I'm starting a series. You're all gonna have to deal with this until I get bored of it.
If it looks like a duck
And quacks like a duck
It's gay! (Part 1):
Klance (Voltron: Legendary Defender)
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Ah, Voltron. The show that ruined lives, friendships, and cause a giant mob of people to start sending death threats to innocent people who worked on the show all because they didn't smash two characters faces together. What a time.
I'm lucky enough to have not been a part of that uhm... unfortunate situation. You see, I am one of the sane fans of Voltron and I also didn't even have any social media at the time so even if I was angry, it's not like I even knew how to send a death threat.
But what's all the fuss about? Why's everyone so pissed cause their favs didn't share a passionate kiss in the series finale? Surely, the anger over such a simple thing is completely unjustified, right?
Yes, actually, sending death threats to artists and animators who had LITERALLY NOTHING to do with how the show was written, no, scratch that, sending death threats to ANYONE AT ALL is completely unjustified.
But minus the death threats, was the fandom justified in being pissed off at the way the relationship was handled? In my professional opinion... yes.
Klance:
Let's talk about Klance. The slash (mlm) ship between Keith Kogane and Lance McClain.
I could spend this time exploring the history of the characters all the way back to the 1984 show, but I already made a super long intro so I think we should just get right into the meat of things.
Voltron Legendary Defender. The first season of the show was released on June 10th 2016 and immediately from the first episode Kieth and Lance have an established relationship.
A not-so-friendly rivalry of sorts originally one-sided as Keith didn't even know Lance existed, until the two met and Keith, being competitive and hot-headed, immediately started arguing back and forth with Lance, turning it into a mutual rivalry.
This rivalry is their main dynamic throughout most of the show. Lance annoys Keith, Keith and Lance argue.
Lance's dislike of Kieth is just very poorly concealed envy and insecurity, and Keith often tries to display himself as "above" the rivalry or Lance's childish behavior, but it's very clear that it only takes one annoying sentence from Lance for him to immediately stoop down to the same level.
Despite this however, Lance and Kieth are able to work together when it matters such as when it comes to forming Voltron and during some of the team building exercises in the second episode. Technically the fourth episode but the first three were three parts of the same episode.
Point is, gradually, the relationship between Keith and Lance became less of an angry tug-of-war and more of a kind of friendly but not really rivalry with them trying to one-up each other and exchanging banter a lot.
They are also often depicted together in the same shot, sitting next to each other, or even just standing near one another. They're portrayed as a sort of pair. Evident in their contrasting signature colors, blue and red, and their contrasting personalities, with Keith being more serious, hot-headed, and broody and Lance being more of a comedian, easy-going, flirtatious type.
A really big moment in their relationship happens early on in the show when the castle-ship is being attacked by Sendak, one of the antagonists. During the battle against Sendak, Lance is badly injured and is rendered incapacitated due to his injuries. But in a crucial moment, Lance wakes up and shoots Sendak's arm off, saving Kieth, and being an important factor in finally ending the battle. Kieth runs to Lance's side to check on him and Lance says "we did it... we are a good team..." giving a soft smile, which Keith returns.
In the next episode, we see Lance in a healing pod and Keith, in specific, being anxious for his recovery, more so than any of the other paladins, not even the ones who've been friends with Lance for way longer. Once Lance is out, though, he goes right back to bickering with Keith who says he thought they "had a bonding moment" and were past arguing, Lance denies knowing anything about any "bonding moment".
Later on in the episode, the Blue Lion is stolen by a female alien named Nyma who Lance was flirting with. She steals the Blue Lion by convincing Lance to give her a ride in it specifically by mentioning Keith, which makes Lance jealous so he immediately agrees which gets him chained to a tree. Keith gets it back, communicating to Lance that they got the Blue Lion. Lance then asks if Keith can come unchain him from the tree he's trapped on and Keith pretends that Lance is cutting out (there's more to this scene but that'll be covered in a different section of this essay) because of this Lance says "Oh, come on, I thought we bonded!" Showing he does very much remember the bonding moment and only pretended to not remember. (Because he didn't wanna think about it/deal with it at the time. He's literally me.)
