Having A Ship Shoved Down Your Throat Because It’s The Most Popular In A Fandom ಠ_ಠ

male supremacists of color are not handling the exposure of the 4B movement and south asian feminism(s) very well, in light of the kolkata victim and the sexual and physical abuse of south korean women and girls. they are very anxious about the global female solidarity occurring online. male supremacists of all races harbor anxiety over losing control of “their women” due to feminist consciousness, and all male supremacists accuse “their women” of being race traitors for not upholding their ideal form of patriarchy. colonized women can criticize white men for male violence, because colonized men do not want to be controlled by them either, but we must not criticize the men who share our colony for enforcing misogynistic repression. colonized men want to claim their rightful property, without white male influence. their ideal world is one where the yoke of imperialism is abolished, where they are granted freedom from physical and sexual abuse, but the status of women remains intact. they want women to be obedient, because complaining about misogyny makes colonized men appear weak in front of white men. they are right to complain about women of color “emasculating” them for being feminists. to them, “emasculation” occurs when they are denied their right to claim us as property, when they, too, are denied control. don’t fall for these manipulations. their misogyny is not more benevolent, their victimization doesn’t preclude them from patriarchal social control, don’t allow them to make you silently wait in line. either we’re all free, or no one is. 🫡

Your Meta has Meta

a response to the “canon did it first” excuse for racism

Whenever someone points out that certain metas/fics/headcanons have racist implications, the overwhelming response tends to be that it can’t actually be the product of racial bias—because it’s just “canon.” After all, if a character really is cruel, petty, or abusive in the source material, how can Fandom be held responsible for writing them in character?

On the surface, this can seem like a perfectly good argument—except that it completely sidesteps the actual implications.

Consider, for example, the following interpretations (all from real metas):

Finn from Star Wars is a predator—he’s obsessed with Rey.

Scott from Teen Wolf is a rapist—he attacked Derek.

MJ from the MCU is a fake MJ who should be replaced—her hair colour is wrong & she’s mean.

Iris from The Flash is a b*tch who should be killed off—she’s useless & whiny.

Each of these statements could be explored at length for the bad faith readings that they are, but for the purposes of this meta, let’s assume they are all correct.

What would be the implications of that?

If Finn, the first Black character with a leading role in a Star Wars film, is a sexual predator towards a white woman—a trope that has a horrific, racist history—why then is the meta using that discovery to explain why the white fave is superior, instead of a furious exposé on Disney’s racist depiction of a Black man?

If Scott, one of the few heroic Latino leads on US television, is a rapist and secretly the villain—when only 3% of all leading roles go to Latino men, as opposed to 22% of all Latino roles being related to crime—why then is the meta using that to elevate three white male faves, instead of calling MTV out for its bait and switch? Why is it not righteously angry at yet another racist depiction of a Latino character?

If Michelle, a mixed Black woman in the role of the most iconic superhero love interest of all time, is just a fake MJ and not the “real” love interest—when Black women are already relegated to less than 4% of all speaking roles in film, never mind the rarity of playing a romantic lead—why then is the meta focused on getting a “real” (white) MJ to take over her position, instead of pushing Disney to make her status as MJ as explicit as possible?

If Iris, one of the few Black women in a lead role on network television, is a b*tch who’s useless and whiny—when Black women are consistently over disciplined for being seen as louder/more disruptive than their peers—why does the meta choose to solve this by murdering Iris, instead of petitioning the writing staff to stop leaning into racist tropes?

This is only a sampling of popular metas—and only a few of the endgame conclusions that have to result—but the point is that the racism is not a bug; it’s a feature. If they were actually true, it would make the source material so reprehensible as to make supporting it unconscionable—but that’s not what they’re used for. Instead, time and time again, they’re just used to push the COC out of their own narratives.

If a meta wants to claim it cannot be racist because it’s simply restating what canon did, then it must consider whether or not that makes canon also racist. And if it does—what does it want to say about that? Is the meta going to continue that racist pattern? Call out the creators for their stereotyping? Create additional metas and fics to attempt to address the revealed problem?

And denying that—if none of those options seem tenable—then maybe the correct response is to question whether the original meta was all that accurate to begin with.

