I remember when Keith almost killed himself at the end of a season and I clearly remember the whole fandom thinking about how they would handle that and how the other characters would react. Turns out they completely ignored it, for me this was a huge hint that they show was going down hill. It also made it feel like the characters that we thought were found family, don’t actually care for one another
Isabella Tornabene EXACTLY pissed me off, because people can relate to being suicidal and other hurtful things that happened and they just didn’t handle it well
ugh YES. I wish they dived into Lances struggles and we could see him overcome them. Like the near death experience, that could totally mess a person up! Or his insecurities about being on the team, we could have totally seen him grow as a person and overcome that! But it never gets brought up again :) I honestly just wish someone could remake the show, and actually know how to handle good characters
I loved this show so damn much that it's really hard to let it go and not stay salty. It almost makes me more angry that I have these intense feelings because of a damn fiction, but it shows how well they captivated the audience in the first seasons and how well written it was then compared to the latter seasons. Ngl, it honestly feels like they spit on their fans faces because of how poorly it ended.
I am still not over how Keith literally attempts to kamikaze himself at one point and? No one ever brings it up a single time again? You’d think that kind of thing would come up, worry the other paladins, but no?? They don’t bring it up again??? Way to be a family guys
Exactly! I would've expected at least Matt to say SOMETHING, since he seemed to be the only one who noticed that Keith was going to kill himself? But it's like Keith never bring it up again
EXACTLY. that made me so mad, he was about to kill himself. that’s a BIG deal! like- the chemistry and the relationship between the paladins are so bland and bad. family my ass. its like they weren’t even friends
The whole found family idea they set up in the first couple episodes was just completely fumbled imo. They're suggested to be extremely close but lack real substance in their individual and group relationships. The only exception is like... Shiro and Keith I think. He touches on this at 1:08:59.
They act more like extended family that begrudgingly meet up every thanksgiving and inevitably end up arguing, or at least giving each other pointed stares while someone has a break down. Not at all like an actual, loving found family.
Really love the life lessons I got from this show! Like: 1. Solve abandonment issues by reuniting with your mom, becoming distant with the friends you DID kind of make, then never addressing them ever again! 2. Insecure? Feel like you're the weakest link on the team? Express this to your team on MULTIPLE OCCASIONS only to have it be completely ignored and never worked through in a healthy manner!!! 3. Someone you KNOW is insecure? Totally abandon them in by leaving the team to magically solve the problem!!! 4. Scared of asking out the person you've loved since you met them? Confess to them, start dating, all so they can go on to DIE and leave you mourning for the rest of your life instead of ever moving on from someone who never showed an interest in you in the first place!!! 5. Homesick? Bottle it all up inside and tell no one! 6. So your homie just MC FUCKIN DIED huh? UNEXPLAINED ALIEN MAGIC WILL BRING THEM BACK! 7. It's totally okay to attempt to recklessly sacrifice yourself! Don't worry! No one will call you out on it after! Or ever mention for that matter! 8. Treat PTSD by DYING then having your consciousness transferred into a new clone body! and of course... 9. KILL YOUR GAYS. BECAUSE FUCK THEM AMIRITE?!?!
Can confirm no. 8 works like a charm! Ever since I died and transferred my consciousness into a clone body, my ptsd hasn't bothered me since! I definitely don't have violent panic attacks when I so much as hear that one particular name any more, highly recommend, better than any other coping mechanism. Become a clone today!
can we get a ten just to make it even? 10. Do you know that someone has been severely traumatised and abused by their father figure? Compare them to their abuser then kill them with fire! (literally)
Oh shit... you’re right. But Spider-Verse is better because it handled its plot elements so much better. We spent time with the characters and got to know them (the comic-style intro scenes helped), there were certain plot elements that were referred to consistently and were relevant up until the credits rolled, the music... I could go on.
I legit binged season 8 when it came out (informed my friends of the horrible news of how bad the season was) then 4 of us went and watched Spiderverse in theaters that night. It had the 2 of us who had seen the new season going "HOLY SHIT why does Voltron have to suck so much"
You: talking about Lance and his significant introduction alongside Blue in episode one Me, internally: they did him so dirty they did him so dirty they did him so-
Lance was probably one of my least favourite characters but the entire series I was still waiting for Lance to get any kind of development,oh he has low self esteem and uses humour and bravado to cover it,too bad we're gonna ignore it,oh he loved this character from the first episode,let's make him the rebound and then make him lose her and forever have a physical reminder of her.Like bruh,give the dude a break.
People were also extremely attatched to him because he was the most relatable of the characters. Many people arent extreme tech wizzes or are angsty sword fighters but a comical teen dude with some self confidence issues and a few character flaws? Theres an ambiguity to lance's character that people related to and drew people in and then the show just stopped his character arch. It was so disappointing and theres a reason so many people loved lance was bc they all saw a little bit of themselves in him in a show thats completely fantastical and thats why they loved him. Same goes for me thats why im so mad that they screwed him over so badly.
dear god I was so angry with lance's role in voltron I swear- they use him as comic relief and like the person they can bully. While lance is funny and he does really funny things, he also has another side to him I love that I also feel that wasn't explored enough. Yes, he does have a character development but I feel it to be smaller than the others and also the creators of the show completely brush over some major things that happen with lance that would have been a fun plot to see. He gets the sword upgrade in his bayard in ONE SCENE, and then it's brushed away and doesn't appear again. He basically hecking DIES and it's all brushed off once Allura revives him. Remember the game show episode? he's the dumb one in the show and that gets me so angry because lance is my favorite character and I want the other paladins to appreciate him more instead of just treating him like some annoying person they know. Also, lance is the strongest swimmer of the group and we get one episode where he swims. I would've liked to see more of that. Sorry about the paragraph, I'm just so mad that people can't recognize a valuable character in voltron and I love lance to death.
I don’t think I’ll ever get over how they literally just shoved Hunk aside and made him a fat joke. Like, I really, really loved Hunk at first. He seemed like an interesting and sympathetic character and I loved the whole balmara arc. But seeing how they treated him afterwards, it feels like they kinda just forgot about what he was about and just turned him into a comic relief character. I will never stop being angry about this.
*Allura:* The red lion will not easily bond with you! *Keith: bonds completely with the lion in two minutes* *Allura: also later bonds with the lion without doing anything*
on the topic of the "poorly handled gay Shiro" topic, you mentioned a viewer who hadn't heard of the gay Shiro confirmation wouldn't have any way to know he and Adam were in a relationship. I can prove this for you because, while I would consider myself a pretty big fan of voltron at the time, I didn't use any social media at the time and didn't watch voltron videos online, and I did just assume that Shiro and Adam were friends because there was no romance in the two scenes that involved Shiro and Adam. I also stopped watching season 8 after episode 1 so I didn't even find out Shiro was supposed to be gay until a youtuber I was subscribed to made a video about how voltron's ending was terrible. point is, I'm living proof everything you said about the execution of Shiro's sexuality was right
I agree with you so much here. I literally had the same experience, I thought that shiro and Adam were friends and then at the end of season 8 when he got married to that guy, (who I think should have gotten a name, but whatever 🤷🏾♀️) I was SHOOK. Like I was thinking about it for days! There were no signs that he was gay whatsoever!!
And you know, beyond that, Adam wasn't just Shiro's boyfriend... Adam was Shiro's fiance. The show handled that relationship really poorly and to think that a detail as big and significant and revolutionary as an LGBTQA+ engagement, in one of the main cast being added on as an additional "plot" point was, just awful to see. Not only that but the show could have made the death waay more significant then it did by, in the scene where Shiro did his whole speech about the lives they were going to save and the people we lost in the show they flashed an image of the general and didn't even have the decency to flash an image of Adam... It just makes that whole arc feel really undeserved, and I feel like the writers gave up on the show because of the whole Klance thing (which was just wrong in every sense of the word, but I was still routing for klance, but that's not relevant) and as a result, we got a "patchy at best" rendition of an LGBTQA+ relationship. ~also the video was amazing and it was soooo nice to see another more factual (rightfully leading into anger) viewing of the show because I completely agree with everything that you said, amazing job :)
Beau Sodemann Same here. I wasn’t on a lot of social media at the time, though I had heard some shipping him with Keith, I didn’t take any of it seriously, especially since people seemed to be ignoring the fact that Shiro was much older than Keith. Even so, as I was watching, I thought it was such a goddamn shame to kill of Adam in the flashback. We get to see ALL of the other paladins interact with their family, especially during the Earth arc, but Shiro (and admittedly Allura, post ship-destruction) is the ONLY one who doesn’t have anyone waiting for him back home! Just think about it! It could have been such a great character moment, with this man who always has to be the adult of the team, always has to be strong and stable, finally able to relax and show a bit of emotional vulnerability...but NOPE. Adam is just DEAD. No emotional development for Shiro here!
