Saturday, November 9, 2024
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Team Purple Lion

#FREEVLDS8

Timeline of WEP’s Damage Control

12/13/18

  • Prior to the release of season 8, Executive Producers Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos posts melancholy art on their twitters.
  • The main Voltron twitter tweets “get a look at the production team’s take on the upcoming final season of Voltron Legendary Defender.”

12/14/18

  • Let’s Voltron 5th Anniversary Podcast is posted. The hosts ask WEP President Bob Koplar, the IP owner, his thoughts on the upcoming season. Bob Koplar says “Fans will definitely NOT be disappointed” and “I think people will be really pleased with the conclusion of the series.”
  • The edited eighth and final season of Voltron Legendary Defender is released onto Netflix and receives massive backlash.

 12/15/18

  • Fans begin to notice edits and suspect executive meddling.
  • Allison Bugenis starts the #FREEVLDS8 petition to release the original season 8 the showrunners envisioned.
  • Dealing with upset fans, Tyler Labine says on Instagram that the executive producers “aren’t always free to do things the way they want. There is always someone more powerful with lore control keeping the gates shut.”
  • In a SyFy Wire interview uploaded on YouTube, Lauren Montgomery says “Our visions weren’t the only visions going into this show.”

12/17/18

  • Ki Hyun Ryu, a supervising producer and storyboard artist, likes a fan’s post expressing their dislike over the ending.

 12/18/18

  • Leaking Hate posts the Chasing the Ghosts of Season 8 meta. It reveals Lotor did survive but scenes involving him were cut from season 8.
  • Call Voltron is created.

12/19/18

  • Free Voltron S8 is created.

12/21/18

  • Felix posts the Death of a Dark Youth meta. The meta unravels the original narrative of season 8 where Allura followed a heroine’s journey and lived in the end.

12/30/18

  • After two weeks of backlash, the main Voltron twitter abruptly posts the ending and goes silent for months.
  • The audio description misidentifying Curtis as Adam is fixed.

1/4/19-1/6/19

  • (SacAnime) Fans are banned from asking the voice actors questions about S8 at the panel.

2/7/19

  • Fans suspect WEP ordered changes to S8 and leave comments on the Voltron Store twitter.

2/13/19

  • Announcement of the Lion Forge comics not deviating from ‘canon’ and skipping to the end. WEP has a partnership with Lion Forge as mentioned in a Let’s Voltron podcast therefore has control over the direction the comics take. The announcement is updated. Lion Forge have not confirmed a story direction. Fans are angry at DreamWorks.
  • The Voltron Store twitter likes a tweet stating WEP owns the license and runs the store in a conversation about their meddling with the series and preventing their copyrighted characters from being gay. 

2/18/19

  • In an ABTV interview, the voice actor for Pidge says “I’m pretty sure like the toy company who owns the Voltron IP is like this show it’s for boys and their dads.” Afterwards, the voice actor retweets a comment from Leaking Hate Who tells them that some fans have connected the dots and know what is really going on.

2/19/19

  • Fans realize WEP edited the final season to pander to “boys and their dads” and sell merchandise. Petition is updated and the focus is on WEP. WEP is criticized for disregarding their female and LGBT+ audience.

2/23/19

  • The Voltron Store twitter likes a tweet telling fans to get on with their lives.
  • #TeamPurpleLion is formed. #TeamPurpleLion is a collective of analysts searching for the truth behind season 8. The team consists of Leaking Hate, Felix, Crystal Rebellion, Dragonofyang and Eliza_lynn.

2/25/19

  • The executive producers, obligated by their NDAs to do publicity, break silence and appear in a scripted ABTV interview intended to gaslight and discredit Crystal Rebellion’s colony meta and Felix’s heroine’s journey meta. When talking about Allura and making a promise to her voice actor, the executive producers say they have no control over what happens with Voltron and they would bring back Allura if they could. After the interview, fans are demoralized and angry at the executive producers.

2/26/19

  • Morning after the executive producers’ interview, the Voltron Store twitter tweet a link to a clip of Voltron giving a victory dance.

2/27/19

  • Tae Kwon Kim tweets about what he would change in season 8. He says Lance and Allura would not kiss, the paladins would try to stop Allura, and Lotor would be there in the final scene.

