Man. I Just Realised I Have Not Promoted My Voltron Rewrite At All...

Man. I just realised I have not promoted my Voltron Rewrite at all...

SO. WHO'S UP FOR A COMPLETE REWRITE OF THE VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER SERIES, FEATURING CHARACTER ARCS FOR ALL, NO QUEERBAITING, ACTUAL FOUND FAMILY, AND PLOTS THAT ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE?

If this something you'd be interested in, boy do I have the fic for you.

Introducing the Legend of Voltron, the very fic I have just described! Before I disappoint anyone, no. This is not Klance or Shieth. The main focus is on the found family aspect, not the romance. Yes. Hunk will have a proper character arc and will not be reduced to the fat comedic relief!

Link down below:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34617064

I'm procrastinating writing at the moment, so I decided to create a list of the things I hate about Voltron, a show I can't help but love and rewatch 200+ times. I mean. I've been pretty damn vocal about one thing in particular, but I should probably remind people I hate other things too so...

This list will be long, so read more under the cut!

1 - Okay, let's just get the obvious one out of the way: Lance. Reasons why can be seen here, here and here. The first link really goes into the details, the second one is more confusion as to why people think Lance is treated the worst, and the last is more why Lance would be horrible as Black Paladin. MOVING ON TO NEW POINTS!

2 - The ships. Specifically... ahem... Klance, Sheith, Allurance, Lotorance (Lotor/Lance), Shidge (Shiro/Pidge), Shance (Shiro/Lance). Those, in my opinion, are the top offenders. I've explained my grievances with Sheith in a post here. It's not that it's paedophillia, it's the bond. As for the rest, while I dabbled a bit in Klance and Allurance in the aforementioned posts against Lance, I've yet to actually explain.

First of all, the fans are awful. Tip: If you keep trying to force people to like your ship instead of letting them get to their own conclusions, they're just going to hate that ship even more. This isn't a Voltron-specific thing, but it's still rampant.

Second of all, Lance doesn't treat either of them well. He's constantly antagonising Keith, even when Keith stops biting back in season two. The closest he gets to respecting Keith is telling him to suck it up when he's upset that the Black Lion chose him. Keith does try to be amicable to Lance, but it doesn't work because Lance is always picking a fight.

And Allura. Lance is constantly ignoring her boundaries and invading them. There isn't a single moment where they're alone together and they feel like friends, much less pining, before season seven. The only time is when Allura encourages Lance to take up Red, and he didn't even notice she was upset that Red rejected her. In fact, Lance just keeps talking about himself and how he was rejected, ignoring how Allura was rejected twice, and by the Lion her father piloted. Allura also never reacts well to Lance's flirting, always ignoring him and frowning when he does. If Allura, at least, used to laugh at his terrible attempts at flirting, maybe I could try to believe it.

Third, general grievances with these ships.

Lotorance. Lance hated Lotor from the get-go. They barely have a scene together without Lance glaring at him. If they shared some sort of chemistry outside of Lance hating him from afar, and if the writers didn't make Lotor a twist villain for no reason, then maybe. As of now, I only like it as a complete crack ship.

Shidge. Pidge is fifteen. Shiro is twenty-five. You do the damn math.

Shance. I can definitely see Shiro being Lance's bi awakening, if I believed canon Lance was bi. (Canon Lance was straighter than a chopping board, but fanon Lance is a walking bi flag). But them being together? Ignoring that Lance is 17 and Shiro is 25, if you can do that, it wouldn't feel like a healthy relationship. Lance is blinded by hero worship and, from his canon personality, he likely wouldn't realise if Shiro isn't faring well or would just constantly pile his troubles onto him without thinking about if Shiro could handle it. So, yeah, don't like this ship.

So, yeah. I don't like any of the popular ships, which is surprising. I don't hate all of them. I do like Kallura, (should have been canon), and Shallura, (surprising, because I really do like gay!Shiro), and Shunk, (who doesn't, honestly?). But I tend to prefer the nicher ones. Katt (Keith/Matt), Heith (Hunk/Keith), Hance (Hunk/Lance)...