@@sayeedatosinowo5951 Seriously, you wouldn't know Shiro was gay if you didn't have outside info until literally the last seconds of the show. Listening to die-hard fans not acknowledging the crappy writing with "oh don't you want him to be happy?" is so annoying.
I wish you had talked about the implications of lotor and his arc. You know, the part where he was a survivor of abuse, then turned into a villain then DIRECTLY COMPARED TO HIS ABUSER, all of which was treated without even a HINT of irony. WHAT THE FUCK
They wasted all of lotors potential. It could have been a zuko redemption arc but instead he's used, killed off, and forced to be a pawn by the one who birthed him
To be honest, Lotor is a very complex character. He is my favourite for a variety of reasons, but mainly because his whole character and relationship with zarkon, his short lived relationship with allura, the episode white lion in which he fails to fight the lion are all a mix of abuse, self-hatred, finding comfort in others to cope with your problem who understands you and the way that you feel, hating your ways but still subconsciously reverting back to your same mistakes, and season 6 practically undid everything that was building up for a shitty plot twist which only barely had shock value and that's all? Not to mention how allura compares him to his father - she KNOWS that thats his weakest point, and uses it against him willingly, pointing directly at his trauma. The thing that I noticed too, or rather the way I interpreted the whole thing is that he was in for an alliance perhaps to manipulate voltron in the begging, but he then got attached to allura and that backfired when shitty plot twist for shock value happened. In conclusion, He was then brought down to 'hes like zarkon' when his character could have been something like 'no, hes not like zarkon, even if its his son' the whole thing about not judging someone by their parents, but for their actions which is funny because HE SAYS IT. LITERALLY.
I personally prefer Lotor as a villain, but it might've made more sense/ flow better if Team Voltron worked with him first to kill Zarkon and put Lotor on the Galra throne, then he betrays them on his terms to make it more painful and threatening. Whether he dies or redeems after that, I'm not sure. Somewhat off-topic, I'm surprised the Altean Empire from the other universe never showed up again. TLDR: If I were to do a Voltron show, I'd only do 3 or 4 seasons. It'd be shorter but flow better in theory.
Funny enough your analysis of Allura helped me appreciate Aang a little bit more. Just remembering how he befriended and saved so many fire nation villagers, despite the for nation literally genociding his race.
But that was because aang had been to the fire nation before the war, and had made friends there so he knows/believes that the fire nation are normal people too who are under bad leadership. Allura didn't really have that so she has no idea whether or not every single galra is as bad as zarkon. She would probably like to believe they aren't but since most of her and the group's interactions with galra are bad, she can't bring herself to trust any of them. So keith being half galra actually works out well for her arc because keith is already someone she trusts. Then she has to come to grips with the fact that she can trust someone who is galra and that they must not all be loyal to zarkon, therefore not all evil. Her initial negative reaction to keith makes sense, because all this time she thought he was a human, but turns out he comes from the enemy, it would feel like some sort of betrayal or like information was kept from her. But I'm glad it only lasted like 3 scenes because it would be stupid if she didn't immediately get over herself. And this eventually leads her to be able to trust galra people like the blades of marmora and lotor
Pidge and her family had an arc that lasted several seasons about the importance of family... yet Lance’s only arc was his relationship with Allura. Wondering how they never stopped and focused on his insecurities with the team that he expressed several times throughout the show..
i personally think if explored further, lance would've had the best arc of them all. pidge annoys me predominantly because she (and keith) had too much character development and hunk and lance had little to none.
@@littlebears I mean I love both Keith and Pidge's characters, but I know what you mean. They all deserved to have good arcs, but sadly legit nobody did besides Pidge.
Personally, hers was the least satisfying to me because of how everyone else’s character arc was handled. I don’t think she even had an arc? Just a goal to reach. And she reaches it, but she doesn’t exactly learn anything in the process. She gets both her brother and dad back from the vacuum of space, and then they are dropped like hot rocks. Pidge never becomes less prideful, less self serving, or even a nicer person (she’s pretty rude and awkward to everyone) and get everything works out for her in the end. She never even struggles with her technical knowledge even though she shouldn’t know anything about alien technology or how it works. She just picks it up on the fly. After she gets her family back, she becomes boring, and kinda just there in case the castle shuts down or something. I don’t know. I think what would have made it better is if she had lost one of her family member in this whole thing. Yeah sure, yay she gets a happy ending but look at everyone else. Shiro is just tortured and has no family outside of the one guy he married at the end. Hunks parents get sent to a camp. Lance loses his grandmother and girlfriend. Keith well....had his character butchered. It just bothers me that even though Pidge had an “arc”, she’s not the least bit interesting to me.
I feel like alluras reaction to initially learning about the death of altea was calmer only for it to shift in the next scene having her alone and finally dealing with the grief. It would help to bolster her status of a princess who would have been trained to handle things diplomatically but isn't immune to the feelings
Dude, that graveyard scene with Pidge broke me. Every time that scene played (I've watched the show 10 times over now), I cried just as hard as the first time I saw it. Even knowing what was going to happen and knowing her brother was alive, seeing her absolute devastation of finding out someone she loves is....gone forever. It hits on a very personal level, which adds to your point of Pidge being the best character (for me as well) because of her relatability and the raw emotions/reactions shown through her character arc. And I agree, it seems the writers had a missed opportunity not going into her agency as a Paladin of Voltron being greatly affected from the death of her brother. I don't see enough shows that properly convey or even discuss the process of of struggling with grief from losing a loved one and how it can change one so negatively, sending them into a depression and losing their sense of purpose for anything in life. But that's a different rant. Pidge is best girl
Me too. First time I watched that episode, I felt so damn bad for her that I just wanted to leap through my tv and give her a hug. Thank god the show threw a curve ball because the scenes and episodes with Pidge Matt and Sam are some of my favorites of the whole show.
yes I BAWLED, you could even have pidge THINK he was dead then figure out he was alive through the resistance later... something she might have not learned if she stayed in her rut, OR she could have gotten more focused on saving her dad cause' she failed saving her brother. a bit like a darker version of Appa being taken in avatar the last airbender.
NGL, this was one of the very few things I've ever seen the fandom unite around was how heartbreaking that scene actually was, and Bex Taylor-Klaus really did a great job in their performance. It's a shame Pidge stopped developing as a character from that point, but it was absolutely an S+ tier moment for this show.
Seriously. I stopped watching after the episode in season 4 where he takes the brain drug thing that makes him obsessive over the Voltron talent shows or whatever. I knew it was just a temporary drug but at that point I realized that the writers had fucked with every single character that I liked, and if Coran wasn't safe, no one was
I mean, if they were able to go through with their original plan, as The Sin Squad mentions in the video I'm sure you're referencing, both he and Keith would have been WAY better characters
(Controversial opinion alert!) I don't think Shiro should have been brought back, it ended up feeling like Keith finally got some character development, but then he immediately gets an out and takes it. We got what, like, five episodes of Keith in charge? I just feel like they could have done a lot with him in charge, but just, didn't.
Holy fuck can you imagine how great it would have been if each of the lions and/or paladins had their own personalized theme? Or better yet if each lion and Paladin duo had a theme individually but they were scored in such a way that they clearly sound better together and that could be played in the moments when the bond between them is at its strongest. One of my favourite things ever is when a show or game or movie gives its characters specific themes or even sounds that belong to them, like how in Steven universe piano and a classical style is associated with Pearl and only Pearl, and Steven gets 8-bit and old school video gamey sounds. This works beautifully during the fusion scenes when the themes are a mix of both gems’ associated musical style. Voltron’s soundtrack would have been a perfect place to do something like this.
I know this comment is 2 years old but I appreciate how you chose to point out something literally no one here in the comments have mentioned. It would have been so cool to hear a special soundtrack for each of the characters. Keith's theme could been loud and rebellious, Shiro's could have been serious and contemplative (maybe a little dark for Clone Shiro), Allura's could be sweet sounding and a little whimsical, Pidge's could be energetic and upbeat, Lance's could be playful and bold, and Hunk's could be cheerful and hopeful. And then when they combine into Voltron, each of their musical themes contribute to the transformation. It would have been genius.
