Reflection and Analysis

Voltron

So, if there was going to be an LGBT pairing within the Voltron series that was prominent, I honestly thought this would be the one.

First and foremost, the pairing does not involve reinventing a character rather than putting a new spin on an already existing character. Says Takei regarding the changing of a character he played into being gay in the reboot. "... 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."

Not that Shiro is "new character", and there is a slight dilemma now that I think of it with his counterpart Sven being in a romantic relationship with a female in the Voltron series although Shiro never was in GoLions, but Takei is right. It really shouldn't be already existing characters that are being reinvented to give representation of any kind, but this is a major issue. For those who don't know, Takei is the openly gay actor from the original series, but he never saw the character he played as being gay.

This isn't to say that some change isn't allowed. As he also said, "And while I am flattered that the character of Sulu apparently was selected as a homage to me, this was never about me of what I wanted. It was about being true to Gene's Vision and storytelling." The point is, there is a difference between reinventing a character, and reimagining a character.

Reimagining a character is like diversifying the ethnicities within Voltron because the original show was all Japanese people and an alien princess who was completely white. But that I mean GoLions, but even the original Voltron doesn't reflect the racial diversity that the real world happens to have. In the same regard, when Voltron made, all child geniuses in series were male, but were perfect. *cough* Weasley Crusher *cough* In reality, they have social issues, which each of the child geniuses in the series have, which is why Lance is the normal one.

A few argue that proper representation of the LGBTQ community is important, but the problem is the population typically ranges between only one to five percent. The times it skyrockets up to the higher percentages is actually when LGBTQ is seen as a fad, so you have heterosexual people saying they're LGBTQ not because that's how their sexual orientation really is, but because they want to be in.

However, newer statistics are also muddled by the fact asexuality is also included in that statistic now, but we all know that's not someone who is attracted to the same sex like the other LGBTQ statistics. In the recent poll, those who identified as asexual was just as much as those who normally identify as gay, bi or pan. The number of people who identify as LGBTQ is actually triple what it would be when it's not currently a historical trend.

While this may not seem important, this generation doesn't seem very understanding of the LGBTQ community, and I think this comes down to how LGBTQ is pushed in the media. Instead of looking for more representation, we should be looking for better representation. I mean, it's bad when in this day and age Korrasami is considered an achievement, when Japan was actually at that point back when Voltron was made. No, it was beyond it.

So unlike Star Trek where one can argue that a character could have been gay if the staff have been allowed that freedom of choice, Voltron was not that kind of series. The staff had creative freedom with their show in GoLions that we're honestly still imagining as possible. That in itself adds to the dilemma, as adding LGBT representation by reinventing already existing characters isn't "fixing" something wrong with the series that was caused by censorship issues of the time, or misunderstanding. It was the staff's choice not to take that route with the characters.

Pretty much this is why I'm not fond of Korrasami. I don't dislike the pairing, but do you know how many Anime were brought over here featuring LGBTQ characters that suddenly weren't? But then companies got flack for that, and it stopped, yet none of these series were ever really allowed to become mainstream, so people honestly think Korrasami is new and revolutionary, when it is not. For Voltron, LGBT representation isn't "new and revolutionary".

Which seems to go over certain fans heads, but something the staff is well aware of, but one of the reasons they are in a major dilemma. On one side, they want the representation, but on the other side they need a narrative that works with the story, but is important to the story. This is touched upon quite well in J. Bryan Lowder's article The Debate Over Sulu's Sexuality in Star Trek Beyond Should Set Off Your Red Alert."

So maybe it's not surprising that the one pairing I thought could possibly be LGBT ends up rather dashed with season four with how Matt hit on Allura. That's the pairing I thought stood a chance, if any.

But now that I think about it, we know Keith's with Allura in the original, like, always. It establishes his sexuality as heterosexual, but as Lowder's article says, sexuality shouldn't change simply by shifting to a new universe. No, seriously, Keith is in a heterosexual relationship in the previous series, but as Lowder says, saying that it can fluidly change down plays what LGBTQ people feel about themselves, but puts forth the idea that LGBTQ people can choose the way they are.

So, instead of being one of the possible AUs, it is actually one of the impossible ones. Which means ultimately pairing Keith off with a guy just isn't going to happen, as his sexuality has been established in a previous canon. But now that I think of it, the same goes for Shiro. While it was Ryo who fell in love with the girl in GoLions, it was still Shiro's counterpart in Voltron who fell in love with a girl there.

Yet there we have Klance fans arguing that their pairing was going to happen, but even claiming that they were queer baited by the staff regarding a character whose sexuality was established in a previous canon, and a guy who we've been hit over the head of in regards to liking girls. Even some of the Sheith fans argue that their pairing could possibly become canon, but again, we're talking a character whose sexuality was established in a previous canon. And truth be told, this goes for Allura and Coran.

Yes people, Coran actually does have an established sexuality in the previous canon even though he does come across as super gay. He has a wife and child, though it was comics only.

I think that's the biggest problem I've had with the push for LGBT representation in the series. It's not a brand new series. I personally liked how One Day at a Time (2017) handled it. They did reinvent the family, but guess what – because the characters were reinvented they don't have the same names. Because you know, they're not meant to be the same characters.

Doing that – that likely wouldn't have gone over well in the reboot of Voltron though.

What we'll get is characters like Blaytz who are unique and new.

But honestly, as I said, the biggest problem comes down to the fact these are previously established characters, not new ones.