November 30, 2020

DreamWorks Queerbaiting of Voltron: Legendary Defender

November 30, 2020/ Desirea Caballero

DreamWorks, Netflix series, Voltron: Legendary Defender is the epitome of queer-baiting in a television series, and here’s why.

[Spoiler Warning for the whole series]

There is much to praise about the VLD series. However, the last two seasons are absolute garbage, as almost everyone knows. While I love the series and have personally dealt with the poor and unplanned writing of seasons seven and eight, I would never suggest that the whole series was good because that’s just a blatant lie.

VLD starts diving halfway through the series; the writing was sloppy and clearly wasn’t thought out properly. However, seasons five and six were still tolerable and enjoyable at times. But from as early as VLD season two, the DreamWorks television show had started pushing a gay agenda.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying ‘gay agenda’ in a bad way. I was 100% supportive of them marketing towards the LGBTQ+ community and supplying representation for them, but that’s just the problem; they didn’t represent anything.

The Queer-baiting of Adashi

The show’s marketing team and executive producers released thumbnails for the show’s gay ships multiple times. One being between Lance, the Voltron sharpshooter and Keith, the lone wolf of the group. I’ll touch more on that whole atrocity in a moment.

Another instance, the main one, was Shiro, the Voltron team leader, being marketed as gay while announcing season seven of VLD. While this was great, it didn’t live up to all of the hype. They’d even released a trailer that showed Adam, Shiro’s fiance, back on earth.

However, the LGBTQ+ community was sorely let down when the only scene supplied in VLD was one minute (which could be platonic, that’s how bad it was), followed by a 15-second clip of Shiro mourning at Adam’s plaque on the wall in dedication to his sacrifice. Yes, you read correctly, sacrifice; they killed him off after not even supplying an adequate scene between the two.

I’m not saying that VLD should have let Adam live, especially if his death was essential to building Shiro as a character. However, when so blatantly marketed as a central plot point in the show, it had no substance and could be brushed off as inconsequential.

There is no doubt in my mind that their marketing tactic was at least leaning towards queerbaiting, because yes, they did give us a scene between the two. But it also wasn’t adequate to be considered ‘representation’ in the eyes of the LGBTQ+ community.

Despite this, I’m not blaming the show’s creators. Joaquim Dos Santos, one of VLD’s creators, made a public apology on the show’s behalf. From the very beginning, the creator had intended to make VLD as inclusive as possible. Still, because of DreamWorks boundaries they’d set for shows, it had made it nearly impossible for the creators to continue on the path they’d started.

By the end of season eight, the whole LGBTQ+ fanbase of the show wasn’t expecting much for representation anymore, myself included. Which, honestly, was probably for the best since it was atrocious. Not only did the series push two characters together that had no build-up (yes, I’m talking about Allura and Lance, I’ll get into that too), but they tried to make one last feeble attempt at LGBTQ+ representation.

A Wedding or An Atrocity?

While the whole last season was an utter shitshow, I did enjoy the snapshots that ended off VLD. They showed all our favourite characters, a bit further in the future and how they had adapted after the war. It was heartwarming to see them happy after everything that had ensued, but of course, all good things must come to an end.

They showed Shiro’s snapshot into the future, during his wedding, as he got married to a man, which was nice, but it wasn’t anything special. Mostly because, once again, there was no build up in their relationship and us fans knew nothing about this random man one of our favourite characters was marrying.

While it was great to see the whole cast happy and thriving, that scene was just another punch in the gut, honestly.

Along with this poor excuse of representation in the series finale, I want to back up a bit and talk about my main bone to pick with VLD.

Misleading Klance Thumbnails and Poorly Written Allurance

So, if we look back at season two, when the show was still thriving and supplying the fans with a fantastic plot, we can see the signs of VLD’s creator’s leaning towards a relationship between Lance and Keith. There are many moments that fans have picked out as more than platonic banter. Along with that, the marketing team, once again, posted thumbnails that led everyone to believe that we would be getting the popular ship, Klance, confirmed in the coming season.

