Everyday I wake up and miss my princess
queen and the bad dog 😈⛓️
re: https://www.tumblr.com/nocandnc/691355663975301120/except?source=share Almost six years alter, and I will still always agree with you about VLD, Noc. *Raises a toast*
(Oh, and uh, thanks for the fanfic illustration you did for me all those years ago)
Cheers dchan87!! I've been getting some new traffic on my Kallura art lately (why on earth??) so I figured I'd better get to answering this!
It really warms my heart to know you and others still think about VLD in some capacity after all this time, even if it's just to complain ^^;; Kallura was the reason I joined Tumblr after all (for better or worse lol) so I can safely say I wouldn't be the same person without it.
Thank you for writing the wonderful fic I had the pleasure of illustrating, and thanks to all the wonderful fandom mutuals I've met before and since then! Many have moved on since then, but I still remember our times together fondly.
What are your thoughts on the live action Voltron movie? Personally, I'm not super excited for it for a bunch of reasons. Not even my love for Henry Cavill will get me to change my mind.
Great question!
I gotta say, I had zero interest until Henry Cavill was announced. I still can’t really see it actually getting made though.
If it actually gets made, I expect that I won’t be the target audience. While I enjoy the DotU story, I’m much more into Vehicle Voltron. Lion Voltron relies upon some tropes that were fine for the times, but that I think are too played out by now. If it were a tv series, then the story would have time to breathe and to develop characters, so the tropes would be less annoying to me (again I won’t be target audience, maybe other people would enjoy it just fine). Not gonna get that kinda development for a large cast in a film. It’s not like they have the luxury of the MCU.
So I expect the film to be focused on Keith and will probably aim for nostalgia and try to be edgy for any older audience. The story would be simplified to make it work in a film. Probably gonna feel hollow. In a series, you have time to develop more than one character. The story might well be decent, but it won’t have the depth (such as it was) of the series. It’s totally gonna be the Keith show.
I don’t expect them to try for a younger (child/yourh) audience, because no producer is going to front the money for that. The IP is too old for today’s child/youth audience in the US. They could go youth if they went for a Power Rangers vibe (which would be easy to do because Voltron is cut from the sentai cloth). I doubt that will happen.
Maybe they can do “action dude assembles a heist team” kinda vibe. They need to make sure that the CG doesn’t suck, because if it does then that will sink any future hopes for the IP.
Anyway, I hope to be surprised, but I can think of only a few directors who could do something worthwhile and interesting with the IP, and they are all very busy being awesome and in demand. Thus, my expectations are low.
The movie is at the point where it will be made because it has passed several milestones that none of the other attempts at a Voltron movie had.
Sets are being built as we speak, and there is a targeted filming date. None of the other attempts made it to casting, let alone set building.
Set building (verified by Australian film industry members noting that Voltron has called for so many set builders other productions have needed to recruit outside their usual circles to deal with the shortage of manpower) is something tangible in a way that none of the other productions have reached. If you're building sets, making props, and casting more than just the lead, you're investing in something that will result in a big loss if you don't produce a product. So I can safely say that with set milestones and a set filming date, the film will be made for a possible 2026 release.
As for the plot of the movie, hoo boy. Bob Koplar, executive producer of the film, has claimed at VoltCon 2023 that he didn't want to use ANY of the existing names from the original show. Whether you believe his explanation that he's doing so to give the writers more freedom, or like me you suspect he would memory wipe Legendary Defender from the entire internet Men in Black style if he could, it's not going to be a 1:1 of Defenders of the Universe, and will likely by his decree have nothing in common with Legendary Defender.
I still maintain my theory that the movie will be an Earth invasion film that will have Henry Cavill as the senior military man commanding a new team of Robot Lion pilots against the Drule (no word on who yet, but the rumor is Liev Schreiber, who played Ray Donovan, will be the main villain) with a tone likely more similar to Dancougar or Combattler V than Voltron. There may be references to a previous group of lion pilots, but they won't appear.
Also, between Henry Cavill, Daniel Quinn-Toye, and Liev Schreiber, I expect the tone to be VERY different from VLD, with more of a focus on the guys in the audience.
Black & White
Amazon MGM Voltron has Henry Cavill!
$5 says he's playing Commander Hawkins.
I love the idea of Allura wielding her father’s sword even though I know her Paladin weapon is the chain whip (which is pretty badass anyway).
The first time I met up with a friend that we’ve known each other for six years was in SG, and this was a gift from her. Just suddenly felt like time had really gone by too fast…🌸💖✨
This is depressing does anyone else find this depressing
We have an actor for Amazon MGM’s Voltron!
