Voltron: Legendary Defender

[Mad Ones]

What trends did it reinforce?

Queerbaiting and "bury your gays."

 

[RockSP]

Totally agreed. I think we should be honest about our criticisms and the things we like. The show queerbaited audiences into thinking Shiro’s romantic relationship with a man would be important but all we got was one subtextual scene and one dead gay man.

I guess it depends on if you follow news stories surrounding the show. I don't...I just watch the show, so I didn't know Shiro was gay until I watched that episode.

 

[Mad Ones]

I guess it depends on if you follow news stories surrounding the show. I don't...I just watch the show, so I didn't know Shiro was gay until I watched that episode.

Yeah, but like I said, the show doesn't exist in a vacuum. Gay Shiro news was all over my social media after comic con. Taken as a whole, the optics of the situation is that the show wants the positive attention and praise (aka views and money) for the assumption it will deliver queer content while doing the very bare minimum to actually represent queerness. And Voltron is just one property amongst many that do this and people are gonna stop settling. Like this show got put under Netflix's LGBTQ header lol. After we've had to endure Lance hitting on Allura for 7 season lol.

 

[Arachnerd]

Lance literally hasn't hit on Allura since season 2, but I digress.

While the whole Adam/Shiro might be a little problematic, I still think some people are blowing it out of proportion. The producers said that a character from the show would be LGBT, and we have that with Shiro. He won't stop being gay just because Adam died, he's the still the representation. From what I remember from Comic Con interviews, they said Adam was Shiro's ex-fiancé before he went on the Kerberos mission, so their relationship was already over even by the show's start. The flashback scene from the first episode of season 7 only enforces this.

Adam's death is a little more difficult to discuss, but you could argue that he was just meant to be one of the many casualties Earth suffered while under Sendak's rule. Just because he was killed doesn't necessarily mean it's because he was gay, that's a very narrowminded point of view imo.

I will say the marketing was responsible for hyping people up to such an unreachable degree. Despite this, it does in no way excuse the fandom sending death threats to the showrunners and voice actors because of it.

 

[Lencho01]

I think some fans went in assuming of how big the relationship would be due to how much shipping is done within the fandom even though romantic relationship stuff isn't that big of a part of the show. An expectation versus reality situation. But, I also didn't follow the marketing and hype too much to see if they really gave the impression that Shiro being gay was going to be a big deal or more of a matter-of-fact situation. All I knew is that Shiro would be revealed to be gay and have someone he left behind. I didn't know timeline of the relationship was over before the show even started.

Based on the tweet, I view it as, given his age, Shiro being the only character that could have a lover (or in this case, ex) at the Galaxy Garrison who died and it feel significant. But, because of that, it falls into the "Bury Your Gays" trope.

 

[Primal Slayer]

We came into this season with 2 gays vs. 500 straights and left with 1 gay and 500 straights. DId anyone besides Shiro lose a loved one this season?

And if the producers have to tell the audience that Shiro is gay, that he has a fiance without showing it on screen properly then its a failure.

Idk, may not be the best example but its kind of like saying that Bruce Wayne is Batman but we never see him as Batman.

But no one is for people sending death threats.

 

[Lencho01]

Well, I meant Shiro is probably the only one who could have dated someone at the Garrison and it actually be a significant type of relationship (like a fiance). I don't think the others were there for that long. So, the death of someone's lover who worked at the Garrison is used to show how outmatched they were against the Galra. Since who these characters may be attracted too isn't that big of part of the story, anyone else other than Shiro could be gay or bi... like Keith or Lance that some seem to want.

And yeah, the (ex)fiance aspect of it wasn't really shown well enough within the show. You could have just viewed them as dating rather than engaged. Unless I missed something.

I'm not sure if it's the same in this case due to the approach the writers have taken with relationships. Like let's say they said that Keith for sure was straight, but so far that fact wouldn't really matter since romance seems to be one of the last things on his mind and we'd never see anything about it (unless they really want to do something with Acxa). If that's the case, maybe Pidge and/or Coran would be better examples of sexual orientation not being a factor in the story.

I'm not that much invested in romantic stuff with these kinds of stories unless the romance has some kind of negative effect on the overall story... like what was done with Oliver and Felicity on Arrow. So, I'm generally "whatever" about these things. Anyway, the writers greatly underestimated the reaction the death of Adam would get, which I still think is mostly due to the approach they've taken with romance.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I think what they should've done is reveal that Shiro is gay in the flashbacks and just not have him reunite with Adam yet. Would've saved them a lot of drama.

Had they not killed off Adam and held off on them hugging or something at the end of the series, people would've been fine. But we dont need a conversation and scene that could've played out any way they wanted to because the dialogue was vague and the scene was vague. It's like when the US made Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune into cousins when they were two lesbians in a relationship.

