#vld crit

[kaijuna]

sorry for the incoming tangent but i'm rewatching ATLA alongside VLD and a friend of mine pointed out how convenient things often are for Team Voltron. Versus ATLA, where the group often has to come up with a creative solution to win their fights.

Example: In Book 2, Episode 16: The Drill, Sokka devises a plan to take down said drill via the "pressure points" / the internal mechanisms. While it doesn't go smoothly at first, they work on the fly to eventually win and save Ba Sing Se. Instead of cutting completely through every metal beam, they weaken the majority of them allowing the eventual collapse to break said beams for them. Then, as Katara and Sokka exit the drill, Katara and Toph bend back the rocky-water sludge to build up more internal pressure, Aang goes up top to deliever the final blow- and all of their continous work together is what allows them to win against this major threat.

Versus Voltron, which I swear to god, who never genuinely feels like their earn wins in the story. They fight three Robeasts within the first two seasons, (I think the Alteans later are considered "robeasts" but I'm not really counting them, btw did you ever realize they only had three robeasts for all eight seasons? )and they only actually earn their win against one of them:

The first Robeast is, luckily, a former enemy that Shiro fought. Though it slowly comes back to him, he eventually recalls how he bested him in the arena and that's how they win.

The second Robeast (Drazil, I found out is their name) attacks the Balmera and while the team tries everything they can- even to the point where Hunk is able to unlock the Yellow Lion's special Voltron ability to form a giant cannon- they only temporarily weaken it. The Balmera (WHICH WAS ON THE VERGE OF DEATH AND JUST SUDDENLY HAS ENOUGH ENERGY FOR THIS, I GUESS) is the one to stop the Robeast, encasing it in crystal.

Technically, the gang come back to fight it again and do win- but for a majority of the fight they're getting their ass's whooped and suddenly Voltron is able to form the blazing sword (I think) and that just. Bests it. Instantly.

The third and final (sorta) Robeast (Provok) takes the shit out of Voltron the entire time until Ulaz sacrifices himself to destroy it.

If Voltron had to deal with an in-world equivalent of the drill, they probably would just "Form Voltron!" and try and brute force it the whole time until either A. something convenient happens and plays out in their favor or B. a third party intervenes and probably dies because of it.

Some other examples of "RANDOM BULLSHIT GO" from VLD that annoy me are:

On Naxela the gravity is so strong that Voltron can barely move. But somehow, Lance's "motivational" speech is enough for Allura to empower Voltron? I guess? Enough to the point where they can escape. How does it work? Dunno, they don't even bother to tell you in the show itself.

In "Greening the Cube", they're getting dusted by the giant Olkarion Cube. When Pidge is shot out of the sky, she thankfully bonds with her Lion enough to get the exact weapon that is the key in winning them the battle. While I understand on a storytelling level they introduce the problem and then the solution, this is an upgrade that I struggle to fully feel was satisfyingly earned. (Pidge kinda bonds with nature this episode too, and ends up using this whole thing maybe once later on versus the Treezilla monster. Kicking rocks.)

Kinda the finale of Season 2; they do this whole epic fight against Zarkon's knock off Voltron-mech where they are getting pushed around the whole time until, thankfully, Shiro just kinda gets them all to lock in and then they severely injure him and Shiro just fucking evaporates, I guess. (I know it's meant to be a bittersweet win because the writers half-heartedly tried to explore the horrors of war, but I DUNNO MAN, MAYBE IF YOU REALLY WANTED TO SELL THE DEATH OF ONE OF YOUR MAJOR CHARACTER YOU SHOULD'VE LET HIM DIE WITH RESPECT, MEANWHILE SIDE CHARACTERS WE MEET LITERALLY IN THE SAME EPISODE (ULAZ) DIE WITH MORE EMPHASIS THAN SHIRO DID. EGG ON MY FUCKING FACE I GUESS)

but ngl i might be overthinking it genuinely so [explodes explodes explodes]

[thetolkiengeek]

why are you writing shallura when shiro’s gay?

okay so i wrote out a whole thing, and it was super long and involved but then i accidentally closed my browser, so you’re gonna get a shortened version of it.

The reason I like Shallura, and why I’ve been shipping them since season 1 when I started watching this show, is because they’ve got great chemistry and have a deep understanding of each other--what it means to be at war, what it means to be a leader, what it means to know deep loss. Simple as that.