3 - The writing. Usually, I would respect the writers because it's hard as fuck to plan and write an entire series, but they just kept missing. They would set up so many interesting plots and ideas, only to do absolutely nothing with them. This, in and of itself, is not enough to make me lose respect, but that's not all. Plot holes, terrible escalations, too slow pacing, (slow burns are good - great, even - but not when things are supposed to be happening), horrible romances... It's to the point where, for a long while, I avoided the show and only read the fanfiction. There are so many people who don't watch the show, only exposed through fanfiction and social media posts, because the writing just isn't good.

The writers get things right few times. I'm sorry, but if your entire job is to write a coherent, well-thought out story, why did they do such a bag job at it? I'll tell you why - they let the fans control what they did. Shiro was never supposed to come back. He was supposed to die at the end of season two and never come back, but the fans wanted him back so guess what? The writers brought him back! In doing so, they cut right into Keith's character arc and made him go through it off-screen. The fans built Lance up as the main character and fan-favourite? Well, the writers just decide to hand him everything. Reward him for being the fan-favourite and then ruin his character by never making him work for what he got.

The writers decide to pull a J.K.Rowling and went 'aw, yeah, Lance is bisexual!' despite him never showing an interest in a guy throughout the entire show, other than being a big fan of Shiro. They throw in gay!Shiro at the literal last minute with some background character who only ever had one line. Thanks, DreamWorks. It's not like you could've just let Adam live so Shiro could be going home to SOMEONE.

Unexpected things always happen. An actor being unavailable, a sudden irl event making it so the episode you planned would appear tone-deaf, the joke you wrote was less funny and more offensive... So on and so forth. Sometimes you have no choice but to change what you have planned because delaying it would just make the studio and the fans mad. Just... TRY to make it make sense. And don't fold to the fans, dammit. Shiro should have stayed dead because he just doesn't do anything when Allura and Keith saved him. The main character should have stayed as an ensemble, rather than pushing Lance as the central focus, because it would have left less reasons for me to hate Lance and give other, specifically Hunk, the development they deserved.

The show also never adresses traumatising shit, (*cough cough* Keith's sacrifice attempt *cough cough*), but that can be forgiven because it was aimed at children. I do, however, like that LM corrected an interviewer when they asked about Keith 'attempting to kill himself'. It was quickly corrected to 'sacrificing himself' because that's what it was! I'm sick of people acting like he was suicidal because he wasn't. He was actively scared of what he was going to do, i.e. sacrifice his life for everyone's sake. He tried to do it for the greater good. Would you call one of the many who died during wars suicidal? No. You would call them noble and heroic for their sacrifice, because that's what they are. That is what Keith was trying to do. He saw the only way out and decided one life in exchange for the many is a damn good deal and took it. Saying he was depressed and suicidal is undermining the actions he took.

So, yeah. In my eyes, the writers did two good things. Correcting the mistake belief that Keith was suicidal, and creating this shit-fest of a show. (God, I love/hate Voltron).

4 - How Pidge is treated by the fandom. Pidge is so mean. She's rude and callous and selfish and that's okay. What's not okay is acting like these traits make her a queen. She's rude, fine. She's callous, fine. She's selfish, fine. She's incredible for this? Um, no? Stop treating her like she's just sassy. She's mean. I mean, not long after Shiro's death/disappearance, she calls Keith, who is mourning Shiro so deeply, a 'loner'. Without even getting to know him. She just deems him a loner, even though Keith is just so genuinely kind?

Don't get me wrong. I love Pidge. She's great and she's an absolute joy to write. I admire her tenacity in trying to find her missing family members while also able to put the universe before them. Watching her break down about Matt when she thinks he's dead is so utterly heartbreaking because I really did like her.

But acting as if she's perfect because of this? No way.

(Also, I refer to Pidge as 'she/her' only in these posts. I much prefer gender neutral or trans Pidge.)

5 - Hunk's treatment. He deserved SO MUCH BETTER! This sweet, precious boy. He's the only one who reacted approppriately to becoming a child solider. He's an anxious, terrified kid and he's still able to swallow that fear and fight on because there are people, people like Shay, who have no idea what freedom means and if the sky is blue.