He is described as a newcomer, and interestingly, Tom Holland’s understudy. The 21 year old Daniel Quinn-Toye playing the lead, who will NOT be named Keith according to VoltCon 2023.
alt versions bc im feeling silly
Why did blowing up the Castle in the rift cause Voltron (outside the rift) to lose three years... why emphasize three years of a time gap and then use Bob in the Feud to teleport the paladins across space to skip the expected 1 year journey to get to earth.....
keith
He won’t styling even if he grows his hair.
that gifset made me think but ‘are we really even friends’ would actually be something keith thinks considering he spend last 2+ years with krolia and before that with BoM with minimal contact with the team like?
or do yall consider people you havent talked with for more than 2 years your friends? Jus saying
Tbh, I understood where Keith was coming from, too??
It’s not even just the time spent apart. The writers didn’t really do a good job making me believe that the Paladins were super close. Yes, they’d fight and sacrifice for each other in battle; that’s how a combat unit survives. Yes, they’ve had some fun times together.
But there are some hallmarks of really close friendships - the kinds that easily endure years of absence - that the Paladins just never hit in my eyes. (At least, not all of the Paladins together. Maybe subgroups.) Really tight friends know your quirks. They know how you tend to think, because you’ve been together through some shit and have had some deep, personal conversations. They can’t read your mind, but they can guess your motives to their general neighborhood and proceed from there.
Pretty much all of the paladins other than Shiro have repeatedly mischaracterized and wildly misinterpreted Keith’s motives. After spending months, if not years, together on this mission, they still don’t seem to know how he ticks. Keith can be withdrawn, yeah, but you’d think there would have been more progress after so long. It makes sense Keith would characterize their relationship as “just a bunch of people thrown together by coincidence” when he’s so often misunderstood.
Good friends also recognize when they’ve gone too far and apologize or - if this is difficult for them - at least express guilt or try to make up for the error. This is another thing that just never seems to happen, particularly where Keith is concerned. The VLD writers have a habit of creating these interpersonal conflicts (good) and then never really resolving them (bad). Lance, in particular, often accuses Keith of selfishness or cowardice, and I can’t remember a single instance of him ever apologizing or even showing remorse. Yeah, you can let some stuff go as “water under the bridge”, but how much?
I dunno. It’s terrible, but I kind of anxious-laughed at Keith’s “Are we even friends?” line, because I felt it was skirting uncomfortably close to the truth. I think the writers meant for the Paladins to have a deep, familial, platonically intimate bond, but that’s not something I think they executed on successfully. I don’t know if it was because of outside sources demanding more robot fights and fewer conversations or what, but for me, a lot of the Paladins’ friendship has been all tell, no show.
Because when Keith demanded to know if they were really even friends, I didn’t think he was entirely wrong to do so.
All of this. Lemmie repeat for the indignant viewers in the back: ALL OF THIS.
Let me tell you what did it for me: Keith is a young man who understands priorities. Allura is captured by the Galra? He askes the uncomfortable but necessary question, “Maybe we shouldn’t get her back.” Pidge wants to leave the team? Keith voices the harsh but necessary truth, “You are putting the lives of two people over everyone else in the universe.” Hunk wants to abandon the Galra in the belly of the weblum? Keith is valiant, “We’re paladins of Voltron, we help anyone in need.”
And never–I emphatically repeat NEVER–has he been recognized for his brilliant rationalization. Never has he complained that the others (save, naturally, for Shiro) have not recognized that.
But what absolutely brought my skepticism of this “found family” theme to the fore for me was this scene:
Keith is going off doing good work and he is PUNISHED for it. And what makes it worse is that Pidge leaves a couple days later for who knows how long exclusively to find her brother i.e. not directly benefit their missive in any way and the whole team is like, “Yes, of course, take the Green Lion that may or may not be stolen on your excursion! Please, by all means, leave for days at a time which was much shorter than when Keith was away! We won’t need to form Voltron at all! Take a selfie!”
This is nothing short of unfair. The paladins have treated Keith unfairly. They pushed him off of Team Voltron. And then Lance, I love him to death but he’s a dick, has the audacity to say that Keith left and he should leave again.
(Just–UGH–that is just a straight up cruel thing to say.)
They have ALWAYS fought him on his decisions: at times it feels as though they fight against him just for the sake of fighting against him. Yeah, he was wrong a couple times (the entire episode circumventing Tharserix comes to mind), but that’s human. He’s grieving. He’s figuring out how to fill the vacuum Shiro left behind.
Keith and the paladins are not friends.
When Keith yelled, “Are we really friends?” @allawander, I share your sentiments completely. He’s coming from a place of truth.
(Also note: Keith has only ever been Black Paladin for Shiro’s sake, in life or in death. Even in season 7–perhaps, especially in season 7–that has not changed. Sometimes it feels like he’s fighting because its right first and for Shiro’s sake second.)