to me, who would even pilot black?’ lance: ‘you’re looking right at him’ 

from behind them the black lion growls softly 

[vlegendaryd]

hey everyone look at this pic Barlee drew of Keith crying

[vlegendaryd]

Personally something I sort of come back and scratch at in Voltron, and with the fandom, is how all the paladins have their sweet sentimental side, but it doesn’t rule any of them, but how often… really specifically the leg pilots are almost… infantilized, it feels like?

Like Lance is treated as this fragile wounded soul who’s unable to stand up for himself and just spiraling into self-loathing and not a person who knows his own insecurity and is, if anything probably the most outspoken and proactive on the team when it comes to actually connecting to other people and helping them- while people like Shiro, Allura, and Keith, who have a nastily destructive tendency to internalize their problems until they’re practically dragged out of them by force, are less mature in that specific regard.

But Hunk? Oh boy is Hunk ever sold short. Almost nobody in the fandom has anything bad to say about Hunk but there is a rampant perception of him as a sweet teddy bear who’s just the consummate mr. sunshine.

Hunk is sharp, highly perceptive, more cynical than Lance, and, as the vlog worked really nicely to highlight- Hunk, out of the team, is probably the most inclined to remembering bad experiences, and thus, holding grudges. He wants to know things, he wants answers, and he’s not scared to invade boundaries and rib on people even potentially harshly to get those answers. This is a guy who pilots a Lion whose literal strategy is to slam headfirst aggressively into enemies.

All of the VLD paladins, in my experience, feel like a kind of elaboration and deepening of their original DotU counterparts. Watching the latter, I was surprised how many even relatively trivial minor habits are maintained- Shiro’s tendency towards posting himself as an informal guard, very obvious in early season 1, is lifted almost directly from Sven who did the same thing.

And DotU’s Hunk? He could have his soft moments, and his fearful ones- but he also pretty much was a guy who wanted to fight everything, like, all the time. He was headstrong, loud and powerful. In DotU’s first few episodes, the not-yet pilots of Voltron were captured by Zarkon, and shortly after escaping, Hunk’s character was the one who wanted to immediately turn around and fight Zarkon, personally.

And VLD Hunk is not DotU Hunk, in many regards, but it feels like there’s an odd thing where people remember the Hunk that didn’t want to kick Pidge because “What? No, we’re friends,” and forget the Hunk who literally slammed the Yellow Lion headfirst into Zarkon’s flagship and went on to fire his heavy-artillery bayard at Haggar, and the Hunk that pretty much gave Lance shit for a solid five minutes over Allura in s1e10 with zero hesitation and gave Keith just as good in s2e9.

(and here, we see the face of a man who knows exactly what he just did, and has 0.0001 regrets.)

Hell, I mean, this guy literally took over a restaurant and turned a guy who all-but kidnapped him to be a dishwasher into his prep chef by sheer force of personality. Hunk is just a way more interesting, multifaceted, and complicated character than he’s given credit, and as much as I love that he’s so adored, the “perfect sunshine teddy bear” read on his character fails to capture a lot of what makes him a really good character.

[vlegendaryd]

[vlegendaryd]

based on this vid

seriously every pick-up line reminds me of him

[vlegendaryd]

alfor making voltron: god my fursona is so cool

[vlegendaryd]

Lance’s Vlog Thoughts/Klance Meta

Not being funny, but if Lance were serious with his affections toward Allura (and I mean in love serious), would he really be saying,‘I’m not ready to settle down’ and ‘There are a lot of fish in the sea’? 

One thing we know from the comics, is that Lance is serious about love. He wants to be in love, and he wants to be equally loved in return. Allura has never shown signs of romantic recuperation. She has never returned Lance’s flirtations, nor responded with anything less than disgruntlement and mild irritation from his advances. 

I find Lance’s words ‘I’m not ready to settle down’, very interesting. To me, it tells me that Lance doesn’t feel emotionally ready to commit to a long-term relationship with a loved one, because he hasn’t found someone he feels he is in love with. If Allura were the woman that Lance had totally, and completely, devoted his heart to, then I would be certain in saying that he wouldn’t even look at anyone else. 

Lance is serious about love, real love. We know that he has a deep understanding of it. He knows and values the commitment behind love, and from the show, comics and vlog, we have seen him only ever playing the field, meaning he has never truly fallen for any of the girls he was flirted with, including Allura. 