#whitewomantears

fujimaki (and by extension knb fandom) and the relationship with colorism

fujimaki has some extremely questionable views on dark skinned people

its like…the only other character in the series that exhibits sexual “interest” bc he reads gravure mags as a past time, has dark skin (haizaki is notorious for his sexual exploits but its supposed to be frowned upon…hes clearly marked as Bad…so the unfortunate implications are rather telling re: aomine…not to mention how fandom ran with this trivia as some Definitive Character Attribute of aomines l o l)

the only character in the series that exhibits infantile toilet humor (farts, burps) as well as being the Dumb Musclehead character, has dark skin

we wont even mention how momoi, in a fit of rage/frustration, calls aomine ganguro, so essentially using his dark skin as a pejorative and kise made a weird mention of aomines dark skin when he first met him (why? its not connected to his status as a basketball prodigy) or his Biggest Weakness is that he cant clean when his miragen cohorts cant draw, cook, carry a tune, or make a joke? or how nebuya is referred to as a gorilla by sports spectators

and of course, the fandom engages with these characters - particulary aomine - in some insidious ways that match with fujimakis prejudices, but pointing that out incriminates fandom or makes you an oversensitive killjoy

though im not ascertained if the colorism+negative views on dark skin are as prevalent or normalized as it was back in the day, its still rather difficult to navigate in this fandoms content when im constantly bombarded with claims that dark skin means youre a hypersexual/sexually predatory fetish, intellectually deficient, unclean, vulgar, a subject of perpetual derision

its especially disheartening when you yourself are judged constantly by the darkness of your skin, both in the setting of east asian culture (japan has a long, ugly history with colorism and xenophobia) and the setting of US-ian politics (do i even have to spell it out?) and then be told that i should be grateful to fujimaki for even considering dark skin representation?? (these types of people have been brainwashed by tumblrs obstinate and incredibly shortsighted identity politics tied with media repesentation)

honestly being reminded of scott mccall hate stemmed from racism perpetuated by teenwolf fandom when i engage with aomine fandom and its alienating/infuriating

Can't wait for the uniqueness of the holocaust to be a topic of importance in a political campaign in america in 2024. That's how it should be. That's normal

Quintessence, part I

This is a two-part comprehensive post on quintessence. I figured I should gather my thoughts regarding quintessence, its functions and role within the narrative of Voltron: Legendary Defender (VLD), and its effects on particular key characters - Zarkon, Haggar, Lotor, Allura, Shiro, and Keith. There is a lot of information to sift through, so bear with me (images can be better viewed on another tab after right-clicking (PC) or control+clicking (mac) on them, then choosing “Open Image in New Tab”). As with any analysis, these are my interpretations of the text and not meant to be treated as canon, though I strive to support my readings with canonical evidence. This post contains spoilers for all aired six seasons.

Quintessence is woven ubiquitously throughout the series’ mythos, but we only have it properly defined around the tail end of the first season: “[...] [T]he substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe.” (1.10)

Essentially, it is the VLD universe’s “life force”, a self-generating power source that provides fuel, longevity, and restoration. Zarkon’s dominating empire relies heavily on it as standardized fuel, colonizing and mining countless planets in order to harvest its power. Within the present timeline, Haggar successfully constructs and brandishes a device called the komar, capable of consuming an entire planet’s quintessence in minutes. (1.06)

We have seen it heal lifeforms. (1.10)

Confirmed when we see that Honerva administered an ailing Kova to live beyond his life expectancy, it is the elixir keeping Zarkon and Haggar alive over 10,000 years. (3.07)

Ultimately, quintessence drives Zarkon’s obsession to seize Voltron in order to create a new rift and attain unlimited access to the purest kind of quintessence which comes from the zone between realities. (1.11, 3.07)

It is why Voltron’s return after its absence did not deter Lotor; his means to enter the quintessence field (again) was within reach. (3.03, 3.04) 

The main, overarching conflict of the series stems from quintessence acquisition. (5.05)

The properties found within quintessence can be broadly defined within two categories - healing and transmutation. It can be divided into subcategories by color: yellow for raw, purple for refined, blue-tinged white for concentrated/pure. The following are visual examples. The first is Zarkon’s quintessence-infusion ritual conducted by Haggar and her druids sprinkled across the first season; Zarkon then has them enhance his paladin-lion link to track down the Black Lion across great distances. (1.03, 2.06, 2.03)

Next, is the results of Haggar performing her tests on the komar and using it in combat. (1.06, 2.13) The container which housed an entire planet’s worth of quintessence could not withstand Voltron’s, implying that Voltron’s quintessence greatly exceeds the amount found within a planet, and there are still some remnants left even after the extraction. Removal of quintessence begets death.