@@Nopeasaurus haha omg thanks for responding! I totally agree, it would have made that voltron transformation scene that got so repetitive and annoying feel so epic every time. Especially when characters got swapped around into new lions, they could have done that character’s theme but in the new lion’s sound font. Also changing up shiro’s theme ever so slightly once he came back as clone shiro would have been such a cool detail that would have had people theorizing even more. Like putting it in a minor key or giving it a new harmony or something. So that it’s the same melody but just darker, like you said. Man what a missed opportunity honestly 🥲
@@HeyItsNovalee woah, this such an amazing idea! i never even thought about this til i read your comment, but now it really feels like a missed opportunity. You already brought up an example, and I can add one: the How To Train Your Dragon score did this too (In case you're interested, the channel Sideways posted a pretty cool video about this, just analyzing and dissecting the music)
I totally agree !!! I'm a big fan of OST (I literally listen to my favourites without context) because when well done, they're actually the heart of the series/movie/whatever. I mean, Star Wars is just as famous for its music than for its plot ! Besides, if you're not motivated, you can have one theme, and decline it for all emotions ! Come on, guys !
Allura's death was questionable to me because not only did she recreated all realities but was even able to manipulate time so Altea was never even destroyed in their own reality, at that point she was essentially God and - taking into account all the 'bs magic' she has already done, like you pointed out - couldn't do something simple like reincarnating herself and/or her dad and the original paladins. She literally revived every single being in the multiverse so 'you can't revive the dead' was long thrown out the window. The finale was drama for the sake of drama.
Kou Also the fact she said “You can’t revive the dead” despite doing it twice on screen!! Shiro was dead. Lance was dead. Now they’re both alive because they’re Allura. It’s almost like it’s Fullmetal Alchemist but at the end of the series Edward revives everyone who died along the way and they survived happily ever after.
My Theory... : ik it's gonna sound kinda funny... But who brought Dalbazai and Altea back was the witch(since it was in her "wishes" thing)... The only bs Allura did was Altean Lance.... ;/
I gaurentee 98% of actual lgbt+ fans saw the queer rep as offensive and lackluster. I saw no praise for it especially when it first came out. I loved this video, you have an amazing knack for critique and I was engaged 100% throughout. Amazing job :)
As a bi person who watched every single season of this while it was coming out, I definitely thought so :/. If anything, I saw more criticism about it than praise, especially because of Adam's death a few minutes of screentime later
I initially thought it was all toss invented by bitter antis if I'm going to be quite honest. But a year later, when entirely new fans that -blessedly- somehow missed the wank and drama are coming into the fandom and missing that Adam and Shiro were engaged, I can admit my anger with that side of the fanbase with the harrassment campaigns and completely inexcusable death threats colored my perspective. I'd also hoped that perhaps younger kids could take something away from Shiro, if only for those measley 5 seconds at the end of the series, but so far, it doesn't appear to be the case. I did give the writers the benefit of the doubt because I assumed there'd be no way they would open themselves up to that criticism without any kind of payoff at the end. If not for the absolute howls of anger out of the fanbase, we wouldn't even have gotten that token five seconds in the epilogue. And I'm so very sorry I didn't hold these assholes' feet to the fire because that marketing around Adam _was_ shitty bait and gays have all the right to be angry about that.
@@KariIzumi1 Exactly lmao. I think personally the death threats made by people were... Wayyy too over the top for anything, let alone because two characters didn't end up together. I've heard Keith and Lance were supposed to get together- just because, looking at official art and hints here and there, it just.. Makes sense to me, I can see it. A lot of people could, but I guess they didn't take it there, so in the end it did definitely feel like they baited us, though I can understand that that was not their intention. I've seen others argue that "Shiro being gay has nothing to do with the story", and how "we don't need rep in a kids sow about space robots", but when it's only confirmed outside the show, they missed an opportunity (both for LGBT and not) to have characters form a healthy relationship and grow together. Looking into how JK Rowling messed up Harry Potter, it just.. Gives that vibe at this point, looking back at it.
I strongly feel that one of the reasons Keith manages to be a fan favorite while disappearing for practically half the show is because besides pidge he’s one of the only characters that’s emotionally written well. He’s seen as hot-headed and lonely within the show, but that aspect of him shows his emotions and struggles. seeing a character in Voltron struggle with emotions and seeing his reasons for said emotions is refreshing when half of the other characters that are supposedly important don’t get a well shown emotional struggle. He may not be as relatable as Pidge since Pidge not only has a relatable problem but also shows “fun” and “positive” emotions. Within humans comedy and problems are common themes, but Keith sometimes is only his problems. But he at least has more emotional moments than Lance, Hunk, or even Allura. and sure Allura has her moments, but like you said in the video they don’t let her focus on the fact that her whole race (besides coran) is gone. sorry if any of this is incorrect, i first watched voltron 3-4 years ago and im just now starting to rewatch it lol
In terms of how they handled LGBTAQ representation, I was baffled by how they handled Zethrid and Ezor. Like, the show gives them a couple of scenes where they're affectionate with each other, then they seemingly kill them off, which is already in bad taste because of what happened with Adam. Then we get an episode where Zehtrid apparently survived and tries to get revenge on the heroes...except it's because Ezor left her? And then they get back together with barely a word from Ezor? It felt like they kept Ezor dead, but then retconned her into life at the last minute as part of their "olive branch" to the LGBTAQ fanbase. It was so clumsy and poorly handled.
I am honestly way too excited to find a 2 and half hour long analysis of a children's cartoon a year after the show's initial end Thank you for blessing me with your content
@@Krossxc No problem! Your analysis was awesome. I love these style videos and I was pretty bummed to see that there weren't too many videos like this for Voltron, and the ones that do exist are rather short for me. So I really enjoyed listening to the entire thing.
Im really upset about what they did with Lance. They didn't do anything with how he uses humor as a mask, hell I see FANFICTION do better. They treated him as a joke, a f boy, Someone who is just stupid and sexist and Nothing else, yet over the series he grew as a character and became Someone KEITH relied on, only to again be treated as a joke and be given a pointless relationship just for the purpose of hurting him. I loved seeing his relationship with Keith grow over time, they started out hating eachother but slowly started to confide in eachother and Lance showed his people skills. They never fully addressed this. Its upsetting
I am one of those people who has never watched Voltron, who just sat through two-and-a-half hours of you talking about Voltron, because I like your breakdowns of animated media THAT MUCH and could feast on them forever. It’s also brain food for an aspiring graphic novel writer who wants her work to NOT fall into any of the writing traps you describe. Please keep doing what you’re doing.
Something I’d like to add - I feel the chaos and vitriol in the fandom HAD to have played into the drop in quality Voltron experienced. Being screamed at and threatened by fans watching your show, told you’re an unforgivable pedophile because of romantic tension between two adult characters... (Which probably played into the distance you mentioned between Keith and Shiro in later seasons...) That has to take an emotional toll. I know if I were faced with that level of hatred and bile, I’d just want the show I was writing to be over already so I could move on. The passion for writing it well would be so much harder to summon.
Also not to be all "aS A wOmAn!!" but as a woman, watching Allura seemingly unwillingly agree to date, then go out with, a guy who she clearly hadn't been interested in for 7 seasons was...kinda...gross? I dunno it felt like she was a reward for Lance's "character development"
Yeah, I wish I had mentioned this. She gets so much romantic coding with so many characters that she feels less like a person and more like an object. Her death did not help this.
Exactly and it's pretty clear in rewatch is that the date was supposed to reveal that they are not a romantic couple, just friends and that's how it should be. Allura is clearly not over Lotor & Lance has clearly never actually considered how Allura might feel or want. There's even a mock patriarchal interview that's setting up that this will Fail. Hell Pidge is hinted that she's starting to realize that she has romantic feelings for Lance as she's weirded out by their date and even gives up a videogame that means the world to her... and Lance, since they bonded over it. Notice that it's her robot that spies on the two. Woof
i feel like this is a bit of a mischaracterization of allura and lance's relationship - he started out weirding her out with cheesy pickup lines, grew out of that come third season, and then genuinely connected with her, resulting in her consistently going to him to vent or be cheered up. their romance was badly written, because the whole show is, but to write him off as a patriarchal fuckboy and allura as a Strong Independent Wonan does a disservice to both their characters and plays into a lot of racist tropes about black and latino characters.