When Lance does fall in love (and we know he does have a end-game romance from interviews), he will mature and feel emotionally ready to settle down with that person.  “But I think there is, to some extent, at some point you’ll find that one person that above all you kind of fall in love with a little bit and realise that it’s nice to have that one person than kind of just going all over the place… He’ll mature in all ways.’” - Jeremy Shada

What have we heard from Lance’s mouth? ‘Sometimes what we want, isn’t what we get’. 

What have we heard from Lauren? ‘He (Lance) might look for it, but what he might look for is not necessarily what he needs. I think he needs someone who’s self-assured…so that he can kind of become that same person and know himself.’

In other words, Lance needs someone; 

“Self-assured.” - Lauren. 

“It doesn’t matter where I come from. I know who I am.” - Keith S2E8

Who can help him step up and mature as a person. 

“Keith goes, ‘No, dude. You are super important to the team. You should stop thinking all that because we need you.’” - Jeremy Shada.

 “And Lance? Leave the math, to Pidge.” - Keith to Lance S3E

Who has been there all along 

“Yeah, the show’s going for a slow-burn.” - Jeremy Shada. 

“We used to be in the same class at the Garrison?” - Lance S1E1. 

“We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my arms!” - Keith S1E6

Someone who will treat him as his equal, listen and respect him. 

“I respect it’s (the Black Lion) decision, and you should to.” - Lance to Keith, S3E2. 

“Yeah, you kinda did. But now we gotta fix it…You’re right. Let’s go.” - Lance and Keith S3E3

“Someone very different from what he was going for in the beginning.” - Dreamworks.

 “We were, like, rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck and neck.” - Lance to Keith S1E1

Hmmmmm.

I-

WONDER-

WHO-

THAT-

COULD-

BE???

[vlegendaryd]

*cracks fingers* Right. There’s been a lot meta about this scene from whether Keith unintentionally made Lance feel worse because he dismissed Lance’s concerns to why Lance chose Keith – of all people, to go to about his insecurities when he easily could have gone to anyone else on the team. But this here? This is what stands out for me.

Keith might not have said the most comforting thing initially (which…I think has more to do with him not being the best at the whole comforting others thing which is understandable considering his backstory) but when the first mission after Lance confessed to feeling like he doesn’t belong on the team and doesn’t have a lion to pilot, this is what Keith does. Keith offers to sit out of the next mission, and lets Shiro pilot the black lion. Furthermore, he doesn’t ask Lance to return the Red Lion back to him signaling that Keith more or less handed over the Red Lion to Lance.

Keith has gotten a lot of flack for his leadership skills both in canon and in the fandom for understandable reasons, but this is a great character and leadership moment from him. He took Lance’s concerns to heart, even if he couldn’t comfort Lance properly, and then took action to remedy the conundrum without putting anyone else but himself on the spot. It’s unselfish and caring all at once.

More than the bedroom scene – which was a great Klance moment, the scene that followed it truly cemented what a great scene the former was. Without this scene, I think the bedroom scene would have felt way more lacking for me.

[vlegendaryd]

Keith Kogan: A Portrayal of Homosexuality Done Right

I always tell people that Voltron is a lot more clever than it gets credit for. It can spin a cliche/trope on it’s head beautifully, and while all the characters are easily digestible archetypes (i.e: the nerd, the loner), the creators add layers to them that not only make them feel like real people, but also makes social commentary on those very archetypes.

In no better way do they do this than with the character of Keith.

Before I get into how and why Keith deviates from you’re typical gay male protagonist, I want to establish as a fact that Keith is homosexual.

If you don’t see - what I consider to be - blatant evidence that Keith’s gay, well, I can’t say I blame you. Most people have ingrained heteronormative lenses, meaning they’ll miss the subtext of homosexual characters. Us in the LGBT community are much more attuned to seeing these because, well, for one, we’re queer, and two, because up until around the 1960s, the portrayal of gay characters in the media was illegal and could only be shown subtextually.

So it makes sense that people overlook the very nuanced portrayal of Keith’s sexuality, but if you’re willing to take off those lenses, it’s certainly there.