Keith and Lance continue to be repeatedly shown as being the antithesis to each other. When they work together on a mission, Keith is shown to be talented but impulsive, making a plan that isn't really all that much of a plan and so Lance stops him and gives him a better plan, showing how Lance is less impulsive, and more strategic. Keith is also shown to always state his opinion bluntly, even if it's controversial and he never tries to really hide his thoughts or put up a front, unlike Lance who is almost always putting on some kind of performance in order to hide his true thoughts and emotions, to hide away his insecurities from people.
The next important moment happens in season two episode five. Keith and Lance are tired from a battle so they both just so happen to independently decide to head to the pool, and when they meet at the elevator going there, they're very displeased to see each other. Keith then says "Look. You stay on one side of the pool, and I'll stay on the other, and we'll be far far away from each other. Very. Far. Away." (Two bros chilling in a hot tub five feet apart cause they're not gay) unfortunately though, the elevator breaks down meaning Keith and Lance are forced to work together to get out. They climb up the elevator shaft... uh... wait idk how to explain this. They... they The Emperor's New Groove it, if you haven't watched that movie, then what are you even doing with your life. So they work together to get up until they realize that Altean pools are upside down anyway meaning they couldn't have swum in it if they wanted to.
In episode 6, Keith and Allura believe they're being tracked by Glara (the enemy) so they sneak out in an escape pod. When Lance hears about this he immediately assumes that Keith and Allura snuck out for other reasons. This makes him upset. When Keith and Allura return, Lance asks Keith if he's with Allura and Keith, naturally, says yes, to which Lance immediately says "like with her, with her or..?"
Lance is clearly jealous. Of Keith or of Allura? Good question. This is the same thing that happened in season one when the Blue Lion was stolen and the mere mention of Keith made Lance jealous. It's ambiguous who exactly he's jealous of. Now I know what you're saying "that's a bit of a stretch, isn't it?" And sure maybe it is, but it only gets worse.
Season 2 is more focused on Kieth finding out more about his past and coming to terms with it and it seems like Keith turning out to be half-galran doesn't really affect Keith and Lance's relationship as Lance doesn't treat him any differently after learning the news.
But in episode 10 when Lance is alone with a yupper he starts to describe his teammates. He seems excited when talking about each one, but when he gets to Keith he says "Keith is always doing things like flying into asteroid fields and black holes and cool junk like that" and in contrast to his excited manner of speaking about the rest of the paladins, when speaking about Keith he instead has a fond smile in his face. Hetero way to talk about your rival.
In the season 2 finale, Shiro, the team leader, goes missing. Keith is upset by this even blowing up at a team meeting over it. And this moment... when Keith is so visibly upset, the entire rest of the team all look to Lance to comfort him, and Lance, without even looking at the rest of the team or even knowing they're looking at him immediately walks up to comfort Keith. Despite all their bickering and their supposed "rivalrly" Lance is still the closest one to Keith minus Shiro. Lance is still the one to comfort him here. Lance still cares deeply about Keith.
Season 3, lovingly dubbed "the Klance season" by fans. With Shiro missing, the group was down one paladin, and their leader at that. So now the team have to decide on a new leader. Coran nominates Keith as the new leader and Lance immediately disagrees. Saying he wouldn't want Keith to lead him anywhere, Keith says he doesn't want that either, and that him being leader is just what Shiro wanted.
The Black Lion however picks Keith as it's new paladin. Meaning Keith would be leader. Keith however immediately rejects the idea, saying "I can't replace Shiro. You guys were right, I'm the loner, I'm not the leader Shiro thought I was." And once again Lance is the first one there to comfort him. He tells Keith that no one can replace Shiro, but the Black Lion chose Keith for a reason. It's because of this that Keith accepts his role as new team leader.
