#vld stuff

[astra-nova]

Ya know

I didn't hate this stupid turnip THAT much until I remembered it was because of her orders that Adam got killed.

[leonawriter]

Wound up doodling a Narti. Don't even know why since I'm working on non-VLD things, but here she is. She is probably being sneaky somewhere.

[fuocogo]

Most Relateable Paladin: Keith

Talks about himself for one minute and then cries

[gringoslur]

The episode where Coran gives the paladins roles and they do those shows pisses me off because it reminds me of when shows make racist jokes and then act like 'obviously this is wrong! We are not racists!' but like they want the audience to find it funny. And I just felt like the writers were doing the same thing here 'Obviously we don't think Hunk is only here for fart jokes!" Even though they did that in the second episode and have barely developed that character in 4 seasons 1/?

And the same with with other characters. And they could have at least made the episode a bit better by making the team not listen to Coran and like letting Shiro give his speech, or any of the paladins. But they just did what Coran told them to do??? Like why didn’t Pidge change the science to make it accurate? Why didn’t they notice something was amiss with Coran? I know hes quirky or whatever, but they’ve known him long enough. why didn’t Allura stand up for herself??? 2/?

Or have the other paladins defended her idk. Or better yet, don’t make this shit and have Voltron actually connecting with people, talking to people at hospitals and helping them, helping rebuild a city, helping refugees find their families ¡Anything! (I mean like an episode dedicated to that, to them like on a planet just helping people, not the quick images we get sometimes of them helping) they’d see the effects of war on ppl who don’t have gigantic robots 3/? 

It’d be an opportunity to develop the characters, since itd be less fast paced and action driven, unlike the rest of the season. Idk I just like the idea. Sorry for rambling on your inbox. 4/4 

First of all, every person that rants in my inbox is valid, i love you all.

Second, yes. Yes to all of it. The leak of strong personalities in that episode is ridiculous, if you are gonna do that maybe have them saying “oh, you know, is good to have something like this to relax?” not having them following Coran blindly. Please, them speaking up agaisnt it is sooo much better, and yes they lost another chance for character development. Maybe you interested in this post and i WANT the fandom making content/fics about this, please?

The show was so stupid. Not only because it shows how the writers see the characters, but also because it looks like a parody of Voltron made by the Galra Empire. The fact that civilians saw that shit and are like “yeah, i’m going to join that army!” is so fucking ugly, lmao. I already had this fight in this fandom when they showed the posters (with @targannington. at my side) Some people thought a better version of the posters and the concept ( @duskianfae and @fantabulouskae) Someone made it real and it looked fucking amazing. ( @alluruh). But they didn’t use that episode for this, they used it for something that made me (and other people) really uncomfortable because we are…not used to see that, is not normal for us and…you know when you see something and there’s a red light (!!!) in your head? yeah, like that. Some people say that is a “kid’s show”!! so they show that, but they could easily make what you just said, that’s more healthy and lovely? That could be such a nice thing that the kids could watch, not “wow, war is fucking cool!”. I’m a latina, i had novelas when i was a child/pre-teen teaching me about how fucking nasty war is and how someone can lie to your face to make you fight, die about something. Is not impossible. 

Anyways before any USAmerican comes to fight me for this, please watch THIS VIDEO. Thanks. 

[astra-nova]

*clears thoat* MATTHEW HOLT

Does anyone agree?

[leonawriter]

Although I haven’t been able to catch up with S7 yet, after seeing a major spoiler pretty early on yesterday I eventually gave up trying to stay unspoiled, and a large part of that was stress. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t really want to have to explain myself (when I’d told people I’d be avoiding spoilers) or make anyone feel bad/have to defend something they don’t personally see as being as bad as I’ve taken it. 

I’d advise you to take some of this with a grain of salt because I haven’t seen the season yet and I’m running on spoilers, and more specific, educated responses to things will happen when I have. If I have.

I just… I’ve been feeling kind of numb and betrayed by the show since I heard about what happened to Adam, especially in more detail - and maybe since some of you have seen it you’ll be able to say ‘it wasn’t that bad’, but I’m just over here remembering the first time I saw a gay character killed on screen (Bill from DW) and I was devastated. I’d been hoping for a beautiful reunion we never got. I count the number of m/f couples we see have so much more development or screentime vs the number we got onscreen who are allowed to be happy, and clearly queer. And not murderous. 