The first standout appearance of this is in season 1 episode 6: Taking Flight. Or as I like to call it, the day the shows name officially changed to Gaytron: Legendary Homosexuals

I think one of the disconnects for some viewers is that they don’t completely grasp the saying, “Show don’t tell,” the mantra of pretty much every writer. Not always, but typically, showing is better than telling. Or more accurately, telling needs to be used at the correct times and for the right reasons.

So how do they show us that Keith’s gay in this episode? Through three things, body language, actions, and juxtaposition.

You don’t have to be a body language specialist to understand the clear meaning behind Keith’s posture. Leaning, looking someone up and down, and a small, lingering smile/smirk are all subconscious signs of attraction. They’re also common ways of depicting male attraction in the media.

Speaking of depicting male attraction, lets look at how Lance’s flirts in the same episode.

Leaning. Check. Lingering smile. Check. Engaged eye contact. Check. The biggest difference is how blatant they are in their intentions, but that comes down to pure character difference. Keith is self assured and more genuinely confident. He also has a lot of walls up and isn’t so open. While Lance puts on a show/over compensates so that he might appear cool. You can also see this in their respective ‘I’m-checking-you-out’ postures. Lance’s body is open, he’s engaged and his eyes are on Nyma’s eyes. While Keith’s posture is interested, but more in an appreciative way. His body is closed off, and instead of looking Rolo in the eyes, he looks at his - um - physique. This is really fitting for Keith’s character, who again, has walls, and who also puts this mission first, and most likely has no intention of letting this attraction lead to anything other than having a nice piece of eye candy around for a couple of hours.

This is textbook juxtaposition. So moving along now.

I don’t want this to be a shippy post, so I won’t add all the times I think Keith shows attraction towards Lance, but I do want to mention this scene.

The use of the rainbow(the most recognizable symbol in the gay community) over lapping the bi flag colors is relevant for the same reason why the use of purple to symbolize the Galra is relevant. Purple represents royalty, imperialism, but also gloom and danger. The use of these colors and symbols are conscious choices.

While the above scene shows that Keith is attracted to men, this scene shows that Keith is also not attracted to woman.

What I love about this scene is that it’s such a cliche, and like I said up above, Voltron is good at turning those on their head. Here they utilize the tiered and true trope of accidentally falling into each others arms. If this was a hetero-centric Romcom than this moment would’ve been obviously meant to establish attraction, but instead, it does the opposite. Rather Keith personally likes Allura or not, she’s a knock out. So, if he’s attracted to women at all, and isn’t use to having that contact- which hes not - he should be at least somewhat shocked/flustered. If it had been an attractive guy that fell into Keith’s arms, I have no doubt that his reactions would be something beyond that blank stare. Considering he literally gasps every time Lance touches him

The last piece of “evidence” I want to show isn’t as blatant and may just be my perspective, but it’s worth mentioning.

The themes of Keith’s Galra arc are very reminiscent to coming out. He’s discovering parts of himself. He’s internalizing and hiding away said parts. He’s scared of what the people he cares about will think of him when they find out. If this is intentional, it’s brilliant, because while Voltron is set in a futurist world where sexuality is supposedly not an Issue, it still is for the youth of today. Meaning by having these similar themes, Keith becomes more relatable to LGBT people.

This is the part where, if you still don’t think Keith’s gay, I’ll have to calmly yet firmly ask you to get off my fucking lawn. For the rest of you, onward to victory!!!

LGBT individuals have a history of being badly represented in the media, especially now that gay characters have become a marketing strategy for a more progressive consumer base. Their whole character is often reduced to stereotypes or used as a giant walking gay pride flag that reads: look at us, we’re hip and with the times. Meaning, the majority of these characters plots and personalities are based solely on their sexuality. Which is a problem, because not only does it not help to normalize homosexuality, but it’s just not relatable to LGBT people.

I’ll give you an example. My mom’s a lesbian. She married to a woman and has two daughters, one who is trans and one who is bi. But despite how “gay"her life may seem, she very rarely describes herself as that way. She’s not active in LGBT issues. She doesn’t involve herself in the community. Shes not lesbian first and everything else afterward, and she is certainly not alone in that experience. Don’t get me wrong, LGBT individuals are more aware of their sexuality than cishet people, but it’s typically only because others point it out and remind us that its not “normal.” Still, for a lot of LGBT people, our sexuality is just one part of our personal narrative, not the whole damn book.

