this one's for you

fan of takashi shirogane since s1 my art my ao3 my twitter I ship both sheith and shadam

[keithyourpal]

graduating high school and moving off to college really helped make my relationship with my dad less fraught. i’ve started to realize now that i’m an adult that he just was not the kind of person who wanted to or should have been a parent. we got along much better once i wasn’t dependent on him anymore. 

and on the one hand it bums me out bc yeah, objectively, he should have cared enough to try years before he did to be a better father. but what he should have done is irrelevant compared to what he actually did, which was recognize that he was wrong and try to do better. and i just wish that we’d had more time together after he made that decision.

[valentinedagger]

even regardless of the fact that stevens university is, like, a show meant to, in the end, make kids happy and be an escapist fantasy for them, i still take offense to the idea that because something is bad in real life, we shouldn’t have narratives where it gets better or magically stops being a problem.

like, jesus christ, as an adult when i see a like this where some kid stands up to his abusive family and says “this isn’t normal, i know what having a loving family is like and we don’t do these things to each other” and the abusers actually listen and change their ways it blows my fuckin mind and gives me so much damn hope! holy shit! no, that wasn’t how it ended up going in my family, and it’s not the way it goes for a lot of people, but it’s good. it’s ideal. it’s what should happen and watching it happen in a fictional story gives me some comfort and hope that maybe it’ll go that way in real life one day. 

y’all are so fuckin committed to your gritty grimdark realism and “once an abuser always an abuser” mindset and fantasies about murdering or locking up your abusers that you can’t even recognize that the exact opposite fantasy is what gives a lot of us comfort lmao.

[keithyourpal]

i feel this way abt ppl screaming that endeavor’s redemption arc in mha is abuse apologism. the key difference is that abuse apologism/glorification portrays a character who does bad things as being in the right; endeavor is portrayed as being in the wrong even as he takes the first steps toward making amends.

he isn’t suddenly rewarded with acceptance and forgiveness simply for deciding to stop being a dick to his kids. trying in and of itself isn’t enough to undo all the damage and abuse he’s responsible for. the narrative acknowledges that. todoroki straight up makes a sarcastic jab at endeavor’s scar, lampshading how endeavor himself is responsible for inflicting scars in the past.

i had a complicated, abusive relationship with my own father. i wish more than anything that we had started making amends sooner before he died. 

endeavor admitting that he was wrong, that he was a shitty parent, and wanting to become a better person is something i wish my own father had done earlier in my life. because this kind of “redemption” isn’t about glossing over the negative aspects of the abusive character or person in question--it’s a crucial part of the victim’s ability to heal in real life. not every toxic or abusive person deserves a second chance. but there are victims like me who are allowed to make that decision for ourselves, and not be shamed or screamed at by other people simply bc it doesn’t match their own experiences.

i would love nothing more than to not have to cut people i love out of my life. i’d love for them to decide to change and work with me on building a healthier relationship, rather than dig in their heels about their toxic behavior. stories and character arcs and people that present these situations aren’t trying to hide or minimize or brush off the abuse. it’s just...being realistic.

[keithyourpal]

my father died at the end of march last year. i relied on this show to make me happy. and in the end it threw all of that grief back in my face.

in the first season, when allura wakes up to find that her father and her planet have been destroyed by zarkon, she and coran are allowed a moment to grieve together. their loss feels real, but the tragedy isn’t extorted for cheap drama. it's handled respectfully. 

but the way death is portrayed and used in voltron gradually evolves into senseless tragedy porn, like with adam and ezor’s deaths. th purpose in killing them off is solely to hurt and harm. there’s nothing ~inspiring about the effect their deaths have on shiro and ezor. by season 8, adam doesn’t even affect shiro in a bittersweet way like he did in shiro’s speech in the season 7 finale. it’s like he never existed. so what, then, was the point in even killing him off, other than to hurt the audience?

allura’s own sacrifice is given less weight and respect than even the castle of lions was. it has less meaning than that of an inanimate vehicle. there was a reason for the castle to be destroyed. there was no reason for her to die, especially not when and after season 8 tore itself apart trying to “apologize” for adam and ezor’s deaths by hastily trying patch ezor back in. seeing her death be used so cheaply, and then have the epilogue expose how shallow the justification that it was “for the greater good” was, still makes me sick.

allura doesn’t get to grow past her pain and suffering to become the ruler of her restored planet and people. she doesn’t get to follow in her father’s footsteps in a positive, inspiring, productive, or rewarding way. she isn’t allowed to be happy in eitherromantic relationship she has. her death wasn’t meaningful, or inspiring, or bittersweet, or necessary. it was senseless and hurtful and tone deaf.

death should never have been on the table for allura’s ending, especially not when they intentionally changed her skin tone in order to be ~inclusive. the only dark-skinned iteration of allura should not also be the only one who dies, especially not in the most contrived, insulting way imaginable.

she deserved better than this. all the people like me, who are struggling with enough senseless death and grief and loss in real life, deserved better than this.