In contrast, immersion of quintessence promotes life. (1.08) (Too much of it, however, can be addictive and poisonous; I’ll touch more on this later.) 

After raw quintessence is refined into fuel, it powers Galra technology and grossly augments or sustains biology. (1.10, 2.10, 2.13, 5.02, 5.05)

Enriched quintessence makes its presence known in recent seasons, once even overloading Kolivan’s sensors while gathering intelligence. 

Keith becomes adamant that this new form of quintessence has something to do with Lotor, and rightfully so. (4.01)

His search leads him to one of Zarkon’s commanders, Ranveig, who intercepted a shipment containing the unusual quintessence. 

Ranveig experiments with the quintessence in order to create an incredibly powerful superweapon whose whereabouts are currently unknown. (5.05, 6.02)

I was with Ranveig when an unmarked cargo ship passed into his region. When we checked it out, there was no crew aboard. The ship had been nearly torn to pieces, but inside, a single vat of quintessence remained. It was unlike any other quintessence we’d seen.

Later, it is revealed conveniently insinuated by Romelle and Keith that one source of this type of quintessence comes from Alteans harvested by Lotor. (6.04)

As they explained their mission to me, we knew there must have been a connection between the missing Alteans and the pure strain of quintessence.

No! Petrulius! What’s happening to them? These people were supposed to be headed to the colony! Lotor is harvesting their quintessence. 

He uses concentrated quintessence to unsuccessfully traverse through the inter-reality gate before he recalibrates his plans. (4.05) It is uncertain if he used this type of quintessence for any other purpose, but the existence of large amounts of it, which are transported through clandestine, sometimes rigged routes, raises some suspicions.

Without quintessence, Voltron would not have ever existed. (5.01)

The inception of Voltron came from a comet that pierces through Daibazaal’s atmosphere and leaves a tear across reality in its wake. (3.07)

These tears, or rifts, radiate pure quintessence because quintessence resides in the layers between realities; these openings can lead to the quintessence field. (3.07, 3.04)

Alfor’s research into the quintessence-fused ore uncovers the secrets of life, encouraging further exploration to synthesize industrial uses for the universe’s sustenance. A single drop of quintessence can energize machines with no lapse in performance, a principle that Alfor implements to supply the Lions with endless energy and one that Zarkon seeks after for his own purposes. 

Quintessence also seemingly grants a sense of sentience to the Lions, which offers them a way to communicate with their chosen paladins. 

Alfor’s experiment with the ore in all likelihood led to his discovery of Oriande, the birthplace of Altean alchemy; the knowledge gained there is used on the Lions. Magical engineering grants machines remarkable resilience, demonstrated throughout the story.

When spacecraft made from the mysterious comet are successfully imbued with quintessence via Altean alchemy, they obtain the ability to traverse between realities. (3.07, 3.04, 5.05)

Voltron and the Sincline ships benefit from Allura’s abilities and alchemic knowledge, making the quintessence field accessible to them. (5.06, 6.02, 6.07)

Your father, King Alfor, was a gifted alchemist, whose unique ability allowed him to infuse the Voltron ore with Altean energy, granting it and the paladins access to the quintessence field. Now you, Allura, possess that same gift.

Our visit to Oriande has taught me more than I ever thought possible. 

How can he just disappear like that? He’s entering the quintessence field at will. Didn’t we blow up the gate? How is he entering without it? Because I gave his ships the ability.

Form sword. 

Being neither inherently good nor evil, quintessence is pure and malleable. External factors can determine its usefulness. Alfor and Zarkon’s ideological differences and goals for quintessence exemplify this: Alfor wanted quintessence to be used as clean energy dispersed throughout the universe whereas Zarkon aggressively coveted it because of his greed for power, mirroring Honerva’s insatiable pursuit for knowledge. (3.07)

Allura and Lotor repeat this polarization: Allura shows reasonable fear towards this ultimate power, while Lotor eventually abuses it for his own selfish agenda. (Is he truly autonomous, or is his agency compromised as well? Another point to tackle later in this post.) (6.04, 6.07) 

In the hands of the wrong person, this power could easily corrupt.

