How Shipping DESTROYS Shows | Voltron Deep Dive

We know that fandom culture can be bad sometimes. But what about the worst of times? Voltron: Legendary Defenders was one of Netflix's greatest animated series, until it wasn't. And the reason it went downhill so fast isn't a mystery. And for once, we can't pin the blame on the studio execs or the writers.
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#voltron #voltronlegendarydefender #netflix

[@plnkblue]

it is insane to me that this show only lasted 2 years. 7 seasons in 2 years. being in the middle of it all, it felt like at least half a decade.

[@space_turtle7640]

That’s crazy to me, because I’m in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom and that show has only got 5 seasons in 8 years.

[@KariIzumi1]

8 seasons in two years, but yeah it's nothing short of astonishing that a show that lasted such a show amount of time has managed to create as much wank and drama as I've ever seen come out of _Star Trek_ in the 20+ years I've been apart of THAT fandom.

[@Rosaisabellas]

JUST. TWOOO??!;$?.$;&

[@flaviaochuizen1875]

​@@space_turtle7640me too snd they still haven't shown any signs of growing up and going to another grade at school

[@MomoDearestt]

The voltron fandom aged me 2 decades.

[@bradleyharris9309]

I personally hate how when they started switch Lions, their armor didn't change color to match. It always irritated the f**k outta me when Keith stayed in RED despite piloting the BLACK Lion.

[@ceve]

It's a nod to the original 80's Voltron where their suits didn't match their lions

[@xhelxhelcosplay]

Was probably for merch sales; easier to keep the characters all the same colors throughout the show

[@Gabriel-Sprite]

Same, it’s annoying

[@b0tias]

@@xhelxhelcosplay It's because those were their suit colors in the OG series. Only Pidge and Hunk's suits matched their lions. They didn't ever explain it. Reboots sometimes come up with an explanation of some kind and this is theirs. For ex: the comic said that they had to pick whatever fit and it didn't necessarily match their lion.

[@thestooge200]

I think it would've worked better had the lighting in the cockpits not clash and mask their outfits

[@RainuviaYT]

I feel genuine sadness for what happened to Voltron; all the way from how the show was handled, to the fandom, and to the VA's who did not deserve the treatment they got. I'll never forget those cupcakes

[@bearerofbadnews1375]

Don’t you hate when a show you liked goes bad.

[@dev-ig9di]

what cupcakes.....

[@xhelxhelcosplay]

So, the cupcakes were actually a rumor that was spread a round online (i think SaraZ talks about it in her Voltron, or history of fandom deepdive); the VAs never got glass cupcakes. Doesn't make it any less insane that that was how the fandom was seen, because of its reputation.

[@dev-ig9di]

@@xhelxhelcosplay thanks for elaborating! :D

[@LikaLaruku]

I'll never forget how much better the original anime was.

[@spectre9340]

In the show _Friends_ , they put Monica and Chandler together as a gag but when they noticed how much the fans loved it, they developed the relationship. In _How I Met Your Mother_ , they already had an ending planned out and couldn't change it due to them pre-recording the ending in the first season but they still decided to develop Barney and Robin's relationship because of fan support despite knowing it won't actually be endgame. And we all know how _that_ went. Fans were not happy. The difference between those two shows is that _Friends_ didn't have a set ending and wasn't an episodic show with a clear plot. They were able to play around w relationships without it hurting the plot, since there wasn't any. _Star vs the Forces of Evil_ , _RWBY_ , _Voltron: Legendary Defender_ had writers that gave in to fanbase pressure and let their rabid fans dictate how they wrote the show. I don't think _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ would have been nearly as good if they had an entitled and demanding fanbase as toxic as these newer shows. Even if they did, what the writers of AtLA did right was not letting the fans dictate what's best for their own show. As writers, they should know their show better than anyone and should tell the story they wanna tell.

[@msk-qp6fn]

Oh dear rwby jesus crist

[@deathrex007]

The RWBY one hurts me

[@silverhawkscape2677]

Fans still got Katara and Aang but they made sure the dtory wasn't derailed

[@kait1713]

@@deathrex007oh gosh I was hoping someone would mention RWBY! I’m still waiting to see if they come out with more volumes but if it ends at this point, maybe it’s for the best

[@KariIzumi1]

@@holographicwing came here to say this. Even as early as season 1 (back when they were working on season 7) the producers said they didn't plan to make Klance canon. The production schedule was so batshit jam packed that they couldn't make major changes if they wanted to and the ones they did make to season 8 after the backlash were most likely at Netflix and/or DreamWorks' request than any concern over fans.

[@pandatrash7501]

As a retired Klance shipper, I remember this dumpster fire vividly. It had a chock hold on my life. I dropped it after season 3, but I was still heavily in touch with it by my best friend who kept watching (what a trooper)

[@purplefry1752]

You are so lucky I stayed until the very end 😭

[@pandatrash7501]

​@@purplefry1752Your stronger than I was 🫡

[@purplefry1752]

@@pandatrash7501 Stronger or stupid 😭 lmao

[@purplefry1752]

@@pandatrash7501 So glad you didn't have to see the awful queer-bait promotional stuff Netflix and the execs did near the end of Voltron

[@pandatrash7501]

@@Ebh55. I mean I still ship Klance. They're one of my favorite couples. But I've been out of the fandom too long and it went down like a burning ship

[@likopruejus8839]

Im having literal war flashbacks just from reading the title 💀 being a voltron fan that wanted to say away from ships as far as possible was truly an experience

[@darkmatter9651]

REAL

[@cutiepie120048]

oof

[@axeldude7051]

I’m so sorry bruh 😭

[@saki_k.]

Voltron to this day feels like a loss that you can't recover from, it started out great and fun! until the toxic fandom and the final season if not a bit of the writing choices that started in season 3. I liked the introduction of Lotor but the way they went further down and ruined his character was devistating. Also I hated the Shiro revives every single time cuz it ruins character development of the team members. I don't even wanna mention the shipping cuz that is headache in itself

[@sasstrash316]

Ok the shipping culture in the fandom was AWFUL I think everyone can agree with that, the big problem I think is that a lot of people completly ignored how Voltron was really more about a found family and the growth of their bonds and not... who's getting with who. Like don't get me wrong there were some great fics written about various characters getting together but well, not everything is about romance. I think the "bonding moment" scene could have worked as a beginning of a romantic subplot or just a 'hey we can be friends and this is our dynamic' thing. I really loved the first three seasons of Voltron, but it definantely had its problems as time went on, especially considering how toxic the fans became about Klance and well, yeah mostly Klance.

[@evyrys2725]

That's a great point but I feel Voltron isn't really a found family show. It's a shame because it could've been but instead it's more of Pidge, Hunk and Lance being friends as well as Shiro and Keith. Apart from that they just feel like coworkers, which is super clear by the end as they have all gone their seperate ways. S3 was imo the highest point in the show and after that it became rather rocky, which is also in the found family aspect of the show.

[@Dynaman21]

You know what Voltron has been about to the average person who recognized the brand? Giant robots punching the crap out of giant monsters and other giant robots. How they completely got away from that was the doom of the show.

[@Ladywizard]

If I recall the original show/go lions one of the sequel shows had that version Alura getting hitched to think was Keith so they retired for next generation of pilots so the focus was always the current team. Guy Shiro was replacing(going from og to reboot) was a Russian that died and stayed dead

[@Wooble_Deathnote]

Yea..also..what they did to Adam is EVIL!! 😂

[@duck_entertainment]

Shippers are the death of me. I see it in CoD where people keep shipping Ghost and literally anyone else, like guys stop we never even looked in that direction!

[@jacqueshardin4601]

About quintessence, it really bothered me that it corrupted Zarkon and the witch. If it was because of excess rather than the quintessence itself, I can get behind that. But instead, it just feels incredibly odd that a universal force is portrayed as naturally corruptive.

