#voltron critique

Edit: Minors do not reblog,comment or like on my posts or I will block you.

On the topic of Dreamwork's criticism aside from films, even if I'm a fan of VLD in the past but I wanted to put my opinions out regarding this controversial show, let's talk about the queer representation and how men of color who are love interests to Shiro are treated first, Adam who is Shiro's love interest has less screen time in S7, most of his scenes revolved around his argument with his partner related to Shiro's well-being of his body but Shiro protests of wanting to continue going on the mission to which the couple ended on bad terms, his last scene where he was sent out to fight Sendak as being one the pilots to fight against the Galra ships and he died during the war, and Shiro never once get to meet him again in person only to visit his grave.

It's even worse with the lack of screen time that he's barely even a character nor we get to spend time bonding with him before his death. He feels more of a disposable POC character than an actual character. Next is Curtis, who I might describe is a background character, yet we never seen him ever interacting more with Shiro yet I'm surprised he got married with Shiro at the end despite the two barely interacting or ever have on screen chemistry.

Even if it's the first MLM kiss in cartoon, the payoff was unsatisfying. I get that the show was rushed in production issues and may have to appeal to a worldwide audiences considering there are still conservatives who are against gay relationships and might get attacked due to censorship but it doesn't mean it excuses the lackluster writing. I recommend to watch this video that goes into depth about the issues of Voltron's queer representation and one the writers calling Shiro a "Straight Man." Whether intentionally or unintentionally by accident just says a lot about the effort on writing gay characters in media.

Just think about it, two of the men who are both brown skinned, the other is tan and one is darker skinned are only men who are basically love interests to Shiro, they're barely even memorable characters or have narrative impact in the story, they're just love interests with barely any strong characterizations to them that the fandom has to fill in the gaps with their headcanons to make them feel like actual characters. It's kind of strange to me that DW decided to not give two men who are POC their own story arcs or develop a strong relationship with Shiro to just be instead "love interests." Kind of problematic if you ask me and considering they did Allura the Black Girlfriends Disposable Trope at the end doesn't make it better.

Now lastly let's talk about race, I watched VLD back in 2018 after the show ended, and it's my only introduction and exposure to Voltron, and what I wasn't aware of until recently is that most of the main casts are raceswapped from the originals most especially Allura was originally blonde until they made her a black woman in the remake. But considering there are other Voltron shows that are not accurate to the originals so VLD might be it's own AU version of it. The reason I want to discuss about it is regarding Keith who among the main casts who has no established race despite being half-galra, and it's implied by DW of the AAPI Heritage from the wiki that he might be Asian.

Just think about it, most of the main casts have established races yet Keith was not, sure he might be implied to be Asian, but Asian people are vast, we have Southeast and Eastern Asian people and I was one of the Southeast Asian people who are Filipinos, yet DW couldn't bothered to give him an actual race only implied to be Asian even tho he was voiced by an Asian VA? With the only exception of Shiro Takeshi who is voiced by an American VA. It's even worse that he's biracial, and I thought Kogane was his actual surname until I realized it was the fandom who gave him that bc DW couldn't bothered to give him a official Surname, despite that Keith is fine as a character, as for Shiro the same can be said about him except his romantic relationships surrounding his story is underdeveloped and Sheith as a ship has more chemistry than Shiro's 2 love interests was quite ironic honestly. Considering that Dreamworks was hyping up their queer representation only to turn Adam into a disposable gay man at his tragic demise while a background character with less screentime and lines managed to be married with an Asian disabled man without onscreen chemistry and development. Just bc Dreamworks may not be as pandering like Disney and Pixar or any other companies when it comes to representation that it feels forced sometimes that it makes anti SJWs or anti woke people call these companies woke, does not mean Dreamworks should be given a slap on the wrist for their poor and half-assed representation and just willingly accept it even if from what I've seen about the She-ra The Princesses of Power reboot and I have not fully watched it but got spoiled by the critical fandom in Tumblr who voiced out their complaints about the queer or lesbian representation being abusive and romanticized that even if DW gave lesbians more screentime than VLD ever did with it's gay characters considering it's a trend in Western Media who have more love for lesbians than gay men. Still does not mean it's great representation.

My heart broke when Adam died within a minute of being shown on screen. I was looking forward to seeing him and Shiro interact! That relationship had so much potential and so much meaning. I thought they would treat it like a real relationship, imperfect and flawed and very likely broken. Instead, they swept Adam under the rug by killing him.

