Reflection and Analysis

VLD: Allura's Romance Stinks (10/7/21)

Today I was looking through the examples on the "Stalker With A Crush/Anime & Manga" and I came across the following.

"Prince Lotor to Princess Allura in Voltron, the original GoLion (where they were Sincline and Fala), and both American Sequel Series, Voltron: The Third Dimension and Voltron Force, while adverted in the Continuity Reboot Voltron: Legendary Defender as he shows no obsession towards her."

I want to bring up the fact the trope being adverted as mentioned actually isn't a good thing, as it switches things around to where Allura is crushing on the person who's known to have stalked her in other series, something the other Allura would never have done, yet it makes sense given her a false impression of himself.

The trouble is, she basically rebounds to Lance who is an emotionally abusive boyfriend who thinks of her as a trophy rather than a true love interest.

I mean, we start off with the mice guilt tripping her into dating Lance, a blush which can actually be interpreted since she doesn't know they're siblings as her thinking Lance and his sister are a cute couple. She then agrees to a date that she doesn't realize is a date, is guilt tripped by Lance's family even more and then has to deal with Lance telling her he'll give her what she is afraid of losing, family before kissing her, not once noticing she is uncomfortable.

He then puts his feelings above hers when she brings up the fact she is frustrated they're not finding the Atlean's by saying her being hurt in fact hurts him, which makes her feel guilty for having any negative feelings, before telling her that the reason he loves her is because she is hurting and dealing with it. Later, he takes advantage of the fact she's been mind raped by the shadow spirit to get her to snuggle, but...

Effectively, her giving her life up to save the world comes after all of this, but people around her have effectively told her she's not allowed to not love Lance and she's expected to be with him.

And this is the POC version of Allura people, whereas the white version never got this kind of crap.

Well, there might have been something in the comics as I'm not as familiar with them, but more often than not white Allura had more agency than POC Allura and it is most certainly messed up, but it's why VLD still makes me angry and it's been almost five years since VLD ended.

Then there's the fans, like the ones who wanted their LGBT ship with Keith insisting that should have been the route despite there being clear cut evidence that Lance is heterosexual and Shiro being in an authority figure position to Keith in multiple ways that would have made this inappropriate for a children's show. There are even fans who claim Lance is somehow a victim because he didn't get Allura, but...

Doesn't that last one just continue to feed this idea that women are supposed to make the men happy even if they aren't, which...

I've watched the R. Kelly documentaries.

You know, the rapper who was just recently convicted of sex trafficking.

After watching those documentaries, I am unable to support pairing Allura with Lotor or Lance in any incarnation or any universe because of what happened to POC Allura is in my mind exactly what was going on with R. Kelly.

Sure, there wasn't sex involved, but that message that a Black woman should put her man's happiness before her own and even the message that she's worthless unless she has a man is there in Allura's character. It's this exact message and the messages which go along with it that gave R. Kelly so much power for crying out loud!

Yet, people continue to not recognize just how toxic Lance actually was during the last few seasons because apparently, like R. Kelly, he's a victim and because POC men are so victimized the POC woman has to suffer. The same can be said for Aang/Katara, which is another pairing which I find triggering due to the fact it perpetuates harmful messages for women of color.

Sure, continue shipping those ships if you want, but do realize that message is right there in the narrative – that women of color are "less than" everybody else, that they should put their happiness before everybody else. It's why when AtLA gets a live action adaption I do hope that Aang/Katara gets nixed or Aang has a major ah-ha moment, though in truth it would be easier to just have no shiping as I see there being fans who might complain because certain asspects of Aang's character is no longer there.