When Lance goes to try and pilot the Blue Lion, for some reason, it doesn't respond to him. Lance immediately takes this as meaning that he's not meant to be a paladin. He's upset but as soon as he voices this, the Red Lion roars. Lance becomes the new red paladin with Allura taking his place as blue paladin.
In episode 3, Keith impulsively leads the team into a dangerous situation not even stopping when the Blue Lion gets hit and Lance is the one who stops him, emphasizing that they're a team and have to stick together.
But, oopsie, the rest of team gets separated. Keith says it's his fault and he put them all in danger, ignoring them when they told him to stop, and Lance says "Yeah, you kinda did. But now we gotta fix it" he's not trying to convince Keith not to blame himself, because he is ultimately at fault, but he's stopping Keith from spiraling and basically saying "it's okay we can fix this" he's not saying YOU fix this. He's saying WE fix this. Him and Keith.
When Shiro gets back to the rest of the group, Lance goes to Keith's room to talk to him privately. Lance opens up to Keith saying that with Shiro back "that's one paladins too many" implying that he would be kicked off the team with Shiro piloting the Balck Lion, Keith piloting the Red Lion and Allura piloting the Blue Lion. This is the first time we ever see Lance being vulnerable with someone on screen. He's not putting on a performance or acting confident like he usually does. And this is all to Keith. Keith specifically. Keith catches on to what Lance is implying and tells him to "leave the math to Pidge" which seems to comfort Lance.
In season 4 Keith decides to leave Voltron in order to stay with the Blade of Marmora, a rebel group of Galran fighters against Zarkon, the same group his mother is part of. Lance in specific seems more shocked and hurt by this decision than anything else. The rest of the team is naturally upset but supportive, but none of them look hurt by the decision. Only Lance. Knowing Lance, this is most likely him blaming himself for Keith leaving. But naturally he just puts on a smile and even makes a joke asking who he's going to make fun of now that Keith is leaving.
Klance moments in the last few seasons are sparse but even then Lance and Keith are often portrayed as being closer to each other than anyone else with Lance opening up to Keith and Keith doing the same as they find mutual comfort in each other. Not even Allura, Lance's supposed love interest, gets the same level of vulnerability Lance has with Keith, and they each drive the other to be better, like a puzzle that just fits perfectly.
If not gay then why perfect antithesis to each other? If not gay then why only vulnerable with each other? If not gay then why always portrayed as a pair in basically every scene? I think you get it at this point. Keith and Lance are special to each other in a way no one else is. Still want more evidence? Okay.
Visuals:
Studio Mir is the animation studio that worked on Voltron, and just so happens to be the same studio that worked on Legend of Korra, a show with a canon wlw couple composed of two main characters. Studio Mir used certain visual cues to imply Korra's feelings for Asami before they were confirmed. Bisexual lighting in the background of scenes, facial expressions that were just a little too fond to be hetero. Naturally, Studio Mir applied the same principles in Voltron. All of this was run by the showrunners before getting approved btw. So, no, this isn't just Studio Mir doing whatever.
Anyway, expressions are THE most important thing in animation. The facial expression you give your character determines how they feel so naturally a lot of care and attention goes into perfecting that.
In the episode where the Blue Lion gets stolen by Nyma, Keith is shown to have been talking to Rolo, the guy who was accompanying Nyma. And according to his facial expression, a smirk on his face and his eyes following Rolo, it seemed like Keith was... what's that? Flirting with Rolo! Gasp! Could he be... g-g-g-g-gayyy!!!
There's more in this episode. In scenes with Lance, and specifically with Lance, the background uses the same bisexual lighting utilized in LoK to imply Korrasami. This was obviously intentional because we've seen Studio Mir use these techniques before. They meant to imply Lance is bi.