He's the only one who has to find and fight for his family when they get back to Earth, which makes me sad. Very sad. He cares so much about his friends. Even if he's scared, he'll still put himself in danger for them.

But the narrative treats him like garbage, reducing him to the comedic, fat joke, while Lance never treats him like a best friend. He deserved so much more than what he was given.

6 - The people in charge were so obsessed with doing every character dirty. They wanted to keep Shiro death, wanted to kill Keith after admitting to not knowing where they were going with him, tried to kill Hunk who did nothing wrong to deserve this, and actually killed Allura off when they realised Allurance would not work in the long-term because Lance would not be able to part from Earth for so long while Allura would not be able to stay confined to Earth at all.

7 - Lance fans would hate him if he was white.

i might make the playlists public later on, who knows

I just made multiple playlists for my Voltron Rewrite, (private, sorry), so I know I'm going to finish it because I've never done that for any of my other long fics which were quickly abandoned. LET'S GO VOLTRON

I have one thing to say about this. Wrong. The only reason Keith didn't want to lead is because he was forced into it. Because him taking over the Black Lion would be like admitting that Shiro really is gine, and Keith didn't want to think that.

Lance wanted the Black Lion for himself. Not for the team. That's why Black rejected him.

'He was already teammates with Pidge and Hunk,' yeah and he sucked. Episode One showed that with no filters. They crashed the simulator and, from Lance's own words later on, they always crash.

'Without him, the Blue Lion would have never went to space.' Um. Without Keith, he wouldn't have found the Blue Lion anyway? Without Pidge, he wouldn't have even gone to Shiro's crash site? Lance is not that pivotal. Keith and Shiro set things in motion.

And Lance making sure everyone got along well? He isolated Keith. He always started shit with him, even when Keith was obviously greiving Shiro. Yeah, for one scene, he set his jealousy aside, which somehow made him the Red Paladin (should have been Allura). But, if I were in any of their shoes, I would not be willing to follow someone who's already had their Lion stolen from them, constantly flirts with any pretty girl, gets jealous over the smallest of things, and has an ego bigger than the teleduv. Yeah, he's insecure, but it's not what he expresses to everyone else. To others, he's egotistical.

Also.

The Black Lion chose Keith specifically because Keith did not want the position for himself. Shiro didn't want Keith to lead because he's his brother and he wants the best for him. If that was the case, he wouldn't be encouraging him to lead them in a war. He chose Keith because Keith proved himself to have the potential to be a better leader than Shiro.

What do I mean by that? Well, I'm talking about how Keith is constantly the first one to issue orders when Shiro's not around or able to and it always works. He's constantly telling the guys what to do when Shiro can't. I'm talking about how Keith advised not going to get Allura. Because, as much as people give him shit for that scene, he was right.

If Thace hadn't been there, Voltron would have been taken and the mission would have been a collosal failure. Allura herself said that they should not have come. Shiro, right then, was not thinking clearly. There were others ways to get Allura back. They should have come up with an actual plan, as Keith suggested though with poorly-chosen words, instead of rushing back in.

Lance showed no affinity for leadership. As far as I'm aware, Lance stans think he should be the Balck Paladin because...? Why? Because you think it'd give him a good character arc? Because he's the everyday man and it makes you feel good about youself? You're sacrificing a well-written character arc for meaningless titles.

Lance did not have to be the Black Paladin to have his own character arc. That's just lazy writing and fans wishing he was Shiro.

I don't know why, but I'm on an angry V:LD rant. But Keith should NOT have been the black paladin. No matter what Shiro said.

Keith was hot-headed, he got frustrated easily, he held anger in. None of those are things that make a good leader. Those are all detrimental to both the functionality of a team, and if let simmer and stew it could even hurt the teammates.

The only reason Shiro said it was because of his relationship with Keith. They were brothers.. He loved him and wanted him to finish what he'd started. Their bond was too close and it clouded his judgement. Hell, Keith didnt even WANT to lead.

A leader is someone who looks out for their team. Makes sure their in the right headspace and are getting along nicely. Someone who holds the team together. A leader should be someone that eases tension between the group. Who did all of those things?

