Iâm gonna do something I never do, and that is write a reaction post for an entire goddamn season of Voltron. Spoilers will ensue.
Firstly and foremostly, I think we all need to heave a big olâ ball of fuck you at the creators over Adam, and WHATEVER ship name you call him and Shiro by.
That was not representation
That was not ârespecting your lgbt+ fanbaseâ
That was a straight up Bury Your Gays trope, and I am sick
Although if weâre being honest with ourselves, it canât even really canonically be BYGÂ at this point because
was it even touched upon in the season that Shiro and Adam had been a couple. We had some heavily subtextual lines but had we not had direct confirmation outside of canon that Adam was Shiroâs ex, it would have just been another ship. Klance has more frequent and meaningful interactions. Shieth has more frequent and meaningful interactions. Hell, much as I hate Allurance personally, and as stunted and forced as that relationship is, even they have more frequent and meaningful interactions. Even goddamn Acxa/Kieth have more on-screen dialogue about romantic feelings than goddamn Adam/Shiro.
And I promise this reaction post wonât all be ship related, but on the subject, they did both Klance AND Allurance dirty, too
With Klance the hints and baiting from cast and crew are undeniable. Now being a pretty low-key Klance shipper, I have not compiled all the evidence thereof like so many other blogs have, but at the least
we were told to expect more time for Kieth and Lanceâs relationship to develop again, much like it had in season three. Outside of them saying each otherâs names first in battles, we basically got diddly.
In fact, we got Lance saying Keith should be set free from their weird ass test because heâs an amazing leader, and half Galra, and called him the future. What a great start, right? And wow! Keith even also chose Lance!!!
... so that... he wouldnât have to spend time with Lance ever again.
Also wasnât there an interview or something that said Keith and Lance got stranded on the astral plane while the rest of Team Voltron were âasleep for a long timeâ? Hope is in the stars? Et c. whatever??? Idek anymore. Thereâs so much crew talk involving Klance that I canât remember even HALF of it at this point.
I absolutely hate the idea of this ship just because of the lack of, or at best one-sided build up, but I know a ton of people were looking forward to it under the right circumstances
Something like Lance and Allura actually, I donât know, talking to each other about this type of thing? The fallout of Alluraâs relationship with Lotor? Lance maybe NOT taking an interest in Romelle just âcause sheâs there?
But no, we got a suddenly blushy Allura, who had previously shown NO interest in Lance and in fact still chose Lotor over him after learning about Lanceâs feelings, being all âcome back safely~â, and then newly introduced characters having to be like OOOOOOH THE PRINCESS LIKES YOU TOO. I HAVE TO SAY THIS OUT LOUD OR THE AUDIENCE WILL NEVER BUY IT. THIS IS TOTALLY NATURAL.
And correct me if Iâm wrong, but wasnât there something about Lance pairing up with someone who âisnât what he wants (Allura since day one) but who he needs (shut up, we all have theories on who this is and Iâm not fighting anyone over it,) so did they just drop that bit for him?
And what about Lance being Alluraâs rebound being referred to by (I think) Joaquim as being âa disservice to both those charactersâ
Meanwhile Lanceâs promised development has STILL
We got him being very competent in battle and... still... being belittled by his teammates at every opportunity. Like ha ha I get it Lance is the cheap shot comic relief but all Lance really seemed to develop this season is a Millennialâs nihilisticly suicidal sense of humor. Which I mean #Mood but we still havenât addressed Keithâs suicide attempt, and Lance has already DIED (and not talked about it,) and is making outright âDonât worry, weâll all be dead soon anywayâ jokes. And when he and Veronica were about to die and Red saved him, that was just Red saving his Paladin like always, not Lance successfully calling him to Earth. (As evidenced by the other lions all lighting up and flying away, and the like two second shot of Red just... sitting there, entirely dark.)
Not only that but weâve seem to gone backwards? Where was his sword Bayard, hm? Why did he unlock traditionally âKeithâsâ weapon (albeit a different style sword,) if that wasnât going to come into play once Keith was back?
and SPEAKING OF KEITH AND LACK OF DEVELOPMENT well firstly a pause, for the lovely Keith and Hunk scene. That was a long time coming and absolutely wonderful.