Paired with the thumbnails, Klance shippers were being interacted with and misled by official Netflix Twitter accounts. If you were to search ‘Klance’ on Netflix (I checked this myself), VLD shows up. That’s just how widespread the ship was.

Despite all the hype, Klance wasn’t canon by the end of the season and as the fans know now, it never was. That is one of the most blatant examples of queer-baiting I’ve ever seen, and it is enraging.

Not only was Klance never confirmed, but the show went in a completely different direction, ship wise, during season eight. Allura, the Voltron team’s princess (she’s literally a space princess that isn’t a snipe towards her) and Lance end up together at the beginning of the season.

However, even that doesn’t last long. There is no build-up to their relationship unless you count Allura snubbing Lance’s flirtation attempts for the seven seasons prior.

I certainly don’t.

They also end it horribly, having Allura unnecessarily sacrifice herself (sound familiar?) to end the war, which completely ruins Lance emotionally and destroys any confidence he’d been working towards for the past seven seasons. It set back both characters’ development that the series had built on for years, making almost all of the fans enraged. It wouldn’t have been so controversial in the fandom had the show not marketed towards Klance from as early as season two, only to go in a different direction. Which also started and ended poorly.

There was even a final scene during season eight between Lance and Keith that have a hint of queerbaiting in it, where Keith is comforting Lance regarding the sharpshooter’s worries on not being enough for Allura.

Even as a Klance shipper myself, I would’ve been supportive of Allurance had it been done adequately, but at that point in VLD, no one could expect anything adequate in the series. Had there been no queer-baiting, misrepresentation and poor writing, I may have ended the series satisfied.

Some fans don’t agree and say that people shouldn’t ridicule VLD because a popular ship wasn’t canon and that the show itself isn’t about the romance between characters, but rather their journeys. However, that argument can only be applicable if other romances between characters weren’t brought to light or marketed. But it isn’t, because not only did they have Allurance appear in VLD, but they also had a momentary relationship between Allura and Lotor, the son of the main antagonist Zarkon.

In the end, the whole show had its ups and downs, including throwing away the development of its main characters and any plot they had worked towards, but the queer-baiting is inexcusable. If you want to hear how else VLD failed, I recommend watching this video.

Dez

Bienvenidos! My name is Desirea, aka Dez. I am a 20-year-old Professional Writing student who has the heart and likes of a 10-year-old. As a Disney and Pixar fanatic, along with any kids movie that's not mediocre, my childish heart often fixates on animated characters. I frequently latch onto relationships that have not and never will be confirmed canon due to homophobic production studios and TERF writers. But alas, I let myself suffer anyways; this is precisely why I will be dragging said production studios and TERF writers in my articles.

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November 13, 2020

The Haunting and Subsequent Growth of Klaus Hargreeves

November 13, 2020/ Desirea Caballero

A dead father, addiction and the power to speak to the ghost of your dead brother. What could go wrong?

[Spoiler Warning for both seasons]

In The Umbrella Academy (so far only two seasons, season three has been announced), we are brought into the Hargreeve children’s lives. Forty-three children were born in 1989 on the same day to mothers who had not been pregnant before their births. There is a lot to say about this phenomenon, especially that all of these children had unimaginable powers. Reginald Hargreeves adopts seven of these children and forms a team of super-powered children. While I’d love to go into all of these characters and their unique powers, I will be focusing on one in particular that I believe had the most character growth within both seasons of The Umbrella Academy.

We meet Klaus Hargreeves, played by Robert Sheehan, in episode one; We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals. After 30 days of sobriety, Klaus is released from rehab. Of course, the eccentric and troubled man immediately purchases drugs once he is on the streets. Upon overdosing on the pre-purchased drugs and then being revived in an ambulance, Klaus found out that his father had died. The funeral brings all of the siblings back together after years of being apart and reflects how much of a black sheep Klaus is in a family full of other black sheep.