 

[Lencho01]

That sounds like an ok idea, but I can still see people having major problems with it based on what I've seen on Tumblr and such. Heh.

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

I will say the marketing was responsible for hyping people up to such an unreachable degree.

Yup. It might not have come out as badly if Netflix didn't literally have thumbnail images of Shiro and Adam, or Shiro with a rainbow. It's also funny how Dreamworks is trying to claim credit for that tiny bit of representation when the showrunners had to fight that even the little bit that the show got.

It probably wouldn't have also come out as bad if they didn't try to rush in more straight relationships in the form of Lance/Allura and Keith/Acxa. I mean, I didn't doubt Lance's feelings for Allura, but Allura's came out completely out of nowhere. It makes Lance look like a rebound from Lotor. Also, Keith and Acxa have barely spoken to each other. If they HAD to set Keith up, why not Romelle, who he spent living a couple of years with?

 

[Arachnerd]

Ugh, I've heard the Lance rebound complaint too many times already on Tumblr and it's just simply not true. It would have been if Allura immediately jumped Lance's bones right after the Lotor betrayal, but that's not what happened. Plus there's the bond they've been developing since season 3 to take into account, so at the very least it has some build-up.

They were out in space for at least a few months before they got to Earth. Plenty of time for her to heal her wounds and think about things. Would it have been good to see her actually come to realization that she likes Lance in the first half of the season? Absolutely, it's my only nitpick of the whole thing. I would've scrapped the Feud episode because it served no purpose and wasn't even that fun for more character-driven stuff for the paladins.

Lance and Allura's relationship was always going this direction, season 7 just made that abundantly clear. Plus, she just blushed at him. If she had kissed/asked him for his hand in marriage, then I'd understand the complaints.

As for Keith/Axca, eh. I didn't interpret their scenes as romantic, but that's just what I think.

 

[The Big G]

I want more Romelle in season 8

 

[TheVileOne]

All this dumb drama...

 

[Mad Ones]

Lance literally hasn't hit on Allura since season 2, but I digress.

This is blatantly untrue lol. His crush on Allura has always been obnoxious. And they added jealousy when Lotor came around...

All this dumb drama...

People who never get represented care about how they're being represented (especially when the people doing the representing aren't part of the group represented). It's good to have this conversation so that things can actually get better.

 

[Arachnerd]

Crushing on someone is not the same as flirting with them. He dropped the obnoxious flirting stuff seasons ago (to the benefit of his character).

 

[TheVileOne]

This is blatantly untrue lol. His crush on Allura has always been obnoxious. And they added jealousy when Lotor came around...

People who never get represented care about how they're being represented (especially when the people doing the representing aren't part of the group represented). It's good to have this conversation so that things can actually get better.

None of the heroes on the show are Jewish.

 

[Arachnerd]

Does it really even matter that much? Representation is always welcomed, but it's not the main thing I'm drawn to or I'm looking for in this show above all else. The answer to that is simple enough.

I find it curious how I've never seen Mad Ones in this thread except to pop up and complain about this stuff, but I digress. Apparently there's a rumor going around that the last season is premiering sometime in November.

 

[Kaleb]

 

[Mad Ones]

Does it really even matter that much? Representation is always welcomed, but it's not the main thing I'm drawn to or I'm looking for in this show above all else. The answer to that is simple enough.

I find it curious how I've never seen Mad Ones in this thread except to pop up and complain about this stuff, but I digress. Apparently there's a rumor going around that the last season is premiering sometime in November.

I guess you missed my posts when the show first came out praising it. Representation doesn't matter to you. Cool. Do you lack the empathy to understand that something that isn't important to you might be important to others? And representation is super important to the entertainment we consume. There's a reason the showrunners said what they said at comic con and that was to get points, have the show on Netflix's LGBT section, and to act like they are on the "right side of history" when all we got was another dead queer.

I didn't even hate season 7. And I think Shiro is great. But I don't see the point in dismissing criticism. I come from the queer community and I can see that there are lot of problems

 

[Mad Ones]

None of the heroes on the show are Jewish.

What an incredibly bizarre distraction.

 

[Mad Ones]

Can't wait to see what the final season brings. Hopefully character development and closure to character arcs.

 

[TheVileOne]

What an incredibly bizarre distraction.

#Representation #Inclusion #Diversity

 

[RockSP]

I don't recall them addressing the religion (or lack thereof) of any of the characters. How do we know who is or isn't buddhist, jewish, muslim, etc...?

 

[Mad Ones]

#Representation #Inclusion #Diversity

Mocking these thinks makes you look real good.

 

[TheVileOne]

If that's important, I want some more Jewish character representation and characters who are openly Jewish.