[@CT-uv8os]

My question is was it quintessence that corrupted them or the creatures from the rift? What were the creatures in the rift. They didn't seem to be totally evil. Remember Honerva captured one after Alfor said they agreed not to mess with the rift itself. If something grabbed me put me in a tube and was destroying my environment yeah I'd fight back. Allura and Tevo weren't evil when combining with them. So why Zarkon and Honerva. Other than Alfors "ghost" calling them an ancient evil the creatures were never properly addressed, which is very crappy writing since they were the catalyst for the whole storyline. And I didn't care for them bumping off Prorok either. Thanks for noticing. Peace.

[@ShadowEclipex]

The Voltron and RWBY fandoms, along with a subset of aggressive Kingdom Hearts shippers are the reason why I dislike most everything about the shipping fandom.

[@TeamTowers1]

I would say RWBY has always been pretty hit and miss even without it's fandom. That being said in terms of the online discourse I think RWBY has much more of a problem with it's hatedom and bad faith actors, than the shippers.

[@RexLygerkiryuVODs]

RWBY most definitely was ruined by shippers(for me that is) especially Bumblebee and Arkos shippers Oh and My Hero Academia can be added to the list of cringe shippers ruining a fandom

[@NikoNiki_KIZUNA]

As a RWBY fan myself, I do have to say shippers have ruined the show. I ship White Rose but I'm not as horrible as THOSE shippers. I must warn you not to go near them. *cough cough*

[@TeamTowers1]

@@NikoNiki_KIZUNA Kind of reminds of the Precure fandom and their obsessive yuri shipping.

[@44zeex]

Rwby shipping 100% annoyed me.

[@frey_ooo]

I too was a Klance shipper but I never got how people could be so aggressive against any other ship. Just cause you don’t like it, doesn’t mean you have the right to send death threats to Va’s, animators, writers or anyone for that matter. I loved the show but the longer it went on, the more weird it became. As far as I can remember, I did like a lot of the ideas they had for the latter series but they failed in how they executed it. One that made me really angry back then was giving Shiro a boyfriend to then kill him off screen. And then later he gets married to a stranger… it felt very forced “gay relationship” and I would actually have liked it if they just didn’t do all that.

[@isabellefuoss9737]

I’m not too sure on how the star vs the forces of evil community was and if they had any impact on the writing but that shows ending was horrible because they wanted to have starco ship canon. For those who don’t know/don’t remember the Star decides to destroy all magic to stop the enemies (even though there where plenty of other ways), doing this separates all the worlds of which there are countless separating families across the worlds, killing half the population that are made of magic and merges two main worlds together endangering more people for the sole reason of the two getting together

[@daraghokane4236]

Also a few episodes before star and frog were at a ball game and she saw kid's and monsters playing then frog said there is hope that in the future humans and monsters will get on. Then they segregate the world's. That's the why don't we send them back to there own country answer

[@marocat4749]

Its not terrible, its not great, but not terrible, it didnt ruin the show, which a terrrible ending would do. Through its really weird how it ends like it sets up a spinoff, in which case, the ending would be way less weird.

[@wander1139]

@@marocat4749 your right the last episode didn't do that the whole last season did they set stuff up and threw them away marco started dating a character to then have them break up off screen stars mom does a full 360 of all her character progression in the show for no real reason other than she's racist i guess and they ignore toffees boss never shows up and is never mentioned again

[@gota7738]

I wasn't really in the fandom but I got the impression that fans were actually less interested in shipping than the show seemed to be after seasons of teasing and spinning the wheels.

[@AshEshyr]

I heard the starco push was because of a couple of the writers were together and self inserting into star and marco or something, though i may be remembering wrong.

[@samclean6779]

As someone who was VERY deep in the fandom back when this came out (went to cons in cosplay and everything) I will never forget how insane the fandom (and show) got. And as a woman of color thank you SO MUCH for acknowledging how the show started failing Allura (and how sloppy they handled the 'race' plots in general). So many reviews completely gloss over it in favor of only talking about the 3 favorite male characters. 😭 The lion swap did upset me with how they setup the lions to have a consciousness and actually had the paladins make connections with them only to toss it, but I kept watching thinking they would have to bring it back eventually. I held on to the show until the end of season 6 hoping things would get back on track for the plot, lore, and characters but it never did. Sad fact about Shiro being replaced with a clone; The creators wanted to kill him off permanently, but said Netflix needed all the characters for toy sale purposes. That's why he gets replaced by a clone and sidelined so often.

[@darkmatter9651]

One of the things that I keep me awake at night whenever I remember them is that the show tried to make a plot about racism and how it's wrong - bringing in Lotor to tell allura to 'judge people for their actions, not for the preconceptions of their race', which is a great message, and then have allura fall in love with him and all that jazz. Then allura's racism is actually proven RIGHT when Lotor DOES turn out to be a backstabber and 'just like his father'. Let that sink in.

[@samclean6779]

@@darkmatter9651 All I could think about when that scene played was how the VA for Allura, Kimberly Brooks, said she loved voice acting because it gives her more opportunities as a black woman, and how she cried tears of joy when she saw what Allura's design was and she was finally getting a role like this. And then she had to go in the booth and have those lines read to her. And I'm never gonna forget how they revamped Allura to be a WOC, made her a gen0cide survivor, and then painted her as wrong for having trust issues against the Galra (space colonizers). And then paint her as wrong for ever trusting Lotor. One of the main reasons I quit watching the show.🤦🏿‍♀

[@TBFondl669]

Allura's storyline in voltron makes me go ballistic because I watched the original 80s Japanese version (GoLion) and she was the MAIN character. It did end up damseling her a lot because 80s anime but the plot of a good majority of episodes revolved around her focus and drive to become a better pilot, to live up to Shiro's legacy, to balance being a warrior with being a princess (Altea is still kicking in the OG GoLion), and her drive to help others. How do you write a female character WORSE than a 80s anime where your heroine gets kidnapped nearly every episode???? How do you even manage to fumble the ball that hard???

[@KariIzumi1]

So many conversations on Allura's demise online got hijacked by shippers on both sides of Klance-Sheith war after the finale, but it cannot be said enough how dirty she was done by this show. It was bad enough she woke up as one of two survivors of genocide that she knew of, but the show really did chip away at every bit of her heritage that she did have--her father's AI, her crown, even the castle-ship itself. And then, when she does, she doesn't even get to say goodbye to Coran, either. And while I have to smoke against genuine fans of Lotura post season 6, I find it rather interesting that a huge portion of the fandom somehow seem to think that it was healthier for her to mourn a guy who was killing her people than to move on with someone else. I'm not an Allurance fan, but that math ain't mathing to me there 😒

[@haliamyx]

I know right? Allura potential made me want to cry WHY did they make her go to that planet with Lotor and learn all the "secrets of the universe," and for what? If I did the episode I would've made it like she 'died' in s7 BUT like Lance getting the flowers to save Allura in the classic cartoon, s8 starts with him going on that journey in the blue lion to save her, and that oriande was a secret to bringing her back.

[@aidenofsorts]

I remember starting to watch the show once season 2 aired, so excited to possibly join a new fandom to an already awesome show and hoping to make new friends and everything. Oh how that quickly faded with how toxic everyone was cause “If you don’t ship what I ship, you are dead to me, you are absolutely vile, etc, etc” and so, so much more. Despite dealing with a horrible fandom and hoping for the show to be better to the bitter end, one positive memory I always loved thinking back on was meeting Pidge’s VA, Bex Taylor Klaus back in 2018. I met them wandering around the con unattended ( wasn’t at their booth for signing ) and got hugs and chatted about Voltron. And they even remember me hours later by shouting my name and running over for a hug. Say what you will about this show but holy shit, the VAs loved their roles, their show and their fans lots. Truly sucks how they were treated later on especially from the fans themselves 💔

[@kouusa]

Oof. I hate when that kind of shipping happens. Just uulk. I'm sorry you had to go though all that. The VA's did a fantastic job and I'm glad you were able to brighten up their day.

[@gart0562]

I loved the va's, they where always so kind and nice. Bex was also my favorite

[@spencersholden]

I believed Voltron was ruined when they made Lotor the villain. I absolutely hate that twist. I was so happy were they were going with the reforming of the Empire and then they throw it out the window with a stupid twist and a time jump!?

