Different series, same controversies.......
All these interviews and rumours on what might’ve been happening behind close doors during VLD’s development has made me think back to the controversy for the game ‘Tales of Zestiria’ because of how similar the backlash was when compared to VLD after S6 (the season where fans started to really question the writing).
Let’s look at the similarities........
Voltron: Shiro and Adam were heavily marketed as the LGBT rep for promoting S7 only for Adam to get 1 minute of screen time before he’s brutally killed while Shiro gets demoted to a side-character. Shiro fans and the LGBT community were not happy.
Zestiria: Alisha was heavily marketed as the main heroine for the game (so much so that you could end up extra spending money just to get DLC stuff for her) only for her to end up being playable for the first few hours. Tales games are known to have guest characters but in the case of Alisha fans felt lied to and ripped off for spending extra money on her.
Voltron: The backlash for S7 was so bad that Dreamworks had to call Santos up to issue an apology letter. The response to the letter has been mixed.
Zestiria: I can’t remember if the director issued an apology but I do remember hearing that the Japanese VA for Rose had to apologize for committing the crime of voicing Rose, the real heroine of the story. From a western audience perspective it was stupid to hear that because she did nothing wrong.
Alisha DLC’s was also made free for a few days to make up for the backlash for being sold as a DLC. The reviews for that weren’t good.
Voltron: Keith started out as a neutral character towards fans until he officially became the Black Paladin. Many fans felt that from this moment on he started stealing the spotlight from other characters and he gave off Gary Stu vibes (leadership being unearned, getting constant praise because he’s Keith, etc).
Zestiria: In North America, Rose is a love or hate character. She too gave off Mary Sue vibes because of how awesome and right she always is towards whoever she’s killing (she’s an assassin). She makes a good foil to main character Sorey but no one questions her decisions because she’s Rose. Rose is never wrong.
Voltron: Rumours from what was happening from behind the scenes have lead to theories that S7 and S8 may have been a cut and paste job the second the EP’s had full control of the writing.
Zestiria: One of the theories is that Alisha was intended to be a guest party member because you were still able to purchase her weapons armour long after she leaves the party. This is both bad and suspicious because she’s the only character in the game that can wield a lance. Combined that with the rumours of the director having a crush on Rose’s Japanese VA, one is left wondering if the game’s storyline was drastically altered just so Rose could be the main heroine.
Both have similar controversies and backlash but the only differences being that the Alisha controversy was more big in Japan than it was overseas, and that Tales of Berseria (which takes place in the same universe as Zestiria but in the past) was well received. The franchise recovered. VLD on the other hand has showed no signs of recovering despite the series ending last year because the EP’s are continuing to dig themselves into a deeper hole with their latest interview. Personally I think Dreamworks is aware that the series can’t recover and they’re trying get someone else to take the brand away from them.