@@stella_le Sure he started to have more genuine feelings but they never grew beyond his own desires. Allura was clearly never interested in him in that way so having her just get with him at the end comes off as weird, it made more sense when it was intended that he get over his possessiveness over her. The way that episode is set up it's clear that the writers were subverting the expectation that he "get" the girl. Hell Allura was still not over Lotor, and who can blame her ;)? That storyline was also derailed since the writers clearly had something planned for Lotor's hidden colony that just never went anywhere. He was supposed to come back and then he and allura would've come to terms I'll argue that there as no romance between Allura and Lance until the date subversion episode that got rewritten by the execs. Hell Pidge was hinted at developing romantic feelings for Lance in that episode.
most of the original writers (allegedly) left voltron between the end of s2 and the beginning of s3, and i actually think it is true. the characters just become so inconsistent with their personalities in prior seasons, like they are being written of basic descriptions like "the funny one" or "the serious one". the most clear example of this i think is allura, who as you mentioned, started off as the leader and strategy-creator of team voltron, and ended up just... basically losing most of her matureness,dedication to defending what's left of her legacy and common sense. she really be doin whatever the hell the writers thought would come off as "clever magical bs explanation and solution". as to why the original writers left... well that is a whole another story of accusations of mistreat against lm and jds. i have to applaud your final work though, i just finished hearing the whole thing and there was not a moment where i wouldn't scream "I KNOWWWW". i subbed, and look forward to more analitic content!! :)
It's not even allegedly, we know from credits that a good chunk of experienced writers and crew left after s2 and then almost EVERYONE ELSE also left after s6. The executive producers also wanted to leave due to burnout like everyone else but decided to not be quitters. There are several interviews where they describe begging and bribing for one or two original other crew members to stay post s6 with them. What is hearsay is that they threw out the series bible at some point and documentation was very threadbare throughout the show. They have also described dreamworks executives coming in several times demanding that shiro be brought back and then coming back and demanding shrio return in like 3 episodes, not 4 seasons like the second plan dictated. No wonder everyone burned out and character arcs fell apart.
im just gonna say it, lance was EASILY my favorite character. easily. i love the idea that there were layers to him beyond the stupid pick-up lines and ego, and if the groundwork that was laid for him was elaborated on later in the show, he could have been a killer character. i think he was done so dirty by this show and I will literally never forgive this show simply because of how they handled lance. i of course have tons of other problems with voltron, but this will always stand out to me as the worst because of how the message that lance's character could convey was totally trashed and forgotten by inconsistencies and bad writing :(
THIS. lance was set up to be one of the most relatable characters of the show; the majority people in the target audience couldnt relate to losing their family, being imprisoned and forcibly becoming an amputee, etc. but they COULD relate to self-esteem issues, depression, and using arrogance as a coping mechanism. so, so many teenagers could latch on to him, and project their feelings on to this character the fact that they didnt develop his issues properly, and never even addressed them beyond isolated incidents, really destroyed his potential.
I get you , Lance is a great person and deserved the whole world BUT I hated how he really didn't have so much screen time , cause if he did the show would have been more wholesome.
You totally brushed over the fact that Keith was going to kill himself for everyone but Lotor came just in time. And then it was never mentioned after that.
At some point recently I made a realization that the reason I love these characters so much isn’t because of the writing, it’s because of the fans who breathed life into their friendships. Comics, fanfics, art, etc. Onscreen they hardly act like a close group of friends past like.... s2 or 3. I love the versions of these characters that fans came up with rather than the actual canon show lol
Imma be honest, I've seen complete strangers treat each other with more genuine interest, compassion, and general goodness then the Voltron characters in the end
@@r1cklain That's what I've been saying about these shows that didn't aged well but I still genuinely like. The potential and the concepts not utilized at best. Ugh.. It's all sayang/wasted.
you just make me realize that the thing that frustrate me the most about voltron is that they take my adored family-found trope and ripped it apart and spit on it :(
@@BatdadIsBestDad She-ra or Kipo in netflix to forget the pain :'D and if you are into anime watch natsume and the book of friends, mob psycho or gintama, I swear the last one invented the found family trope, I don't have proof but neither doubt.
Another thing that bugged me with Keith so much was similar to what you talked about with PIdge and 'kid showers'. The fact is a lot of kids have missing, or absent families. A lot of kids feel abandoned by their parents for one reason or another. I didn't like how Keith just kind of kind seemed to bond with his mom...granted it was over '2 years' but it felt so FORCED since it didn't feel like 2 years for us the viewer. Not to even bring up, the problems Keith had shouldn't just go away. Nor should his mom just be forgiven. She might have left for a good reason but that douse not change the pain Keith went through because of that chose.
Lotor had so much potential and it hurts me how dirty they did him. It was an incredible premise and we watched, like Kross said, 3 seasons of Lotor devolving into what he never wanted to be, his father,only to be slapped with ‘he only wants power’ BS. Having Lotor realize that he was falling and begin to gain everyone’s trust back would’ve been incredible
Hi, I’m late, but I also wanted to bring up the point of the missed potential between Lance and Shiro. Shiro is literally Lance’s IDOL, and one of the best moments in the show in my opinion is in the pilot where Lance hesitates before shaking Shiro’s hand as he realises that his arm is cyberkinetic, since it says so much with so little. During the whole Kuron situation, I would’ve seriously appreciated it if Lance was suspicious of Shiro because of his behaviour, if he had to question someone who made him want to be a pilot in the first place. Honestly one of the most unexplored dynamics in the show and one that seriously deserved WAY more attention and development.
Oh my god yes!!! When I rewatched it I realized they interacted so much more in the first couple seasons (before Shiro just completely stopped acknowledging him in exchange for Keith) and I had completely forgot!! Bc the show just abandoned their dynamic at the top of season 3
I honestly thought Lance would end up becoming like his idol. As in this would be a good show for the underdogs in the very first episode proving everyone wrong and he becomes a fighter pilot instructor so now HE'S the one kids look up to in the next generation. Learning from Shiro and all. TvT WHYTF IS HE A FARMER??? You got one cow and a favorite flower and suddenly that's your destiny??? WHAT!???
I dipped prior to season 3, but I feel like there’s a decent enough story beat where Keith, who knows Shiro best as a person, & Lance, who idolizes him the most, put their heads together & figured it out. A mystery arc, since the show wanted to be so serialized. Again, don't know whats going on, simply basing off of S1 & most of S2 dynamics & plot
One thing I want to say about Shiro's queer "representation". I feel it would be better for the creators to say to fans, "We won't be writing a character that has not been shown as queer for SIX SEASONS, because it wouldn't be proper representation." I feel that is less offensive than the crap that went down.
im so devastated abt how they treated lance and hunk.....i usually gravitate towards comedy relief characters because they're the ones i relate to the most so it's flat out disappointing when they get little to no character development :(
Yeah and it's spelled 'Curtis' which just goes to show how little information was given to the audience. I only know that bc of his entry on the wiki which is barely a paragraph long btw
“This is the final product we ended up with and I wouldn’t want it any other way.” Me: What? I definitely would “Okay that was a lie but it makes for a good ending line okay?” Lmaooo
The hardest part of all of this is on a completely personal level for me: my father and I watched the original when I was little (I'm thirty) and he passed away recently, unexpectedly, at 54. The original went well beyond being a staple of my childhood, and watching the reboot start so strongly and then devolve into that mess hits hard on a completely biased, personal level. I agree with every point made here, and have watched this video at least four times now. I was never able to put my finger on WHY the remake upset me so much, and now I can, thanks to you.
Screw that, MLP did FOUND FAMILY miles better than anything Voltron could’ve ever dreamed of. Granted we’re talking about a show that’s literally got friendship in the name, but I always loved how their friendship was genuine, realistic and nuanced (and emotional issues are ADDRESSED, unlike Voltron, who treated anything traumatic like mild nuisances past S4 I’d say) and they got to pass on what they learned to others. MLPFIM was legitimately goat (even if it drew out a bit long and had its respective flaws) and I will fight people on this. Thank god a show genuinely handled friendship well in the last decade
My dad used to watch Voltron with me, and when Shiro married some rando at the end he was like, "When was that supposed to happen?" He hasn't seen any fanart, interviews, fanfic (obviously), or any fan-made theories, so if an oblivious audience member can't tell if a character is gay then I don't think you can state that they're gay. My dad didn't even know who the heck Adam was, and why Shiro was mourning over a plaque of him, how can you write a character that is so inconsequential that an audience member can't even remember a seemly "important" part of someone's character?
