History YMMV / VoltronLegendaryDefender

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** In the weeks preceding the release of Season 4, the official Voltron page released a series of promotional vlogs of the various heroes recapping their adventures in space. Keith's in particular deals with a lot of his emotional hangups and acknowledgement of his flaws, as well as gives him a few moments of levity; this seemingly addressed the various criticisms of the character, many of which are described [[BaseBreakingCharacter below]].
** [[WordOfGod Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery]] confirmed at ECCC 2018 that Keith would return to Team Voltron in Season 6, satisfying many fans who were disappointed with him being OutOfFocus in Seasons 4 and 5 due to him being in the Blade of Marmora. Indeed, Keith appears in all but two episodes of Season 6.
** At SDCC 2018, the creators confirmed that Seasons 7 and 8 would have 13 episodes instead of 6-7 episodes like Season 3-6, satisfying many fans who were disappointed with the reduced number of episodes for the previous four seasons.[[note]]It probably helped that they knew full well how furious the fans would be if one season ended with a declaration that they were heading back to Earth, and the next ended with them ''only just arriving there''.[[/note]]
** After many were incensed at Shiro's downplayed homosexuality and his boyfriend suffering a quick BuryYourGays in Season 7, [[spoiler:the very last scene of the series lets us know he did end up in a happy relationship with another man, whom he ''kisses onscreen''. For the crew members who'd previously worked on ''The Legend of Korra'' this is doubly meaningful after the network execs wouldn't allow the same in that show's final shot.]] However, it's debatable whether this actually worked; many would argue that, disregarding bitterness over ShipSinking, the way it was handled introduces as many issues as it fixes.
** On similar note to the Shiro example, Season 8 brings back [[spoiler:Ezor and Zethrid]] and gives them a better ending, after they had previously [[spoiler:seemed to be killed off in the same episode that implied they were a couple, adding to the show's bad reputation on LGBT issues.]] This also addressed the backlash they received that their RelationshipUpgrade coincided with them becoming DepravedHomosexual, as [[spoiler: Zethrid and Ezor]] both perform a HeelFaceTurn explicitly due to their love for each other. Similarly to the above Shiro example though, it's debatable whether it actually worked due to being so obviously last-minute that the edits to accommodate it become jarring, and hinges on [[spoiler: Ezor]] doing a [[OutOfCharacter complete 180]] from her last appearance.

** [[TheEvilPrince Prince Lotor]] is the handsome, charismatic son of Zarkon and Honerva. Returning when his father is incapacitated, Lotor uses his charisma to win the [[Characters/VoltronLegendaryDefenderGalraEmpire Galra]] to his side and proves a deadly enemy of [[Characters/VoltronLegendaryDefenderTeamVoltron Voltron]] with his brilliance. Even when Zarkon awakens, Lotor changes gears to ally with Voltron, eventually killing his father and becoming the new head of Galra. Manipulating the Paladins, it is eventually revealed Lotor has preserved the Altean race, albeit while harvesting some for their Quintessence, leading to a massive confrontation. Despite his evil actions, even Allura acknowledges Lotor's [[WellIntentionedExtremist good intent]] in the end, and he remains one of Voltron's most utterly brilliant and capable adversaries.

** Related to DieForOurShip above: Adam has only shown up in a flashback for one scene in one episode, and has already garnered a nasty hatedom for getting angry with Shiro because [[spoiler:the latter insisted on going to Kerberos, which led to them breaking up]]. Because of this, their relationship has been labelled "toxic", or Adam himself has been accused of being a BastardBoyfriend. Even though it was confirmed he and Shiro were a happy couple beforehand, and it was understandable that he would react in such a way, knowing that [[spoiler:his boyfriend had an incurable degenerative disease with only a few years of good health remaining]]. Inversely, some Adam fans portray Shiro as an abusive and irresponsible partner for choosing to break up with him, pinning the blame for [[spoiler:Adam's death]] on him directly.

** The [[BrokenBase age discourse]] didn't stop ''everyone'', but it did put a large dent into people shipping Shiro with the other Paladins after it was revealed Shiro was an adult and the rest of the cast were somewhere in their teens. Subsequently a massive abandonment of the Shiro/Allura ship occurred after Wondercon 2017 when it was confirmed that Allura was also a teenager. After Matt Holt was introduced into the show proper, an abandonment of the Shiro/Matt ship also occurred due to potential implications that he was also a teenager.

