shiroallura:

elodieinmelody:

shiroallura:

the thing i think that’s getting lost, at least from shallura fans and shiro stans is like, in a lot of ways… s7′s queerbaiting is like, only it’s second biggest problem? i’m not upset about not getting canon klance, i’m not upset over allur@nce seemingly becoming canon. i’m not even upset about the bullshit backstory of earth vs how much more dramatic and emotional it would have been to have the paladins there while being attacked.

i’m upset because voltron took it’s character that is the most representation for the most amount of people in the entire show: japanese poc, a buff asian man, disabled, chronically ill, mentally ill, and lgbtq+ and were like

yeah, let’s sideline him, let’s take the role he earned and loved and fought and died for and give it to someone who never even wanted it in the first place.

and thought it was good storytelling. vld’s biggest sin has always been its incredibly shitty treatment of shiro, and this was the absolute last straw for me.

…wow. Shiro has struggles. Shiro is a person. Woah. They’re treating him like they’ve always treated him. The shock.

My gosh, that isn’t their biggest sin. The complaints about them torturing the characters are so strange, that’s how writing works. You want there to be conflict, you want the characters to suffer, you want to let the characters grow through pain. Shiro still has more of his character arc left and this is part of it.

Keith being given the Black Lion is literally?? One of those few things where they were just aligning with the old Voltron show? Keith was meant to have the Black Lion in the end.

And don’t forget about the White Lion. They’ve been trying to keep it on a down low, but Shiro channeled its power this season and used it to save earth. He isn’t meant to be the leader of voltron. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have powerful things ahead of him.

Shiro is not a weak character. He isn’t a beaten down character. He’s the leader of the Atlas, the space dad, the man who’s patience enough to take in an orphaned kid and help the kid survive in a place like the Garrison. Shiro is a genuinely good character.

You can try to argue that Shiro has suffered the most out of the Paladins, but that doesn’t devalue him as a character. He’s still a strong, kind, wise person and they created him that way. My gosh, complain about the things you don’t like all you want, but this is not their biggest sin.

@elodieinmelody where did i fucking ask. here’s why shiro not piloting the black lion was always bullshit because of how much s1-2 boxed vld into a corner where narratively, they couldn’t undo it. here’s why shiro getting a mecha consolation prize doesn’t matter because again, the only seasons where he was his own character in s1-2 showed what his most fulfilling role would be. here’s why keith being black paladin will never be a fulfilling arc for his character, either.

and here’s some more bullshit i called out when the interview saying that shiro’s bond with the black lion was gone:

“because if shiro isn’t the one true black paladin, then why wasn’t keith picked by black from the start? why was allura wrong? why was shiro able to do the eye glow in 1×02, like alfor did, before any of the other paladins even after seasons of development with their lions? why have shiro’s arc of a full 26 episodes be about his leadership and bond with the black lion, when keith got maybe 7 episodes at best? why always show keith piloting black through his bond with shiro instead of bonding with the lion itself? why have shiro be the one to fight and earn black’s trust in the astral plane? why have s6 prove that keith was only picked by black because shiro wanted him to be?why already have a plotline of ‘shiro’ being the strategic director and showing him missing black? why have keith not be in black and instead have an entirely separate arc instead of proper development? why have keith unlock things that shiro was able to unlock by himself that keith needed shiro’s help to do? why have all the lions, including black, roar the way they did in the pilot only when shiro returned? why have such a heavy emphasis on shiro wanting to be a paladin if he wasn’t going to be one again? why have a main character, the closest thing vld has to a main character every season, suddenly be sidelined? why have shiro literally fulfil the role of the black paladin more or less from beyond the grave and in the voltron void for four goddamn seasons?why have shiro being in the black lion’s astral plane, because she refused to let him die, to have her save him at all costs until he could be safely brought back, for him to not be a paladin? why would keith be any more willing to be black paladin now that shiro is back for good? why have haggar call keith the red paladin, and the two black paladins refer just as easily to shiro and kuronin 6×05? why have keith pointedly not do the eye glow with the black lion in 6×07? why do this to their most popular character that voltron’s survival and popularity as a show fucking depends upon? why sideline and say that your disabled, mentally ill asian lead of colour isn’t as fit to be the “born leader” he was always made to be, than your white fave?” (X)

and oh look, s7 didn’t actually answer any of those damn questions. and if you hadn’t been keeping up with interviews, aka a casual viewer, you also wouldn’t understand shit about the season because they never explained or addressed anything.