The same episode tells us one of the seven children Reginald had adopted had died years before, and Klaus’ superpower, or curse in his mind, is also revealed. He can communicate with the dead, and Ben, the sibling that had died, can speak with Klaus. Their relationship can be seen as comedic relief throughout the show.

Klaus has been struggling with his powers for many years, along with the trauma that came with Reginald’s poor parenting skills, such as locking young Klaus in a mausoleum for days as a punishment since he was at least eight. During these times, at 13, Klaus realized that drugs could repress his powers so that ghosts would no longer haunt his days and nights.

Throughout the first season, out of all of the siblings, Klaus had the most development. He reconnects with his siblings while battling with the throes of addiction. Klaus starts to accept his powers rather than repress them with drugs, especially after it got him kidnapped by Hazel and Cha-Cha, two time-travelling assassins, after a comedic towel dancing scene. He’d escaped the two and stole their time-travelling briefcase, jumping back in time and joining the Vietnam War. Klaus meets Dave, a fellow soldier, who he fell in love with. Dave was shot on the battlefield, and Klaus held him in his arms as he died, only returning to the present after Dave’s death, having spent 10 months in the war.

Near the end of season one, we see an emotional scene just after he momentarily dies during a rave, where he is seated in a barber chair, and Reginald is shaving his face. It was theorized before season two was released on Netflix that the act of shaving was a metaphor for Klaus getting clean and overcoming his addiction to both alcohol and opiates.

Come the second season the Hargreeve children are time-jumped to different times in the 1960s. Klaus arrived on February 11, 1960, having started a thriving cult, or in his words “an alternative spiritual community,” by 1963. He called his followers, ironically, destiny’s children—most of his mantra lyrics of songs that don’t exist yet.

Ben and Klaus’s discussion reveals that Klaus had been three years sober, from alcohol and opiates, before the third episode, Swedish Job. The episode goes over how Klaus returned to Dallas and tracked down Dave, his partner in season one, to try and prevent him from signing up for the war at all. However, it doesn’t go as planned, and a confused younger Dave punches Klaus—this causes Klaus to seek out alcohol as a coping mechanism, setting him back substantially.

While his addiction is once again relevant, and it seems like the show threw out all of his character growth from the past season, it does shine a light on how easily an addict can slip, no matter how far they’ve come.

Despite this slip-up, more of Klaus’ powers are revealed throughout the season, such as having a ghost, Ben, talk and move as him. Along with this, he can also conjure up a corporeal army of spirits. The end of the season shows this off very well as all the siblings come together to fight against outside forces and stop the world from ending. Again.

In the end, Klaus, despite his forthcomings, is a stronger character by the end of season two. He has come a long way from his traumatized past, and his powers have grown more than even he could understand—which is why I will stand by my claim that Klaus Hargreeves has grown the most out of all of The Umbrella Academy’s characters.

Dez

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October 27, 2020

A Plea in The Case of Draco Malfoy

October 27, 2020/ Desirea Caballero

To Redeem or Not To Redeem

If the choice came down to a willing and participating Death Eater or a tormented teenager who was forced to take the Dark Mark, who would you choose for a redemption arc?

While the decision seems obvious, J.K. Rowling believed that Severus Snape, an adult who made Harry’s life a living hell solely because of something that happened decades ago, was more deserving of being redeemed than Draco Malfoy, a teenager who was forced to: live with the Wizarding world’s equivalent of Hitler, take the Dark Mark and betray his school and friends to protect his family.

Draco Malfoy was pushed into so many corners throughout the Harry Potter series you would think he was trapped in a small box.

The Harry Potter fandom often blames Draco’s parents for not having the courage to separate themselves from the Death Eaters, but what were they supposed to do? Voldemort had returned, and they had no means of protection unless they displayed loyalty to their Lord. They were scared like many people would be when faced with that kind of situation.