[@jaymogrified]

I recalled Lotor being a villain in the original show so in that sense, it wasn’t a plot twist for me, but they had introduced him as a good guy instead and did such a great job of that, it was still a huge disappointment when he was suddenly revealed to be evil (especially since, as you said, they really just spring it on you, like “oh look, he was evil all along! Surprise!”) ☹️

[@molinagrn65]

Same here. Even more, I hate how Zarkon and Honerva were the ones to get more exploration and a redemption arc in S8 rather than their abused son.

[@dianagoenaga7263]

Title: How Shipping- Me: It's gonna be Voltron, isn't it?

[@lyannastarkweather]

The shipping drama started with season one but it ratcheted up over time. Sheith fans latched onto Keith’s determination to get Shiro back in the first episode. Klance fans really gravitated towards Keith and Lance’s rivalry from the very beginning. Different tropes appeal to different folks. I remember seeing the shift from normal ship war stuff to full-on cyberbullying. it was wild.

[@reigningrockets]

So true. I went into the show knowing about klance and how pretty much everyone shipped them so I figured I would to. but when I actually watched the show, the whole rivalry thing did NOT appeal to me at all. I personally really dislike ships where two characters bicker all the time. I much prefer the dynamic Keith had with Shiro and thus a Sheith fan I became. I have understand why people shipped klance I really did but it just was NOT the kind of relationship I found romantic or cute. And then all the cyber bullying happened and the whole fandom went sideways and the fans kept demanding that THEIR pairing was right and I just wanted to read nice fan fic about my fave characters and watch cool space battless

[@hazelnuiit]

@@reigningrockets me too lol! I actually started watching because I saw cute klance fanart but when I started watching it I gravitated towards sheith more. At the time I didn't think much of it and liked both but as the show progressed and the klantis got worse I ended up as just a sheith shipper. I felt like I was outgrowing the "rivalry" ship dynamic but tbh their bickering was just kinda childish and immature and I lost patience with it as someone maturing emotionally too. I liked the calmer dynamic in sheith lol. Eventually I grew to have an adverse reaction to klance despite thinking it wasn't even that bad in the first place. Tbh I thought it got better, but a comment of mine recently drew out an anti in 2023. Crazy the hate's still alive. 😂

[@MomoDearestt]

So true though. The wars were absolutely terrible. You couldn’t post shit in the Voltron tag without an argument in your comment section.

[@Wooble_Deathnote]

If you shipped Sheith your weird..Shiro has a fiancé did we forget this?? Did we forget Adam? (Rip)

[@reigningrockets]

@@Wooble_Deathnote sweetie, can you actually be serious? Have you learned nothing? Or are you just being ironic on purpose.?

[@lavender5583]

Allura as the black lion would've been really coooool She could've had a whole thing where she learns to be a leader in her own way and not like her father or Shiro, and battles some mind things bc Zarkon used to be the black paladiiiin

[@TeamTowers1]

One thing I can appreciate about the show (in spite of it not having enough action from the titular mech), is that Voltron itself was unapologetically a super robot and plays most the super robot tropes completely straight in it's depiction of the big guy.

[@cassielcruzchavolla809]

I still haven't forgiven how the fandom treated Allura after allurance became canon (which wasn't a great ship, tbf, but not Allura's fault, I'm so sad she died :( )

[@nightwolfnordberg9476]

Still better then klance

[@editornoob4606]

​@@nightwolfnordberg9476 oh?

[@nightwolfnordberg9476]

@@editornoob4606 i dont like realtion ship between the 5 first pilots other then siblings

[@orderoffries7880]

Not first 3 seasons and spoiler related, but something that will always bug me is that zarkon and honerva got to get this "redemption" moment in the end, while lotor (their child that they neglected and abused) was killed in such a violent way. I never expected lotor to get a redemption arc, but to have the audacity to give one to his abusers was always so gross to me.

[@molinagrn65]

Period- 😭

[@pheela]

seeing this video ran a cold wave under my heart immediately... I still have so much trauma from this fandom. towards the end of 2018 it made me feel like an animal being hunted for sport while making myself a cup of tea inside my home and everyone I knew was in private small groupchats or one on one convos trying to soothe each other's anxiety. I remember a particularly bad day when I ate dinner with my family with shaking hands and anxiety levels through the roof wondering what I was going to read on discord after being a away for an hour. I got to thinking about why i was feeling the way I was and sat down to write up everything that had happened in the past couple of weeks. I ended up with 2 weeks where there was at least one big controversy or bullying event that the entire fandom knew about EVERY SINGLE DAY. you would have a day where a popular fanartist would announce they will no longer posting for the fandom and also a followup to the previous day where another fan was hospitalized and today's continuation of the scandal was that the same antis who baited this person with dead animal pictures would tweet about how they aren't sorry and cannot POSSIBLY be held accountable for this and really if they weren't guilty of anything why would they be affected by being doxxed and sent gore? and then in the evening netflix would drop a promo video or something. whatever you have heard about the voltron fandom, it was really way worse.

[@koriandrbloodoranges]

Around the time of Voltron, I was into other shows. I remember really wanting to watch it, but I just didn't have the time for it. By the time the show was over, I realized what bullet I dodged. I am so sorry you went through that.

[@MomoDearestt]

@@koriandrbloodorangesyou dodged a nuke. Not a bullet 😂

[@MomoDearestt]

I’m sorry you had to experience such amounts of anxiety. I hope everything is okay now.

[@Banjo_Was_Taken]

I dropped the show after the first episode of season 8. After season 2, the show sort of lost its driving force that is never really got back. Lotor was a cool villain, but he just goes out like nothing. And by the end, it was clear they were just doing "who do we have left?" I also didn't like how the show never really did anything with Lance. Like they tease that he was gonna be a way bigger character (especially with that sword scene), but by the end, he's just there in the back, and his character boils down to liking Alura. Which I personally don't like as a couple. Not for shipping reasons either, I just don't think they have any romantic chemistry.

[@moldearchier8259]

The weirdest part for me about Lance x Allura is that it kinda happened after Lotor's dead...I don't think Allura was emotionally invested in Lance (which is ok)

[@BabyGirlTiny]

The show did nothing with all of its characters

[@KeyOfTheTwilight]

As a former Shipper, I will never interact with fandom ever again. Thank you Voltron.

[@MomoDearestt]

Big mood. Found a pocket where nobody harasses anyone. Haven’t left ever since. I don’t talk to anyone outside of one group

[@KariIzumi1]

That's generally good advice in any fandom. I have my select five to seven fandom fans for Star Trek that post unhinged shit about Spock getting boned by Kirk , I have exactly two vetted sites for The Bold and the Beautiful and once I find out where the JoJo fujos have migrated to, I'll be all set :p

[@keith6451]

I used to be in the Voltron fandom. I've always been the person that avoids fandom drama 100%. I hate it with a passion and think it's so stupid. I use fandom as a fun place and an escape from the real world, so that's why I stay out of it. In Voltron it was impossible to ignore. I tried my best but it always ended up on my feed somehow. I was a sheith shipper so I was the target most of the time, though. I remember that I couldn't go on the main sheith tag because half the time it was flooded with hate. I didn't reblog anything from anyone without checking to make sure they didn't have anti in their bio. It was such a wild time. The show itself is so weird. The first two seasons are really good. It starts to go downhill at season three, but it's still enjoyable. 7 and 8 are unwatchable for me. It's not even the type of bad where it's fun. It's just boring and poorly written.

[@KariIzumi1]

Even worse, people were tagging Sheith and Shidge hate into the CSA tags to the point people couldn’t even use THAT to discuss their trauma 😡

[@keith6451]

@@KariIzumi1 oh god, I completely forgot about that. It was so awful.

[@bearerofbadnews1375]

The last two seasons of Voltron felt like they were trying be a war drama like Gundam, but without any understanding as to why it was good. It was Gundam age level of bad.

