Rise and Atone Episode 1: Launch Date
Rise and Atone Episode 1 integrates two missing scenes back into Launch Date.
Special thanks to the following people:
PrideArts, our artist for these comic panels (Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram)
Ten Bond, as Shiro (YouTube)
Bones, as Keith (Twitter, Instagram)
Alyssa (Karavsaya), as Pidge
Lotor and the Generals, for the amazing opening and closing tracks (Twitter, Instagram)
The first is based upon glitched background tracking found in the scene in which Keith and Lance talk during the sunset. The purpose is to provide emotional resonance between Shiro and his closest friend, Keith, as well as reintegrate narrative weight toward Keith, as the leader of Voltron, beginning to question a decision that affected not only one individual but an entire universe.
The second reintegrates a missing scene in which Pidge sends Beezor to take a picture during Lance and Allura’s date. It provides an explanation for why Beezor happens to be out so late as well as further narrative weight toward Pidge putting others’ feelings above her own, a lesson she will later teach another character. The scene also provides foreshadowing for a larger story world event.
I don’t think shiro would call keith “abrasive” … one, it isn’t a compliment to be called that, and even though the fandom is full of homophobes the fact remains that shiro loved keith before straight people ruined the last season and a half and decided shiro couldn’t interact with keith anymore because keith couldn’t be one of the main characters and have gay gay germs on him (that is presumably why shiro was no longer a main character after he was “outed” in episode one of season 7). and two, keith isn’t abrasive. he’s a good respectful guy who genuinely cares about people. he’s just socially awkward sometimes and he wasn’t socialized the best because of poverty/classism, racism, and other factors including the fact that other people are dicks (james, lance, 80% of the voltron fandom). not because of anything wrong with keith.
and if this last season fix it is going to take the coward’s way out and be “ship neutral” then why is pidge upset about lance and allura? don’t think you’re getting away with promoting a het ship just because being het can be promoted as “neutral” in a homophobic society …
Hi Jaime, thanks for sharing your concerns. It sounds like you were upset by some of the content in the first episode. Just to let you know, we’ll have a commentary video coming out soon that hopefully addresses a couple of your concerns here.
Regarding Keith, I do agree he cares very much for others. Although yes, his life experiences do contribute to how he reacts to other characters, Keith can come off as abrasive — that is, terse or harsh — at times. I can definitely relate to some of Keith’s socially awkward tendencies. Keith, like Lotor, is a well-rounded character. It’s okay for the characters we love to have weaknesses in addition to their strengths, and that’s exactly what Shiro is pointing out. He loves Keith for who he is, and that includes all his qualities.
Regarding Pidge’s reaction, although I hope our commentary video, which will be posted soon, gives some insight into our decision to include this scene, I have to admit I’m a bit surprised to hear that extrapolating further on Pidge’s upset that is already present within the episode as aired on Dec 14, 2018 is interpreted as “promoting” a particular ship. Our intent is to provide narrative closure to opened arcs — Pidge’s feelings included — and all seven paladins will end the series as platonic friends. Pidge’s feelings are brought up in the originally aired Launch Date and then never addressed again in the season. That’s a problem and it needs closure. Fair warning, if Pidge dealing with her feelings is bothersome, you might want to bail before several other characters’ feelings are addressed. However, if you decide to continue watching I think you’ll find that if we include something in the early story it is specifically because it relates to character and plot development further down the road.
Thanks again for sharing your concerns and we hope you have a good day!
La escena de Keith y Lance no tenían por que quitarla básicamente es vital para el cierre de su supuesta rivalidad
Tienes razón, dejamos la escena de Keith y Lance porque son compañeros de Voltron y es importante que poner fin su rivalidad. Es importante para Keith y Lance, pero también para todos porque tienen que trabajar juntos para derrotar a Honerva. Si miras la siguiente escena, Lance viene después de que Shiro se va, solo insertamos la conversación de Keith con Shiro antes de la escena de Keith y Lance!
Gracias por ver!
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You are great people! It is awesome project. I am huge Sheith-lover. Are they together in original story??? Pleeease say yes!
Thank you! We’re so happy you like our work, our volunteers are all amazing. We are confident that Keith was supposed to be gay, but because he’s a legacy character, the IP had some issues with that and it was cut out. This directly influenced Shiro’s arc and their relationship, and part of the edits included removing emotionally significant relationships between Shiro and the rest of the cast, so we can’t say for sure if they are a romantic endgame or not, sadly. What we do know is that their relationship–whatever form it takes–is significant to the original plot. After all, one of VLD’s major themes is love and all the different shapes it can take.
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For some reason I can’t see my original comment so if you can ignore this lol
Hi, I’m so happy that you guys are doing this you have no idea how much it means to me and the rest of the fan base. After s8 I was so hurt and confused, and when I read Leaking Hate’s start up meta (which was beautifully written and perfectly articulated what went wrong with s8 may I just add, kudos to you) everything that felt off about s8 made sense; the choppy fight scenes, the empty feeling of it as a whole, the anticipation of something coming but never actually receiving the pay off.
I’m so grateful you’re doing this reconstruction, I can’t stress that enough 🙂 I love the fact that you not only started the campaign for s8 and kept it respectful and civil but when you’ve still not gotten an answer you’ve just gone “well we can fix it ourselves and make it better!” Honestly like that’s such a better route because we aren’t even giving our money away to the ones who skimped us in the first place.
I do have some questions; firstly just what you mean by “ship neutral”, in the metas I’ve read from you it appears to me that in the original version Lotura would have had a reprieve and Pidge and Lance were hinted at having a relationship too (RIP Matt’s locks when they traded him in for Lance), if you’re making a reconstruction of what we missed wouldn’t those ships be in there anyway?