Not only were the Malfoys scared for themselves, they were terrified for their only son. Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf whose loyalties lie with Voldemort, had a bad habit of attacking and turning children into werewolves. So had the Malfoys betrayed the Dark Lord, they could guess what Greyback could do to their son. As I stated in my last article, lycanthropy, confirmed by Rowling herself, is a metaphor for AIDS. By being a threat to Draco’s parents by possibly turning their son into a werewolf, Greyback could be insinuating something sinister.

So while they are cowardly and lack self-sacrifice throughout the series, it’s within their right. While it might not be beneficial to Draco having a normal childhood, which of the Hogwarts students in Harry Potter can honestly say they had a normal childhood?

However, it is my humble opinion that Draco is by far the most tormented side-character. It was stated in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that Draco could not produce a Patronus. This high-level spell can only be cast by thinking of your happiest memory. He is, however, well-versed in Occlumency, the ability to protect your mind and thoughts against external magic penetration. Draco, not having a happy enough memory to summon a Patronus but being scared and defensive enough to learn Occlumency, the magical art of mind protection, says a lot.

Not only is he personally tortured by Voldemort for something he didn’t even do, he was forced to torture others. This, in itself, can be a factor in Draco’s apparent depression.

With Draco’s depression brought to light, the one time he attempts to express his emotions, he is almost killed. Throughout his sixth-year, Draco was assigned to repair the Vanishing Cabinet so that Death Eaters could infiltrate Hogwarts. Had he not agreed to do this, he or his parents could have died, so while Draco felt guilty, he pushed through.

His sketchy and elusive actions caused Harry to be suspicious of him. When he finally breaks down in the sixth-floor boys’ bathroom, where Harry should have no access, he is cursed with Sectumsempra, a fatal spell. Harry had no idea what the effects were. The only information provided for this new spell was ‘for enemies,’ and Draco nearly died because of Harry’s rash decisions. Once again, suppressing Draco from venting out his perfectly normal emotions.

Despite Harry doing this, Draco risks his own life and well-being by not confirming Harry’s identity.

After the Golden Trio were captured by the Snatchers and Greyback in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, they were brought back to Malfoy Manor, Voldemort’s headquarters. Before they were caught, Hermione used the Stinging Jinx on Harry’s face to conceal his identity. Knowing if the Death Eaters could instantly confirm it was Harry, he would be killed on sight.

They needed to verify his identity before presenting him to their Lord. So with Draco going to school with Harry, he was the only one that could correctly identify him. Of course, he knew it was, in fact, Harry. Still, he denied the other boys’ identity in hopes of Voldemort’s defeat. So that the wizarding world had a chance.

This was a big step for Draco, especially growing up with parents that didn’t have the courage to be self-sacrificing for their own child, while he was for a boy who wouldn’t even be his friend. Simply because he knew that Harry was the Wizarding world’s only chance.

He was self-sacrificing even when he was in his most scared state, which really speaks to his character. If Draco was given a choice to have a secure and safe role on Harry’s side of the battle, I, without a doubt, think he would’ve taken it.

With all this said, I believe that Draco Malfoy was worthy of a redemption arc. Because not only did he have a shite childhood, but by the end of the series, he showed more courage than most of the adults in Harry Potter ever did.

Dez

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October 04, 2020

Why The Destruction of ‘Wolfstar’ Diminished J.K. Rowling’s Character Development Skills

October 04, 2020/ Desirea Caballero

J.K. Rowling single-handedly eradicated one of her best character relationship developments in the Harry Potter series, and here’s how she did it.

By now, the Harry Potter fandom knows not to expect much from the author. But throughout the making of her world-renowned book series, she threw more bludgers at the fans than even Victor Krum could dodge. With this said, it’s no surprise that she did it with one of her readers’ most anticipated ships, Wolfstar.