Shawnty L. , I LOVED that your dad watched the show with you. I understand his confusion. Man I didn’t even know Adam died and that plaque was Adam’s until I saw a fan make a review after that episode about how abruptly they killed off Adam. Here I was waiting on their reunion and they made their relationship so forgettable.
Shawnty L. My dad also used to watch Voltron with me, but toward the end of the show I had him stop watching. He was still in season 3 or something but I figured I’d shield him from the pain of how far it deteriorated
I wanted to introduce my parents to more shows I like, after showing them Avatar, but, I figured that they might get annoyed if I refused to show them the later seasons. And, my parents are big supporters of the LGBTQ+ community (especially since both me and my eldest sister are apart of it), so they would probably be really pissed at it.
this video is 2 hours long. this probably took you months. and you aren't even charging people to watch it. its free, on youtube. thank you so much. coming from someone who loves voltron too, I don't even think about clicking on videos like this that are recommended to me. I will certainly watch this entire video. because we are in a time of quarantine, this video really made me happy. thank you so much :)
@@Guess-ky2ir LMAOO ikr like i've been in online school/quarantine/social distancing since january. i haven't seen any of my friends in 4 months. wow. hope your staying safe:)
@@gnufnagem3942 my school stopped in march but my friends are already hanging out with other friends bc yay murica freedom. I'm kinda upset at their ignorance while I'm still stuck at home.
@@humanperson2775 aww yea i do think that people who continuously go out at times like these just for fun is a bit selfish. i honestly loved it at home. i started quarantine school around end of january and just started school again two weeks ago. felt so weird omg. hope your okay. stay safe:)
@@gnufnagem3942 My school starts up again in august and it probably won't be safe to go to school even 2 months from now, but I'm scared that school will open back up anyway and I'll end up catching corona. I'm in Texas where most people disagree with the quarantine 0.o
1:38:48 Hi, instrumental performance major here, yes the main theme is a pretty good orchestral song both in sound and in theory, but I can confirm it gets *so annoying after the 10th time played.* You're absolutely correct with the LoZ Guardian theme example, by the way. If they saved the Voltron theme for special epic moments, the tune would leave much more of an impact. And this is more of a personal preference, but I think the show could've benefited from a more prominent soundtrack with a more 'spacey feel', stuff like custom synthesizers.
I find the relationship between Lance and Alura so lackluster and almost disturbing. Thats because i though this was a Luke and Jessie situation. A jokester younger boy having a harmless crush(not love) and flirting. Allura was almost the boss and a role-model and generally more mature. I feel like the relationship went from harmless flirting to real love in a matter of seconds and i was left confused. It went from 0-100 way to quick and they generally don’t fit together. More like a older sister younger brother relationship.
They sidelined Shiro. They sidelined the best character in the show. They sidelined the main character in the show. I’ll never get over it. I’ll always be angry about how they treated him. After all he’d been through, all the trauma and suffering. He still came out the other side a good person and he was easily my favourite character. Bsudhejeje they did him so dirty
They also sidelined Lance, in season one he was actually like interacting, now he's just at the side and filling in whatever random things they're doing.
Shiro was actually Supposed to die to my knowlegde after season 2, when he disappeared but there was some people jn production who wouldn't let them kill him permanently. So the writers "sidelined" him because he wasn't supposed to be there. He was never supposed to come back but because he had become a fan favorite. He was forced to be rewritten into the show.
Does anyone else genuinely learn a lot about storytelling, plot, and characterization from these types of videos? Like I feel like I took a lot out of this and it will definitely effect my writing. I subbed
Yeah, I could go anywhere for hate on a show, I come here for ideas and to fault my own writing whilst getting constructive feedback on mistakes I share with Voltron y'know?
@@whalesharko4465 exactly. Same thing with the character analysis videos. There's a really good one on Azula from Avatar the last Airbender thats absolutely genius, I don't know if this is the same guy that made it, but if your trying to write villians/people with extreme trauma I would recommend it 100%
if I had a nickel for every time the best character was green and short I'd have two nickels - Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
I'm glad you spoke on motivation. Pidge, Shiro, and Keith are the only original paladins that show any clear motivation for being in the war/staying in space at any point in the entire series. Hunk and Lance have no reason to stay and fight. Not throughout the entire show
so i kinda had an epiphany, since i was exposed to voltron when it first came out at the tender age of 12 (i’m almost 16 now) and steven universe at even younger, 9, i can see why i used to wallow in sadness instead of actively doing things to improve myself and feel better, because that’s exactly what my favourite characters were doing uh oh
This was the perfect video to listen to while drawing. I especially loved the part where you analyzed the presentation, because i had never actually noticed how boring the scenes look until now. Also how the hell did you sit through this entire show 3 times over you madman
Fr I’ve heard of ppl rewatching seasons like season 3 and 4 together to see what it was like to watch what was supposed to be only one season and I couldn’t do it
I hadn't noticed how boring the presentation was until the later seasons. There's a new show on Netflix though, the animation is just sooooo good. It's called "Glitch Techs" you should really check it out, very interesting premise.
Why did the writers even include Shiro’s terminal illness if they never did anything with it? Like, it never affected Shiro before he got cloned, besides him and Adam having an argument. I do get not wanting a character to be defined by a disability, and praise the writers for not making it (for lack of better term) inspiration p*rn. But his illness would effect how Shiro fights at least. It really gives me the feeling that it was an afterthought. I really don’t think Shiro was originally intended to have a terminal illness, especially when it’s only brought up twice in flashbacks in the second to last season and is not mentioned before or since.
I don’t think anyone actually remembered Curtis’ name. Like, the Wiki Fandom page literally says that his name was only mentioned once in the subtitles. And it makes me so sad every time I make the mistake of rewatching the last episode.
i am so tired after watching this because i've just been screaming "YES, THAT'S EXACTLY IT, THANK YOU" to the screen for the past two hours. this show used to be a big thing for me a few years back and it still pains me how much they fucked it up. great analysis!
54:43 - I can now confidently and proudly say that we finally got characters who fit this description, Amity and Luz from The Owl House and Benson from Kipo, I think a lot of characters from She-Ra can fit it too, but I didn't watch it for long
I agree. I loved the show so much in the first 3 seasons but soon after that I started to see more and more problems until season 8 where I realized that the show had become something I wasn’t enjoying anymore and wasn’t good.
Fam don't get me STARTED on the awful lesson Allura and Lance teaches to young kids. Lance throughout the show is constantly flirting with Allura being blatantly unconsiderate of her feelings. She is consistantly uninterested and rejects him. And then she just.... ends up in a relationship with him??? What???? Lesson tought: If you keep pushing something even when you've been told no multiple times, it'll eventually work ("Hi I like you wanna date?" "No" "please? Im a nice guy" "no!" "But im sad and not like other people! Here's a pun! "Ive said no" "now I am asking in a public location where people force you to agree. Will you date me?" "I guess I have no choice!" These're some rapey vibes tbh-)
And they always play Allura to be a “strong female character.” If that was the case then as a strong female character she should have told lance no . And told him to stop . Bc it’s so fricking clear from the beginning that she does not like lance .
@Cp.Raspberry I never said it had an obligation, just ufourtanate implication. You can make a story about a hero rapist. Doesn't mean they wanted that to be the message, but it still looks bad.
@Cp.Raspberry just like a show, or it's fans shouldn't be suprised when other people find its attempts at romance to be creepy depending on how it's handled. It's all matter of your own personal boundaries.