[dent-de-leon]

So when I say the fact that everyone uses Allura’s statue for a cute selfie opportunity and it feels incredibly unsettling and hollow and just unbelievably wrong, this is what I’m talking about. I know we all have different ways of grieving, but this is not how mourning is ever shown in VLD–particularly at memorial sites or graves. Because Allura? Her body is gone. For all intents and purposes, this is her grave. Her memorial. Can you literally imagine Keith taking happy selfies in front of his father’s grave when he visits with Krolia? Can you imagine Romelle flashing a smile and striking a pose while she runs her fingers over her parents’ names engraved on the Altean memorial?

You can pause at any moment when characters are at a memorial site or paying respects to fallen heroes, and the entire atmosphere is dramatically different to what we got for Allura–for one of our main characters.That simply doesn’t feel right. 

The treatment of Allura’s statue is not consistent with the sanctity and respect allotted to other memorials in Voltron. By the series’ own standards, the writing here is deeply flawed. Those pictures with Allura’s statue aren’t cute or funny to me. There are understandably very good reasons why those shots made so many people feel uncomfortable and upset and we have every right to be. 

[ao3commentoftheday]

Sometimes I feel like a creeper or a fraud b/c Im old (54). And not fandom-old, I only started writing fanfic 4 years ago. I've had success and by some measures I'd be a bnf. But I could be the grandma of some of my ao3/Tumblr followers and I think they'd be, at best shocked, and at worst, creeped out if they knew so, I rarely engage with them. I am curious though, what Millennials (or younger!) think about the possibility that the fic they love was written by someone who could be their granny?

Full disclosure: I recently turned 40. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying the media that I consume and wanting to write stories about it.  I started writing fic in my 20s then I stopped for a while. I came back to it 4 or 5 years ago in my mid-30s. Fandom isn’t about age, it’s about interest and passion and wanting more story. 

If I start a friendship with someone through fandom, I do tend to mention “btw, I’m old af” to give them a heads up, but from my experience people tend not to care. There are a lot more people my age and your age and older in fandom than you might realize based just on tumblr. 

I’ll let the younger people who follow this blog comment with their feelings on the matter, but I personally think you’re awesome. You found a new hobby and you’re having fun with it. Your age shouldn’t play into that. Fandom is something that you can engage in at any age and at any skill level and I really appreciate that. :)

[storybookprincess]

i absolutely adore older fans in fandom!!!!!  i wish there were more of you!!!!  to me, you are nothing but an extremely welcome presence!!!! here’s why:

- you all bring a really great perspective to your content creation.  i’m 22.  i’ve never owned a home or gotten married or raised children or had an actual career.  lots of older fans have.  when you write fic or hcs or draw art or do anything else based on those experiences, you’re often writing as someone who has actually done it.  kidfic written by an actual parent?  fluffy established relationship old married couple by someone who’s actually been married 10+ years?  i wanna read that!!!!!  it’s gonna be way better than what i as a 22 year old am gonna write on those topics.  obvs i’m not saying you only have to write about grown up topics.  even if you’re writing a college au, you’re bringing 30 more years of life experience to that than i am.  that’s incredible!!!!!  i want to consume any of the art you create simply bc you are far wiser/more experienced.

- i love having older friends!  i worked at a used bookstore in high school w a bunch of 50/60 year old women & we had a ball!!!  they gave me really good advice, told amazing stories, and made our four hour shifts fly by.  much like the previous point, older friends are amazing bc they have such a different perspective than i do.  i’m not asking older fandom ppl to be my mom, but i’m about to graduate college & what i wouldn’t give to have an older friend (not parent or professor) give me some advice about post-graduation life!!!  your age is an asset imo!!!

- selfishly, i love seeing older people in fandom bc they give me hope for my own future.  i’ve been in fandom for 11 years.  literally half my life.  it’s something i’ve remained passionate about for over a decade.  i don’t see my love of fandom going anywhere any time soon.  so i love to see actual adults (as opposed to baby adults like me) who are still in fandom bc it tells me i can do that too!!!  50 year olds on ao3 or w funko pops on their desks or gushing over cute fanart make me think that i don’t have to give up my passion as i get older, and that means a great deal.

- older fans get shit done.  who do you think funds the ao3 donation drives?  hell, who actually runs ao3?  it ain’t the 14 year old kids, i’ll tell you that much.  (kids, you are still extremely valuable & i treasure you all)  adults w professional skills & actual incomes are frankly what keep the backbone institutions of fandoms running.  we need you.

