i will never be normal again. Guillermo Del Toro is such a brilliant man and director; Frankenstein was achingly beautiful and absolutely devastating in it's portrayal of cyclical familial abuse, rage, and entitlement. and of how sometimes all you need is for Your story to be heard, YOU need to feel heard, feel seen, and not be shunned simply for who you are or how you were born. I saw myself in Victor, and he aged and became like his father- like My father. and I saw myself in his creation- in Adam, the child brought about by a man who wanted a Legacy, not to raise a child into a person. Adam is every child who was abused and left to find their own way. Victor is every parent who swore to be better but found they'd turned into their abusive parent. Elizabeth is everyone who saw themselves- the parts of themselves they were forced to repress- in the Other, the Underdog, and found immense beauty in acceptance. i will literally never be the same again, and maybe that is, in fact, where the beauty of existence lies
When the Haitani brothers were kids, they used to share a futon/bed even though they had their own. Rindou was quite clingy as a baby, and it took a long time for him to completely outgrow it. He never settled or calmed down unless Ran is with him, so Ran just got used to sleeping next to his lil brother.
Rindou moves around a lot while sleeping, so Ran often slept on his side or took up as little space as possible so that Rindou got plenty of room to dream-fight in.
There are no cold nights for the Haitani brothers, not when they have each other.
guys sorry if i’ve been slow to post or do anything for the past couple of weeks. i’ve been extremely depressed and have fallen ill (don’t worry, it’s just a seasonal illness from allergies) so i haven’t been as active.
Hi anon, thanks for the question! The answer to this is a little complicated, so I hope I do it justice in my explanation.
It gets kind of long, so I put it all below the cut
I also wanted to first state that anything I write is my own opinion, and any differing opinions of liking/disliking season 7 are valid. Harassing anyone on the Voltron team however, is not okay.
There were a lot of reasons that I loved this season, and I don’t think I want to turn this into a super meta(because there are much more talented writers who could do that) but I can definitely list some for you:
- This was Hunk’s season.
I don’t think there’s anyway around it. Hunk had a major arc this season which was so great because he has kind of been in the background for most of the show! We found out a bunch about him and his character. I especially LOVED the episode where the Paladins were trapped in space and HUNK was the one to keep them all together, even facing down Keith’s wrath (and let me tell you Keith could probably make me cry with his glare).
And then the scene that actually broke my heart. We finally saw Lance reunite with his family! Which was amazing and as beautiful as we thought, but then it turns to a close up of Hunk and we see how hard it is to be the only one not having the happy homecoming, especially because I could argue that he was the one that wanted to go home the most.
Also the talk that Hunk and Keith had was super important to expand on Hunk’s character. Keith explained how he really respects Hunk because, even though they all know Hunk is the most afraid out of all the paladins, that never stops him from facing his fears. I thought this was especially important because when Keith’s afraid (mostly of getting hurt) his first instinct is to run away.
- Also the episode where they were lost in space without their lions! I loved it so much. In too many shows where a group of relative strangers are packed together you just have to kind of accept that they grow close and become like a family, even if it’s not something you see on screen. I didn’t expect anything different from VLD. But then we get this episode.
When Keith gets anxious he starts lashing out at the other Paladins and makes the point of what connects them if they didn’t have this big war to fight, and I loved that. I haven’t seen many shows where the actual main characters address this and the way VLD attempted it was amazing. It really made me feel like they grew as a group from this. Not to mention how Lance was the one to really hit Keith where it hurt and call him out on running away (but I think there have been other people who have analyzed that).
- Lance. Oh boy, I hope it’s not a surprise but Lance is my favorite character in the show. I identify with him so much. I feel like we got SO MUCH of badass Lance this season I was so happy anytime he was on screen. Lance has matured so much and we really saw that this season, he was such an ace sharp shooter and EVERYONE ACKNOWLEDGED IT!
When Keith went off to be a decoy when they first got to Earth, I’ve seen a lot of people complain about Keith not believing in Lance’s skill but that’s really not how I saw it. Keith and Lance have a kind of rivalry/friendship going on where they poke and prod at each other. That’s just how their relationship works. I have relationships like that with a lot of important people in my life. If Keith really didn’t believe in Lance he wouldn’t have suggested being a decoy (and think about that, it wasn’t someone else who suggested it. Keith believed in Lance, which is why this was his first plan).