When you talked abt the music it got me thinking about avatar the last airbender. Like you can distinctly hear music when thinking abt Azula: she has her own theme that sets the mood whenever she enters a scene Same with fire lord soldiers in general or Zuko, he’s got a theme song And Aang! And like, probably Appa! Voltron ain’t got nothing like that :(
Around 1:45:00 when you start talking about how VLD didn't have enough episodes about people affected by the Galra or people outside the main cast, I really agree and I always wanted to articulate that but it always came out as VLD's world being both too big and too small--too big in the sense that it's literally the entire universe, and too small in the way it never expands to show more of the Galra's destruction to other aliens or planets
Lance was done so dirty. Not only did he never get a good character ark like the rest of the characters, he was also treated like crap the entire team. It seems like in every episode the team always calls him "stupid" and or "dumb". Not only that, but they barely tried to show him overcoming his insecurities and becoming more confident. Not to mention he freaking DIED for Allura, and the event was completely unaddressed and Lance was acting completely fine after. It just made no sense. This all made me mad, but the season that got me the most fired up was season 8. He had dreams and aspirations to become a great pilot, and they made a FARMER. Of course, the young Hispanic boy is left to be a farmer, because his only use in the show was comic relief and to be a love interest to Allura. How stereotypical is that??? Everyone else on the show gets a badass, cool ending (excluding Hunk of course :() and Lance gets to be a FREAKING FARMER! I'm still in shock over it, I thought Voltron would be a more progressive show, but it wasn't. To me, it only seemed like Pidge, Keith, and Shiro had a good ending. It wasn't perfect, but it was still good. Hunk was left to be a cook (literally what was the point of him going to the Garrison?) and Lance, the Hispanic boy, is left to be a farmer. Great job, Voltron writers!!!
honestly hunk still got a good ending since he ended up a chef and that’s what he enjoyed doing! so really only lance got an ending that’s out of character and doesn’t make any sense! truly deserved better
I believe the reason he wasn't a pilot any longer and decided to become a farmer was because being a pilot led him to voltron, to allura and after she's gone maybe he didn't want to be that curious explorer anymore. Just a theory, still doesn't change the fact that he was treated like shit throughout
I honestly was so disappointed with Lance's Arc because if you notice on the first season it seemed like he was gonna have a pretty important character developing throughout the series with how much attention they put on him since he was the first one to find the blue lio but as the seasons passed on we barely got to see anything from Lance. They throw some stuff here and there but idk I felt like it was kind of eh. he started as this boy who was chosen to be a pilot out of luck (even though he didnt really acknowledged it) and they could have done so much just with this. I really wanted to see more of Lance in a more serious matter and yeah Imma go ahead and throw out the Avatar comparison with Sokka xD Sokka was one of the main characters in Avatar as well and while we got some parts about him we managed to see his growth in such a nice way, struggles and insecurities when it came to be a nonbeinder feeling useless sometimes or when he was doubting himself during the eclipse when he started to compare himself with his father. Meanwhile on with Lance: when he kinds of connects with Shiro's soul but for some weird reason nothing happens and they kind of left that on thin air. I felt like they would had deleted that and it wouldnt had affect the plot in anyway. It was kind of frustrating specially with the ending they did for him. This kind of threw me off because it's so out of character for someone like Lance. I understand the whole thing of loosing someone you love and relieving the pain by somehow commiting to what they left behind but it shouldn't have just stayed there. It felt like Lance abandoned everything else he's been trying to prove since season 1. But yeah i want to believe that he got over allura'sdeath and he came back to be a recognized pilot xD
Not gonna lie I can't find a point i disagree with. Especially with the way Lotor was handled. They set him up like Zuko almost (abused prince hated by his father, banished for whats really a non issue like talking out of turn/running a colony without being a total dick, at some point is trying to be a better person) then go full "lmao no hes actually evil" via being in the throws of a mental breakdown after Allura said he was more like his abusive father than she thought ( which is a total dick move imo considering he literally told her about a massively traumatic experience caused by Zarkon). They then proceed to constantly try to push that he was totally an asshole while simultaneously showcasing how he was neglected and abused literally from the day he was born onward. It was confusing and honestly made me more angry that that's the way they chose to end him. If they wanted Lotor to be evil they could have shown more of when he was doing those experiments and nOT show him as an precious little child who gets punished for just wanting to know about his mom or getting punished for being a decent person instead of a tyrant via being forced to watch his colony and friends get MURDERED. With the final fight with Lotor they straight up caused the war to get worse because Team Voltron couldn't cool their shit for a second and think about what the consequences may be despite the multiple times Lotor tries to be diplomatic. Allura shot first. (I also don't recall them ever putting it together that Honerva may hate them because they literally kILLED HER SON) An utter crap ton of people died as a result and they didn't seem to fully grasp that for a while. Whenever I think back on the writing it makes me honestly sad.
It's weird how I legitimately feel bad for Lotor not because I sympathize with what his intentions ended up being, but because he was essentially corrupted by Zarkon and especially by the writers. He didn't deserve that.
Lotor *does a kinda fucked up thing for the sake of the universe while simultaneously saving the altean race. The race people forget hes half of Lookin at you allura* Allura: so anyway I started blasting I do think the colony plot was stupid though and I by no means condone sucking the life out of people. But it felt like they just wanted a twist to stir the drama pot and a last ditch attempt to go "oh ye hes the villain" I will die on this hill for this specific purple space elf ;w;
Lotor as a character makes me so mad. It's like they set up all this potential and went 'haha but wouldn't you rather see Allura make out with Laaance thooouughh??'
I started laughing when you described Shiro's trauma about halfway through the video because parts of that almost sounded like what happened to Bucky Barnes in the Marvel movies
As someone who ships Keith x Lance, I've been terrified of shipping Klance. (mostly due to toxic fanbase) ((honestly even admitting publicly this is terrifying)) - And for some reason I began to think that I was unjust in thinking that they would've worked so well and had really beautiful scenes together that seemed so much more natural as a romantically invested set of characters. Anyway I just want to say that after two and a half years of this bitter and sad taste in my mouth over a ship that literally saved my life, I have never felt more relieved and more valid in this. You made me realize that I wasn't delusional or I wasn't overreacting or I wasn't just stupidly sad for no reason or even that I wasn't just following the pack like sheep when nothing happened between them. You pointing out, from a logical and unbiased standpoint, that Keith and Lance's relationship was much more than they made it in the end, has honestly really made me feel validated. Thank you for validating me, and probably many others. After four long, loyal years to this ship, It just feels indescribably nice. Thank you again. And to point out more than just the Klance aspect of your video, holy shit, I had a blast watching this and literally being validated in everything else too?? Like wtf idk what rock I was under because I really did think I was overreacting, or in some places underreacting. So again - thank you so much for making this, even though it took me a while to get the confidence to watch the whole thing and not be scared of getting too emotional. But man, I am glad I did. Thank you again.
I felt this. It is quite cathartic. Now that no one is on the exec. producers side after their many fuck ups, people seem to be acknowledging that, "yeah, you know what, maybe they were right". I started watching this show because I really thought we were going to have something special, that they were going to break some barriers and become sort of the new atla but with gay, bi, and nonbinary trans representation, along with strong female characters and a decent plotline...but it quickly became the complete opposite (i stopped watching at s6 and only kept updated through friends) and it really got me messed up for a while. Im not really looking forward to an adaptation or a reboot of this show in the future, i think im done with this franchise for at least a good decade lmao but who knows...Shera restored my faith in showrunners, maybe Voltron will get the chance to be redeemed as well.
@@royalcryptid9983 while there does seem to be movement on that front, the sad reality is the people creatives like Noelle and Montsantos report to are anything but. Some will fight harder than otherd but they sometimes lose (see also: the perpetual salt about keeping Shiro on). What I'm getting at here is to say you (and by you, I mean the larger fandom as a whole) don't need canon to validate yourself and your shipping choices. I was shipping slash pairings for Shounen anime in the 2000s...no one expected any such ship to be canon and NGL, that part of fandom was way more fun than the het shippers who were too busy writing up essays that canon torpedoed harder than a German U-Boat to be petty and spiteful. We had to canon expectations: it was ours and we had fun doing what we wish. I miss those days... :(
@@KariIzumi1 The problem with shounen is that they are kinda sexist. I mean, the girls in those shows almost never hold the same weight in terms of development and characterization as the male characters do. So it's quite obvious that girls (because men don't seem to look at it the same way) ship male characters with other male characters, because 9 out of 10 times, those characters are the ones that hold more weight in the narrative and are the ones that have deeper and more meaningful relationships between each other.
The fan base was what ruined klance for me. I would have probably like it if it wasn't for the fact that people would tag other characters in their fanart a hcs of klance. Even if those fanart and hcs didn't show/mention the other characters. This especially affected me because I was hyperfixated on pidge and every time I tried to find fanart of just her, or ships with her in it, I was bombarded with klance.