- and finally, you have every right to be here!  even if i hadn’t just listed a bunch of reasons why your presence is incredibly important, you’d still belong here, bc you don’t have to earn fandom.  ageism is bullshit.  it’s discriminatory.  you deserve to be here as much as anyone else.  ppl in our society, esp women, are given such shit for aging & i’m not here for it.  i don’t want to see wonderful people driven away from fandom bc of sexism & ageism.  you belong here.

i feel really strongly about this, if you couldn’t tell.  older fans are always welcome in fandom.  we need you & we value you.  i’m so sorry your age is a source of shame, but i think it’s actually incredibly cool!!!  keep writing your amazing fic & know many of us (myself included) would be thrilled to learn our favorite fanfic writer was in her 50s.

[keithyourpal]

My biggest inspiration as a fanfic writer when I was 14-15 was someone who turned out to be in her fifties, around the same age as my mom. What I respected about her was that she was upfront about her age and what her life experiences allowed her to bring to her writing. She was also very mature and careful not  to overstep boundaries with her often overeager followers who were too young or inexperienced to realize why she was uncomfortable talking about certain topics with them, or playing a “mom” role like they expected her to. Because she didn’t write fanfiction and participate in fandom to be A Mom, she did it to have fun and get away from the stress of her real-life responsibilities, just like we all do.

I’ve been in a lot of writing groups where the writers will only read things by people their own age, and it leads to a sort of echo chamber of style and tone and grammatical errors or signatures that limit their creativity. Reading works by older writers has been so beneficial to growing as a writer myself.

[kanasmusings]

Visit Original Link

QUELL Kachoufuugetsu Vol. 3 - Horimiya Eichi 移り気な風 “Changing Winds”

※ Audio ripped by me so please don’t re-upload ^^

[nomadicism]

As someone who‘s worked in animation marketing, what do you think are the chances of the original S8 being released to the fans? Dreamworks isn’t the only owner of Voltron, I think they only have a license, and has lots of contracts with other people, I‘m not sure they could release it if the wanted to, but I don’t know. What do you think?

Hi there, thank you for the ask!

My time in marketing-and-design as applies to animation was only a short period of time at Cartoon Network, and in my 16 year career, I’ve now spent more time working in front-end development and user interface design in the bioinformatics and life sciences domain than I ever did in advertising and marketing. A better person to ask might be @ptw30

Still, I’ll dust off that old hat, put it on, and let my intuition drive for a minute anyway:

1. As someone who grew up with Voltron DotU in the 80s, and has weathered every incarnation of Voltron since (animation and comics), the thing that everyone needs to know is that the franchise is cursed. Full stop. This is not the first time that something bizarre like this has happened, and it will not be the last.

2. My gut tells me that the chances of “the original S8 being released to the fans” is next to zero. There are too many stake-holders and egos involved, and unless there is someone that can be thrown under the bus for it so that neither DreamWorks nor Netflix get damaged in the process, then it ain’t happening.

3. I suspect that distributing the uncut original (if it exists) might be more complex than people realize. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the cut-and-changed content didn’t make it past the Y7 rating (not to mention global distribution requirements), and in order to get past that rating, just enough critical scenes had to be removed such that they had to cut out even more content to edit around it (especially if it had to do with Lotor and That Scene)

4. That said, if DVD sets of the later seasons are made (currently only S1-2 have been released on DVD), then there is a chance that the DVD with S8 may have either cut/deleted scenes, or there may be an editor’s cut edition, or an “original/alternate edition,” or an “unrated edition.” For this to happen, then fans need to make a lot of noise about wanting to buy the DVDs with the cut sequences or “original” vision. 20k fans at $25-30 per DVD set x2 sets = about $1.2 Million dollars in sales. That’s a lot of money to leave lying on the table.

5. Speaking of which…have fans been supporting Voltron DVD and comic book sales? How are those numbers looking? If the numbers have been abysmal, then it ain’t gonna happen.

6. If by some bizarre stroke of luck that there is a release of whatever was cut/deleted/etc, then prepare to be disappointed. For every fan who thought that something was off about S8 (and not everyone did), there is a different idea about what was removed, added, or changed. While I may be on “Team Lotor’s Missing Vindication Arc,” my expectations are low. I caution everyone to not get their hopes up about what that “original” vision was.

Finally, as fans, we’ll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar and salt. I keep my criticism here on Tumblr, and what little I have posted has been just a fraction of what I’m holding back. I beg fans to lay off the VAs, even the EPs. Save the criticism for online rating sites like Rotten Tomatoes, and Netflix’s own internal episode rating feature.

Both letter writing and Twitter can be leveraged for making the case to DreamWorks and Netflix about releasing the uncut season on DVD, as well as asking both DreamWorks and Netflix to look to produce stories that you want to see. Be specific. Genre. Tone. Messaging. Content.

[lesbeamer]

starlight ~

do NOT use/repost without permission

on twitter - ko-fi link

[lupinsuniverse]

somewhere in alternate reality..😂

base on Jotakorium’s tweet 

bonus

[applepieken]

A kiss in the rain.

