#gd-gone

Something happened. I was looking around Tumblr for a quote that I can’t find regarding Tim Hedrick leaving Voltron, and I found this quote from NYCC instead:

TH: Well, I for one was getting tired of working on series where everything was going bad for our characters, and I wanna do one where people are happy all the time. so, that’s what I’m promising in the future [is] smooooth sailing!

JDS: i think, that being said though, we had worked on those past shows that had very dramatic stakes, so expect that to carry through, along with the very happy episodes.

…now conflict requires Bad Things to happen to our favorite characters, but it doesn’t have to be the constant demoralizing storyline that Voltron became following Season 2. There should be wins. So…what happened? I mean, JDS’ line is textbook. That’s how an EP should act and answer questions.

But what Very Happy Episodes was he talking about? I can’t think of ONE episode that left me happy after Season 2, though Monsters & Mana came close. Unfortunately, that joy was destroyed by the EPs’ commentary. 

Also, JDS said later he always wanted a tragedy.

It reminds me of this quote, too - which come following Season 2

“When the first season came out a lot of what we heard online was, ‘We’d like to see more Keith.’ And we went, ‘He’s coming.’ And he came. Second season came out and they’re like, ‘Where’s Hunk and Lance? What’s going on?’ Just wait guys. We love each character equally. We’re not trying to write anyone out of the show. It’s the risk of doing an ensemble cast.”

But then they said they wanted Shiro gone after Season 2. They wanted to kill Hunk. They ended up killing Allura - so…that was a downright lie, JDS. 

The problem sounds like - DreamWorks’ execs and people around the office knew Shiro would be beloved, which he was. In the comment section of this article, one of the first commentators mentions how they connected with Shiro, one of the first characters she/he did in a long time. 

It seemed like neither the newbie EPs JDS nor LM connected with Shiro and were out to prove they were right and their veteran bosses wrong. And the fans just proved their veteran bosses right. 

Angry people don’t always make the most educated or rational decisions, and they lash out in emotional ways. That’s how I see any interviews after Feb. 2018, when the EPs started their negative campaign against the fans and their own characters - and started pushing their old Street Fighter proposal. 

Essentially - the EPs were told between Season 4 and Season 5 they weren’t welcome back at DreamWorks after Season 8, and well - they thought they’d burn down the house on their way out. 

ALFOJEIADFAJLDFAJGADLF this is so sweet and moving, thank you so much for this!!! 

It was a good call by those managing Archie to change things up. My partner really enjoyed the Archie horror comics, but he doesn’t watch Riverdale and that’s okay, he doesn’t need to. The old school Archie comics can co-exist with other iterations of the Archie story (horror comics, teen drama television, etc). The audiences for those things are going to be different so they don’t have to please everyone at the same time with only one thing to sell them.

I’ve seen this strategy work with other franchises and its a good one. Maybe WEP and DreamWorks will try it with Voltron. There is still an audience for DotU Voltron in a variety of story-telling styles across different media, and the same goes for VLD.

The way this strategy can continue a franchise (e.g. Transformers), or keep a smaller IP alive (e.g. Thundercats), is why I don’t get upset over the Bayformers even though I’m such a G1 Transformers snob. Bay’s Transformers movies were totally not my thing, I’m not into the designs, but they brought a lot of money and new attention to the franchise, and that’s how we got IDW’s amazing comic book run. The audience for those movies and the audience for the comics are very different, and by all accounts, both audiences got what they wanted. Bayformers had to happen, trying to appeal to G1 snobs like myself for those movies would have been a bad idea.

The Bumblebee movie, and the Prime Wars Trilogy cartoons are also different takes that iterate upon ideas introduced by the Bayformers, and the IDW comics.

One of the last marketing videos released was titled “our heroes” - and showed all the paladins but Shiro. I think that pretty much says it all...except.

Except.

The series didn’t say that at all.

Keith said Voltron was stronger without Shiro - except Shiro and the Atlas crew needed to save the paladins two episodes later.

Slav said Voltron could not win against Honerva without Atlas, so Voltron needed Shiro again.

Even Voltron could not make its signature blazing sword without a Black Paladin. “Knights of Light” showed that. Keith flew Black, but the paladins wouldn’t have gotten out of the Void without Zarkon. That showed how Voltron needed Shiro - the Black Paladin - and the rest of the paladins shouldn’t have left him behind - again.

They - JDS, LM, even marketing - tried to say Shiro wasn’t a hero or needed - and failed. They had the paladins treat him like a stranger and separate him from the team, but the plot still showed the team - and the series - needed Shiro.

Over and over again.