As far as I’ve seen: Blaytz/unnamed Galra manservant, which is a retroactive dead total of two, Ezor/Zethrid who are... they now make me uncomfortable because they were brought into the show as mixed race Galra fighting alongside Lotor, who at that point did want to make things better for the Empire and who now apparently say things such as “let’s go torture some prisoners”, which feels... wow, yikes. And Shiro/Adam, where Shiro was shown to have been tortured, has been experimented on, cloned, and actually killed before, and Adam, who... I wanted so much from, and he died.

And concerning other things - I can live with Keith/Acxa even though I’m disappointed, and I won’t be able to enjoy it - maybe if Acxa didn’t look so much like she could’ve easily passed as Keith’s sibling and they had more screentime interacting in a positive way, face to face, with conversation before S7 I’d be happier. I mean, I still wouldn’t be happy, since I’d been a Keith/Lance shipper since Day One, but I’d have been ‘okay, so my ship isn’t going to be canon, I can deal.’ As it is, all I am is disappointed.

I won’t say they queerbaited us with Keith/Lance, because they didn’t. At no point did they outright say ‘the queer rep we’re talking about will involve either of those two’. So no matter how much I want to be upset about this? It’s apparently a pure fan misread.

(What I have seen however is that although Shiro/Adam were revealed at the SDCC panel, there were a great many people who couldn’t even tell who Adam was or that they were romantically involved with only the show’s canon and no interviews to tell them; that, I’d say, is more along the lines of queerbaiting, especially since they didn’t have that reunion that fans were hoping for. It’s the assumption that something that’s the bare minimum is enough.)

But it’s really the fact that I’ve seen things saying about how Allura/Lance is going places and that… actually gave me a stronger reaction than the idea that my favourite ship wasn’t going to be canon. 

Because I’m just reminded of the several times in my own real life that I’ve had boys assume that all they needed was ‘time’ in order to be in a romantic relationship with me. And yeah, their characters developed past that, but I still feel affected in the same way. Whenever I might start watching the show over again, I won’t see a moment where it’s clear that Allura and Lance are going to end up with each other and be happy, but where he’s being a nuisance to her. 

And you know what the most upsetting thing is? It isn't even my own reactions.

It’s the fact that there’s a twitter account full of letters to the writers and producers of VLD from queer people, mainly KIDS, often in their early teens, saying that they’d been so ecstatic to hear that Shiro was just like them, was gay, a POC, and more - they were so excited. One teacher was advising two young girls to check out the series after she found out. She now feels guilt over the fact, because they’re going to find out just like the rest of us that their queer/LGBT rep is a victim of their partner being killed off, and given a tragic story.

To be honest? I don't think it matters if it ‘works within the story’, or if it’s ‘the brutal truth of war’. See what this show has done to kids. Read those letters, I dare you. Because the main message they’re giving loud and clear is that to them - the ones the show was meant for! - they’re seeing that VLD is just reinforcing the idea that if you’re gay or otherwise queer in a story, then you can’t have a happy ending. You suffer. Or you die. 

And to be honest... that’s what I find most despicable beyond any arguments about shipping.

Perhaps the writers didn’t intend to do this, and perhaps they simply screwed up in a way that was purely by accident. Maybe they felt they were doing all that they could. And the funny thing is, at this point in time I haven’t seen so many people being rude or aggressive as... I’ve seen people being righteously angry and upset, and speaking their minds, and trying to explain just how they’ve been hurt. I’ve seen people say “perhaps this was something that could have happened to anyone, but it was a writing choice, and writing choices don’t exist in a vacuum.” From more than once source. 

I’ve seen people just wanting to have an apology instead of excuses from the creative team, and it feels like all that they’re getting are the creative team supporting each other and saying “be nice”, which to be honest, has led me to unfollow most of them for at least the time being.

So, yeah! I know not everyone is going to agree with me on everything I’ve said here, and that’s okay, but I needed to say it. Because even though I wasn’t even fully in the fandom (currently more into Final Fantasy and KH tbh, and I’m likely going to dunk my head into one of those to get out of this) it still hurt like hell.

[leonawriter]

The whole thing with Veld trying to get Tseng to see that the mission is the most important thing - but also to not forget to take care of himself - is reminding me of Keith’s arc with the Blade of Marmora, in VLD.