It doesn't end there. When animating facial expressions the one to express a deep sense of fondness or more specifically, love, the inner ends of the eyebrows are raised and there should be a soft or small smile.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Exhibit C:
And so... so much more. Actually a whole mountain more. Hetero way to look at your rival.
And if you're looking for ideas for totally hetero scenes you can have with your rival, you could totally have a heart-to-heart in the sunset, the kind of lighting usually thought of as romantic, while you look at each other with a deep and soft fondness in your eyes offering a kind of comfort you can only get from each other and no one else.
Incredibly hetero, no gay here.
If you still need MORE proof... you're an idiot.
Moving along, you're probably asking "well, all of this seems fine and well, but none of this makes being angry over it justified? So what exactly is the deal here?" Let me tell you, dear reader. The deal here... is queerbait.
Queerbait:
Queerbaiting is when the writers of a show deliberately write a character to be heavily implied to be gay or queer in some way, luring a queer audience in with the idea of a canon queer character or relationship, but with no real intention of actually going through with it.
Klance and all the chemistry between the two characters wasn't accidental, wasn't just a little unimportant thing, it was completely intentional. The animation that the showrunners approved was intentional. The writing of scenes between the two and the way their relationship is portrayed is intentional. The forced proximity in climbing up the elevator shaft in that one episode is intentional.
Don't believe me? Before season 7 was released there was a sort of promotional QnA panel at I think a convention thing for it. During this panel, it was confirmed that there would be a canon queer character in season 7. And not a new side character, an existing one. Of the main cast. Naturally the fandom went crazy, I mean, a canonical queer character! That's great news! So everyone started speculating on who and the main suspects were obviously Lance and Keith with all the evidence suggesting they're bi and gay, respectively. Or if they were really cool they could have Pidge/Katie be canonically trans. It definitely drummed up a lot of hype for season 7.
So on the day of the season's release everyone was really excited to find out who would be the canon gay character! And... they give us one hardly a second long scene with Shiro looking at a plaque with the name of his dead fiance on it. Shiro isn't even that upset he just looks... mildly sad. Then it's pretty much not really brought up again in any significant way.
Sure, Shiro is canonically gay and that's cool and all and I'm glad there's a canon gay character, but... I mean, come on, you can do better. There wasn't even any sort of evidence or anything that implied Shiro was at all gay until this very moment as opposed to other characters that had a lot of clues and evidence and buildup to imply that they are queer.
Especially with the way they talked about it on the panel, like it was something big, like it was going to be crazy and important. Like it would blow us away. Only for... this. It can't help but feel so... intentional.
They knew their audience, and they knew the audience was predominantly made up of queer people. They knew that saying a character would be confirmed gay would only make the views on season 7 skyrocket. They never actually cared about queer representation. Only about how much money they can make off us.
Klance shippers aren't "delusional" and they're not seeing things that aren't there. All of this just confirms it. This entire time, all these seasons of soft fond glances, of intentional dialogue and lighting. It was all just one big lie. Just bait on a hook made to catch money.
So yeah. I think the anger over it is pretty justified. The anger over being tricked again and again. I tell you, I'm fucking sick of getting into a new show or franchise and thinking "finally, finally some queer rep" thinking that maybe just maybe this time it'll be different, it won't be like the other times. And then... it's exactly the same. Over and over. I think it's justified that queer people are angry over being screwed over time and time again by greedy showrunners. Maybe not death threats, but we at least have the right to be angry.
Klance could have been such a great and well-written queer romance that could've made Voltron such a better show especially considering the shitshow season 8 was, but no. No the writers are fucking cowards. (and also incredibly incompetent when it comes to writing Lance's character specifically, butchering his entire character and personality in favor of the hetero romance he has with Allura which pisses me off so fucking bad)
Oh well. I guess it's just something else that could've been... TIME TO READ SOME "FIX-IT"S ON AO3!