#bob koplar

[leakinghate]

Hi! I’m falling back down the vld rabbit hole and am once again consoling myself with how the series could/should/was meant to wrap up its various character and plot arcs and come to a satisfying and well written ending with all of tpl’s metas that i found really enlightening back in the day. So first of all, thanks for all the time and energy you guys put into everything you’ve collected/organized/posted!

Second, do you know if any of felixazrael’s metas are still available anywhere? With the blog deactivated, tumblr has kicked all the links on the old posts.

Third, do you have any thoughts on how unavailable vld seems to be now? Amazon doesn’t even have s7 and 8 available for purchase.

Thanks and have a fantastic day! 🌼

Hello hello! :D Welcome back to the VLD rabbit hole! You are so sweet! I shared your lovely compliments with my teammates, and we are so pleased to hear from you! I also occasionally re-read the old metas; there are a few things I'd change about them if I was to revisit them today, but on the whole I think they stand the test of time pretty well, and I'm proud of all the hard work and love we put into them. I keep meaning to write a retrospective of sorts to reflect on the things that have and have not changed since then, but I can never quite seem to find the words for articulating all the feelings that'd be necessarily wrapped up in all that. Felix is a difficult topic. They voluntarily withdrew from the community and asked that all copies of their work be pulled down and disposed of. Out of respect for them and our friendship we complied with their request, even as we as a whole are staunchly against deleting fandom history. It's a complicated and frustrating situation, but they have the right to decide what happens with their work. I'm sorry, I believe all of Felix's metas are lost now. As for your third question... OH BOY do I have thoughts! :D I have many thoughts about the availability (or lack thereof) of VLD. So, as of this writing, the first two DVDs (covering Season 1-2 [production season 1], and 3-6 [production season 2], respectively) are out of print and difficult to come by. Seasons 7 and 8 [production season 3] were never released at all for purchase. I believe there are still several places you can purchase digital copies of the first 6 seasons, but again, seasons 7 and 8 were never released. There could be several reasons for some of this - the DVDs were of low-quality and never sold particularly well (why would you buy a low-res version of a show you could watch on Netflix in HD?) so it's not too implausible to imagine that 7 and 8 were simply never printed because the expense of printing was more than the expected profit. That's plausible, that's reasonable. What's much less so is the unavailability of the episodes for digital download. Making something available for purchase digitally is so inexpensive, by comparison to DVDs, that it's basically free. And with the size of VLD's fandom (even today), you'd surely get enough sales to cover the already negligible costs. So it's not a money issue. And it's not a demand issue. What have we got left? The way I see it, there's two main options here, and they both boil down to: something regarding seasons 7 and 8 being edited is interfering with making those seasons available for purchase.

Option 1: It's something legal.

The rights for Voltron have always been a tricky thing. It's owned by the private company WEP (World Events Productions) which leases out different pieces of the rights to other companies so that they can make the shows and the merchandise based on the brand. I, and my team, fully believe that Bob Koplar, the CEO of WEP, is the man responsible for ordering the edits to Seasons 7 and Season 8. The "why" of the matter is still speculative, but it's pretty clear that he's responsible. (I can get into the details if asked, but we'll be here all day if I do it now, lol) So Koplar holds the rights to the brand, but DreamWorks, which made VLD, holds the rights to the individual show. If there's a legal conflict between the companies, say, over which version of the show can be released... then that could be why we're not seeing those episodes. Option 2: It's spite. Following on the last option, with Bob Koplar having levered his control over the Voltron Trademarks to force DreamWorks to make edits to their show, it's very possible one or the other is preventing the release of the episodes in an effort to screw with the other.

From Koplar's side of things, he's small and petty enough to rip an entire completed show - millions of dollars in investment in animation alone - to pieces for reasons that seem to amount to him disliking the story direction. He'd absolutely hold up the release of the episodes if there was something about them he still didn't like - and there's plenty still there for him to hate! (*cough* like the caricature literally named after him in the Season 7 episode "The Feud" *cough)

From DreamWorks' perspective, they had an entire completed show - millions of dollars in animation, remember! - ripped to pieces by a power-tripping, petty, little man. Which they then had to shell out additional funds to pay to reconstruct. The resulting product, which they were contractually obligated to release to Netflix, was then rejected wholesale by the fanbase, completely destroying any possibility of a franchise for one of the biggest hit shows they'd seen in years. We're looking at tens of millions of dollars down the drain. Would a company like DreamWorks turn around and screw over Koplar in turn for what he did? Yeah, I think they might. All in all, I can't say why they're not available... but I do know that back, immediately after Season 8 aired, WEP's storefront (Voltron Store) and social media accounts were claiming that the final DVD would be out by "the fall", which, given the timeframe, was presumably fall 2019. So at some point there was a plan to make those episodes available, at least on WEP's part. This, however, was likely before it was revealed to Bob that the episode "The Feud" was mocking him specifically. I can't say whether those episodes will ever get an official release, but I can say that if they do, it's going to dig up this whole entire mess all over again. And I'm pretty sure that neither party involved wants that. WEP has their new movie in production, and DW probably see the entire show as something they'd like to forget. Releasing those episodes will bring them both nothing but bad PR.

Thank you so much for your message! I enjoyed receiving it, and I had great fun writing out this answer! I'm always happy to talk Voltron, Voltron theories, Voltron related media. Have a lovely day!

[dynared]

Since I’m not expecting any news on the Voltron movie till at least SDCC 2026, coupled with a lot of the actors and test screenings emphasizing the movie does not skimp on the super robot action, I’m going to kick a hornet’s nest.