Hunk's arc was lacking to be honest. His fixation on his family is understandable, but I expected this storyline to be given to Lance and for Hunk to explore his capabilities as an engineer and innovator outside of Voltron. Lance has had all this buildup, with references to his family being made as far back as the first season when they showed his memory of his large family. It has contributed to the fandom's understanding of him as someone who needs attention because he's grown up around many others. We don't get this same buildup with Hunk. We weren't even introduced to his family until this season with a few flashbacks that really were generic enough to fit any family. Not only that, but after emphasizing Hunk's willingness to take action to save his family, they end up simply being saved through a series of events that were bound to happen regardless of whether or not Hunk showed strength.

Another problem I had was with Allura suddenly developing feelings for Lance. Frankly, this was poorly written. Lance has been developed in hints and pieces, but never explicitly enough to warrant Allura's sudden change in attitude. I had hoped that the team's appreciation of Lance would develop alongside his maturity to allow him to become worthy of Allura. Instead, her attraction seemed to appear out of nowhere with little build up or acknowledgement of what Lotor's betrayal has done to her.

Finally, the pacing of these last few seasons have just been bad, both with emotions and action. Voltron likes to jam pack action and force sudden developments in episode after episode with only a few pauses here and there for "emotional" moments that have no breakthrough because there is no buildup. We need context to feel things. We need to know who Adam is to love him. We need to see how the team has dealt with Keith's abrupt reintroduction as the leader. (He left and then came back completely different. He isn't te same person anymore. Why is this never dealt with?)

My biggest issue was that it was plain boring. I wasn't invested in many of the earlier episodes of season 7 because they all felt like filler episodes. They showed us what the paladins were doing as they traveled, but not how their bonds were changing. The only moments that dealt with this was when they were lost in space. Then the entire Earth sequence was just. Uninteresting. I didn't care about these new people. I didn't feel connected to any of them except for Sam. I only became slightly more interested with Veronica was revealed as Lance's brother because finally! Some insight into one of the protagonists! But again, the pacing was wrong.

New characters were introduced who we were meant to love but there wasn't enough time to provide details into them. Not only that, but filling a long period of time with these new characters without any references or pull backs to our protagonists left me feeling as though I was watching an entirely different show, one I didn't care about.

The ending battle for Earth was. Action packed. Tense, I guess. But again. Through impossible magic that involved ships turning into robots and a betrayal that made no sense, Voltron won again. It felt dragged out and every new development wasn't a plottwist, it was simply the writer's throwing in a kink to increase the action. Adding in the senseless science and magic and there was no real basis in reality.

I guess my biggest problem is that I hoped for a show that dealt with bigger themes and developed its characters emotionally and mentally. Season after season, we were promised representation and character development. All we have received is hours of the same battle over and over. (Voltron thinks they've got this in the bag, everything goes wrong, Voltron is overpowered, they use their preserverance to come up with some super attack, Pidge throws out meaningless statistics etc. Etc.)

I admit that this is a kid's show and I shouldn't have expected so much, but I thought that Voltron would have added depth since the writers and VAs have been heralding Voltron as this intricate and detailed show for as long as it has been running. I grew up with shows like Teen Titans and Avatar: The Last Airbender. I'm disappointed to feel foolish for putting such high hopes in Voltron. It's a great show with beautiful art and great fight sequences. It's writing just isn't for me because I'm looking for the exploration of characters in stressful environments and the development of different relationships between detailed people.

In case anyone is interested in my rambles :) 

tl;dr lots of Avatar parallels and a bit sad that it’s only about Keith/Shiro/Allura- though if that does turn out to be a love triangle at least it’s a very interesting one. 

This season felt a lot heavier than the first. The writers addressed some serious issues and many characters got great development. Still, some things feel lacking.

I love that Pidge didn’t sit around and wait for others to save her, but instead turned out to be the one to save all the others. Reversing Disney princess roles. She got a lot of development and is getting more mature. I also loved the not-so-subtle scene where she is confused which bathroom to go to- way to address current issues! I like that she’s a tomboy-girl and Allura is a girly-girl and both are shown to be capable fighters and an essential part of the team. Still I would’ve liked to make it a bit more clear that she is, in fact, not a boy. Gender-neutral would be fine too, obviously, but now it’s too easy to conveniently overlook everything and just assume she’s a boy. I think Avatar’s Toph did a better job of that. 

Speaking of Avatar, I’ve heard that some of the writers also worked on A:tlA and Korra, and I can see a lot of similarities. 