[pastelhoneyfish]

“I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too.

So I stayed in the darkness with you.”

[glowpop]

my biggest gripe w this whole “symbolism is fake and stupid” shit is that it is so dismissive of the very very very real symbolism that content creators put into their own work intentionally—and sometimes—unintentionally. i sometimes go over my own work and i’m surprised by the themes i put in, the recurring patterns i write without even realizing it, and i’m the one who made that stuff! like sometimes things can MEAN other things so stop making fun of your teachers for teaching basic literary analysis you idiot

[leakinghate]

But what if DW still don’t release the original even with the petition? :(

I think…I think that, if they don’t do it, we have a very big problem.

How many shows is DreamWorks in the process of creating, just for Netflix alone? Six at least that I can think of, but I suspect more.Do you honestly trust them enough to invest emotionally in those shows? Knowing that they might again do what they did to VLD?How can you trust they won’t do the same to She-Ra?

It’s blatantly obvious that the season was hastily altered from its original course at the last minute. The evidence, both concrete and circumstantial, is overwhelming. I know some people still think the EPs are responsible (I don’t), but if you do, don’t forget that @dreamworksanimation approved and released Season 8. DreamWorks thought that was a satisfactory product.How can we ever trust them to be respectful of their shows, their fans, if they don’t listen to us now?

Every season of a show is a promise to the people watching it that future seasons will pay off - to narrative satisfaction - the plot threads laid out in those before it. If DreamWorks continues to ignore us, then they are showing that they don’t actually care about the quality of their product or about customer satisfaction. That they don’t care about the messages their products send to the children watching them (VLD is rated Y7, after all), or the harm that those messages will do. They are telling us, that we cannot rely on any of their shows to follow through with what they promise: we cannot trust them.

Fortunately, they can still fix this.

If they came out tomorrow and said something to the effect of, “Hey guys, we’re very sorry for altering s8; we thought this would be more marketable. We were wrong. We’re going to release the original cut of s8 on [month, date], we just need some time to get everything ready. Thanks for being patient.” I would forgive them. Hey, everyone makes mistakes. As long as you learn from them, apologize, and try to fix them as best you can - that’s alright.

I think a big reason we haven’t gotten an official response is that this is the holiday season, and many if not all of the people with the authority to make such a response are likely on their holidays.There is a con on January 4th - 6th that AJ, Kimberley, Neil, and Josh will be at, SacAnime? They’re having one of the last official Voltron panels on Saturday the 5th. DreamWorks basically needs to make a statement before then, or they’re throwing the VAs to the wolves.

And if they do that? Even if they apologize, they don’t deserve any forgiveness.

We have to keep telling them, keep it active.

If anyone has any contacts in geek, feminist, or LGBT media: we need to get eyes on this that aren’t just seeing it as ‘shipping drama’, because it’s not.

Whatever the reason behind the butchering of VLD s8, the effect was to to change what had been a female oriented romance into a male wish-fulfillment fantasy. They stripped their central heroine of her agency and gifted her as a prize to the man who’d sexually harassed her for the previous seven seasons. All this while playing straight an intended subversion resulting in the metaphorical slut shaming of the character, only to kill her off in the last episode. In the era of #metoo, what a hellish message to send to children.

They removed a potentially groundbreaking redemption arc for a mixed race abuse survivor, turning his sympathetic backstory into tragedy p*rn and crushing the hope from every person who saw themselves in him. Whether they intended it or not, the message they ended up giving was that; no matter how hard you try to be a good person, you can never escape your trauma and the only respite to be found is in death.

Allura’s arc in the s8 we got, was that of a very depressed woman, pressured by her friends into a relationship she wasn’t especially interested in, who ultimately chose death to escape reality.

We’d like the real season now, please.

[leakinghate]

All I need to know is WHY? Why did they do this?

I’ve gotten more than a few asks with this question, and I assure you: if I knew I’d tell you. But, this is the big question, and I do have a theory. So here we go.

I’m sorry. I was hesitant to publish this. Some of you aren’t going to like this answer.

I want to stress that this is all simply my opinion, a theory. It’s my best guess as to ‘Why’ when taking into account all the evidence currently available. Please do not take this as absolute truth, and please do not harass anyone who disagrees with it or thinks differently.

Keep reading

[andreayewon-deactivated20190401]

Voltron season 6 drawings!!! There’s a lot more I still want to draw but this is all I managed for now

S6 was good and I am emotionAl ;__; So excited for the next season back on earth

[lightningstrikes-art]

you are singlehandedly saving this entire goddamn fandom after season 8 but also take care of yourself!!!!

I will face canon and walk backwards into hell.

[ash-alert]

My parents work at a kitchen counter top place and their work shirts are accidentally ragingly gay.