[@twilightsquire]

​@bearerofbadnews1375 I remember the creators saying something about them wanting to show the realities of war and I was so confused because the show didn't start out with that tone, there's so many random goofy episodes within seasons like the one where they go to the mall, the one where Coran does drugs and they do a play, The game show etc... and then in those last 2 seasons it'd flip and they'd be doing overdramatic, poorly written war drama 🥴

[@eji]

It makes me wonder if the Voltron writers would've still pulled that weird "Shiro-marries-random-dude-suddenly-at-the-end" if it hadn't been for all the shipping wars. I was just a regular viewer who didn't have a particular ship, but I sure as hell thought some of that epilogue stuff either came out of left field (Shiro) or was just plain unsatisfying as hell (Lance randomly getting half-Altean). Also wasn't a fan of forcibly sacrificing Allura and whatever that character assassination of Lotor was.

[@KariIzumi1]

TBH, I don't think the CYA gay wedding had anything to do with shippers and more to do with the backlash from the way they oversold season 7 and the Adam thing. On Tumblr, I won't deny that a good portion of the people there were mad about Adam because they expected he'd cockblock Shiro away from Keith, but they were getting slammed nearly everywhere else for a bait and switch blatant enough to embarrass a used car salesman. Rightfully so. In an odd sort of way, the fact that they felt they had to respond to it shows how far we'd come in the few short years after _Legend of Korra,_ where the 30 seconds of hand holding and eye gazing was enough to push it to a later time slot. And if the backlash on this chickenshit tactic was enough to let DW give Nate Stevenson the okay to make Catradora explicit canon (which would be a particularly bitter irony for Sheith fans)...all the better.

[@BabyGirlTiny]

@@KariIzumi1Korra was always pushed because the ratings were never there. It had nothing to do with a forced ship the writers catered to to negate any criticism of their show, as the show had nothing good about it which is why the only thing it’s remembered for is the forced lesbian pairing and literally nothing else Edit: I really need to reread these things because my god

[@FeraNelia]

@@BabyGirlTiny Asami was always considered as a first romantic interest for Korra, but they didn't believe Nick would let them do it so they chose to go with Mako instead in S1. Is it really catering if it had always been the option for the writers, from the very start before the show even aired? The show never recovered from the pit that was S2, even when S3 and S4 were much better than the previous two seasons.

[@LilyUnicorn]

It was more like they always wanted a gay Shiro but were never allowed to until suddenly at the end. Okay fine. And theyre like....theres no time!!!! Damn it. Lotor was always going down. they made him 1000000000 times more likeable than his rapist original. But hia ending wasnt going to be sweet. I knew that going in. As for Allura. I was fine with it. They had planned to kill off the whole gang but then decided to do a sailor moon moment for her but they alao wanted a death sequence that felt impactful and wasnt coming back. That was allura. Lance half altean didnt bug me so much as....Lance farming. Youre telling me this boy who chased his dream desperately just went off to be a 24/7 farmer and stare wistfully about a woman who basically gave no Fs about him until she died. I mean even when they were dating it was a hallucination of Lotor that convinced her to puah forward, not Lance. And she is seen walking towards Lotor in the end like shes finally home. That was not only weird but dude....poor Lance. The eternal pining on a farm for a girl who never truly loved him as much as she did Lotor...was mind boggling. He could have at least remained a pilot instructor. His ending just felt too pathetic. I woukd understand it better if when tehy dated they actually acted like live birds but everything about it was written like she was taking one for the team and just doing him a favor. If that was intentional....wow...juat wow. They did Lance dirty. If it wasnt....I dont know what kind of relationships these writers had but its not a good one if thats their influence.

[@LilyUnicorn]

​@@FeraNeliaKorrasami was poorly done. It came out of left field. Like the last episode is the only time you get it and I was just like what? Bolins romance was written better and Opal was introduced far later than Asami. Sometimes these writers do better with short romances rather than long term it seems.

[@Grey_3438]

I was mainly on the Amino side of the VLD fandom, and the mods there were pretty strict about keeping things safe and fun for everyone in the community, and since I wasn't active on any other social medias at the time, I thankfully avoided the absolute worst of the fandom drama and had a much more positive experience overall. Granted, I also joined the fandom halfway through the show's run (right after season 4 had been released), so I avoided a lot of the earlier scandals by proxy anyways. But man, the show ITSELF still managed to traumatize me with the way it went downhill in its final seasons. Even after *5 whole years*, this damn show STILL manages to haunt me every time I so much as think about its name. 😭 ETA: I was also a pretty big Klance shipper myself, but I managed to stay, y'know, actually sane when it came to these fictional characters and didn't go around harassing anyone who dared not ship them, nor did I go out harassing the cast and crew when they weren't made canon at the end of the series, even if I was moderately pissed at the way things panned out.

[@caramel_macchiato-art8442]

I had a similar experience. I started watching the show in the pandemic so I skipped the drama. I rather enjoy things by myself for this reason. I feel the same about this shit, whenever I think about it, my mind is like "I can not handle this suffering anymore, GET OVER THIS SHIT!" so I actively try to not think about the final seasons at all. You are not alone in the trauma.

[@bearerofbadnews1375]

I look at the last season of Voltron with just a look of apathy. To me I feel like Trollhunters rise of the titans haunts me more than the last season of Voltron.

[@augiie4]

I tried rewatching my favourite episodes but I honestly don’t know why they were my favourite… I also tried rewatching the show but stopped before season 3. I’ll just let this series stay good in my mind and keep a good memory of it instead of tainting it by rewatching it.

[@caramel_macchiato-art8442]

It's the same for me, I don't need to hurt myself in that way.

[@LadyL2121]

I felt like around season 5 or 6 and onwards is where the show dipped down for me but I watched all the way to the end. I’m a multishipper but I only really ship characters if they have actual chemistry or get I totally ship it vibes

[@cutiepie120048]

Same on all accounts

[@caramel_macchiato-art8442]

Same!!!

[@NikoNiki_KIZUNA]

Oh god. I was a big Voltron fan as a kid. Little did I know was that when the shippers arrived, things went downhill.

[@Sunrose-]

If there’s one thing I can thank the Voltron fandom for its tolerance for insane fandom communities. Every once in a while I’ll be like ugh this fandom is so horrible and a little voice in my head goes “But was it as bad as Voltron?” So like thanks, Voltron, for teaching me to enjoy something in spite of fandom

[@TheRedheadSam]

imagine the amount of pain i went through as an allura fan from day one AND a lotor fan the second he showed up. i hate this show. even without the shippers it really wasted lotor as an antagonist AND did allura so dirty.

[@KariIzumi1]

F in the chat 🫂🥲😔

[@deleijon3415]

I'm still in the voltron fandom (Yes we still exist and we are still very active). It's great to see an actual deepdive in the series without bias. I know the crazing things done by the fandom will come out in later videos, but I really like the way you're reviewing the show and I hope you keep the same neutral objective view going forward. Also please for the love of everything holy, the glass cupcakes incident is false, there is no actual proof of it ever happening.

[@KariIzumi1]

GOD THIS IM SO TIRED OF THE CUPCAKES I get that this fandom is so wild that it _feels_ like this could be possible but there was quite literally new controversies at least once a day during its peak.

[@donaldwright8567]

The Shipping Wars where more brutal that the actual wars being fought in the show. And GOD HELP YOU if you brought up the original 80's series.

[@xhelxhelcosplay]

I wasnt super deep in the fandom, when all of this was going on; but, as a Lance cosplayer, OH BOY, did i get asked to do a lot of awkward shippy photos with my friend, who was a Kieth cosplayer. We went along with it, because we also shipped Klance, but it didnt make it any less awkward when we would host panels, just to talk to other fans, and then having most of our time taken up by shippers, asking to record us doing whatever they asked.

[@viheart]

I started watching recently, I'm only about halfway through and it had a good start, but I dropped it I agree with you with all the Lion switching if they HAD to do it Allura would have made so much more sense as the Black Lion because she was already basically the commander of Voltron from the ship. And if they really needed to ham-fist Keith in there she should have at least gotten the Red Lion because her father was also the Paladin of it, it would have been a great Parallel to the past Paladins Shiro to Zarkon and Allura to her father, but she got cuffed and downgraded from ship leader to the Blue Lion? only for them to throw away the Keith Leader thing immediately which left a bad taste in my mouth honestly and wasted my time, they stress that the Lions and their bonds are #1 but they are past around like it's nothing, I already got spoiled a bit and it seems the disrespect doesn't end there T-T.