Lance McClain. He did all of those things and he wanted to lead. He literally set the whole plot into motion. Without him the blue lion would have never went to space. Without him The group of humans wouldve never met the Alteans. Hell, Hunk and Pidge wouldn't have even snuck out had it not been for lance. He brought the team together. He was already teammates with Hunk and Pidge. It's arguable, but Lance was Coran's favorite paladin. Once he set aside his crush he and Allura were good friends. He respected Shiro. He and Keith even became good friends. He did that. Lance did.

Lance deserved to lead, and I want to say that the only reason Black opened up to Keith was because of Shiro. He put that out there and as a last wish, and Black fulfilled it. But Lance should've become the Black paladin after Shiro.

Hello, I read your response and I’ll say that on a lot of it your right.

However, there are still some points I strongly disagree with.

I’m not going to go discuss with though. I made a mistake with going into your ask and It’s been stressing me out now.

I apologize for starting anything, it was late and I should’ve just turned my phone off.

I hope you have a wonderful day. thank you.

(Please refrain from calling me stupid though, I did not do that to you out of respect please don’t do it to me)

I will apologise for that. As I stated in that response, I had just woken up, so my filter was just gone. I do not think people are stupid for having different opinions, and I do not think you are stupid. It was wrong of me to say that.

I will welcome any challenges to my mindset. I was mostly annoyed because of the whole 'Keith is spoilt' thing as I relate a lot to him. It felt as though I was being called spoilt because of this, which polluted my mind, so to speak. But I do understand if you don't want to debate with me due to what I said.

I was undeniably wrong for calling you stupid. That I will not deny.

I do hope you have a good day from now on. Again, I am sorry

i really resonate with your opinions about lance and the fandom surrounding him, but you really kill it any time you say some shit like "i wonder if people would treat him the same if he was white"

they 100% would. this is tumblr, bro. most blorbos are white. just look at the previous main three shows, superwholock. lance being cuban has nothing to do with him being treated the way fandom treats him. he is just, like you said, an everyday man who's easy to project on.

another critique i personally have of voltron is that while everyone's skin tone and background is varied, they all have always felt white to me. they have no cultural identity in the show. was hunk's samoan background ever even named or did we just get that from a book or a tweet? i feel like viewers shouldn't have to use outside material to complete the story in front of them.

the fact that we never got that in the actual writing of the show really pissed me off. and this is as someone who's latino. lance has always felt incredibly white to me because the writers spent no fucking time adding any cultural elements into is character. even if he was a no sabo kid incredibly distant from his culture due to growing up at a boarding school, that would still be something. idk if we ever got anything about him being cuban in the show.

part of the writer's inability to write complex characters is also their inability to write poc.

i think this is also why lance works as an everyday man.

my point is that lance would still be very loved if he was white. he's not getting any extra love bc he's cuban. honestly, i feel like his cuban identity just means fanfic writers get to use google translate for shitty spanish lines that make no sense for the story and to occasionally fetishize him. they put no actual effort into understanding his cuban background. and why would they? the writers of voltron never bothered to.

Yeah, no, I get that. Lance is very white, but because his skin isn't and he's canonically Cuban, people tend to forget that? Luz from the Owl House is 100% latina and it feels like she is. Because she speaks spanish and her mother speaks spanish to her. It doesn't have to be in-your-face, but it would have been nice to hear the POC characters mumble their home language under their breaths, or to speak idioms the other don't know because it's not a universal thing.

For example, everyone knows 'don't bite off more than you can chew', but it's 'the one that embrace a lot, cannot keep it together'. They mean the same thing, but it would have been nice for Lance to just come out with that and everyone is confused until he explains.

Or Hunk calling his parents 'tina' and 'tama', meaning mom and dad respectively. It would have been nice if he made dishes inspired by Samoan culture, such as koko alaisa, or something.

If there was just one scene where one of them struggled to find a word in English, I would have been a lot more convinced that they're POC. Just one scene where someone is all 'oh, what was the word. you know? that thing! the thing, you know!'. Just one short scene.

Or, like, a culture clash? As in, they compare something on an alien planet with something common in their homeland and the others are just like 'what? That isn't normal.' And it just delves into a conversation about what is normal in the US but weird in their home countries.

There's just so much that Voltron could have done, but it doesn't which is a massive shame.