#the eps

[catgirlweed]

am i being too sensitive or is this like. a little weird.

[ptw30]

You know, everytime I see new information about the creators of voltron wanting things to be drastically different the more it seems that they legitimately wanted to make a different story than the one greenlit. I just wonder if they were allowed to keep things the way they wanted, could the set up arcs better no matter how tragic? They had alright humor and good sense of pacing with action just sloppy character/plot work as they floundered story changes.

NO.

You realize that sloppy character/plot work is the story, right? You literally just gave the definition of a badly written story, and you think if the EPs had gotten to write a hypothetical tragedy, not a kids’ show, automatically they would have been able to write a coherent story?

Let me repeat.

NO.

Plot is a series of events, selected by author, that brings around the resolution of a conflict. The bare minimum any writer should be able to do is create a story that makes sense.

JDS and LM did nothing of the sort.

- The clone subplot had no resolution or back story.

- Shiro and Lance’s arcs were abandoned.

- Keith became a leader leading no one. (Seriously.)

- Allura went to Oriande to learn her powers, but “the power was inside her all along,” i.e she never had to go. (And no, it’s not the journey. The journey did nothing to help her perspective. It got her closer to Lotor - which could have been done while they struggled to learn their new powers.)

- The EPs literally have no explanation for what happened with Lotor, either.

- Honerva says she has no motherly instincts in “The Black Paladins” after she used Kuron as a baby monitor in “Blood Duel,” and then she goes on a mission to be reunited with her son and her husband - with her dead son in her mecha. …I don’t even know what to say here. That’s just insane.

Oh, and here’s an example of how the EPs approved the MFE pilots being called to ready for battle THREE TIMES in less than two episodes before they were actually deployed.

And what we know about this “different story” is - the EPs wanted to kill Shiro. No wait, Keith. No wait, Hunk. And they would have killed Pidge while she was saving her family if there wasn’t a “no killing rule,” so they couldn’t kill anyone - but wait, they could kill Shiro and they got the greenlight to kill Hunk, and then they killed Allura, just for good measure.

…what?

Dude, they can’t even get their story straight in one interview. VLD was a freakin’ mess, and you think the EPs had a different story they wanted to tell that was or would have been magically amazing?

NOOOOOO.

Circling around to your other thoughts - the pacing of action - that’s a director’s role, which by the way, JDS and LM were both coming to VLD.

Humor? Not sure what show you were watching, but the humor in the last few seasons was terrible. Pidge getting yelled at by her mom for saving her dad and brother? What? How is that funny? That’s just insane - again.

(Go watch Carmen Sandiego for the humor that went missing from VLD after Season 3.)

Look, I don’t know why you place confidence in people WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WRITING CREDITS prior to VLD or even prior to Season 6, where in one episode, JDS destroyed the show’s main theme - found family. They wrote only two other episodes - “Launch Day,” which was cringe-worthy to me, and “The End is the Beginning,” in which Allura was killed. 

Stop giving these people any writing credit. They didn’t “flounder” story changes. The writing process includes revisions. These people can’t write a coherent story. That’s it. There’s nothing more to it.

[ptw30]

Hey Dev. If dw suspected the eps were bad news why didnt they fire them sooner and replace them?

Contracts, write-ups, potential lawsuits. You can fire someone, but it’s not as simple as a snap of your fingers. At my work, firing requires a verbal write-up, followed by 30 days of probation. After that, the person needs to be warned a second time, which must be written, and then endures another probation period. Third time’s the charm. 

And the person doing the firing needs to be above board and impeccable about it - or the business will get sued.

Now, that’s the procedure for “at will” employment. 

When you start talking about contracts - things get drastically more complicated. Will the person in question still have creative rights and approvals? Does the company have to pay them outright or pay them for the reminder of their contact? So now you’re going to pay a whole new set of EPs while you’re also paying the old ones? Oh, and let’s not get into - who the heck is going to take on the sinking ship, where they know there’s animosity? A newbie EP, maybe, but you just had issues with newbie EPs. You need pros, and they’ve read the same articles we have about VLD. If they’re smart, they aren’t touching VLD with any sized pole. 

And where does it end? Do you replace the EPs, the head writer, and the directors? Who will stay and who will leave after you fire the EPs? 