[@TBFondl669]

It's weird to me that Allura didn't get the black lion. She's in the blue lion in the 80s show because the overarching plot of the show is about her learning to be the leader of Voltron and her people at the same time. So she can only pilot the black lion when her arc is complete. And she DOES get the black lion in the end. The new Allura is entirely compotent, a great leader, and a great pilot so the reason for her not getting to be leader is because... well it's because she's not the protagonist like she was in thr 80s

[@panpanmonday3585]

I've been saying the same thing about Allura but everyone wanted it Lance like Allura was the perfect fit esp when she had a whole episode thinking the lions were weapon.

[@Dani_77709]

The only ship I ever jumped on was Pidge and Lance. Somethings about them made me go "Ok but actually this dynamic is really interesting to me."

[@KariIzumi1]

I was a big Sheith person but Plance was my jam.

[@AOFenix]

Plance was the best. I was so into that ship. They had such a good dynamic!

[@Maimuna23458]

@@AOFenixPidge and Lance where , My favorite, Paring, As well .

[@synivy4576]

They seemed more like brother and sister

[@molinagrn65]

@@synivy4576 Yeah I agree. I couldn’t get into it based on how Lance had some parallels to Matt, but mainly how their relationship hardly held much weight as pair with Pidge hanging out more with Hunk and they hardly got any meaningful development together for me to see them as an item. 🤷 (Also a good chunk of shippers had ruined it in my experience, especially with homophobia and transphobia. Still wild how ship hate or discourse wasn’t just with the popular ships, but some PL shippers were nutty back in 2018- 😭)

[@yaminogame]

I heard about the shipping wars but I never interacted with the fandom directly. I just sat and watched the show when each new season came out and enjoyed it for what it was.

[@Quarataia]

I resonate with the small rant about mecha being a dying genre in the beginning. The last decade was filled with mecha shows that managed to get so much attention, only to break their ankles and tumble in by their end. Thankfully 86 - Eighty Six, G-Witch and Armored Core VI exist now, so the genre is still kicking.

[@leoultimaupgraded9914]

we will get more great Mecha shows someday, I’m sure of it maybe some combining mecha if we’re lucky

[@silverendlessness4052]

I was so involved with this show and its trashy fandom that I have PTSD. Every time someone mentions "Voltron" it activates my fight of flight response.

[@TBFondl669]

I watched the original japanese GoLion (OG 80s Voltron) a year or so ago and was shocked to find that Allura was the MAIN character of the show. Not Keith, not Lance but Allura. She suffered quite a bit from being damseled in nearly every episode but aside from that most episodes were about her determination, her struggle with being a princess and being a warrior at the same time, and how she overcomes these problems. There were lots of problems with the 80s show but thats one aspect i wish they kept

[@LilyUnicorn]

She still was the main character in Voltron- they sailor moon sacrificed her without the reincarnation revival though. I think you place too much emphasis on the words main character and forget a main character is made up of the other settings and characters around them. The Golion is all sorts of f*cked up sexism. Man oh man. Did you watch it dubbed or subbed because i gotta tell you unlike todays dubbing, they basically rewrote the show. Change dup who was a brother, peoples death sequences...etc. and im not sure they even covered the rape scene. That was just....wow. Japan goes really real for their anime but no way America did that.

[@Sootielove]

Genuinely really liked voltron (never really cared about interacting with the fandom) but by the end Pidge was by far the best character because all the others were warped or forgotten by the decaying plot. Like, Hunk as my favourite character but that's partially because both the writers and fandom gave no shit about him

[@mister_r447]

I never stoped liking Voltron. My favorite part was when they returned to Earth. Its nice seeing Earth become relevant, in this kind of story it usually doesn't.

[@Violetstar22]

The show was great. It went from great to bad but I still love it. Makes me sad that shippers made the fandom and people seeing the show bad. • The show really didn’t deserve to be dragged down just because of crazy fans😞

[@Riveronmars]

I feel the same way!

[@mikrokosmosatiny4349]

I agree! I might’ve been in the tumblr fandom but it was definitely the good more drama-free side. I genuinely enjoyed my time in the fandom and interacted with a lot of lovely people. I’m always gonna have a soft spot for this show (and for klance).

[@KazeRyuTrey09]

as being an old fan of Voltron, I was highly disappointed that Lotor wasn't in the first 2 seasons, I staid on until the very end and unfortunately I missed the big shipping drama that was happening because I wasn't on Tumblr. Mainly heard from my friends that weren't fans of Voltron but witnessed the shipping drama. Loved that Shiro came back regardless if he was a clone or not, he's character was adorable, just wanted to see him make it to the end. And he got married at the end too! Was super happy for his character.

[@kouusa]

I'd like it better if his husband was on screen longer. Like, let me get to know him better!

[@Violetstar22]

I’m happy Shiro came back to😁 I’d dropped the show if he stayed dead😅 Mabey

[@TBFondl669]

I do appreciate they played really hard into the weird mommy issues he had in the original. Very fun idea that was butchered but still fun

[@mippa]

I was a Voltron fan back when the 80s show re-aired on Toonami. (I was too young to remember the original airing.) I was a Lance/Allura 'shipper back in the 80s version, so when I saw that the writers made my OG 'ship "canon," I was BEYOND excited. That said, I was still extremely frustrated with how it was handled, how Allura's character was ultimately failed in the finale, and how much the writing suffered regardless.

[@WitchKat]

Gosh i remember this. I remember how excited everyone was when the VAs would answer questions at Cons and how much the promotional materials and interviews would encourage the shipping... and how mad the production team got when people dared to be disappointed that all the 'wink wink maaaaaaybe 😼' type hints they did to drum up ratings peetered out to barley anything in the show. A few major shows had done similar things around the same time and there was a strong sense that the people making the shows genuinely believed that LGBTQ representation would and should never have genuinely been expected and that the audience was stupid and spoiled for taking the promotional interviews seriously. There definitely were rabid shippers and anti shippers also - got my head bitten off when i was out of the loop on the story and someone posted a rant about how they were disgusted anybody watched the show anymore with a heavy implication that something terrible had happened and i messaged them to ask if I'd missed something sonce id fallen off. To this day im not sure if they were talking about shipping being terrible, their ship not being canon being terrible, or lack of representation being terrible, because they assumed i was asking insincerely - but a lot more people who were genuinely upset that they had been Queer baited and wanted the idea of representation to not be treated as ridiculous got painted as nasty entitled shippers who were mad their ship wasn't canon too.

[@freshcupofangst]

1:24 Keith slayed the mullet though tbh

[@amoatlas]

i was a huge voltron fan in middle school omg, it was my first real experience in a fandom and it was insane

[@KariIzumi1]

God, I’m so sorry 😔

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

You think that's bad? My 1st fandom was MLP when I was in elementary school. Now THAT was an experience.

[@amoatlas]

@@kittykittybangbang9367 elementary?? im so sorry…

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

@@amoatlas I'll never forget when I discovered MLP pr0n back in elementary school 😭

[@elizabethemmons1208]

I am so glad I wasn’t really aware of the shipping discourse at the time. As a Klance shipper I would have either been insufferable or I would have been bullied and cried lmao

[@justsomeone6593]

Same😅

[@june2921]

Same, I mean I was kind of aware but I avoided it like the plague

[@fandomonium3789]

I was an avid Klance shipper, and still am. But it was never to the extreme that some of those shippers went. Two cute guys giving each other a smooch is not worth all that negativity and toxicity. And it made us reasonable Klance shippers look bad.