A lot of people saw how Kolivan told Keith to just leave a person behind if there was no chance to save them, and that the mission was vital above all, and thought that Keith was being taught to put his own safety at lesser value than that of a mission.

But the fact was, just like Veld trying to teach Tseng the same thing, it’s... really not what was going on.

Kolivan and Veld know the value of one life, and how important it is. They know that no one member of their team can be replaced. But they both also know that the work they do is such that sometimes, all they can do is focus on the mission and ensure that the mission is carried out and fulfilled, so that that one person is the only person who has to die for this.

In both instances, the actions of the one they were teaching causes more damage - and fatality - than simply focusing on the mission would.

In Keith’s case, a Blade member follows his lead and thinks ‘if I can just stay a few ticks longer, I can do this’, and doesn’t have enough time. He also repeatedly puts his teams at risk, by not thinking about consequences, and not communicating properly, and acting rashly. 

Tseng decides that one man’s life is the most important thing, therefore he puts the man’s life above the status of the mission - the overall mission - which is to stop data from reaching the wrong hands. He allows tech to go onto the black market. 

In both cases, their leader chastises them, and in both cases, although they seem to have learned from their experiences, they’ve also taken it too far; they now see the mission as more important than their own wellbeing, and in Tseng’s case, encourages Veld to carry on without him and let him to die, and in Keith’s case, takes further risks and shows himself willing to perform a suicide run at a shield that he’s clearly not going to put a dent into, and both sets of actions are futile, and would have made no positive impact.

Thing is, like I said, it’s not Veld or Kolivan’s faults, but the fact that they’re dealing with idealistic people who rely on gut instinct and trust their hearts over their heads. Veld even says that although Tseng knows the words, he still doesn’t truly understand what they mean. It can be taken that this is because he’s willing to throw his life away.

So, yeah, the Turks and the Blade seem to be really similar in this one aspect; that they’re both led by an older man who appears to understand the need to have as few casualties as possible, and the worth of being able to turn your back on a hopeless situation, because sometimes, you can’t get out with both the mission a success and everyone alive, but you do have to get as many out alive as you can. 

Because they might be the best at what they do, but they aren’t protagonists, and they don’t have plot armour. They have to come at things from a somewhat more realistic world view.

(Also I believe I owe @radioactivesupersonic thanks for where a lot of Kolivan’s meta comes from. Even now, it’s stuck in my head.)

[leonawriter]

Something @radioactivesupersonic has said about how it doesn’t make sense if the Garrison is an ‘evil’ organisation, and to look at its employees, reminded me of a comparison that could be made.

See, I have an example of an actual ‘evil’ organisation where you can judge it by both its actions, and its employees.

Both Shinra and the Garrison are largely military. 

Shinra has the army and SOLDIER and not only that, but weapons development as well (among other things). The Garrison, however, is tied to another organisation (likely the US government) that has authority over it. 

The Garrison’s military status involves training their cadets and other officers to be able to defend themselves, and also to fly in defensible ways to avoid obstacles in space (such as an asteroid field). There might be weapons training, but whereas in Shinra that would be expected to be put to practical use, in the Garrison I’d say that it’s most likely for the sake of building discipline, the same reason anyone goes to a martial arts class. 

Shinra’s science division is openly feared by other employees, and makes SOLDIERs and other staff members uncomfortable. The head of this department is someone who sees people as potential projects and experiments, and once they are, they are no longer people. Regardless of whether or not Sephiroth actually is Hojo’s son, Hojo still abused him in this way, and did not give the kid any love or support, and did not allow the boy to grow up in a loving, supportive atmosphere. Hollander, another leading scientist, has a very similar attitude. These experiments are kept from the rest of the company barring the President, and when subjects escape, they are hunted down with extreme prejudice. 

The Galaxy Garrison’s scientific minds are a part of the infrastructure of the Garrison, and highly regarded by pretty much everyone. One of the leading scientists is someone who has a family - one that loves and respects him, and his children are highly defensive of him, ready to go to great lengths to get him back. Just as important is the fact that - despite Katie’s own negative experience with it - the Garrison has a school which openly teaches about the newest developments, keeping the youth educated. Katie also shows that she is able to be proud of the developments that her family are a part of discovering. 

