10 Ways She-Ra's LGBT+ Rep Was Better Than Voltron's
While both series were important milestones in queer representation in children's television, She-Ra handled representation better than Voltron.
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Voltron: Legendary Defender and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power have a lot in common. Both series were an attempt to update popular cartoon properties from the 1980s. Both fandoms have a very vocal fanbase, and both fanbases were very vocal in the desire for each property to expand the diversity featured on the original shows.
One of the ways in which both Voltron and She-Ra achieved this diversity was through the introduction of LGBT characters. While both series were important milestones in queer representation in children's television, She-Ra handled representation better than Voltron.
10 She-Ra Did Not Kill One-Third Of Its Heroic LGBT Characters
The audience first finds out that Takashi Shirogane, known as Shiro, is gay in the episode, "A Little Adventure." In the episode, the audience was introduced to Shiro's boyfriend, Adam. Unfortunately, Adam is killed during his second and final episode as he is defending Earth from an alien attack.The "bury your gays" trope was called out by many fans when the episode premiered. While some might argue that the death showed Adam as a hero, his death killed off one-third of the heroic LGBT characters on the show. Since the audience hadn't met Shiro's future husband yet, killing Adam killed off half of the heroic LGBT characters that were featured at that point. She-Ra navigated LGBT representation more appropriately by avoiding avoid this trope entirely.
9 She-Ra's LGBT Characters Were Allowed to Continue Saving the Universe
Since the days of James T. Kirk fitting uncomfortably into the admiral uniform in the Star Trek: Motion Picture, the tradition of characters who love adventure hating being forced off their ship is an honored one.Voltron made it clear that Shiro loved flying, loved the Galaxy Garrison and loved his career. He was a natural leader, and yet, his epilogue heavily implies that he went into retirement. A man who loved saving the galaxy... suddenly was no longer able to explore the stars. There's no evidence throughout the seven seasons of Voltron that Shiro would have been happy with this, and plenty of evidence that he would have been as miserable as Admiral Kirk himself.
She-Ra's LGBT characters are allowed to go on saving the universe. They do not have their heroics taken away while their straight counterparts are allowed to go off and save the galaxy.
8 She-Ra's LGBT Characters Were Allowed to Keep Their Friendships
An early plotline that played a major role in the character development of both Keith and Shiro was the friendship between the two men. The two of them were the Voltron equivalent of Steve and Bucky or Kirk and Spock; without each other, both of them would have died or been on self destructive paths. Shiro gave Keith an opportunity to become an amazing pilot because Shiro believed in Keith. In return, Keith saved Shiro's life twice.After the show revealed that Shiro was gay, that friendship was no longer central to the two characters. Shiro was no longer part of Team Voltron at all. In the most obvious display of erasing that friendship, Keith woke up from a near fatal injury alone and took a former enemy with him to visit his father's grave.
Not only does Shiro lose Keith's friendship and the entirety of his team, but he is never reunited with Matt Holt, a man Shiro was literally willing to give his life to save.
The importance of Voltron taking away all of Shiro's male friendships after his sexuality is revealed is important, because it reflects society's often hostile belief that gay men cannot have platonic friendships with heterosexual men.
7 She-Ra Navigated The "Evil Lesbians" Trope Better Than Voltron Did
In the history of queer storytelling, the framing of LGBT characters as evil is a prominent stereotype. While both She-Ra and Voltron included evil characters as part of their LGBT line-up, Voltron's handling of the stereotype was full of decisions that played into the trope. Voltron's evil lesbians were Zethrid and Ezor, two servants of the evil Galra Empire. The two had no narrative motivation other than to be evil soldiers in an imperialistic war, and the confirmation of their relationship only occurred through a Tweet by Voltron voice actor, Bex Taylor-Klaus.She-Ra also had characters that characters who were both LGBT and aligned with an evil imperialistic force determined to control the galaxy. In She-Ra, these characters have their morals, allegiances and friendships explored and questioned. Catra, who could have otherwise been an "evil lesbian," is saved from the trope simply because she is allowed to develop into much more than a stereotype. Voltron did not develop their characters the same way, and the audience was left with stereotypes instead of good representation.