I can feel the quintessence coursing through me.  It’s like my spirit, my whole being, is more alive. 

Poor Allura! All the power in the universe at your fingertips and you still fear using it. 

Caution should be exercised when handling quintessence; like medicine, too much quintessence can deteriorate the mind and body. (3.07) Quintessence overdose also accentuates the negative aspects of the individual misusing it, leading to fatal consequences. 

(As an aside, clever in hindsight to have Shiro - his clone, yes, but still ultimately another Shiro - mention inner darkness as his own is involuntarily perverted by Haggar’s hand, once again drawing narrative parallels between the fallen hero and antagonist.) (6.04)

But even if they do reach the quintessence field, then what? That last time anyone got in there, it turned Zarkon evil. [...] Zarkon fell prey to his own evil instincts. The quintessence field didn’t create them, it revealed them. 

Hints scattered across the show illustrate this: Zarkon has always shown a sense of ethnocentrism and superiority based on social hierarchy and strength. His detestation for weakness means he has no qualms with looking down on those he deems lesser and extinguishing them. This is highlighted by his prejudice towards Alteans warping into unadulterated hatred for the entire Altean species after his resurrection. (3.07, 1.01) Remorselessly, Zarkon destroys Altea in retaliation to Alfor destroying Daibaazal. He shows zero hesitation in killing his own kin if their actions read as a threat of usurpation. (5.02)

Honerva gradually discards ethics and morality in the name of science, viewing anything living as expendable and only worth her attention if it advances her research. As Haggar, her sadism knows no limits. (3.07, 6.05)

However, you’ve continued the work I started all that time ago and have indeed seen it through to heights I could have only imagined. Your never-ending pursuit of knowledge is truly-- [...] You are an abomination. A twisted perversion of what was once so pure and beautiful. 

Lotor’s fear of yielding to his enemies morphs into a frenzied determination to wipe out all of his foes, boasting his status as a pseudo-god. The story emphasizes that Lotor’s all-consuming, infectious violence felt within the quintessence field stems from prolonged exposure to it. No one is immune to it. (6.06, 6.07)

Once I wipe out Voltron, I’m going to start a new Altea. An Altea that will never know of Princess Allura or King Alfor. Nor will they know of the Lions of Voltron. All they’ll know is me, their great leader! I’m ready to wipe the universe clean of all my enemies. Voltron, Haggar and the rest of the Galra.

Let’s end this! Finish him! Let’s destroy that guy! We have to get out of here. What are you talking about? This is exactly what happened to Zarkon. Exposure to all this quintessence turned him into a monster!

If we’d stayed in the quintessence field, we would’ve kept fighting until we destroyed ourselves. Just like Lotor. 

It may explain why Alfor kept the location of the second trans-reality comet (the one from which Lotor built the Sincline ships) a secret, to avoid it from falling into the wrong hands again. (3.04)

Similarly to quintessence-infused vessels, strange, shapeshifting creatures are capable of safely traversing between realities. (3.07)

Do they reside in the quintessence field? Or do they come from the particular reality neighboring the core one? Oddly enough, when Voltron and the Sincline ships fight within the quintessence field, no dark creatures appeared, which may mean they reside elsewhere yet still have the ability to traverse through the field… In any case, these creatures affected Zarkon and Honverva when they exposed themselves to pure quintessence, and perhaps give reason as to how they returned from the dead. (3.07)

Would they also explain the growing fractures in sanity experienced by Honerva, Zarkon, and eventually even Lotor, the latter with whom was exposed to the rift creatures in utero? Perhaps the rift creatures leech off of quintessence for sustenance; the more quintessence overdosing a living being partakes, the more the rift creatures consume, poisoning the being’s mind. As she writhed in pain, all Honerva could utter (likely under the influence of the rift creatures) was quintessence and the one thing that could ultimately wrest even more of the addictive substance - Voltron. 

During Shiro’s astral trip down memory lane, Zarkon’s eyes are glowing, unlike his former self before Honerva’s research, suggesting he was affected by quintessence and/or rift exposure but not to the extent that Honerva’s constant contact within her lab perpetuated (2.07).

Continue to part two here.

Edit: After reading up some theories that we don’t know the full story regarding Lotor, the Altean colonies, and Romelle’s suspicious, biased account, I altered some claims I made regarding Lotor.

dandelions