Another problem with LGBT representations is that their often just built off of stereotypes. Gay men are feminized and their sexuality is typically made the butt of a joke. They are shown as being promiscuous and having commitment issues. These are the standards.

But Keith abolishes all of those, and in such a seamless way too.

While Keith’s character is in no way excessively macho, he’s certainly not feminine either. He doesn’t mind getting sweaty. He’s temperamental and has anger issue. He lived a pretty low maintenance life in a desert shack, sleeps in his jeans like a heathen, and probably uses a dagger to peel oranges. Keith is a masculine character. He’s confident and self assured, but not vain. He’s emotional, but in a very private way. Whereas many other portrayal of gay men depict them as almost theatrically sensitive, confident, but only in their sexual prowess, and self absorbed, but only when it come to their looks and not when it comes to their skills.

This is already an impressive deviation, but what really makes Keith’s portrayal stand out is the way his sexuality is but a mere footnote in what makes his character his character, and how that fits into his personality and story arc so well.

The first thing you have to realize about Keith is that, while he certainly wants to connect with people, it’s not his number one priority. He has barriers. He fears rejection, and despite wanting to feel as if he belongs, its not hard to see how Keith has been conditioned to assume he’ll inevitability be left behind, and therefore places personal relationships low on his list of priorities. Meaning, yes, he was checking out Rolo, and yes, I believe that he’s very very fond of Lance, but I can’t imagine that Keith really sees these relationships becoming something substantial or romantic, and thus doesn’t put too much effort into perusing them. You can really tell what’s important to a character by what they focus their time on. Take Lance for instance, he’s a character who blatantly cares about friendships and has no problem openly flirting. That’s not to say Lance doesn’t care about the war, just like Keith’s reluctance to pursue meaningful bonds doesn’t mean he doesn’t want them. It just means that relationships and love obviously mean a lot to Lance.

So what does Keith focus on? Well, he shows the most focus on relationships in season one, when the connections he had with his makeshift family was the post pressing thing going on. (You cant really form Voltron if you don’t connect with the other members) But after season one, with all the changes Keith goes through, we see a big shift in his priorities. First he finds out about his heritage, then Shiro disappears and he is thrust into leadership, and then most recently, he joins the Blade.

By framing Keith’s character like this, it allows the creators to make his sexuality natural and relatable in a very interesting way. Because as LGBT people know, our sexuality isn’t the most important part of our lives. Just like Keith, we have more to focus on.

That’s not to say that his sexuality will never be shown explicitly. Like I said, I don’t want to get too shippy, but I truly believe that Laith is endgame. So if and when that happens, his sexuality will naturally come into play. Sadly, their will be a lot of people who call it forced because they missed the subtext and are use to seeing gay characters depicted more as spectacles than real people.

Voltron has really done something special here. They’ve create a universe where sexuality isn’t an issue, and they make it believable by never bringing it up outside of naturally occurring, unforced, appropriate context. Even better, because the Voltron universe is so vastly different than our own, it would’ve been easy to make LGBT characters that we couldn’t relate to, but they don’t. They manage this so well that I honestly can’t phantom Keith’s sexuality being anything but homosexual despite the fact it’s never been explicitly shown.

But most importantly, they’re creating a higher standard for LGBT representation. They are normalizing it on a show aimed towards children who are heavily influenced by the media they consume.

That, my friends, is worth applauding.

[vlegendaryd]

so this has been in the works ever since I read @kkiro’s klance masterpost and it mentioned something about Shiro being part of Lance’s sexuality arc and I loved it. So I tried I guess?? (also in case you didn’t realise, lance is the black paladin in this comic. Shiro still goes on missions with them and just hitches a ride with someone, and he’s getting to relax and unwind a bit now that he’s not in charge)

[vlegendaryd]

lance, watching from the rear view mirror as red and blue lights flash from the police car gaining up on them from behind: eyyy lmao babe look…. it’s our colors ;)

keith, from the passenger seat:

[vlegendaryd]

Keith was a sober companion; at once relentless in his honesty and tender in his regard for others. He had a soft inside, but not by means of rot or decomposition, but by nature and in virtue; to say he had a pit in his stomach would be a gross misconception, only aided in absurdity by his tendency to be blunt. He’s harsh without hitting home, and unrelenting without crossing lines. He leaves dents without punching walls. He’s a whirlwind confined to a boyish physique. With no light there to guide him throughout most of his life, he was left to make himself embody the qualities of his own northern star - a splendid cataclysmic miracle of nature, a compass for the lost - but it was done out of pure necessity, and just for him to get by. So his style of leading never abided to anyone else’s standards; his reassurances were constructed solely for himself. His methods were personalized to fit a boy who had to learn how to not be self destructive while constantly in harm's way. He’s brilliant by his own standards. He’s his own leader. And because of that, he’s survived.