Not to mention - where is the show in production when you decide you need to fire your EPs? If you’re working so far ahead, as She-Ra did, why would you get rid of the EPs when there are only a season or two left, out of a six-season run? Wouldn’t you just let them finish the job you hired them for but not renew their contracts? (That is more or less what happened.)

Not to mention LM was singled out by Margie Cohn as someone she wanted and brought from Nickelodeon. So Cohn and LM at least had a good working relationship when LM began her tenure at DreamWorks. 

Now - what I would do, as a daughter of a teacher, is different from a for-profit animation company. DreamWorks is going to cut their losses, toss out the offensive final two seasons, and move on to their next series - whereas teachers care what lessons they are teaching children. 

Despite having branding revolve around laughter and family-friendly entertainment, DreamWorks saw what the EPs did, decided to make a money-conscious decision (if perhaps not the most lucrative decision), and kept the EPs on through the rest of the series.

Was it the best decision, especially if the EPs went rogue or did activities against union rules? Maybe not, but that’s easy to say in hindsight, isn’t it? 

For more information about the money aspect of VLD and whether it was profitable or not - keep watch on @sol1056‘s blog. She’ll have a post about that in the future.  

[ptw30]

do you now if maybe LM or JDS will be at comic con this year

I don’t, but I do know the only DW panel is She-Ra. (I’m sure why, but DW seems to go all-out for NYCC, not SDCC.)

Also, LM was never confirmed as a director for an Into the Spider-Verse spin-off while JDS was confirmed for the sequel. However, other than the sequel is coming along, according to a producer, no other information has been released. So I doubt there is an Into the Spider-Verse panel yet.

However, JDS started peddling X-Men drawings again. Not sure if he wanted attention, wanted a new gig, or just was bored at work. But he did that last summer, too, before signing with Sony/Disney.

So...my guess is no. And yay, IMHO. The less they say, the better.

[ptw30]

This whole thing just reeks of LM and JDS desperately trying to deflect any and all blame and responsibility and trying to force it onto literally everyone else.

There’s a post I haven’t been able to reblog yet that says the EPs are just playing with us now, since they know we’ll freak. 

So - may I present - outrageous claims the EPs never actually said but…are you suuuuuure? 

Matt was going to end up with Acxa on Atlas, at the end of the story. 

Hunk and Romelle were actually a couple, not Hunk and Shay. In fact, Hunk and Shay had a brother-sister relationship. 

Shiro was going to end up with Hunk at one time, seeing as Hunk and Shiro end up at Atlas at the end of the series. 

Narti didn’t die, per se. Her conscious was transferred into a Shiro clone. 

The Blade of Marmora failed as a humanitarian organization and went into selling Amway products.

Ezor is employee of the month. 

Lance ate Kaltenecker.

The mice ended up Kova. Kova ended up with Cosmo. Cosmo ended up with Pidge’s sponges. Only the sponges survived. 

Haggar and the Druids were a one-time rock band in the empire. 

Keith was always supposed to end up in the Green Lion. 

Coran was eventually going to fly the Red Lion. 

Shiro was supposed to stay dead, but as the spirit of Voltron, the team created Shiro every single time they formed Voltron. 

Allura was supposed to end up in Black. 

Pidge was actually half-Balmeran. 

“We’d pitched a FMA-type story where one of our characters is missing an arm and then loses his body, and the paladins have to go to this ‘gate-type’ place, called the Void, to bring him back. They can’t get his body, though, so we decided to clone Shiro.”

Sam Holt died; the person you see now is a shape-shifter.

Slav is actually Bob, but Bob is actually Ted, and Ted is with Bill and Bill and Ted have an excellent adventure, so…not VLD. 

The Void is actually the Matrix, and the paladins all took the red pill.

…I had too much fun with this. 

[ptw30]

I dunno if it’s possible, but could Dreamworks ever rectify this problem with a re-done season or something else, like a fresh restart?

Yes. 

I would start by issuing a promise for true representation and to hire diverse creation team, especially in the writers’ room. Then, I would announce the showrunners for another Voltron series/movie, and I’d show that I’d been working toward fulfilling said promise with a diverse writers’ room for the new Voltron project. 

Then I would explain what would be happening in the series. I would say upfront that there would be queer representation, that there would be empowering messages for abusive survivors, women, and people of all races. I would admit there were issues in Legendary Defender and the new series’ showrunners heard those concerns. I’d say there would be no way to take back what happened, but moving forward, we would be addressing those concerns and creating an empowering show DreamWorks would be proud to present. 