Me, still crying about the lack of emotion on Keith’s departure and reunion in s6, more likely than you think. Also that clip where he walks right past lance who has his arms open for a hug!!! 😭😭😭it just kills me. GIVE THE BOI A HUG!!!!! Both of those emotionally repressed bois need lots of hugs stat.
Dude it literally pains me. Especially after the emotional development both of them had together, the fact that he totally walked past lance as if he hadn’t been gone for like two years is insane to me. The writing makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever and I can’t believe it
To see more analysis videos trying to look at Klance legitimately instead of brushing it off with short sentences means a lot to me, as well as analyzing the controversy with Shiro and Adam. I salute you good sir.
Lotor was an Azula, the pink girl was his Ty Lee, the girl with blue hair was his Mai, and the buff alien lady was his Jasper. ATLA didn’t have a buff lady villain so I branched out to Steven Universe.
I made these parallels not to say the Voltron antagonists were as well written as those counterparts, I made it to show how an attempt was made to make characters similar to more well written villains
I'm glad you pointed out how you under-examined Hunk, because it means I don't have to point it out here. They did my boy so dirty. Hunk easily could have been one of the better characters in the show, said more for the progression of how we write big characters, and made for more impactful connections between the characters. But instead, he's relegated to bad jokes about liking food and being overweight (despite official stats showing he's stronger than even Shiro sans his arm) He's seemingly the only one in the group with any sort of real empathy and ability to put himself in another's situation. A trait like that could have really come in handy for easing the internal conflict in the group and even helping others come to the resolutions of their personal turmoil. But instead it's used sparingly, and only really 'works' when used externally with strangers. He's shown to be smart, and capable when it comes to tech. This could have made for a very fun dynamic where Pidge is the more data and theory-oriented intelligence whereas Hunk is practically intelligent. Hunk through and through would have made a better leader than any of the members that actually held the title. (Shiro's inability to actually come up with plans or adapt, instead opting for "just do what we were doing but harder". And Keith's basic contempt for working *with* other people make them inherently bad leaders.) Some might point to Hunk's fear or inability as a pilot as reasons against this, but I ask "Where?" He got over those things when it became necessary. Not to mention fear is a useful feeling, and encourages caution. They took a character with so much potential, and made his final resolution about food-based diplomacy.
I know it’s been a year (lmao but I don’t mention it for 5yr plus comments) but like? THANK 👏 YOU 👏 During the war I’d say Shiro was easily my favourite character, followed by everyone else kinda jostling casually for the next. Keith’s angst was easy to latch onto (although frankly I never got onboard the Langst train. I can easily see how it took off, even if it ended up being wildly exaggerated in a lot of cases, but yeah. Didn’t relate to as much weirdly Literally every character except Pidge got done dirty, and even she did to a minor degree of literally-having-nothing-to-progress-towards-after-S4. But while they took Keith, Allura, Lance, Lotor, and especially Shiro and fumbled so hard a preschooler with no motor skills could’ve done better, they JUST DID NOTHING WITH HUNK, they didn’t even try until season 7. And like? For a show that’s supposed to be EMPOWERING… fuck when was the last time the show was empowering 😂 The last real moment I can think of might’ve been in S3, where they had to come together after Shiro’s disappearance. The stakes felt real. Using the Lion swap if IT HAD TO BE NECESSARY (instead of, idk, getting creative, but animation and budgets are a vicious thing) to develop some characters in new directions before going back to the first lineup could’ve been smart, and while we have that half of the team changing, we could’ve had Pidge and Hunk developing themselves and FIRMLY, strongly cementing themselves. I really wished we’d kept the original lineup AND DEVELOPED THOSE CHARACTERS. As you mentioned, Shiro and Keith are both flawed leaders and in Shiro’s case especially, they had a real opportunity to show that leaders, the “perfect” people (bc not just TEENAGERS should get the character development, gee what a difficult concept to grasp) are flawed people who still have a lot to learn. When Kuron - who you could argue was meant to be Keith, so take that interchangeably - neglects to listen to others/esp Lance, and this just… didn’t lead to character development. WHAT. Kuron apologises for that time he yelled at Lance but I believe a seperate instance on that bomb planet, he just - they just let that entire episode’s bad decisions SLIDE. I’m so sorry for this awfully rambling comment but I’m still upset as you said that Hunk didn’t get to learn, grow and show his strengths as the yellow Paladin. And well, I think it’s really telling that the most compassionate and protective Paladin got so little screen time. Almost like they wanted to stop making an episode-of-the-week show with occasional dark and serious tones, but overall a show about found family and teamwork (see S1 and 2 that give so much TLC to developing small groups of Paladins, I think of S2 esp (the Weblum, the underwater ep, lots of lil interactions in the Olkari, that ep when they’re on the run in the eye of the storm, etc) and if they’d kept doing that? We’d eventually have had close bonds between all the paladins, and they’d have gotten to focus on LEARNING lessons and sticking with them. The magic bs stuff could’ve started being a bit more Voltron bs stuff and it’d feel a bit more authentic bc! We can actually see the Paladins being closer! Instead of Allura having just telekinetically osmosis memorised the Altean all-knowledgeable-universal-life death-magics encyclopaedia and therefore having a solution to every issue. Like girlie you ain’t the “heart of Voltron” (??? Still never felt the impact of this lol like shouldn’t,, you all be,, what) you’re a god compared to Voltron. Ffs Ultimately, in their own words, they wanted a grim serialised war story. And like, cool cool, that could’ve worked! Except… that’s a different show. And smn tells me, had they aired the canon S1-2 at the same time as a S1-2 of an alternate Voltron in the tone of S4 onward? The first would’ve exceeded it. Bc THAT is what the fandom gathered around (plus the kids, the merch, the PR). Take me to the alternate reality where it got cancelled after S2 😢
1:22:24 i was surprised you were going at Klance with a charitable angle and even implying they were intending to imply romance but then i remembered that before the show took off that the storyboard team were posting their Klance fan art looool
@@fightingmedialounge519 Bruh they literally mirrored allurances "romantic" scene but were even more romantic lol But yes there are many hetero couples in shows who start as rivals > friends > lovers
Bruh, characters having close moments together doesn't mean romance. The klance people are more then likely the same people who ship iron and cap, naruto and sasuke, or any other foil dynamic.
@@fightingmedialounge519 In that case shay/hunk and allura/lance lose few of their romantic scenes. Because the same shit happened to klance but klances "isnt romantic" because they are two guys and not hetero
god the relationship between lance and allura was so horrible and i was disappointed because i SAW IT COMING, they are th types of characters i would've loved to see in a relationship, but they were so horribly written, the fact that lance kept confessing his undying love 4 her only to be left on read until that last scene where she preferred to go die for no reason was the cringiest thing ever, and both characters deserved better, all did
Also, I wish they had a slow burn of Allura slowly falling for Lance (let’s be fr, the thing came out of no where), I feel that it would’ve been a lot more accepted and loved by the audience. And they should’ve killed Shiro off in s2 and if they wanted to kill of Allura, they could’ve had her sacrifice her life for someone, idk
Like they had development for Lance and Keith that was already well received. They could have literally just taken that wedding still frame and made it Lance and Keith and they would have gotten way less backlash for the weird writing since at least they would make the endgame between characters who had some screentime and development together
@@Valentine-jo7ls Honestly, this. They could have subverted expectations with Keith and Lance, it was all laid out. From a story telling point of view its appalling how they didnt catch the undertones that THEY themselves were writing. And along with the querbaiting, killing off Allura and Adam, redeeming abusive characters, etc, well....they really dug their own graves
i know this video is 3 years old now but i just have to say. i was so absolutely shell shocked by the idea of keith fighting for the galra throne like lotor that i literally had to pause the video to take a second. absolutely GENIUS. i WISH they had done this with all my heart; it would have tied up so many of the issues i've had with the way his development (cough cough, him disappearing from the main team for long stretches of time when they were the heart of the progression of his arc) was handled.