When Bob Koplar heard “Voltron Remake” when he signed off on what became VLD, he probably had something closer in his mind to the Samurai Troopers/Ronin Warriors sequel due next week than Space Avatar.

“You’re here because you want to see dudes in samurai armor fight bad guys!” Koplar meanwhile thought “You want to see giant robots punch giant monsters and other giant robots!” And what he got was…well there’s a reason he seems more than happy to bury it in a desert.

[ptw30]

Have you read Bob Koplar's response to the Justice for Allura movement? Like I appreciate the intent but he didn't address the harmful messages of Allura dying, still sort of telling that LM just brushed off the complaints cause somehow women being the martyr is "feminist". At least, Bob's response was more thoughtful than that crap, but his corporate talk doesn't make anything better :/ (If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's on tumblr justice-for-allura)

Well, first question is - is it real? I don’t know the person is running that website. I thought I did, and I just did a quick check - and I’m not sure. So is it easy to make a letterhead and type a letter? Yeah.

But it has a good mix of corporate speech and someone wanting to sound sympathetic - even if their words aren’t. So I’m going to assume it’s real. 

Is it nice for someone to get a letter back? Sure, but I don’t understand why WEP would respond with just one letter. In marketing - a general rule of thumb is - every letter = 3,000 people who share the same opinion. Again, that’s just general assessment. If so, then however many letters this person sent - if I remember correctly, it was a letter-writing campaign - then you aren’t reaching all the people who agreed that Allura’s death was horrifying and unnecessary with one letter. And you’re assuming one person who sent the letters will share your words. 

Again, not the best tactic. Furthermore, in a day of digital age where people have Photoshop, you’re assuming your words aren’t going to be changed. 

But again, I don’t think that happened. I’m just saying - I don’t know why WEP would respond in this fashion. An interview with questions already decided and a sympathetic interviewer, complete with a DreamWorks’ rep for a united front, would have been a much better response. 

Going a bit more in depth - the letter read, “Sorry you feel that way,” which is legally saying, “We aren’t taking responsibility.”

Plus - good intentions? Who judges “good”? If your idea of “good” is to “kill all the queer, disabled, and ethnic minority characters to put the ‘white’ male paladin in leader,” well - then your idea of “good” is not shared by a majority of people in the world, let alone the fandom.  

Second - “Allura will be back.” How? As the strong, non-white leader we met in Season 1 & 2, or white Allura from previous incarnations who struggled in her lion, was captured several times by Lotor, and eventually got with Keith?

Bob’s words didn’t soothe anything. If the words are true, then they are nothing more than corporate rhetoric of a man trying to sell more toys and shirts because that’s his bread and butter. And what he said didn’t put down any fires but just inflamed the garbage pile of after-series commentary. 

Will someone, somewhere, in some exec capacity, say, “We’re going to fix it”?

“Reflect on VLD as a whole?” …did Bob? Because if he watched the same show we did, then he should have realized as a whole, it was a cluster. 

And no letter is going to change that fact. 

[dynared]

The state of Voltron in 2025 is an Instagram account run by an intern who keeps posting headcanons and shipping bait for a show that people can no longer legally watch, while big name actors and actresses keep silent about a movie with at least a $150 million price tag, since odds are during the promotional tour the producer who allegedly hates the show the Instagram keeps making headcanons for will tell the former Superman actor to burn fan art of the ship the Instagram teases.

Mixed signals.

[dynared]

Watching the first episode of the Samurai Troopers/Ronin Warriors sequel, and seeing just how much blood and violence is in the show, I have three thoughts.

Why did Ronin Warriors/Samurai Troopers, a relatively bloodless series, get a very bloody sequel, while all the Saint Seiya remakes tone down the blood so much?

One of the major female characters is 56 years old. She looks good for 56, but still, you don't often get major female characters in animation that are supporting protagonists at that age.

A week or so ago, I pondered that the tone of the Troopers sequel/reboot was probably what Bob Koplar had in mind for his Voltron reboot, before Lauren Montgomery and Dreamworks handed him Avatar IN SPAAAAACE and he ended up hating the show and its fanbase forever. I kind of stand by that after the first episode, that if the tone and animation were like this, he would have been way more supportive and optimistic about it. That being said, I don't know how he would have reacted to some of the elements present.

[dynared]

Bop Koplar and Rawson Thurber have confirmed that Voltron The Movie has wrapped, and seemed to be pushing back on The Wrap’s report that the film is going straight to Prime Video.

Judging by the timing, I think that first news concerning this movie will be at San Diego Comic Con, New York Comic Con at the latest. Maybe they’ll negotiate for an abbreviated film release like Red One got? We don’t know.

[dynared]

Among other things, like pushing back on the idea that the movie is direct-to-streaming, saying that no final plans are set yet for its release, Bob Koplar went on the Instagram post announcing the Voltron movie and actively telling people not to expect Klance, but to expect a new generation of pilots, and "the Voltron experience our fans have been dreaming of."

Considering Bob's preference for the original and his alleged hatred of Legendary Defender, coupled with a director most famous for Dodgeball and Red Notice, expect more giant robot punching and fewer bonding moments. That seems to be who he means by fans.

[dynared]

do you think allurance falls into won't use or can't use or both. I'm guessing given bob koplar hates vld and allurance it falls under won't. Not sure the legality of it being a vld orginal element.

I think at this point, the movie is dismissing everything beforehand as a distant prequel and going with essentially a soft reboot of the entire franchise with new characters. It is the simplest way to deal with toxic ideas and elements, just completely remove them.

Mixing the existing characters shouldn't be a big deal legally, but it seems clear that everyone considers them radioactive.