Then I’d do it. 

What are the chances of a fresh restart or re-doing a season? Not likely, but concerning the backlash, the terrible message of having killed a non-white female leader after demoting her and literally taking everything from her, for blaming Allura for the own death of her people - victim blaming - I would say, DreamWorks shouldn’t want this show on their record. 

And that’s not even talking about what the show did to Shiro, Lance, Hunk, and yes, Keith and Pidge, too. 

You don’t want people to “write another VLD” or coin a similar phrase. (It already became a meme for failing to give true queer representation.)

But do I think there is another series or a movie on the way? Yes, and do I think DreamWorks could work toward true representation - without JDS and LM. Yes. 

Why do I think this is the case?

An animated show takes about two years for the first season to hit. Last February, LM and JDS started to post about their old Street Fighter proposal. Back in March 2018, Screen Rant published the first mention of the EPs wanting to kill Shiro. Another mention of Street Fighter hit in May, right after Hyperphase Voltron was switched from mass production to SDCC exclusive. We know now - that Hyperphase Voltron shifted in the series to be Atlas/Voltron’s merge. It also says that Allura originally was the one who merged Atlas and Voltron. 

Season 6 - Allura makes Sincline after months of work. 

Season 7 - Allura transforms Atlas on the fly. 

Season 8 - Allura merges Atlas and Voltron to make Hyperphase Voltron. 

It’s natural progression that somehow got thrown out, and it makes sense since the new Altas/Voltron - 

- is a white lion design. 

Hyperphase Voltron was to merge the White Lion with the other lions, and since Allura accepted the White Lion into her, Allura was to be the White Paladin. 

However, it makes no sense now because the White Lion was killed by Honerva in “Genesis,” six episodes earlier. 

Allura died. Her lion died. And the five lions of Voltron are going after her.

In terms of timeline as mentioned above - the EPs were told early this year that they weren’t getting the sequel. So they began their negative campaign, blaming Shiro fans and Klance fans (in the same interview with Shiro’s supposed death, the EPs also said they didn’t under Keith and Lance, and made offensive comments about the pairing.) They were frustrated and angry because they’d essentially just been fired. 

However, that would mean the sequel series and/movie has been in the works for about a year, and if it gets announced around now - December/January is when DreamWorks announces its new programs for the following year - then that means the new Voltron project would drop late next year, early 2020. 

I guess only time will tell if this is accurate. 

[ptw30]

I've been rewatching the series (pray for me) and I can personally say that Keith went from JDS personal favorite white boy hero in waiting to a character that he wasn't interested in investing his time in anymore. Maybe it was the higher ups Shiro decision, or perhaps it was the way Keith became synonymous with two gay ships (Apparently Keith was supposed end up with Acxa but fear of fandom reaction quickly changed that, bet that ruffled jds/lm jammies) What do you think?

JDS and the writers stopped caring about Keith the moment he became the Black Paladin. The reason why was - he did what JDS wanted. Keith fulfilled his “character arc,” with the end result him being in Black. That was it. 

However, the real issue is - the end of Keith’s character arc wasn’t him becoming the Black Paladin or piloting Black. Keith’s character arc should have “ended” or been “fulfilled” when he began depending upon characters other than Shiro and stop being the loner. But that never happened. He still went off alone in “The Grudge.”

While piloting Black and becoming the temporary leader was to propel Keith to trust others - it became the end result of Keith’s arc when the writers decided to keep Keith in Black and not switch him back to Red. 

Thus, Lance’s arc was truncated since he was required to stay in Red, so he couldn’t embrace his own strengths in Blue. Then Allura’s growth was stunted as she needed to stay in Blue, and thus - Shiro stayed in Atlas and away from Voltron - and all was right in JDS’ world, while the rest of us are left sobbing. 

But that’s also why you don’t see Keith do much in the later seasons - because he didn’t need to anything else. He just needed to stay in Black and be a good little paladin. 

However, if I remember correctly, JDS said that Lance was his favorite character for more of the series interviews. That’s why Lance gets the girl, I believe. Of course, that also says a lot about JDS - if he felt Lance’s treatment of Allura in the first six seasons made him appealing to Allura.