Reflection and Analysis

Voltron: Legendary Defender - Canon Fact: Shiro's NOT Twenty-Five

This is a follow up to Character Ages.

In that particular reflection, I brought up how a fan attempted to get the staff on video confirming that Pidge was fourteen, Shiro was twenty-five, and the others were older teens. However, the staff actually didn't say yes, that this was the canon characters ages, and told the fan these numbers were a safety zone. Despite this, Shiro and Pidge's ages are treated as if they are confirmed on the Voltron wiki, when the only thing confirmed is the fact Shiro is an adult, but the others are not.

To be specific, said confirmation has been out since July 13, 2016, when the first comic to the series was released.

How do I know?

On Amazon, there is a preview for the comic, and the summary for the comic says "five unsuspecting teenagers, transported from Earth into the middle of a sprawling intergalactic war, become pilots for five robotic lions in the battle to protect the universe from evil. Only through the true power of teamwork can they unite to form the mighty warrior known as Voltron." This means everybody else can confirm this information as well, and yes, the comics do count as canon material. This is also a part of the second and third comics, with the forth not yet released.

What's really ironic about the situation is that the video which supposedly confirmed that Shiro was twenty-five is no longer available for public view, and seems to either be deleted, or more likely only available for those allowed to view said account. Even more ironic, the amusement the staff showed had nothing to do with, as supporters of the fan who posted the video said, the fact those telling her that Shiro wasn't twenty-five were wrong. In fact, it didn't have to do with the fact she took "safety zone" as yes like I thought, though that was part of it.

It had to do with the fact confirmation was already out that Shiro wasn't a teen, in comic book form. In fact, a special addition of said comic was on sale at Comic on. They gave out these comics to those who got to ask question, and announced that the comic would be available, and the writers of the comic were there to sign said comics as well. Said fan didn't even bother to look up information on the comic before coming to them with the question. Admittedly though, I didn't check either, as I plan on getting the comics in their graphic novel format come December, but on the other hand I also expected the information to be confirmed there, and for the fans video to be debunked, as I was under the impression the staff already confirmed they'd turned all of the Paladin's into teenagers for this series.

What though can one learn about this?

First, never, ever take something that's as vague as "safety zone" as yes. Don't ever use a video like this as a valid legit source either, because contrary to what a few people have said, it is not a valid source unless they said yes. No, having an actual age is not better than having no age, as wiki's are supposed to contain canon facts, not fan conjecture.

Second, don't put on rose colored glasses in regards to fandom, only hearing what you want to hear. That video the fan posted wasn't a victory, but an embarrassment, as it showed her not listening to what people told her, taking other peoples words out of context. Hands down I don't hate her for said video, but I did feel quite embarrassed for her when I first saw the video, knowing full well that it would turn out later on she was incorrect, and jumping to conclusions.

More importantly, I feel free now to refer to Shiro as nineteen in my fanfics again, although I'll need to add a note at the beginning of my stories. I'm also a lot less open to people writing him as an older guy, due to the fact confirmation has been out since before the video launched, but also because the staff dropped something, somewhere, that they were all in their teens before the series launched, but certain fans didn't want to believe them simply because they weren't able to suspend their disbelief in ways anyone familiar with the sci-fi genre does.

And...

Eighteen to nineteen is a very far cry from twenty-five. That's six years!