When someone disappeared from Shinra’s employ, we have various examples of how people reacted to this news. The first two disappearances less relevant to the third; with Zack’s disappearance we have Luxiere and Kunsel sending emails saying how they would help - Luxiere saying that Zack should ‘let himself be captured’ so that Luxiere could use a potential higher rank to get him out, and Kunsel offering to help in any way that he could. The rest of Shinra itself had to either work against itself (the Turks) due to this technically being a case of acting against orders, or... well, the army literally gunned Zack down. It’s as simple as that. And we don’t know what happened to Kunsel.

When confronted with the disappearance of Shiro, Matt, and Sam, the Garrison... well, instead of an impersonal email saying ‘killed in action: name here’, there was a TV broadcast which allowed everyone to know an admittedly edited version of the truth that was acceptable for the general public to know. Which clearly wasn’t acceptable to everyone, since we then see Katie breaking and entering into Iverson’s office, and yet... Iverson lets her go with a warning, a slap on the wrist for bad behaviour. What’s more, the Garrison isn’t at fault for the disappearance of their people, and when one of them - Shiro - reappears, they take safety measures to ensure that someone who is clearly in a state of panic doesn't injure them, but also that Shiro doesn’t injure himself. 

Important to note: the worst things that Lance, Hunk, and Pidge are afraid of when assaulting the Garrison camp that’s been put up to investigate Shiro’s crashed Galran fighter, is that they’re going to get into trouble. At seeing their actual teachers out there and racing after them, they are afraid of being caught, but they do certainly not seem afraid of being killed. If the Garrison was a front for an ‘evil’ organisation that was going to experiment on any alien tech they could get their hands on, then the kids would have noticed something more going on than ‘why aren’t they hearing [Shiro] out’ and ‘aw man, I think that was Prof. Montgomery’. This show is not that subtle when it comes to pointing out when something suspicious is going on. Also, when they get away, the next thing we know of the Garrison is... Iverson and someone else being confused at the ‘Flying Blue Lion, sir.’ Which is both humanising and also indicative of ‘these are not the kind of people who are going to shoot it down to examine it.’

Something else we’ve talked about in chats is how compared to both the Garrison and the Galra Empire, Shinra’s tactic of draining the Planet in order to get power is far more like Zarkon’s approach of harvesting quintessence than the Garrison... literally just going out places to be excited and nerd out over new science. That’s literally the first thing that we see Garrison scientists do. Sam and Matt Holt being excited to explore and gain new knowledge.

So... I’d say that even though it’s not great all of the time, FFVII does a decent job of portraying how, through the average employee, the general workings of Shinra are suspect and that it is not a safe place to work, and that it’s not a safe world to inhabit because Shinra is in control. People are afraid of the scientists, the people we see as heroes are seen questioning their loyalty to the company (Zack, in the first chapter of Crisis Core) while still working for it, and those who talk or act against the company are dispatched and killed rather than talked to (CC, VII, BC).

The Garrison on the other hand encourages learning, the upper ranks are seen as human and not people to be afraid of unless you give them good reason to be angry (Lance’s team in the first episode not working as a team, the future Paladins stealing away someone who should have been in quarantine), their memories of being back on Earth and thinking of the Garrison are fond, and good. Sneaking out does not seem to have major consequences, and if it does, none of Lance, Hunk, or Pidge are all that bothered by them. Keith, who is expelled from the Garrison, is not hunted down, and does not seem to be afraid when coming face to face with Garrison scientists and a full camp of assorted others. The Garrison is often shown in warm lights, associated with good memories, and we have not in five entire whole seasons even heard of a single person protesting at the Garrison’s gates. Which, I’m sure we’d have had someone mention if that was a thing people did, if there was anyone who thought the Garrison was doing anything inhumane or non-ethical.

Basically... we have examples, actual examples of what it’s like when a military-scientific organisation does unethical things, and how that affects the protagonists, as well as everyday people. For VLD, this is... not one of those cases. We never see any of those signs or symptoms of something being wrong in the system. VLD is also not that subtle, and it’s easy to pick out when something is going wrong. 

With that said, I think the intention is that the Galaxy Garrison is supposed to be a hero-backing organisation that may well come further into play in future seasons (hopefully sooner rather than later) and that will come to Earth’s defence for the sake of ‘this is the right thing to do, and why we’re here’ rather than the shady group that’s supposedly going to experiment on anything different and strange that some people seem to think it might be, or might have been at one point.