** A stock plot in Voltron fanfiction is for Lance to be the victim of [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer bullying and mistreatment]] from one or more of the other paladins, and for him to angst over it until he impresses them into having a HeelRealization, winning their respect from then on. It's so widespread that the term "[[FanNickname Langst]]" was coined to describe such fics.

** Some "[[FandomSpecificPlot Langst]]" fics give most of the paladins (often excluding [[NiceGuy Hunk]]) this in regards to their treatment of Lance, exaggerating their tendency to dismiss or get annoyed with him into them being straight-up verbally abusive bullies who treat Lance as TheFriendNobodyLikes so the fic can give him something to angst about. Granted, these fics do at least usually have them [[JerkassRealization learn]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone their]] [[WasTooHardOnHim lesson]] and [[TookALevelInKindness get better]] by the end of the story.

** It's incredibly obvious that the plot of Season 8's "The Grudge" was changed at the last minute as an attempt at an AuthorsSavingThrow to what was once another case of BuryYourGays. Between [[spoiler:Zethrid's dialogue and motives better fitting that of a CrusadingWidower, audio descriptions of the episode referring to scenes with Ezor as being of a similar-looking male alien and suggesting that the scene of Acxa explaining Ezor and Zethrid's breakup to the audience originally being of Zethrid attempting to kill Shiro in revenge, Ezor's one spoken line clearly having been done by a stand-in and awkwardly run through an audio filter to hide the fact, and the extreme brevity of Zethrid and Ezor's reconciliation at the end]], they don't do a good job of hiding that [[spoiler:Ezor]] was hastily edited back in at the last second.

* UncannyValley: In Season 3, Shiro seems a little "off", which fans some fans viewed as evidence of the theory that he's actually a clone of the real Shiro. [[spoiler:Which incidentally turns out to be true]]. Later seasons have him drawn less OffModel.

** It's very commonplace for fandom to [[JustForFun/SurprisinglySimilarCharacters compare]] and make crossovers between Shiro and the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse version of ComicBook/BuckyBarnes (whom Joaquim Dos Santos acknowledged the similarities to) or [[Comicbook/{{Robin}} post-Red Hood Jason Todd]] (who shares his [[LockedIntoStrangeness shock of white hair]] and also happens to be an AlternateCompanyEquivalent of Bucky). In Season 3 of WesternAnimation/YoungJustice, Red Hood appears and is voiced by Creator/JoshKeaton. Meanwhile, the Bucky jokes got even funnier in season 3 when Shiro shows up looking SeriouslyScruffy and very similar to the Winter Soldier, and downright hilarious as of season 6 where Shiro's major subplot is directly lifted from the climax of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''.

** Particularly, the other big source of fandom fighting is over the divide in interpretations of Keith and Shiro's relationship, due to the show's enormous FriendshipWritingFumble of the two. Though the show officially treats them as TrueCompanions, using the term "brothers" allegorically, a vocal group of fans insist that the term is literal, claiming that Keith and Shiro are distantly blood-related or that Shiro adopted Keith into his family, and accusing other parts of the fandom of, again, being pro-[[IncestYayShipping incest]] or supporting child abuse for shipping them. This led to backlash from people who ship Keith/Shiro who, again, point out that the vast majority of this comes from people who ship Keith/Lance or its ShipMates, citing that the staff have already {{Jossed}} the most literal family interpretations and pointing out their {{Double Standard}}s in ignoring several instances of the show describing Keith and Lance as also brotherly. This variant of the eternal ship war, while narrower, can get even more vitriolic due to portions of ''both'' camps being aggressive against the broad middle ground, with those who lean one way but are tolerant of the other side, those who think both interpretations have a point, and those who view them as [[TakeAThirdOption neither]] but instead as [[HeterosexualLifePartners an intense but strictly friendship bond]], getting accused of CanonDefilement from ''multiple'' angles and dragged into one of the camps whether they want to or not.