But suddenly Keith is just... IN leader mode? No adjustment period, no getting reacquainted with the rest of the team, not even a scene to talk with goddamn Shiro over being more willing and able to accept leadership. Two years in space with one other person and an animal, not matter how cool that animal is, does not suddenly a leader make. Oh, and there was no follow-up whatsoever on said two year time gap either, by the way.
And Krolia just leaving again, after making a big deal about not doing that again?? Like hey son we had a fun and terrifying vacation on an enormous space whale, but once again, mission above all else, peace out. They definitely couldnât just bring Kolivan with them until heâd recovered and have a few scenes to put a proper plan in action that may still have had Krolia leave, but at least have it make sense. Nope, better just leave right now immediately while Kolivan is almost dead because there arenât quite as many knives in this wall as their should be.
MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH GALAXY GARRISON, no one had ever thought about MAYBE defending the earth against POSSIBLE ALIENS when the Kerberos team disappeared!! Weâve known since season one they knew it wasnât pilot error! Weâre told this from the files Pidge is going through!!! WHY WAS AN ESTABLISHMENT CALLED THE GALAXY GARRISON SENDING PEOPLE ALL THE WAY OUT TO OUR FARTHEST PLANET, WITHOUT HAVING ANY SORT OF PLANETARY DEFENSES IN THE WORKS
But instead, letâs just macguffin our way out of danger for half a season straight.
Canât fly the Galra pod Shiro crashed it? Or the Altean ship Sam brought?? No worries, we SOMEHOW got Navs up and running well enough to make simulators for how to fly them just in case
We have good pilots on the simulators now? Good thing Sam knows how to actually build the things!!
The ships are short range and burn through non-crystal powers quickly? GOSH if only we had some of the seasonâs first episodeâs macguffin left HAHA JUST KIDDING WE DO
Need the Lions from four planets away? Now you can AAAAALL CALL YOUR LIONS, REGARDLESS OF BOND LEVEL OR THE FACT THAT ALLURA KNOWS HER BOND IS THE WEAKEST AND NOT YET UP TO PAR
The lions can come to you, but canât actually do what you want them to? WHOOPS THEY CAN NOW, IF YOU JUST CONCENTRATE EVEN SUPER DUPER HARDER
Oh no, we built a giant ship! But it wonât!!! Run without a crystal!!!!! or like 7 super massive blackholes!!!!!!!!! Coran: CHECK OUT MY BLING
But Coran, your bling is too small! Look at how big the bling hole is, and your bling is just too smol! Bling: BITCH ITâS MAGIC
THE DEFLECTOR PLATES JUST HAPPEN TO HOLD OUT LONG ENOUGH FOR THE ATLAS TO GET IN PLACE
THE ATLASâ SHIELDS JUST HAPPEN TO HOLD OUT LONG ENOUGH FOR THE LIONS TO DESTROY THE CANONS
SUDDENLY DUAL WIELDING VOLTRON
SUDDENLY SHIRO IS BASICALLY OLCARIAN BECAUSE OF HIS DOPE NEW FLOATATION DEVICE ARM
SUDDENLY ATLAS BECOMES ANOTHER GIANT ROBOT TO TAKE ON THE SMALLER GIANT ROBOT THAT JUST BEAT THE TITULAR GIANT ROBOTâS ASS
- d e e p  b r e a t h -
Like donât get me wrong, there was still a lot about this season I liked. I mean I stayed up just to finish watching it all the way through. But with how hyped it was, and honestly how positive the reviews mostly were, I was expecting a better. A lot better.
They did their (largely lgbt+) fanbase dirty, while patting themselves on the back for idk thinking they pulled another Korra? (Which, haha, no.)
They did lots of ships, characters, plot lines, and honestly their own universe dirty.
Iâm hoping to hear more from the cast and crew soon, about things in this season, things in the upcoming season, and honestly just what the heck just happened. Because tbph? For once, Voltron has actually left a very bitter taste in my mouth.
And I want to believe they can fix it before itâs too late.