[@mikebearthegamer1365]

So I did drop voltron after season 3 but not because of no shiro, but because he came back to early. We literally should've had two seasons worth of keith being the leader and then having shiro come back. Shiro coming back so soon literally ruined it for me

[@gart0562]

At least we can all agree that it was a good show until the last seasons

[@pheela]

i've never seen a more clear case of seasonal rot in my life. Internally, vld had 3 reasons and thats how the crew refers to them: s1=1-2, s2=3-6, s3=7-8. The show bled crew member with every season to the point where EVERYBODY left after s2. And I do mean every single person. The showrunners describe sitting in a completely empty office at dreamworks wondering if they can start from scratch completely or if they should just admit they failed. But this was their first executive producer gig and you kinda don't recover from failing that catastrophically so they gave it shot. In the end they only managed to get like ONE senior staff member to come back with what they have only described as "bribing." and hooo boy does it show when they lost crew members. half of the netflix season 7 episode where shiro is revealed gay was leftover writing by a first arc writer and the writing is like night and day when you compare the flashbacks with what is actually happening in the ep. I remember someone working on seasons 7-8 saying that they could have freely posted scripts they were working on and nobody would have guessed it was voltron they were leaking bc the show was nothing like the finished episodes that were dropping while they were working about a year in advance. even the people working on the show knew the last seasons were missing the magic.

[@allurajane4979]

Why did everybody leave

[@pheela]

@@allurajane4979 Well the harassment definitely didn't help. The harassment of cast and crew got so bad that fans would refuse to tell you what crew members public instagram/twitter profiles even were, people circulated social media screenshots of public persons with identifying info blocked out like they were in witness protection program. The main reason however was the insane time crunch. There is a long video on youtube from arc1 (s1-2) where a high ranking crew member details the production process. He keeps calling every episode having the workload of an animated movie and keeps reiterating how inhuman the pace/workload is. Every single crew member in the production chain from writers to storyboarders to production assistants simply burned out in under a year on the job. Meanwhile, netflix kept pushing for faster and faster releases. That's why seasons 3-6 are so broken up into tiny batches of episodes, they simply took what they could pass up as finished enough. Netflix literally whipped the artists and writers until every single one of them quit all at once. Add to that being harassed online after work and why would anyone stay on this project?

[@BabyGirlTiny]

Eh, it was going down hill before the last season. People just latched onto the last season for weird reasons. Mainly the whole, Lance can’t be a farmer because of Cubans are farmers it’s racists. So never have a Cuban farmer at all in a story because it’s racists.

[@gart0562]

That's why I said last seasons, plural@@BabyGirlTiny also it wasn't just the farmer thing. They really did Lance dirty

[@sarahzahira7432]

I used to like Klance but seeing the klance fans, it scares me until I fell in loved with Keitor(Keith x Lotor), because it allows me to differentiate between two ship fans and I liked because for me Keith can relate in terms of childhood.

[@LilyUnicorn]

I understand why you think being halfsies is enough to ship them but Keith basically doesnt acknowledge Lotors existence as more than a wallpaper. So i could never see it. I can Lotor basically with everyone else though. He got game. the person with the most pull however was Hunk. That man had everyone basically on his buddy list at some point-even emo boy keith. 😅

[@nelsama0881]

I liked Keitor too :) Hunk the ultimative buddy boy.

[@molinagrn65]

I like Keitor as well, the potential interaction was endless but never used. 😭

[@StarkMark2]

Negative, question, would it be possible to see your doll/toy collection now? As well as the shelf that's always behind you in detail?

[@blaze14ZX]

How is your comment 4 months old on a recently released video. Is this a reupload or a video that was private to patreon members and is now public?

[@ShadowEclipex]

@@blaze14ZX Patrons have early access to videos.

[@blaze14ZX]

@@ShadowEclipex kinda figured that was the reason. I'm just curious why negative legend released the shorts for this video before releasing the video itself.

[@ShadowEclipex]

@@blaze14ZX Probably to help generate interest. Kinda like ads if I had to guess.

[@fmadiva]

I was a sheith shipper and while I pretty much ended up despising a good amount of sheith and klance shippers at the end of things I think the harassment I went through for shipping sheith was pretty unusual. It's why I still don't like antis even when I sometimes agree with them. I notice in 'Voltron fandom bad' videos people don't always touch on the sheer amount of verbal abuse , doxxing and full on harassment people endured just for shipping something that was only a squick at most.

[@3l_Raro]

as a klance guy I remember the sheer amount of insults, harassment, vitriol and sheer hate some people had for sheith. This whole debacle has to be studied .

[@sophiaho2341]

I'm sort of glad that I never discover Voltron nor knew of the fan base as well as getting caught in ship wars and learning how some insane and immature shippers were with blackmailing the crew and sending dead threats to the voice actors as well as hearing some voice actors not wanting to attend any Voltron related events in fear of the fans harassing them and reading how the show was originally planned but the original show runner left in season 7 and how everything rabidly went downhill from there up until now, I watch Voltron in 2023 after deciding to watch it myself and it gives me 2010s nostalgia vibes also i became a Klance shipper

[@barbariskakl6106]

Kinda sad to see my boy Lance overshadowed and called just a "comic relief", which is partially true, but he DID get some good moments and character development in early seasons before getting completely exposed to just being Alluras love interest. In season 1 we get a moment of him being the most homesick person in the crew, and we realise that we is not all "laughs and jokes", but also has his own internal tragedies. This is one of the few times he appears sad and he is unwilling to let his friends witness it, and just tries to hide it by his unserious behaviour. Also, at first he is shown as a self-centered character, but them we get him LITERALLY almost SACRIFICING his own life for a man he barely knew (Coran). In season 2 we get a moment of Lance thinking "Maybe I don't have a thing. Maybe I'm just a seventh wheel" and finding his worth in being the team's sharp-shooter. In season 3 we get HIM wanting to STEP ASIDE because he was feeling that useless to the team and getting his biggest character development in the series by taking the role of the leader's (Keith) right-hand man and showing his serious side.

[@tomnook6751]

Shipping destroys everything, In movies and series it already bad, but it especially bad if it done to actually people with actual live

[@carina_rainyday]

I absolutely love your point of vue on the Klance fandom, it’s so true lmao, and I’m part of it 😂 (btw so happy you’re finally doing Voltron)

[@Theokal3]

personally I watched the show to the end, but the point where it started losing me was around the season 6 finale. I absolutely *hated* how they handled Lothor turning back to evil; they had spent several episodes with him as an apparent genuine ally and making likable , then suddenly with little to no foreshadowing he was turned back into a bad guy, and it felt sooo forced. It honestly kinda felt like the writers were thinking "CRAP! We already killed off Zarkon and solved most plot threads, what do we do? Quick, let's just make Lothor evil after all, that way we can have a final season villain AND break his ship tease with Adora so this can make way for Keith!" The seasons after that still had some good stuff, but they mostly lost the charm of previous ones and felt kinda overly bleak and directionless, with main villains being lackluster or annoyingly petty. And like most people, I felt really disappointed by the finale.

[@TevyaSmolka]

I personally like voltron Netflix series it was really awesome and tons of fun.

[@pancakestrouble2429]

I’m so scared of clicking play here because even as a fan from 2021-present i get such anxiety from remembering the people who made fun of me and all the drama and heartbreak i saw happen in these two years. Can’t imagine what it must have been like being a fan back during the show’s runtime.

[@spacecat8511]

Shiro and Allura deserved so, so much better. Also the only interesting things to come out of s3-6 were Lotor and his team… … … …and Jiro. You can pry my clone son from my cold bony dead hands. How little compassion he got from the writing was truly horrifying, nevermind he actually HAD the potential for a really clever character arch that Also reinforced the first two seasons’ core themes, strengthened Shiro’s Arch, and really show the others Struggling But Making Due with him. All while arguably having his own strengths that would have complimented Allura and Shiro as leaders. Listen. The s1&2 team should’ve been the final team after they were allowed to struggle for like, a season or half a season. Leaving Takashi!Shiro out for so long was…poor writing but also EP Fuckery ‘cause they hated his popularity while DW recognized it. *Nevermind Shiro Is Literally The Inciting Incident. Voltron Looks Like Shiro. Shiro Has The Voltron V as a SCAR ON HIS FACE* Imagine also if Allura’s “heart of voltron” motif also got Actually Explored beyond the EPs insisting she be literally used as a fainting battery-nothing can go wrong here at all nOPE!!! (And have Jiro actually to commiserate with for feeling like they’d both rather be boots on the ground DESPITE how their strengths lie as diplomats and commanders and strategists!! While Shiro as a battle captain compliments Allura’s strengths!! It could’ve been a proper leadership trio of traumatized young adults who GOT eachother!! -shaddup about that word of god that’s literally only in random interviews so many writers and animators and the cast loved that framing- ) …hah. But this version will only ever exist in a fanfic I’ve only half written and not actually thrown onto ao3

[@kickassdojo3238]

The way millenials talk about turning on the tv on 9/11 is how I talk about my time in the Voltron fandom. "I remember where I was sitting, what I was wearing and what I was doing when the 2017 Studio Mir leaks happened, the horror as the 'blackmail' begun" That shit was my 9/11

[@lyannastarkweather]

The Blackmail incident was a wild day to be on Tumblr.