** In the Eastern fandom, Shiro/Keith is the most popular ship, and even in the West is still easily Shiro's biggest ship. The pairing is also far bigger than Shiro's canon ships with his ex-boyfriend Adam or his endgame one with [[spoiler:Curtis]]. It helps that, unlike Lance, Shiro is canonicaly gay and that he and Keith have the closest relationship out of the whole group. The two also have a big case of FriendshipWritingFumble that leads to fans seeing them as more romantic than the creators necessarily meant them to.

* FriendshipWritingFumble: %%Do not remove this entry just because you personally ship/don't ship these two and dislike seeing different interpretations of the ship. For haters, it does not change the fact that a lot of the ship's popularity comes from this trope. For fans, just because a lot of the people who push the familial interpretation have ulterior motives does not mean that all of them do, and that their opinions aren't worth documenting.
** The exact nature of Keith and Shiro's relationship with each other. They're the closest of the main paladins, but because the show doesn't get around to explaining Keith's backstory until two thirds into the show, it's not clear for a long time exactly when or how they got to know each other and what kind of bond they shared, and whether it was friendship, familial, or something else. Of course there's the official WordOfGod-supported stance that the two are ''[[HeterosexualLifePartners very close friends]]''. At one point Krolia mentions Shiro having helped raise Keith, and he does have some (admitted by WordOfGod to be unintentional) resemblance to Keith's father, suggesting a ''fatherly'' role[[labelnote:Although...]]Given Keith's own extreme resemblance to his mother and certain other similarities with how his parents met, others interpret the resemblance as yet more HoYay of the GenerationXerox-induced LikeParentLikeSpouse kind[[/labelnote]]. However, this is contradicted by flashbacks which show Shiro as closer to a BigBrotherMentor instead, and Keith himself also describes Shiro on two separate occasions as ''brotherly'' (although more literal interpretations of those lines also received pushback from WordOfGod). Meanwhile, because up to that point the two share quite a lot of HoYay, because Shiro [[TheNotLoveInterest fulfills quite a few of the roles a love interest normally would]] towards Keith[[labelnote:Explanation]][[LivingEmotionalCrutch Shiro]] is the most important person to Keith, to the point that Keith becomes unhinged when he thinks Shiro might be dead. A lot of Keith's motivation throughout the series is protecting [[BadassInDistress Shiro]] and keeping him safe, [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl to the point of jeopardizing crucial missions against galactic threats on the off chance that Shiro could be harmed or leave him]]. At one point Keith makes an explicit DeclarationOfProtection towards Shiro under intimate circumstances, which Shiro acknowledges and accepts. Keith even prefers [[TogetherInDeath dying along with Shiro]] to the prospect of living on without him, and gives him a (admittedly platonic) AnguishedDeclarationOfLove. The show also compares and contrasts Shiro's relationship with Keith to his ex-boyfriend Adam[[/labelnote]], and because neither have any other viable love interests to speak of [[spoiler:aside from Shiro's LastMinuteHookup brought about by an AuthorsSavingThrow]], bolstered by Shiro being gay and thus IncompatibleOrientation not being an obstacle, others interpret them not as TheNotLoveInterest but as each other's ''ImpliedLoveInterest'' instead, despite the show's indications otherwise.
** After previous seasons established that Acxa and Keith shared some sort of unspoken bond (which fans originally interpreted as sisterly, motherly, or as a WorthyOpponent), Season 7 has a few moments of heavy ShipTease that appeared to suggest Acxa had romantic feelings for Keith, leading a lot of fans in the audience to believe that she was being set up as Keith's ImpliedLoveInterest. However nothing ever comes of it, and in fact the following season focuses much more heavily on her budding LesYay-heavy friendship with Veronica.

** Particularly, the other big source of fandom fighting is over the divide in interpretations of Keith and Shiro's relationship, due to the show's enormous RelationshipWritingFumble of the two. Though the show officially treats them as TrueCompanions, using the term "brothers" allegorically, a vocal group of fans insist that the term is literal, claiming that Keith and Shiro are distantly blood-related or that Shiro adopted Keith into his family, and accusing other parts of the fandom of, again, being pro-[[IncestYayShipping incest]] or supporting child abuse for shipping them. This led to backlash from people who ship Keith/Shiro who, again, point out that the vast majority of this comes from people who ship Keith/Lance or its ShipMates, citing that the staff have already {{Jossed}} the most literal family interpretations and pointing out their {{Double Standard}}s in ignoring several instances of the show describing Keith and Lance as also brotherly. This variant of the eternal ship war, while narrower, can get even more vitriolic due to portions of ''both'' camps being aggressive against the broad middle ground, with those who lean one way but are tolerant of the other side, those who think both interpretations have a point, and those who view them as [[TakeAThirdOption neither]] but instead as [[HeterosexualLifePartners an intense but strictly friendship bond]], getting accused of CanonDefilement from ''multiple'' angles and dragged into one of the camps whether they want to or not.

