#tim hedrick

ATLA, TLOK, Voltron writer and Fast & Furious: Spy Racers showrunner Tim Hedrick has joined Avatar Studios as a writer

Another big new reveal from a recent episode of the Braving the Elements podcast!

Tim Hedrick appeared on the official Avatar podcast hosted by Janet Varney (Korra) and Dante Basco (Zuko) and was introduced as “ATLA, LOK, and Avatar Studios writer”!

Besides ATLA and TLOK, he was also a writer on Voltron: Legendary Defender, and showrunner/writer of Fast & Furious: Spy Racers, the animated streaming series of the Fast & Furious franchise.

This is interesting as it follows the news that Lauren Montgomery has also joined Avatar Studios, as director. We also know Jeremy Zuckerman is back doing the music at the new studio, so, just based on the information we have now, it appears that a lot of the same team that made the first two animated series, ATLA (2005-2008) and TLOK (2012-2014), and continued together to make Voltron: Legendary Defender (2016-2018) (Bryke and Jeremy being notable exceptions) are continuing to be the ones making Avatar moving forward. Of course, we don’t know all of the crew yet, so brand new people could still join, and we know multiple movies and series are coming, so it’ll be interesting to see how the crew fills out based on how numerous and frequent the releases are.

Dark Horse Comics has announced a spin-off graphic novel focusing on Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Toph. The Last Airbender - Toph Beifong’s Metalbending Academy comes to us from writer Faith Erin Hicks, artist Peter Wartman, and colorist Adele Matera with collaboration from Avatar: The Last Airbender series writer Tim Hedrick. 

Things are looking good for the Beifong Metalbending Academy, if a bit dull after all of Toph’s earlier adventures. “Luckily, Sokka and Suki come to visit and reintroduce some familiar faces from their wandering days. And while out and about to celebrate, Toph discovers something that just might put the spring back in her step.” (Dark Horse Comics)

Iroh: I'm sure he doesn't. Why would he banish you if he didn't care?

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. 

Melenor, Allura’s mother, flew the Castle of Lions.

On the bridge of the Castle of Lions, there are seats for all 5 Paladins. While these could have been added for the new Paladins, it’s more likely that they’ve been there all along.

It’s also not likely that they’d have added a Red Paladin seat at first if Alfor was the main person flying the Castle; like with Allura after she becomes a Paladin, he would have just stood at the controls. So, it’s reasonable to assume that, during the days of the original Paladins, someone else flew the Castle of Lions.

We know that it couldn’t have been Corran: He can fly the Castle over short distances, but he can’t use the teledauv to create wormholes. We also know that it couldn’t have been Honerva, since she seemed pretty tethered to the Rift. And, from the standpoint of storytelling, which they were good at in the Tim Hedrick days, it wouldn’t make sense to have a character that we’ve never seen doing something as important as piloting the Castle.

The only plausible candidate, then, is Queen Melenor of Altea. We can reasonably assume that she was a sacred Altean. Given the sheer strength of Allura’s sacred Altean power, it would make sense that both of her parents had that power too. (Plus, from a sociopolitical standpoint, royalty in various countries has traditionally married within higher levels of the nobility, and there may have been a strong correlation between sacred Altean power and nobility.) And like Corran, Melenor has been shown with the Paladins of Old even before they became Paladins—but after the construction of the Castle.