The Olkari planet, Pidge learning that everything is connected? The Swamp. 

Zarkon keeps finding Voltron and everyone gets tired, cranky and scared? The Chase.

That brainwashing water planet? Lake Laogai. “Here, all are safe and warm” = “There is no war in Ba Sing Se.” “Time for you to take a walk in the garden.” = “The Earth King invites you to Lake Laogai.”

Allura vs. Haggar, and Haggar turning out to be Altean? That’s Katara vs. Hama in The Puppetmaster. 

King Alfor and Zarkon built Voltron together? Sozin and Roku in The Avatar and the Firelord. 

There’s also a bit of Harry Potter in there, what with Shiro and Zarkon mind-battling and Haggar being like the Bellatrix to Zarkon’s Voldemort. 

I also love that the Galra!Keith theory is confirmed, and that it turned out to be his mother who was Galra instead of his father like everyone thought. Haha! He showed some serious development, which is great because he hardly had any in season 1. I would’ve loved if he had gotten a bit more time with Thace. We don’t know anything about Thace- what’s his motivation? How did he get so high in Zarkon’s ranks? More Blade of Marmora info please!

I feel like the writers tried to make up for everything that went wrong in Avatar. Galra!Keith obviously is Zuko and his Fire Nation ancestry, and the scene where Allura tells him “It doesn’t matter what’s in your blood. It’s who you are that counts” is what Avatar failed to say when they reduced Zuko’s inner conflict to ‘good ancestor Roku’ vs ‘bad ancestor Sozin’. That scene was SO Zutara it’s making me very, very confused. They had absolutely zero chemistry in season 1 but now they suddenly have these moments together and that hug was almost like their very own Crystal Catacombs scene, and... idk. Would the writers be making up for the failure of Zutara in Avatar? I like that idea but I’m not sure if this is the right ship for it- I always felt like Shallura had more of a Zutara vibe, but maybe the writers see Shallura as the Kataang of Voltron? oh horror I honestly thought this would be either non-pairing or, if any, Shiro x Allura. Although I’ve read that in previous incarnations of Voltron Keith x Allura was always the standard pairing, but I don’t think I can ship them. What even is their ship name? Kallura? Alleith? Keira? Haha. 

Shiro x Allura is still very big, too. The way they scream each other’s names says a lot, and I love their roles as the natural leaders of the group, they really are the ‘Space Parents’. The way Shiro took her hand and told her to get rest... hmmm :) I still have hope they will be endgame, I do really like them together.

But the biggest thing is definitely Shiro x Keith. It’s... well, unavoidable. These two have some history, that’s for sure. I don’t really want to ship them but it’s SO obvious that it’s hard not to! But all this is setting up a potential love triangle that could work out either very well or very badly. 

I’m really sad about the lack of Klance. If this was the only season I’d have seen I would’ve shipped Sheith and not Klance. They only had that little elevator/pool-scene and it hardly gave them any more development. I did like the reference to the “Two bros sitting in a hot tub- five feet apart cause they’re not gay!” vine. Would that have been intentional? They seemed to have taken a step back in their relationship. I thought they had passed the rivalry and hate in season 1 already. It felt old. Lance hardly got any development. Seriously, his only good moment was that one lucky shot when they saved Slav, and immediately after that he was reduced to the womanizing joke again. Sad. In Season 1 he was also shown to be smart and courageous and a very loyal friend, but all that was missing now. Even Hunk, whose reduction to fat-kid-joke I hate, got more development than him.  If Lance really likes Allura so much, why doesn’t he try to spend more time with her or get to know her better? His infatuation with her always seems to come out of nowhere, only for the sake of a cringeworthy joke. I don’t actually like the humour in this show- it’s too much like LoK. 

So, what will happen in season 3? Shiro is missing so it’s obvious that Keith will be the substitute leader, which was heavily foreshadowed. Would he pilot the Black Lion now? I don’t hope so. He did pilot it to save Shiro, so I guess he could. But it would be a bit much, the Black Lion already has 2 pilots fighting over it, and Shiro just strengthened their bond. The bond between Red and Keith is also shown to be very strong, so I don’t think Keith would switch Lions. Who would pilot Red, then? Allura? She doesn’t seem to be Red’s type... I actually really hope Allura will take on the Black Lion and lead Voltron, but I guess she’ll have to stay in the kitchen castle. If she does get the Black Lion that would be a major Shallura hint, too, but if she starts to work more closely with Keith if he becomes the leader and they have more of those... moments... well. I really don’t know what to think.