* RelationshipWritingFumble:
%% Do not remove this entry just because you personally ship/don't ship these two and dislike seeing different interpretations of the ship. For haters, it does not change the fact that a lot of the ship's popularity comes from this trope. For fans, just because a lot of the people who push the familial interpretation have ulterior motives does not mean that all of them do, and that their opinions aren't worth documenting.
** The exact nature of Keith and Shiro's relationship with each other. They're the closest of the main paladins, but because the show doesn't get around to explaining Keith's backstory until two thirds into the show, it's not clear for a long time exactly when or how they got to know each other and what kind of bond they shared, and whether it was friendship, familial, or something else. Of course there's the official WordOfGod-supported stance that the two are ''[[HeterosexualLifePartners very close friends]]''. At one point Krolia mentions Shiro having helped raise Keith, and he does have some (admitted by WordOfGod to be unintentional) resemblance to Keith's father, suggesting a ''fatherly'' role[[labelnote:Although...]]Given Keith's own extreme resemblance to his mother and certain other similarities with how his parents met, others interpret the resemblance as yet more HoYay of the GenerationXerox-induced LikeParentLikeSpouse kind[[/labelnote]]. However, this is contradicted by flashbacks which show Shiro as closer to a BigBrotherMentor instead, and Keith himself also describes Shiro on two separate occasions as ''brotherly'' (although more literal interpretations of those lines also received pushback from WordOfGod). Meanwhile, because up to that point the two share quite a lot of HoYay, and because Shiro [[TheNotLoveInterest fulfills quite a few of the roles a love interest normally would]] towards Keith[[labelnote:Explanation]][[LivingEmotionalCrutch Shiro]] is the most important person to Keith, to the point that Keith becomes unhinged when he thinks Shiro might be dead. A lot of Keith's motivation throughout the series is protecting [[BadassInDistress Shiro]] and keeping him safe, [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl to the point of jeopardizing crucial missions against galactic threats on the off chance that Shiro could be harmed or leave him]]. At one point Keith makes an explicit DeclarationOfProtection towards Shiro under intimate circumstances, which Shiro acknowledges and accepts. Keith even prefers [[TogetherInDeath dying along with Shiro]] to the prospect of living on without him, and gives him a (admittedly platonic) AnguishedDeclarationOfLove. The show also compares and contrasts Shiro's relationship with Keith to his ex-boyfriend Adam[[/labelnote]], and because neither have any other viable love interests to speak of [[spoiler:aside from Shiro's LastMinuteHookup brought about by an AuthorsSavingThrow]], bolstered by Shiro being gay and thus IncompatibleOrientation not being an obstacle, others interpret them not as TheNotLoveInterest but as each other's ''ImpliedLoveInterest'' instead, despite the show's indications otherwise.

