Reflection and Analysis

VLD: Lance and Keith's Relationship

Quite a few Klance fans have argued since season one that their pairing will become canon. The first part of their argument stems from a supposed promise made by staff regarding LGBT representation, and the second stems from the fact certain members of the staff worked on Legend of Korra. Except, it's not going to become canon, never was intended to be canon.

I'll start with the Legend of Korra issue. Bryke are not involved with the series. While the producers appreciate the representation Korrasami represents, they're still not Bryke. They're also aware of the backlash Korrasami received, backlash I might add had nothing to do with the LGBT representation, but how the representation wasn't done right, yet was likely also just fanservice. Don't get me wrong. I don't dislike Korrasami, but having watched quite a few Anime with LGBT characters, what Bryke did was far from revolutionary.

On top of this, Legend of Korra was a sequel to an already existing series. Voltron is not a sequel to an already existing series, but a canon series which is getting a reboot. This actually makes adding LGBT representation harder, because the staff need to be careful with characters older fans have already come to love. Changing the orientation of a canon character or their canon relationships actually isn't a good thing in a series.

George Takei has some choice in an interview, "George Takei Sets Record Straight on Gay Sulu Comments: Star Trek Actor 'Delighted' with 'Daring Storytelling'."

"I hoped instead that Gene Roddenberry's original characters and their backgrounds would be respected. How exciting it would be instead if a new hero might be created, whose story could be fleshed out from scratch, rather than reinvented. To me, this would have been even more impactful. And while I am flattered that the character of Sulu apparently was selected as homage to me, this was never about me or what I wanted. It was about being true to Gene's vision and storytelling."

I'd actually liked the homage, but then again, at the time I was thinking this was better than trying to reinvent Kirk and Spock for fandom fanservice. I absolutely adore Takei, and love his quirky humor and wit. However, he's right. Thinking back, an even better homage would have been to not have Takei's character be LGBT, but a relative of the character, or even have his character raised by an LGBT couple. Yet, maybe also have a new hero to, but have Takei talk the character through their issues and coming out. Yeah, there's a better way to have made an impact, because now it's just homage.

This isn't to say that reinventing of a character doesn't happen somewhat in a reboot. There are though boundaries. Actually, the changes aren't really a reinventing of a character. The character we see, they're still true to the original vision for starters. Actual problems with the original series is fixed, and no, I'm not talking about the problem of not having LGBT representation. I'm talking about how back when Next Generation came out people believed a child genius would be perfect little angels, when in reality they have social issues. (*cough* Wesley Crusher *cough*), Or how all Vulcans only had white skin to start, but later were more diverse ethnically.

Which brings me to the second part, the promise of representation. That's was what I remember being promised, a diversity of characters within the staff's capabilities. While the series airs on Netflix, it is also a Dreamworks series but also rated Y7 with the FV addition. That puts a hitch on things, which is why Blaytz is likely the kind of representation we'll get. Or how Pidge is representation despite not being representation, a metaphor for transgender issues rather than being transgender.

Season One

After season one, as I noted, certain Klance fans argued that Klance would be canon, and some also argued it was already canon despite the fact it is still not, nor will likely ever be canon. However, some of the discussion made me feel ill. I was being told by Klance fans that my OTP, Kallura, had no chance of becoming canon because the staff of VLD would be progressive, but also cater to the popular pairing choices rather than focusing on bringing new life to an already existing franchise.