2/28/19

  • Crystal Rebellion posts a meta on S7E4 The Feud. It is about the meddling of the creative process. The logo of the game show is an anagram that spells out: World Events. It should be noted The Feud was one of the last episodes Tim Hedrick wrote before he left due to “pressure”.
  • The #FREEVLDS8 petition reaches 30k signatures. 

3/1/19

  • Several hours after the meta, the Voltron Store twitter, which has ignored complaints for months, releases a statement denying creative influence which is strange because the store is not once mentioned in the meta and the store claims it is not WEP and does not own the IP.

3/2/19

  • The Voltron Store twitter likes tweets of people saying they do not hold the IP over Voltron despite previously liking tweets stating WEP owns the license and runs the store, and tweets of fans apologizing for “death threats”.
  • Leaking Hate posts a 20k word comprehensive analysis on the edits of season 8.

3/3/19

  • Felix posts the Clear Day: Aftershock meta. It brings up last week’s ABTV interview. The host’s comment, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure all the battery Alteans are super dead because I don’t think anyone else found that moon” confirms Lotor and the colony plot was cut. 

3/4/19  

  • The Voltron Store twitter blocks Felix after posting the meta and calling them out for feigning death threats and trying to launch a smear campaign against people who advocate peacefulness in their protest.
  • The audience rating for season 8 on Rotten Tomatoes hits 6%.
  • A hurt fan who was contacted by ABTV Host Megan Salinas posts their direct messages. The host told the fan the executive producers are not to blame and they know what happens behind the scenes.
  • In the final ABTV interview, the executive producers state several times“other controlling parties” besides DreamWorks interfered with the show and LGBT+ representation.

3/7/19  

  • The Voltron YouTube channel posts the season 6 clip with Lotor in it.

3/12/19

  • A few Justice for Allura fans receive letters from Bob Koplar. He states he entrusted DreamWorks and the executive producers with the show. These letters were sent on March 1, before the second ABTV interview where that was discovered not to be the case.
  • #TeamPurpleLion posts an analysis of the recent interview revealing the IP owner ordered to cut a MLM romance involving Keith from season 8.

 3/13/19

  • For the first time, the Voltron Store twitter replies to individual comments. They contradict themselves, telling a fan who asked for a special edition S8 DVD they only sell merchandise, but telling another fan S3-S6 DVDs will be released in June.

3/15/19

  • A fan creates a poll in response to Bob Koplar’s letter in which he states “Allura’s sacrifice was the greatest honor the writers could bestow upon her character.” In 24 hours, it gets 2100+ votes with 96% disagreeing.
  • Call Voltron starts the hashtag #vlds8reviews and posts reviews from hurt fans.

3/18/19

  • Felix tweets about the Dynamite Voltron comic, pointing out the hypocrisy of WEP approving graphic depictions of M/F sex in a comic for teens but censoring a MLM romance in Voltron Legendary Defender. 

3/19/19

  • A customer comments on the Voltron Store Facebook expressing their dissatisfaction with customer service and that an employee had hung up on them when they called.

3/20/19

  • WEP accuses the customer of lying and claims they talked to an imposter despite providing proof they called the phone number listed on their website.

3/21/19  

  • A fan who received a phone call from Bob Koplar tweets a summary of their conversation. The fan says he told them everyone was shocked by the negative response despite the fandom’s reaction to the leaks two months before S8.

3/27/19

  • Dragonofyang posts a meta on non-disclosure agreements. It is about how the executive producers are legally obligated to do as their contracts say which means participating in interviews.

 3/28/19

  • Let’s Voltron podcast with the executive producers is posted. The executive producers say “I don’t know if it’s owned by World Events, but they still have a say in the creative direction.”

3/29/19

  • Dragonofyang posts a transcript of the February 25th ABTV interview.

3/30/19

  • A transcript of the March 4th ABTV interview is posted.

4/2/19

  • A transcript of the March 28th Let’s Voltron Podcast interview is posted.

4/5/19

  • A fan who reached WEP Managing Director posts their conversation. She agrees with the fan that there was content cut from S8 and a special edition S8 DVD would sell, but cannot say who is in charge of that decision.
  • Announcement for the release of the S3-S6 DVD. There is still no information about the release of a S7-S8 DVD which indicates possible conflict between DreamWorks and WEP.