Also, if you look at the scene when Keith runs out from behind the car he’s not armed, he doesn’t have his bayard or shield up to block any attacks if they come for him, because that’s how much he trusts Lance to do the impossible and hit three (FOUR??) MOVING TARGETS. And then when Lance leads Keith and Pidge through the Galra base, he’s so confident in himself, never jokes or second guesses himself. And even more important Keith never questions any of Lance’s instructions. Down to the second when Keith can hear the Centuries approaching but Lance tells them to hold until the very last second.
- Speaking on Lance and Keith, there was so much of their growing relationship I was so happy. And for this, I’m not talking about shippy/romantic stuff, I just mean the outright TRUST they both have. In battle they both usually call out to each other first, when Keith went back to save Axca he immediately put Lance in charge, even though Shiro and the others were right there, because he knew Lance, as his second, would be able to get them out of danger. Keith and Lance’s relationship has grown so much through the show, and even though they didn’t have any individual scenes together, they didn’t NEED THEM. Because they were so in sync in all the other action scenes. They didn’t need Shiro to lead them anymore because they both had each other as partners.
- And finally, the last touchy subject would be Shiro. Shiro being gay was such an amazing thing to have happen on a “children’s” television show. Ignoring anything that has to do with Adam, I really hope people see this. When I look at Voltron, I joke with my friends that there are really two main characters: Keith (we don’t call him our anime protagonist for nothing) and Shiro. All of the major plots have had something to do with one of these two. Hell I could go as far to say that a lot of the show revolves around Shiro. And he’s lgbt. I completely understand your point, that there are other shows where there are more explicit lgbt relationships, but looking at a show that’s primarily targeted to young boys, and having the main character be gay? And not just gay, but having the character that has been the mature role model for all the other main characters?
The one that has gone through the most tragedy and pulls through it all? That’s...pretty amazing. And it’s not that he’s shown to be gay in the last episode or made through an off handed joke, I think it’s pretty obvious in the flashback the Voltron team fought for and the scene where Shiro finds out Adam is dead. Little boys and girls look up to Shiro as an amazing, GI Joe type (I hope this doesn’t date me) and guess what? Even though this is usually a stereotypical “straight” character the Voltron crew decided to stick it to mainstream media and say nooooo I think Shiro should not be straight and guess what? That doesn’t ruin his character.
Now, there were definitely things I didn’t like this season, which really comes down to two things, so I’m not saying this season was perfect (but then again, I've never found a “perfect” show.)
- Obviously the Adam thing was a big blow. I was definitely excited for a nice, happy lgbt relationship. I had headcanons and talked to people about them having a cute reunion and everything turning out okay, but I started to get more and more worried by things that LM and JDS started to say about the Adam thing, that he wasn’t a main character and being gay didn’t change Shiro’s story etc. Was the Adashi stuff queer baiting? Well it definitely wasn’t the smartest decision. But was it the Voltron crew’s fault? Hell no. They were not in charge of how Netflix/DreamWorks decided to advertise for season 7. I think they decided to do as much crowd control as they could. Not saying it wasn’t bad. Why was Adam, a character that was only used to show that Shiro was lgbt, the only character to die(that was actually given a name and a face, and wasn’t kind of evil at one point)? That’s not okay. After reading the letter from JDS and other things, I think I understand that there was more at play than just the Voltron creators writing the whole thing, so I’ve become more understanding. But it was still not great on a social/political scale, and this show being on Netflix instead of a television network made us hope they could do more.
- The second thing that I disliked about the season was really just the Allurance, and I can’t really call this a huge thing compared to the Adam drama. I saw the Allurance happening around season 2-3 when Lance flirting never went away. Their relationship is a trope that I’ve seen a lot, so I guess it’s kinda popular? So while it’s not my favorite thing I was prepared for it to happen.
So anyway, this got long but I hope I explained myself, at least a little. I did appreciate most of season 7, and can definitely see how much care the Voltron crew put into it.
SO, We’re moving homes and things have been kind of strained within my family the past few weeks. I’m sure everything will come together in the end, though, so it’s all just waiting from here for me.
I will still, of course, be doing my best to produce quality art works to the best of my ability! They just may be a bit more spaced out than usual until we get settled into a new home. If you could spare some, positive energy is always appreciated. 😭 😭
I wish the best of luck to all of you guys in your own life endeavors! I pray your situations aren’t quite as stressful as mine is for me right now.
Thank you all for still being here. I appreciate each of you for all of your patience with me during this time.