Shiro sees that in him because he knows him so well. But these qualities that he sees in Keith - his potential to be a leader - are handcrafted and so specific to Keith’s lifestyle and sense of self that it never quite aids to any group withstood peril; in fact, it only adds to it.

Keith leads like he behaves: bluntly, harshly and spontaneously. This is how he’s survived. This is what works for him. Shiro sees this determination - this survival and self guiding instinct - and mistakes it for that of a leader. But Keith leads like he copes: deprecatingly and barely. His isolation has made him strong for the sake of himself. Keith needs to realize that that’s enough: his strength is not in his ability to lead others, but in his ability to lead himself.  

So Shiro constantly pushing this notion on Keith - the notion that he’s a leader, and that he has the qualities - is incredibly straining. Every time Keith fails to meet Shiro’s standards of a leader, and instead use the strategies that have worked for Keith his whole life - the things that make him his own leader - he finds himself failing, and by extension, letting Shiro down. And whenever he fails to lead like how Shiro would, he thinks less of himself. He doubts himself. It’s hurting him.  Keith is strong and takes initiative, but he’s not made to consider the lives of others. He’s not been built to compensate for other people. And that’s not his fault; that’s how he’s survived. It’s so hard to watch because Shiro’s not wrong. Keith IS a brilliant leader. But not for a team.

He acts like the team is dead weight in a self serving course of action but only because he’s never had to care for others. And he leads like this because no one’s ever been there to care for him. Except Shiro. The person that he looks up to more than anyone else unfortunately doubles as the person who’s putting him in such a constricting situation. By insisting that Keith is a leader, he’s unraveling all of Keith’s efforts to remain intact, and undoing all his ways to deal with his self destructive tendencies. But Keith knows he can’t be the leader Shiro wants him to be for others . Because Keith doesn’t want to blow up in peoples faces. He doesn’t want them to see how much hurt he goes through in order to survive. He doesn’t want that to hurt them, and he knows that if he leads this team, he won’t be able to guarantee their safety. Keith’s way of coping is unhealthy. Shiro shouldn’t make him have to use that as a resource to lead. It shouldn’t be something he’s encouraged to tap into when other people are on the line.

Keith’s never had people to care about. He’s never had people who’s safety he’d have to consider. Because Keith doesn’t even consider his own safety in anything he does. He works himself to the core because that's the only thing that’s worked in his life. That’s been his constant. But now he has a team he’s being forced to lead and he’s at a loss, because he can’t manage to use what has worked for him this time. His means of survival as a leader won’t work for a team of people he cares about because his strategies and these leader qualities that he uses to guide himself have never factored in caring. They’re built to implode and yield consequences because that’s how Keith works. That’s how Keith leads. That’s how Keith survives.

So it’s scary that he left. That he’s with the BOM. Because now that Shiro has made him doubt his methods of leading, it’s very possible that he now doubts his way of leading himself. He now plays right into his self destructive tendencies, and he’s especially at risk because now he’s surrounded by people that encourage that. He’s surrounded by people that tell him his risk isn't vulnerability, but valuable. That tell him that his risk is important in a team. And this scary view on morality could've been what pushed him over the edge. That validation - something he’s rarely gotten in his life - that validation that his own self destruction is valuable in a team like the BOM - that and him not knowing how to deal with the fact that he has loved ones on the line, that he cares for team voltron - could very well have welcomed his attempt at self sacrifice at the end of season 4. He would’ve protected everyone. He would’ve saved everyone. He would’ve be the leader Shiro wants him to be.

So let's stop doing Keith dirty, shall we Dreamworks? He's trying his best.

[vlegendaryd]

i used lance for warm up animate

[vlegendaryd]

hey

[vlegendaryd]

Blue paladins grabbing the Red paladins by their paladin armor collar like they weigh nothing is my new aesthetic