6 She-Ra Didn't Take Away Its LGBT Characters' Leadership Responsibilities
In addition to forcing Shiro into retirement, the plotline of Voltron also took Shiro off of the team that he had led. After Keith saved Shiro from the attempts of Haggar's clone, Shiro's soul was rejoined with a body. Shiro's soul had been inside of the Black Lion during the clone's manipulations. Yet, as soon as Shiro's soul was saved by Keith, Shiro's connection with the Black Lion was mysteriously gone. Shiro was written out of Team Voltron, and he was no longer leader of the main team. While he was placed as commander of Atlas, that placement was temporary until Shiro was written into retirement.In contrast, She-Ra is allowed to have both her same-sex relationship with Catra and allowed to continue to be the co-leader of the Princess Alliance.
5 She-Ra Represented Different Types of LGBT Characters
During Voltron's run, the audience is introduced to Shiro and Adam, who are gay men. It also includes two lesbians, and eventually, Shiro marries an unnamed man. With the exception of Shiro, all of these characters are side characters at best.In contrast, She-Ra's LGBT cast included: Adora, Catra, Huntara, Netossa, Spinnerella, Perfuma, Scorpia, Scorpia's mothers, Bow's two fathers, Falcon, Glimmer, Mermista, SeaHawk, Lonnie, Rogelio, Kyle, Entrapta, Jewelstar, Perfuma and Double Trouble. These characters include lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, non-binary characters, and transgender characters. In Voltron, Shiro's storyline was an aberration from the norm, while Adora's ultimate happy ending was commonplace on Etheria. In a show about exploring the universe, Voltron still treated being LGBT as fluke, while She-Ra displayed LGBT people as part of everyday life.
4 She-Ra's LGBT Relationships Are Not Full Of Ableism
During Adam's first appearance on Voltron - and his only appearance with Shiro - the audience is given important background information on Shiro as a character. The audience learns that Shiro has a terminal disease and that he desperately wanted to go to space before the disease slowly consumed him. When the opportunity presents itself to Shiro, he immediately decides to go on the Kerberos mission.Adam is greatly opposed to Shiro following his dream. Adam continually throws the fact that Shiro has a disease into Shiro's face and uses it as a reason that Shiro should not go on the mission. Adam then issues Shiro an ultimatum: choose the mission or lose Adam forever.
The entire exchange has Adam trying to explain Shiro's own condition to Shiro, which is a very ableist thing for a character to do. In contrast, Catra's entire arc in She-Ra involves her learning to accept Adora for who she is, and ultimately, helping Adora become an even better hero because of it.
3 Adora Was Not Replaced By A Straight Character
The name of the show Shiro was on was Voltron. The main team was the Voltron team. Shiro was the most experienced and qualified person to lead them, and for two seasons, he did. Ultimately, he is replaced by Keith.The writers go out of their way to demonstrate that Keith is very heterosexual, even having the Zethrid tell the audience how well-suited Keith and Acxa are for one another and how much they care for one another. In contrast, She-Ra allowed Adora to be She-Ra, and she was not mysteriously replaced by a heterosexual character.
2 Adora's Relationship Was With Someone Who Had A Canon Name
Shiro ends up married and happy, according to the epilogue of Voltron. But at no point during the series does he ever speak the character's name. The name of the character is not given during the epilogue, either. A character that was so supposed to matter so much to Shiro that he gave up everything he'd worked so hard for simply didn't have a name.There was nothing organic or sincere about the development of Shiro's relationship. The character was given the name Curtis by Word of God. But he had no development, nor did his relationship with Shiro. He didn't even have a name spoken by any of the main characters.
In contrast, Adora's happy ending on She-Ra was with someone she'd known and loved all her life. The audience knew her name, because on She-Ra, the hero's queer love interest mattered and so did her story. Catra was a character in her own right, while Curtis was not.
1 Adora's Happy Ending Was Showed As Part Of The Story
Curtis and Shiro received a tacked-on, last minute epilogue. It had no relevancy to the plot of Voltron, and could be skipped without losing anything that mattered to the plot of the show. The happy ending that Shiro supposedly received was irrelevant to the storyline of Voltron. In contrast, the heterosexual love stories of Haggar, Zarkon, Allura and Lance are critical to the plot of the show.In contrast, Catra and Adora's happy ending is shown as part of the storyline of She-Ra. The show itself would be fundamentally changed if you removed their relationship, because it was one that mattered to the show, the audience and the creators. That same importance is placed on the other LGBT relationships in She-Ra, while Voltron could not manage to make even one queer relationship central to the plot of the show.