[@KariIzumi1]

Speaking as a millennial who was old enough to remember 9/11 clearly....yeah, it's a great comparison

[@thegamingkaiser2874]

Oh man, this video brings back memories. I was introduced to Voltron at a young age by my father and his box set collection of dvds of both the original Voltron series, the complete box set of Vehicle Voltron, and his old Voltron action figures from when he was a kid. We both loved watching Voltron. From that early CGI adaptation that was Voltron: The Third Dimension, to Voltron Force when it was still airing. So when a well animated Voltron Netflix series came out, we were hooked! We would binge the episodes religiously after he got home from his community college classes, and we would have a great time just watching, theorizing, and anticipating what would come next. But the last few batches of episodes were a noticeable downgrade, to say the least. We would talk about how the fall of Zarkon's empire would lead to a fierce power struggle, and that the time skip would be a perfect opportunity to introduce the Drule Empire as the ultimate evil successor to Zarkon's regime, and that the plot thread of a chunk of metal that was used to create the lions was just floating out there would have been a perfect opportunity to introduce Vehicle Voltron as the new defender. But what we got was... that. Me and my father still talk about that series on occasion to this day. Trying to pin down just where in the story the plot started to unravel. We have concluded that it was the start of season three where the seams were tested, only to quickly end up failing. But that's after we talk about what would have been far better for the story. We still have fun reminiscing over and watching the first two seasons from time to time, but the rest of it just falls short for us. At least we had the fun of watching it. Thank you for making this in-depth video essay that I will cite the next time me and my father are driving on a quiet road at night.

[@Swiftstart]

the awkward moment when i was one of the 3 people who shipped Allura and Lance from season 1 and only talked to people in my tiny niche who were all chill with whatever ship. So I didn't understand why everyone was so angry and then i opened the big fandom door and looked inside and saw hell.

[@OmegaOutoto]

i'm really glad i stopped watching after season 2 now. i managed to dodge all that drama and just watch a fun little show my older sister recommended to me. she grew up with the o.g. show and was like 'let me show you the newer cooler version.' i didn't even know there were more seasons until after the last season when everyone well and truly lost their minds. my sister didn't know either; season 2 had already wrapped when we watched it, and it felt like an good ending to the show, so we both just moved on to the next hot thing.

[@stickthelanding4785]

I only got like four episodes in but stopped for some reason only to find out about the FNDM and the ending like a couple years later.

[@NinaMarieNPianoKeys]

I tried to get into it, but the toxic fandom and the spoilers prevented it for me so I dropped out instantly.

[@stickthelanding4785]

@@NinaMarieNPianoKeys I didn’t even see the FNDM when starting but I just couldn’t get hooked

[@ladyviren]

The backlash of Voltron shipping still persists to this day. For example w genshin shipping, I’ve seen many openly state that bec of vld they are more harsh about shipping. Borderline puritans (even tho they still push their preferred ship as being better). In short post vld shipping culture has been an experience I loathe. Great video.

[@_.-._.-Y0K0-._.-._]

One thing I remember about this show is at some point I was like "wtf are the writers thinking", then there was an episode à la Ember Island Play where they had to put on a show with bigger fights while sacrificing characterization bc the public loved it, so I now was feeling sorry for the writers, that thing looked like a cry for help

[@DeterminedPancakes]

Not the bullying of keith’s mullet😭

[@videostarlet]

As someone who'd pretty much watched every previous iteration of Voltron before this, I didn't drop because it was expected. This series is the only version where Shiro didn't die/disappear permanently. And I'm confident the only reason he came back is because his popularity exploded more than the writers and such expected.

[@haruhideki]

I was able to watch the show after it ended, so I avoided the fandom drama. I do think it sucks how some fandoms reputation might be more noticeable compared to the show itself especially since no show can decide how a fandom will act with how big it can get. I did have issues with the ending with how some story decisions ended up for characters, so it probably did keep it from being as fondly remembered for me compared to other series. Your comments about how they might have had issues knowing how to tie up loose ends and the overall direction of the show, I think is valid. I still had fun with it and enjoyed my time with the show.

[@ConvenientlyShapedUsername]

I don't have any war flashbacks because all I did was watch funny youtube videos/animatics and cute fanart, mostly klance lol- what a phenomenon I do remember wanting it to be canon so badly

[@JdeeGeekyGao]

I grew up on the 80's Voltron, I have the green and yellow lion dvd tins XDDD. So when this series happened, my friend asked me what happened and who were the favs back then. ngl Lotor and Keith were the fav among the girls on the playground. My mates reaction was "Well that hasn't changed then." so I decided to watch to see what happened, but after the series ended only.

[@SingingDragons11]

The “they where corrupted and it’s not their fault!” Is so weak. It just screams, that if this character becomes popular enough we will give them a half assed redemption ark and pretend it was the plan the whole time .

[@lobowolf1540]

"pidge is a girl, stuck in a guy's body" I'm ashamed of myself for laughing at that 😂

[@hazelnuiit]

It's so funny how this is the first video I've seen on voltron that there are actual sheith fans in the comment section talking about shipping sheith. And that's me saying that as a sheith shipper myself too lol. Before, it felt like sheith shippers were so scared to even be outside of the fandom on the internet cause of all the shit that happened with the other ship. You'd always see the other ship in the majority in the comment sections (which wasn't a bad thing as long as they weren't being pushy about it) but the sheith shippers would avoid even talking about it like some sort of psychological shadow... It feels like nature is healing. Voltron was still shit in the end, but parts of the fandom is healing at least. Also I genuinely wish we had the fandom culture that overseas voltron fans had. Asian voltron fandom had much better shipping etiquette and were more chill about it all I guess since they were more used to it. I really wonder what they thought about the domestic fandom while the fire was still lit in the dumpster.

[@LilyUnicorn]

As someone who morally objects to very way over adult teachers/instructors screwing their students, especially one they half raised from tweenhood. No. Hell no. Thats going from shipping to some handcuffs in the FBI. No.

[@saraayala7283]

I was so tempted to drop the series after seeing the shipping wars but then I’m like “why am I gonna let these idiots steal my joy?” I genuinely loved the show growing up every time a new season would come out. I would artistically rant about it to my mom. I really miss the series. I wish we got to know a bit more about the side characters. And of course more Keith!

[@lavender5583]

Me and my sisters like to joke, "Man, it's such a shame voltron was cancelled after season 2!" "OMG SUCH a shaaame!" lol

[@KokoWinter]

Still waiting on that MLB finale analysis!

[@tomnook6751]

Me too

[@dabadeedabadoo]

Sometimes I get such a strong nostalgic feeling when it comes to voltron, and want nothing more than to sit down and rewatch it. But any time I try to, it's like an involuntary response happens and suddenly my body is tense, my stomach is hurting, and I get actual anxiety. 😭 We had such a good thing, and it was absolutely destroyed and smashed to pieces because of..... shippers. I will never forgive that fandom.

[@campop12]

To be honest, the whole shipping thing really drove things to the worst side which actively made me avoid the fandom but I'd still would somehow get front row seats to whatever tomfoolery was going on at the moment, the show itself was honestly pretty good, my favorite was Keith and it had a lot of potential to become excellent... Until the writing was intervened by executive producers, and then it got worse, thanks to the terrible, terrible, terrible badly written romance. I'm so happy I headcanon Keith as aroace because I feel I won at the end.