I'll never stop being salty about how badly they messed up Lotor's character and arc. He was my absolute favorite character, and they had to dumb him down in the end so that the protagonists could defeat him. The quintessence farm plot doesn't make sense. The fact that he is mixed race, raised by abusive parents and yet in the end he "proved" that he is exactly like his father - a notion which was shown to disgust and distress him any time he is accused of it. This makes it sound like no matter how hard he tried to be better, it's inevitable that a victim of abuse becomes just like their abusive parent and will abuse others. The racial connotations that come with all of this. Yikes. Yikes yikes yikes. He is also shown to be struggling to connect with part of his Altean heritage, yet despite his glowing marks showing that he was worthy on some level, he gets rejected because he did not have the chance to learn the right way to act/think in order to pass the test in the temple. He still wasn't "Altean" enough to connect with this part of himself. Meanwhile the "pureblood" one gets to have all the power and closure and a place and people to feel like she belonged. I actually heard that kids were traumatized by Allura's death, and I believe it. I didn't even watch the last season and I cannot believe they gave a cameo TO LOTOR'S CORPSE. And then Lotor appears in the end, holding hands with his piece of his shit parents, basically saying that the way to turn them into a happy family was FOR HIM to FORGIVE THEM. As a person who has had to deal with abuse in my family, I am filled with rage at the messages this show is giving.
I think you confusing the implications with the intentions. The idea behind lotors character was more in line with classic twist villains; who play on the audience understanding of good and evil only to show those attributes can be easily imitated or don't solely define their moral allotment of a person. Really when done right it's a story and seeing want to see vs understand the truth no matter how unpleasant it is. Now it was handled poorly by voltron do them basically trying back and forth about what parts of him was genuine, and I could see why get the unfortunate implications you did. I just think it's important to judge idea both for what it was trying to do and what ot actually did.
@@fightingmedialounge519 Hm 🤔. Well said. Honestly, after listening and reading the interviews, it made me ponder even more about what the actual end goal for Lotor was because from what I saw from S8, they admitted that his intentions were actually genuine, just the way he went about it was debatable. Honestly, I feel like S7 could've been more dedicated to Lotor and exploring this new world because 6 episodes is too crunched and it turns everything upside down quick. When Allura compared Lotor to his father, I felt my heart dropped. That was extremely rude, no matter if they are a villain or not. When he snapped, I saw it as justified because it's understandable that you are crossed with someone, but you do not exploit their vulnerability with you as a catalyst. Lotor wanting Quintessence all of a sudden for himself was also pretty uncalled for because they just did a copy and paste and said "This is Zarkon JR. and we cannot afford Zarkon JR to destroy the universe, even though that obviously was not his original intentions but we are running out of villains so...here."
I agree. What they did to Lotor actually made me heavily depressed because it's like...Someone who was in jail for someone else's crimes even though they didn't really do anything. The person adapts to their new environment and actually begins loosening up, falling in love, and growing. All of a sudden, someone from their past tells them that they checked their records and they now must be executed. Now the person who built a life they dreamed of that they didn't think they'll ever had is watching it all disappears and becomes mentally unstable. in 6-7 episodes...
@@hirahiro2331 technically lotor did commit pretty major crimes himself. Which he lied about, and then tried to defend himself over once they came out rather than just accepting what he did was wrong and let his friends decide what punishment he should face.
@@fightingmedialounge519 I don't think it's lying since he never mentioned it (for accurate reasons) but yeah he pulled a Hitler for sure. But what really got me is when they admitted that he was honest the entire time. That's what set me off because it comes back to "If he was honest about his actions, why did it play out they way it did? Because now it doesn't look like he's a Villain but now he's just a piece of paper thrown into the waters." Because of that, I didn't feel so good about the series... I did find my [somewhat] closure once I skimmed through S7 and 8. I wouldn't mind Lotor dying if it was done right.
I really feel like Lance's arc about accepting himself would have been fulfilled so much more by realizing that maybe Alura wasn't the one for him, and ending up with someone he never thought that he would, like Keith, because if their relationship developed further, it would have been the perfect enemies-acquaintances-friends-lovers arc, and it would have helped both of their developments. And just the fact that he spends all this time being ignored by Alura angers me because she suddenly wants to be friends and lovers?? What??? Anyways, this video was amazing. Thank you so much :)
I would've liked it better if Lance's "endgame" was himself, if that makes sense? Like he learns that he's valid and just as important as the other paladins and has a newfound sense of self-worth and pride in his capabilities. His self-love is his endgame.
I’m surprised for how high quality your content is for how many subscribers you have. It’s very entertaining. I hope you continue to make more in the future.
one thing that has always bothered me: HOW DOES CONTROLLING VOLTRON WORK? like are they doing a hivemind thing bc never in hell are the coordinated enough in the beginning also imagine being in any lion that is not the head id throw up theres that
Sophie Helena oh god yes, I’ve had the same question since S1. How does green and red lion even work for the pilots?? They’re literally staring right at the ground half the whole time????
Exactly. And past Voltron and the show Symbiotic Titan could have been easy inspo for them to take from since they explain that but they just never do?
Whenever I tinker with writing Voltron, I change it that they're five humanoid mechs, sort of bastard babies between Gundam and Evangelions. They're powerful on their own, but faction controlling all five can conquer the galaxy. Cause honestly, Voltron as a unit makes no sense. If it was a series of mech models that could conquer the galaxy - THAT makes more sense to me.
I think it's something to do with the fact that the Lions are already somewhat sapient, and bond with their Paladins, so when forming Voltron, it extends to every member of the group at once, biological or technological.
the way you ended the Keith section hurt my hearttt. The scene where he was left alone and everyone was fighting the old paladins really should be talked about more because it really related to how he feels that everyone he loves will leave him and he has to leave them first in order to avoid being hurt. It still really frustrates me on how many opportunities the show had but never took and by the end, it seemed like they forgot all about their characters because there was nothing but fight scenes no one cared about. This video is really great and you did a fantastic job. Thank you!
so i was a casual viewer after the entire show came out, and i had no clue that shiro and adam were in a relationship i literally thought that they were just close friends
Shiro was my favourite character to begin with. I know most people prefer Keith/Lance, but Shiro struck me as the one character with real emotional depth watching the first two seasons. I was coping with a lot of my own abuse at the time so I instantly connected and recognised the subtle PTSD references. I’m deeply sad though that they never continued or approached the topic after the first few seasons as they tried to bury Shiro as the main character. When the team interactions and general sense of comradeship disintegrated with all the side plots and nonsense, so did Shiro’s role as an effective character. I will forever hate the show for burying his weak sexuality reveal, for burying the serious themes of PoWs, PTSD and loss of bodily parts, and chronic illness. Shiro would’ve been the character I wanted to look up to if I were a kid, and they buried him harder than they buried Adam. Also Coran is a fantastic character and y’all be sleeping on him
An overly long analysis of a show that I like? Heck yeah! Seriously, the longer the better. And I'm _extremely_ impressed w/ how thoroughly you've described both your research and your feelings towards the show to a point where we, the audience, can understand. Masterful. Simply masterful 💕
@@izabelregina7261 i know they completely dropped all his character development setup too :/ and everything that made his character special was treated like a joke and his friends never really stopped treating him like he was an embarrassment
I’m not even a fan of this show, I’ve watched the first episode and enjoyed some fanart but it ends there. Despite knowing barley anything about it I have to say this was an easy watch for me and I’m sitting through it very well. This is due to your amazing entertainment factors you included while making this. The well thought out points, the subtle jokes and just quality of voice and structure made it so even someone who knows nothing about the show can find vast enjoyment, good job!
Kross mhmm I know they must take a long time but these are the exact kind of well structured rants I, and many other artists (not to say I’m much of an artist but still) find amazing to watch and listen into through drawing. I’ll certainly share this sort of stuff dsgdhjs
Came for the steven universe bad writing video and staying for the in-depth, passionate analysis you’ve shown for this one. Can’t wait to catch up on the past videos you’ve done, and looking forward to those in the future!! You really deserve more subscribers man
I know this comment is going to get buried but I just need to say this. I clicked on this video intending to watch half an hour max about a show I was in love with then grew to hate some time ago. What I didn't expect was a lesson in writing. I am currently working on my first novel and I was having a lot of difficulty. I was honestly considering giving up because I couldn't figure out what was holding my writing back. Then I watched this video, and right from your section on episode 1 I began realizing what I was lacking in my story and ideas began springing. By the end of this video, I have properly identified all the issues and restructured my whole book to be even better than before. Thank you for this amazing gift, kross. I've subscribed and look forward to more content. :)
Oh My GODS, how am I just remembering how clone Shiro replacing Keith actually wasn’t gonna happen. I think that Shiro’s model was put over Keith’s so that’s why he acts like Keith a lot later on.