Remus Lupin, a professor at Hogwarts during Harry’s third year, suffers from lycanthropy, which Rowling herself reveals is an allegory for AIDS. Based on the story timeline, Remus and the Marauders (Peter Pettigrew, James Potter and Sirius Black) were in their early twenties when there was an AIDS outbreak in the gay men community. With this kind of correlation, it’s hard to think that Rowling was implying that Remus was completely straight. Bisexuality, while not commonly accepted in the LGBT+ community, suits Remus the best, especially considering that by the end of the series, he was married and had a child with Nymphadora Tonks. However, their relationship had no structure. There was no build-up or connection until their marriage was announced in the seventh book, the entire series’s final book.

Rushed relationships are the bane of my entire existence, especially when Remus had a perfect potential partner since the third book of the series. Sirius Black, a pure-blood wizard, was disowned after defying his once-notable family’s beliefs and acting differently from the rest of his bigotted family. With that said, claiming that he’s gay solely because of this is a bit of a reach; however, that isn’t all there is to back up this claim. There is implied attraction in the third book when they reunite after Sirius is wrongly imprisoned for twelve years and finally escapes. Up until the fifth book, both Remus and Sirius are practically dancing around each other like two teenagers who can’t sort out their feelings. Many fans have theorized that the fourth book is when their relationship from their high school and young adult lives is rekindled. This is when Dumbledore orders Sirius to lay low at Remus’. Rowling wrote their interactions in a way that expressly implied that they were two socially inept men that had no idea how to express their feelings. So they simply stared at each other, constantly.

Even without the awkward staring, their relationship with one another is one of the most bonded and in sync I’ve ever seen. Of course, that can be explained, downplayed, as a pair of best friends. Still, anyone can see that their relationship can’t merely be platonic for how Rowling initially wrote them. Especially with Sirius devoting a whole year to becoming an Animagus to support Remus during the full moon transformations he goes through due to his lycanthropy.

But all good things must come to an end. So when the most painful death in the whole book series happens, Rowling entirely destroys the series’ strongest character relationship developments she’s been working on for three books. By killing off Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, not only does she take away one of the last connections Harry has to his parents, but she takes away Remus’ true love. I know for a fact that Sirius’ death is the only reason Remus ends up with Tonks at the end of the series. Which other fans of the series can also agree with. She doesn’t stop there either. Even when Remus gets this ‘happy’ ending with Tonks and their child, in the final Battle of Hogwarts, Rowling kills both of them, leaving their child an orphan like Harry. So not only did Remus not end up with who he was supposed to, but he suffered the same fate as the Potters, which he never wanted to do.

She obliterated both Sirius and Remus from building as characters both separately and together, practically throwing away any development she had been working towards. Sirius’ final scene was both heartbreaking and soul-crushing, while Remus’ was utterly abysmal. They didn’t get what they deserved, both of their deaths felt like a scapegoat Rowling used to avoid conclusions she no longer wanted for the series. It was an ill-conceived solution to something that didn’t need to be solved. This is why I believe J.K. Rowling eradicated one of her best character relationship developments in the Harry Potter series.

Dez

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The Analysis of Character

DreamWorks Queerbaiting of Voltron: Legendary Defender

DreamWorks, Netflix series, Voltron: Legendary Defender is the epitome of queer-baiting in a television series, and here’s why.

The Queer-baiting of Adashi

A Wedding or An Atrocity?

Misleading Klance Thumbnails and Poorly Written Allurance

Dez

The Haunting and Subsequent Growth of Klaus Hargreeves

A dead father, addiction and the power to speak to the ghost of your dead brother. What could go wrong?

Dez

A Plea in The Case of Draco Malfoy

To Redeem or Not To Redeem

If the choice came down to a willing and participating Death Eater or a tormented teenager who was forced to take the Dark Mark, who would you choose for a redemption arc?

Dez

Why The Destruction of ‘Wolfstar’ Diminished J.K. Rowling’s Character Development Skills

J.K. Rowling single-handedly eradicated one of her best character relationship developments in the Harry Potter series, and here’s how she did it.

Dez

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