Secondly, I was just wondering whether there’s been any further responses/show of support from anyone affiliated with the show? Dreamworks, the IP holders, animation teams or VAs? Have any of the VAs (I’m mostly expecting AJ) responded to the reconstruction or made any further comment on anything?
Thank you if you answer my questions, and I just wanted to reiterate my thanks as well for all the effort and time you guys are putting into this, it’s so heartwarming and kind of you all.
Thank you so much! Hate really did an amazing job, and having someone so well-versed in animation and visual art was a godsend for our work, especially when it comes to actually reconstructing missing scenes.
We are so glad you appreciate our efforts to keep things civil. We’ve all observed the bad behavior of various factions of the VLD fandom throughout the show’s airing, and we knew from experience that even a whiff of that sort of thing would get us dismissed out of hand. It was tempting at times, but we take great pride in having tackled this protest in an above-board and logical manner. We wouldn’t have been able to get where we are without the support of the fandom, and this fandom was already severely fractured by drama prior to the Season 8 disaster. What we were asking people to listen to seemed far fetched and too outrageous to be possible; if we wanted them to give us a chance to make our case, we needed to approach this with integrity.
And regarding ships, we’re so glad you asked! We respectfully abstain from commenting on any of the endgame relationships in the original final season of VLD, since our primary goal has been campaigning for the original Season 8 irrespective of any endgame romantic relationships. That’s really all “ship neutral” means in our work. The fandom has a tumultuous history regarding relationships, to say the least, and due to the way the content was excised or edited we would rather the original seasons speak for themselves than risk dividing the fandom. It also keeps us focused on the edits done to the seasons and discuss the literary elements of VLD as they are in the original, unaltered product. As a result, Rise and Atone isn’t a true reconstruction regarding endgame romances, though it will satisfy all necessary arcs and conflicts. Season 8 left many fans hurt. Our ultimate goal with Rise and Atone is to provide an alternate narrative that runs as close to the original as possible while also providing closure to all fans. To do this, we want to address the themes of redemption, positive queer representation, and found family, among others. Part of character development comes with interacting with other characters and there may be ship-like interactions throughout the story as the characters learn and grow and develop, but in the end, we hope followers and fans will find a hopeful, open-ended resolution.
We also are using Rise and Atone as an educational tool; for each episode we plan (and have, so far) to deconstruct the decisions we make as well as the literary tropes and themes already existing in the canon material so that others may learn to recognize thematic structure both within VLD and in future media consumed.
Regarding staff commentary, no. They’re all bound to nondisclosure agreements about VLD for a while yet, and the name of our very group is a theme that was cut from the season. In the few times anybody has asked about the protests, the main comment is, “there is no alternate season”. In a sense, they are correct. The alternate season is what got published on December 14, 2018. What we have been campaigning for is the original. One thing that we’ve grown to appreciate since beginning our campaign is that the VLD staff are very deliberate in their choice of words, both in how they discuss the show in interviews, as well as the dialogue and narrative decisions in-show.
We’re very glad you commented! And thank you for the wonderful compliments!
Thank you so much for answering my questions 🙂 I thoroughly appreciate all the work you’ve all put into this and the fact you’ve made it educationally relevant too is astounding! Outside my love for VLD I’d relish watching this reconstruction and the commentary just for the amount of literary knowledge being imparted here!
I think the choice to keep it ship neutral is a really good call especially since if you do it well then this might be the only time in history where trying to make everybody happy may actually result in making everybody happy! Open endings to me are very rarely a bad thing when it’s done well and with respect to each character and the themes and messages of a show so I’m really looking forward to seeing what you’ve got in store!
Ah yes I did read and comment on your recent meta regarding recent events with the company and VLD news so I got up-to-date on things; it struck me at the time last year when they did respond they said that there’s no “alternate season” rather than using the exact terminology we’ve referred to it as, but the fact JDS’s statement was then comparing it to a conspiracy theory made me a little worried about pursuing the thought. So instead I distanced myself from it all, persuaded that I was crazy and just unhappy with the story ending. I actually rejoined the fandom now because I’d noticed people mentioning the “conspiracy theorists of s8” and I was curious to see what’s been said since last year and whether that statement was justified, seeing all the work you’ve done to ensure that it COULDN’T be dismissed as a conspiracy theory has been eye-opening and reignited my passion for it all.
Of course! We’re always glad to answer questions to the best of our abilities, and we’ve been over the moon at being able to talk with you! We’re so glad you appreciate the commentary, it’s always a joy to be able to talk about the technical side of the show, especially since it’s such a perfect storm of writing, animation, art, and music. Putting the pieces together was a massive learning experience for all of us, and being able to share that with the world is amazing.
And thank you! With so much that happened to the final season, reconciling those shredded plot points and presenting what once was became paramount to us. With the absolute mess of post-production edits, and the fact that the story structure is fundamentally different from most narratives, our primary objective has always been uncovering the truth. An open ending gives us the ability to focus on that, but we’re also able to (hopefully) give the fandom a good jumping off point should they want to envision their ships as endgame! I know the five of us enjoy envisioning our OTPs as they would be after a reconciliation and open ending, and no doubt others will, as well.
That’s a more than fair response, especially since at no point do Dos Santos or Montgomery explicitly lie about anything. They simply say enough of the truth while withholding or implying the remaining details. That’s the beauty of how they have been handling so much about not just the fallout of S8, but the teasing leading up to the original finale. It definitely takes some patience to sift through those interviews, though, but the rewards are well worth it. It’s awesome that you came back to the fandom! I know it’s not easy to come back to a fandom if the show hurts, but we’re glad that it piqued your curiosity and brought back your passion!
I like the scene with Pidge. This was how it should of been done