Long time no salt
Well we know that’s not true, two months and DW still hasn’t said anything to the fans about Season 8 and apparently that is okay with them since they not only dropped the last five minutes of their series on Youtube on the official Voltron twitter like two weeks after it dropped, they have now said that the comics will continue, however they will not diverge from the cannon ending. Ya know, that thing the fans are mostly upset over?
I have said my piece on three different platforms on why I have such a disdain for this season, so I won’t do it again. For my own health and sanity I won’t. But the lack of acknowledgement to the fans’ concerns is rather alarming. I, among others, were hopeful that if the comics continued they could show something diverging slightly from cannon, but truth of the matter is I knew that was never going to happen. With news of something being set within season 8, it makes it feel like this is their way to fix things, but not in a good way. Season 8 in of itself tried to “fix” what some had out cried over, crying “queerbait” and “bury your gays”. This is why Ezor is alive, even though the narrative displays otherwise (seriously, Zethrid would not be so petty if Ezor just up and left). And I would like to think it was on purpose that the audio description said Adam and not Curtis since Adam’s death was something a lot of people got salty over. Season 8 literally took every last thing that got complained about and blown so far out of proportion that it was just a badly written fan fic of a mess.
Because of DW’s silence it feels like this announcement of the comics continuing is going to be a band-aid and try to hold together what story they tried to tell; such as showing Shiro and Curtis together. I have stated before that if they did show this within the series it would have been a little less of a harsh gut punch since it showed development, but to do it now? Nope! Still a gut punch because now they are trying to say they care about that aspect of Shiro’s story. Would they put Shiro and Keith’s friendship back in? Probably not, cause then you would have to ask why in the show did they act like strangers, but suddenly buddies again. They could redeem Lotor, but I am unsure of how and frankly there is no fixing what happened with Allura and to a lesser extent Lance. Allura would have to spiral still to get the ending they had come up with. Aside from Lance being more assertive to reassure her she isn’t alone and has family, there isn’t much to add for the mess they gave us. There is a slight and I mean SLIGHT possibility that the ending they refer to is just Allura’s death and the ending is set where the Lions take off and ignore the Epilogue, but I doubt it.
It was also stated that if they go beyond volume four that it would be post cannon and there would be surprises for fans. So that brings up a question; what stories are you gonna tell with using season 8′s ending? Truthfully I can only think of one and that is them going after the Lions. A new enemy shows up and we see Vehicle Voltron? I mean that can happen, but the Paladins imo don’t really fit the bill for it even if Pidge was designing them. What happens with the Atlas? Shiro’s ending said “He found his happiness and gave up the fight” which means he isn’t gonna do anything and just be in the background. Hunk was a diplomat so he has a place, Pidge was still creating as I said she designed the Vehicle Voltron. Keith is out helping people, but could still fight and most certainly would given cause to. But Lance? He seems pretty closed off on that farm of his unless it’s to celebrate Allura. Just looking at him at the end in that card made me sad, like he’ll be depressed forever at his loss, a loss that should never had happened. They could use the MFEs and the Holts overall, but let’s be honest, as good of characters that they are, we want the Paladins.
The other thing to note here is the tone the comics have. The comics are side stories set within certain seasons; the first two taking place in, I believe, seasons 1 and 2 and volume three taking place in season 5. The thing all of the volumes have in common is that they are quite light hearted, focusing on humor. The first two volumes, imo, fit well for their seasons. But volume three for me really missed its mark, not just for the humor, but in the opportunity missed as well. Seasons 4-6 had Keith away from team Voltron with snippets here and there, there was no reason that there couldn’t have been a chapter/issue where it showed the Blades working with the Paladins on their plan. Instead, and this is where I kind feel the comics fall flat, the story focused on Pidge, Hunk and Lance.... for the third time. It was a refreshing pace in the first volume and even the second, but the third? This might be due to, as I said, the nature of them being light hearted and they are the youngest so therefore you get funny from them, even though we know all the characters are capable of such. But the tone for season 8 in of itself is quite dark and heavy, despite having three filler/fun episodes. So for the volume set within season 8, what story are you going to tell? Because the comic brings in a much different audience for the tone it has set verses the one the show has. Yes, people did buy the comics because it was Voltron, but it doesn’t mean they enjoyed them or kept up with it.
I just can’t wrap my head around any of this as a good idea from any angle I look at it from. It says a lot about a company who seemed to have washed there hands of the show and not say anything about the fans who are genuinely upset that it gets announced that the comics will continue with the show’s horrible ending narrative in tact. While the publisher of said comics issued a statement regarding the issue, though what they said doesn’t give me much hope. “Working closely with Dreamworks” doesn’t exactly spark confidence in me...
As of right now, I really don’t want to support this, at all. Does it have me curious? Oh hells yes, because you see above I can’t figure out logically what they could do for story and something that won’t make them look like self riotous clowns. Whether it was DW that wanted the statements that were issued by the EPs after season 7 or that the EPs felt the need to address it is unclear to me, but the fact is; THEY DID IT. And after Season 8, this is far, far worse, with no proper damage control, it is extremely hard to trust them as a business.