[@doityourselfa]

voltron was one of my earliest fandoms and when i tell you it was an experience unlike any other. to say i stayed on the tame side of the fandom is a misnomer because there was no "tame" side in this fandom. a whole thesis could be written abt the unique circumstances that crafted this whole surreal experience. i'm glad it's over but i can't help but see history repeating itself every so often, but never to that scale.

[@damarisvazquez1053]

Voltron wasn't the first fandom I was in, but defintly one of the ones I was most invested in. As someone who first heard and started watching the show because of the massive popularity of klance on tumblr. I genuinely came to love the show. I even was a multishiper, so I never really got dragged onto THAT kind of drama. But I definetly was deeply scarred by everything surrounding the later development of the show, especially the ending. So much that in latter fandoms that I've been involved I always try to keep my distance in case the show gets ruined, particularly the ones of ongoing media.

[@aduckofsomesort]

Honestly I’m just surprised that somehow Lotor looked exactly like how I was imagining him. I had already peaced out of the series by that point.

[@Kitty-hf6vq]

This is the epicenter for why most of the ship wars today have obcessive fans making points about which ship will or not be canon, before this people didn't really care much

[@ezool18]

seasons 1 and 2 were definitely my favorites that i look back fondly on. seasons 3 and 4 were...alright. it was understandable that things were going to get muddled so i was fine with them. it was 5 and 6 that really felt like a slog to get through and at that point i was only watching just to see how the series planned to end the story. then season 7 happened and it just killed what little motivation i had left to stick around (among other things like the shit fandom). to this day i've yet to actually watch season 8 but based on how i know it ends i couldn't care less lol

[@sarahpepper6206]

I’m just so glad you recognise how batshit crazy the klance shippers were 😂 I remember someone trying to doxx me on tumblr bc I wrote sheith fic. They didn’t do very well so they just told me to kms instead; and other klance shippers defended them when I posted about it

[@AyaVyse]

SAME. It's wild how it happened to so many people.

[@Gamerqueenfr]

I was a klance shipper!! I still think they are cute together but the fandom ruined it!!!! Ive been WAITING for you to make a video about Voltron!!!

[@BittersweetPrimadonna]

Allora is one of the many reasons I should've realized that I wasn't straight way sooner than I did…and Pidge XD

[@RooftopRose079]

Honestly I dropped out around the end of season 3/beginning of season 4 but mostly because they decided to shoehorn Shiro back into the story. I actually liked the lion switch up. Keith’s raise to reluctant-leader had been building for some time, Lance gaining confidence and being more a supportive friend to Keith than a joking rival? Friend? Frenemy? Frival? (I don’t have a clue what that relationship was supposed to be) and Allura being given one thing new to work with out of the literal blue were all interesting spins I was invested in. Then they brought Shiro back into the plot, he went back to Black, Keith left the team , Lance devolved to being pushed aside constantly, so I turned the show off and never went back.

[@ceve]

Just so you know, Shiro later steps down again and Keith regains the leadership.

[@BabyGirlTiny]

If you liked the lion switch then you can’t claim the show went downhill after season 3/4. Because the lion switch made absolutely no sense. At all. It just means that you didn’t like shiro and that’s about it

[@RooftopRose079]

​@@BabyGirlTiny First of all I didn't "claim the show went downhill after season 3/4" YOU just made that claim, not me. Nowhere did I say that and if you're going to argue something you can't do it by stating someone said something that they did not say, plus you did so in print. Hint: That's called Libel, and you might want to avoid doing so in the future if you don't want to get into trouble. Allow me to correct you, I said: "I dropped out around the end of season 3/beginning of season 4" and I did so because I ceased liking the show; a sensible reaction any sane person would make if they stopped enjoying something. Second of all the Lion Switch doesn't have to make sense, neither one of us had a say in it happening. I'm sorry your life and identity were allegedly so centered around a children's cartoon that the writers' decisions completely upended the stability of your world but that is not MY problem to deal with it is YOURS. I found it an interesting decision and then lost that interest when they backtracked on that decision. Lastly, " just means that you didn’t like shiro and that’s about it". Sorry to break this to you sweetie but, you are not a mind reader and have no idea how I feel about this one cartoon character. Again, you are putting words in my mouth that I did not even say. For all you know, he's my favorite character. I implore you to work on your debate skills if your only method is making up claims and insisting other people made them. I will make this claim though: YOU'RE LYING (LION).

[@ShizuruRavenRobin026]

I still remember how bad the shipping wars were for Voltron I remember after season 7 ended how a lot of the KL fans wanted to get the show IP and reboot the show as a type of cyberpunk space show and have their be cannon I admit there were some sheith shipper at the end of vld that all so took things to far with some of their own shippers Alliance had good set up but the way it was done in the show just made Lance seem like a rebound Lotrua I think it was originally going to be in game with Alluraand lotor I think lotor was going to come back and get a mini redemption or between season 7 and 8 because looking back at season 8 it just seemed highly edited And I've noticed I wasn't the only one who felt that The last season just felt like they cropped and changed things and put other characters over other characters and just didn't make sense Heith was a good ship I still love it they had good friendship that even got call backs later on in the paster few season I'm ok with Keith x allura not happing if you want to see that just watch all the other vld shows XD Place should have happened for Lance in kind adds up if u look back at the show again But I'm going to be honest I wouldn't be watch Voltron if someone paid me the ending just ruins it completely and not even ending just the last two seasons I wouldn't wish watching Voltron on my worst enemy 😂 Acxa x Keith was something that all the fans agree they didn't want because I don't know where it seems like they wanted to set up the two of them being together even though they had only met three times and during the first time they met Keith thought acxa was a guy and I'm not saying Keith can like men he can like who ever he wants but their ship wouldn't have add up I remember acxa va said it was something they were actually planning to do in season 8 but saw her friends reacted to it and decided to cut it from the show 😅

[@Lovez0DA]

As someone who was in the fandom during the whole drama stuff, and as a multishipper with one of his comfort ships being klance, I adored the door gag, it made me cackle. Because you're right, certain people exaggerated SO MUCH over those two fictional boys to the point where they harmed REAL people. They filled the fandom with hate, and it spread outside of the fandom spaces to the creators, the crew, the VA's... Like we all could've just collectively enjoyed our blorbos in the comfort of our fanpages wether or not they were canon but NOOOO

[@freshcupofangst]

YESS NEGATIVELEGEND VOLTRON VIDEO THIS IS ALL I'VE EVER WANTED

[@ViktorErikFade]

I LOVED Voltron when it first came out. I was bed ridden watching Netflix when I found it watching anime after my ear surgery. To my dismay it felt like the more they shipped Keith and Lance the more down hill the show went. I really hate that pairing, nothing good has come of people aggressively shipping Voltron characters together

[@shadowforce4]

As someone who watched the original show and then the nickelodeon sequel I wasn't surprised about the lion switch up. If anything I was confused who Shiro was since Keith was the original pilot of the black lion.

[@BabyGirlTiny]

I as shiro not in those? Or was his name Ryou

[@quirkyqwerty2840]

I remember watching season 1 using some. Uh. Open ocean sources? And I really liked it. It took some time for season 2 to arrive on shore, and I mostly forgot about the show. Given the huge glut of Klance on ao3, I thought that there wasn't much interesting things happen, and a source I respected said that most of the team-buildings aspects that I liked in season 1 was swapped for singular character episodes at the risk of non-focus characters, so I decided to hit the metaphoric road on the show. Coming back now, it feels like hearing a town you've lived in fell apart. The fandom's actions, the pressure on creatives, executive meddling with the length of the story, it's just a bitter situation. But hey! Thanks to your video, I get to learn what happens after I left town without actually getting involved again, which is a win for me.

[@shycat2167]

Okay now hold on like take is still valid & I totally agree but- I felt like the corruption was more implied to be a corruption of logic or lapse in judgment kind of thing where as Zarkon found motives to become big evil bad guy, through the fact he couldn’t reason that his planet being destroyed and his wife’s amnesia crap wasn’t like a malicious attack by the other paladins and was kind of his fault. -or at least that’s how I saw it