Shiro in Voltron | Photo: Video/Voltron Wiki
Netflix recently dropped Season 7 of Voltron: Legendary Defender on their streaming platform. Some fans, however, took issue with the queer representation in the season.
Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Season 7 of Voltron.
Earlier this summer at San Diego Comic-Con, fans found out one of the main characters of the show, Shiro, is gay. They also found out he’s in an interracial relationship with Adam.
Or, well, was.
The start of the season revealed Shiro previously lived with his partner/fiancé Adam on Earth before heading out to space for an ill-fated mission.
Then they went with the Bury Your Gays trope when it was revealed Adam died in a subsequent invasion of Earth. Shiro never even got to say goodbye to him.
Many fans were understandably upset with this development and showrunner Joaquim Dos Santos took to Twitter to address their concerns.
A sincere apology
Dos Santos posted an open letter to Voltron fans upset about Adam’s death.
An open letter to the VLD fandom RE: Season 7. pic.twitter.com/S4Ram1Mxm1
— Joaquim Dos Santos (@JDS_247) August 14, 2018
‘First, I’d like to say that we created this version of Voltron with the intent of being as inclusive as possible within the boundaries,’ he wrote. He also acknowledged there is still ‘tons’ of room to grow and push against the boundaries.
Then he apologizes.
‘With regards to season 7 itself, if anyone for any reason took away from this season that our intention was to queerbait the VLD fandom I’d like to personally apologize. I can only speak to our intent and I can truly say we did not intend to bait anyone. I know that is not any consolation but it is the truth.’
Dos Santos said the team was ‘excited and proud’ to bring Shiro’s story to life as a gay character. He went on to explain the story choices and why they were made.
‘We were aware of the “bury your gays” trope,’ he continued. ‘But hoped against hope that our struggle to confirm Shiro’s orientation would take center stage here.
‘We had not intended Adam to be interpreted as a recurring character or someone that would come back into Shiro’s life.
‘That is not me attempting to this around and place the burden of expectation on anyone. We crafted this entire series around the themes of sacrifice and loss and at the end of the day we have to take responsibility for our creative decisions. We knew people would be affected by the loss of Adam we just could not have predicted how profound that loss would be.’
And it continues
Dos Santos made another tweet continuing his lengthy statement.
— Joaquim Dos Santos (@JDS_247) August 14, 2018
In this second part, he apologized for ‘laying low’ on Twitter while also ‘liking’ certain tweets in debates. He said it was a ‘pretty irresponsibile’, ‘insensitive’, and ‘jerky move’ on his part.
He also addresses the ‘aggressive behavior’ from some fans regarding this controversy and that it’s not okay.
‘There is no way for me to take away the hurt some of you have felt with the loss of Adam,’ he conclude. ‘And from a bigger perspective how we fumbled a potentially larger positive social message. What I can say is that we’re riding an ever moving, fine line here and trying to navigate as best we can while still moving the conversation forward.’
Most fans thanks Dos Santos for his statement and listening to their grievances.
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