Now, I know there was Discourse(TM) when LM and JDS first revealed Shiro’s queerness, but they really botched up his coming out and gave completely different answers in completely different interviews. In this one, for instance, they call Shiro “gay” very comfortably. In this one, however, ON THE SAME DAY IN THE SAME ROOM, when explicitly asked about Shiro’s sexuality, they say they don’t have a specific sexuality in mind, and that they “don’t want anyone to feel like they’re not being represented” (that’s at timestamp 1:18 btw). This speaks to the inconsistency that LM and JDS have shown when it comes to talking to the fans and in their various interviews. 

If I’m going to lend credence to the showrunners who threw out the entire show bible and didn’t see fit to actually plan out what arc the show would take beyond the first two seasons, I would say it makes more sense to me that they use “gay” synonymously with “mlm”. This is the interpretation I choose. I don’t begrudge anyone who chooses a different one, but don’t bully others for this. 

Long story short, LM and JDS have given inconsistent answers as to Shiro’s sexuality, and I’m choosing to continue headcanon-ing Shiro as bi/pan/ace. He’s still queer. He’s a man-loving-man, and that doesn’t change. But I like Shallura, and I will continue to like Shallura, and sometimes I’ll write background Shiro/Adam, sometimes it will be Shiro/Allura. It’s up to you to decide what to do with this information.

[shiroallura]

shallura fam, we been knew

[midoriyasbones]

[kekeslider]

Okay. This whole "queer baiting" needs to stop. Shiro is already an lgbt representative and even if klance doesn't become canon we can't go pointing fingers complaining about us not getting what we want. I'm not saying you are one of them but this is the type of stuff that gets into klantis's heads which leads to them harassing voice actors and writers. Can we just enjoy the show? Even if klance doesn't become canon, it will still be one of the most popular ships.

Hmmm. No.

Even with Shiro being the LGBT rep, with current rumors that Adam is dying in season 7, that’s not looking too great. Now that may turn out to be untrue, but in the case that it is true and we’re subjected to Bury Your Gays once again, thaaaat’s still queerbaiting in its own way. It’s still baiting LGBT fans into believing they’re going to see a nice relationship between two canon LGBT characters, and then rip it away from them. And regardless of THAT, they still teased the fandom for two years with the promise of LGBT rep, telling everyone to just keep watching, and then just randomly dropped in adashi. And don’t get me wrong, I adore adashi, but there wasn’t actual build up to it, it was basically shoehorned in with no warning. Shiro being gay should have been KNOWN from the start. LGBT rep is not a spoiler, that’s just a basic facet of Shiro’s character. He wasn’t closeted or hiding, so why not ever mention or allude to it before?

Klance not being canon is still queerbaiting even with Shiro because, again, they’ve been teasing and baiting with this pairing from day 1. They’ve allowed LGBT fans to believe that’s where their rep is going to be, they’ve let them get attached to it, and they then USED the ship to call attention to the show. They did an interview all about klance. They tagged videos as klance. They specifically chose thumbnails with Lance and Keith for their videos. And now official, verified netflix accounts are posting about klance. That’s the literal definition of queerbaiting.

If klance is canon at the end of Voltron, this is still queerbaiting, because they still used the pairing for over 2 years to increase views without making it explicitly canon in that time. If it’s endgame, we as a fandom will probably overlook the queerbaiting in the excitement of having a canon ship, but if you use your brain for like .2 seconds you can see that we were still baited with it.

I mean, think about how baiting works in fishing because that’s basically what the analogy is. You put a worm on a hook to try to get the fish’s attention so you can catch the fish. And yeah the fish may eat the worm in the process, but it still has a goddamn hook in its mouth.

And ANYWAY I’m still not sold on this idea that antis and klantis just go around harassing and threatening the crew. And no matter which “side” someone aligns with, their individual actions have nothing to do with me and don’t necessarily reflect on antis as a whole. I’m calling it queerbaiting because it is queerbaiting. Frankly, the whole team behind voltron deserves to be criticized for doing all of this.

[bi-allurance]

Lance mentions one thing about Cuba, varadero beach, and that was it. They didn't do the research on the culture or even language. Lance couldn't even call his parents "mami/a & papi/a." Lance never mentions Veronica being in the Garrison.

Hunk never mentions being Somoan at all in the series. Only in the character sheet it mentions his race but being African American is only added to a kids book more than half way in the series. They don't even attempt to do research on his culture.

Shiro's background probably was half assed too seeing he was supposed to die in arc 1 and we know even less about him. His disease was added last minute like his sexuality so none of it can be placed into context from before. Heck, the only thing consistent about his past was Keith. Mainly because he was Keith's build up prop.

[peechi]

Me entering the animation industry once I graduate and I see lm and jds:

[unpopularmultishipper]