as for “keith has to pilot black bc that’s what the old show did!!” that’s bullshit, because in the original, keith occupied shiro’s spot of being the leader from the beginning; there was no lion switching bullshit. in fact, allura being black paladin in s3 would have been more faithful to the original, because in 80s voltron, allura pilots sven’s lion after he dies. 

but you did get one thing right. the show treated him how they’ve always been treating him, and they’ve always treated him like shit. 

they kept him around because they had to. they were gonna be lgbtq+ and were still planning to kill him off (and he did die, they were just forced to bring him back). they call him boring. they make keith fight and win against shiro’s abusers instead of allowing him agency and recovery. they talk about their favourite characters on the show and never mention shiro.

“SR: Do you have favorite characters? Or is that like trying to pick a favorite kid and you just love them all the same?

JDS: For me it’s become tougher over time, I have to say. I started out pretty strongly in the Lance camp and I’m really liking the way he’s evolving. But, y’know, you start getting an affinity for all the characters, they’re kind of weirdly your children on some level

.LM: It’s really strange, I’m the same. In the beginning, I was Pidge, Pidge all the way. I love Pidge, but thing is, I love all the characters. I love how far Allura has come, I love how like unbelievably pure Hunk is. And so it’s just all of these things about these characters. I love how much Keith has grown into himself. It’s weird, it is weird. And it becomes harder and harder to pick.”

(X)

And a brief breakdown, of everything Shiro has gone through: 

• having a chronic illness that causes him pain which is never brought up again beyond it being a deciding factor in him losing a long term romantic relationship
• being captured by aliens
• being tortured and experimented on
• losing his arm
• being forced to kill and fight for his life
• after which he immediately becomes a voltron paladin, which is crucial to his recovery, as the breaking point of with sendak is “you really think a monster like you could ever be a voltron paladin?”
• shiro is tortured by sendak
• shiro is tortured and injured by haggar, and then nearly killed by alien creatures in 2×01
• shiro loses ulaz, the man he owes his freedom to
• shiro fights and is nearly killed by zarkon in the astral plane
• he’s seemingly electrocuted, and then dies in battle with zarkon after gaining his bayard
• keith gets a lion offered up to him on a silver platter: free of zarkon, and with the black bayard, neither of those things he remotely earned or ever wanted (compared to shiro, who wanted to be a defender of the universe from day one)
• shiro being replaced by a clone who did little but suffer and die for his team, too, having been brainwashed by haggar to hurt everyone he loves, and then have his body be alive enough to function, and then had his consciousness robbed
• shiro meanwhile was in the black lion’s astral plane, even if we have no idea how long he was there, or how he survived
• shiro doesn’t get to fight a druid, one of the people belonging to the organization that tortured and experimented on him, because that goes to keith bc they have some random ‘history’ together
• shiro is kept out of the team bonding episode in 7×06 even though he’s wearing the paladin armour that seemingly protected everyone else, because the writers don’t want him around
• shiro’s new arm nearly kills him
• sendak nearly kills him, and shiro doesn’t get to triumph over him; that goes to keith, like always
• shiro has no family back on earth; he loses adam. when the rest of the paladins are having reunions or spending time with their family, shiro is giving a speech and all alone, separate from the team he loves with his whole heart

I never said Shiro was weak. But Shiro does not exist on his own; he does not make his own decisions. People write him. And they write him to suffer, and never gain anything from it. He died for the Black Lion, for his team, and then he doesn’t even to get to be a part of it. Senseless suffering and half assed character arcs is not good writing. Him suffering doesn’t make him a bad character, but it does make the show badly written when you see how uneven that pain is distributed. Who has lost more than he has, and who has gained less in return?

Shiro deserved fucking better, and the fact you can’t seemingly see this proves that the voltron fandom at large has cared about Shiro as much as the creators have, which is to say, not at fucking all.