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.
By Anya Crittenton – Full Story at Gay Star News
I respectfully disagree. Here’s the thing: we want gay characters to be treated like everyone else, and when they are, people get upset. Adam died. It happens to people. It didn’t happen because he was gay. It didn’t diminish the relationship he and Shiro had. Shiro lives. He can love again. We can’t always have the happily ever after when it comes to LGBTQ relationships. I think it’s troublesome that we hold LGBTQ relationships to a different standard than non-LGBTQ ones just because other writers in the past have mistreated their diverse characters. It’s not a Bury Your Gays trope, not to me anyway. It’s a life thing. It just happened that Adam was gay. If 1 out of 10 people are, then it’s bound to happen that someone is gay and someone will die. Adam wasn’t a developed character, but it DID establish that (1) Shiro is gay and (2) everyone at the academy knew about Shiro and Adam being together and no one had an issue. They existed in a world where homophobia isn’t part of the culture. In that case, it just means that Adam had the unfortunate circumstance to die because it provides a dramatic thread for Shiro who may very well mourn next season (whenever that happens) or not. Not everyone gets to say goodbye, either. It’s upsetting. It’s part of life. I prefer to see the positives here: Shiro is an established gay character in the Voltron mythos; Shiro had a loving relationship; people knew and it was perfectly okay in that story universe. As a gay man, I am fine with how things worked out. There’s drama in every storyline.