* RelationshipWritingFumble:
%%Do not remove this entry just because you may not personally ship these two or even actively dislike the idea of pairing them together. It does not change the fact that a lot of the popularity of the ship is the product of this trope. Likewise just because a lot of the people who openly push the familial interpretation do so with ulterior motives, does not mean there isn't a portion who view it as familial in good faith.
** The exact nature of Keith and Shiro's relationship with each other. They're the closest of the main paladins, but because the show doesn't get around to explaining Keith's backstory until two thirds into the show, it's not clear for a long time exactly when or how they got to know each other and what kind of bond they shared, and whether it was friendship, familial, or something else. Of course there's the official WordOfGod-supported stance that the two are ''[[HeterosexualLifePartners very close friends]]''. At one point Krolia mentions Shiro having helped raise Keith, and he does have some (admitted by WordOfGod to be unintentional) resemblance to Keith's father, suggesting a ''fatherly'' role[[labelnote:Although...]]Given Keith's own extreme resemblance to his mother and certain other similarities with how his parents met, others interpret the resemblance as yet more HoYay of the GenerationXerox-induced LikeParentLikeSpouse kind[[/labelnote]]. However, this is contradicted by flashbacks which show Shiro as closer to a BigBrotherMentor instead, and Keith himself also describes Shiro on two separate occasions as ''brotherly'' (although that interpretation also receives some pushback from WordOfGod). Meanwhile, because up to that point the two share quite a lot of HoYay, because Shiro [[TheNotLoveInterest fulfills quite a few of the roles a love interest normally would]] towards Keith[[labelnote:Explanation]][[LivingEmotionalCrutch Shiro]] is the most important person to Keith, to the point that Keith becomes unhinged when he thinks Shiro might be dead. A lot of Keith's motivation throughout the series is protecting [[BadassInDistress Shiro]] and keeping him safe, [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl to the point of jeopardizing crucial missions against galactic threats on the off chance that Shiro could be harmed or leave him]]. At one point Keith makes an explicit DeclarationOfProtection towards Shiro under intimate circumstances, which Shiro acknowledges and accepts. Keith even prefers [[TogetherInDeath dying along with Shiro]] to the prospect of living on without him, and gives him a (admittedly platonic) AnguishedDeclarationOfLove. The show also compares and contrasts Shiro's relationship with Keith to his former lover[[/labelnote]], and because neither have any other viable love interests to speak of [[spoiler:aside from Shiro's LastMinuteHookup brought about by an AuthorsSavingThrow]], bolstered by Shiro being gay and thus IncompatibleOrientation not being an obstacle, others interpret them not as TheNotLoveInterest but as each other's ''ImpliedLoveInterest'' instead, despite the show's indications otherwise.
** After previous seasons established that Acxa and Keith shared some sort of unspoken bond (which fans originally interpreted as sisterly, motherly, or as a WorthyOpponent), Season 7 has a few moments of heavy ShipTease that appeared to suggest Acxa had romantic feelings for Keith, leading a lot of fans in the audience to believe that she was being set up as Keith's ImpliedLoveInterest. However nothing ever comes of it, and in fact the following season focuses much more heavily on her budding LesYay-heavy friendship with Veronica.

** Lance was generally well-liked at the start of the series due to being a humorous and relatable AudienceSurrogate with a surprising sensitive side, but a portion of fans ended up finding his antics obnoxious instead. While a lot of this abated with Lance's CharacterDevelopment, his rushed romance with [[spoiler:Allura]] earned a lot of hate for ShipToShipCombat reasons, and his aforementioned AudienceSurrogate aspects attracted an extremely vocal online fanbase who would frequently self-insert as Lance and [[FandomSpecificPlot bash other characters and harass their fans to elevate him]], ensuring he would remain one of the most divisive characters in the show. A large chunk of the Lance hatedom admit they actually like Lance himself just fine, and that a lot of their negativity is due to HypeBacklash from his extreme fans' behavior tainting him by association. That a lot of vocal Lance fandom is joined at the hip with Klance fandom, which has an equally infamous reputation for extreme belligerence, also contributes to Lance's divisiveness.

* FanPreferredCouple: In Eastern fandoms the most popular ship is Shiro/Keith, despite Shiro being ultimately paired with [[spoiler:Curtis]], whereas in the West, due to heavy ShipToShipCombat, the most popular pairing is Keith/Lance which overshadows Allura/Lance.

** Lance and Keith seem to be a favorite of the fanbase; often citing Keith's reaction following Lance getting hurt ("We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my arms!") and Lance's gazing up at Keith while admitting they make a good team as evidence. Naturally, all their fights are seen as sexual tension [[BelligerentSexualTension as a result]].

** Season 7 got a mixed reception after the highly acclaimed Season 6 due to a mixture of BuryYourGays, the Lion Swap returning with a vengeance, and a number of weaker episodes, with some blame thrown towards behind-the-scenes trouble and the show's producers taking tighter control.

* NeverLiveItDown: The entire fandom became known, or rather, infamously known, for its brutal ship wars, accusations of pedophilia towards and by shippers thrown all around, the age-discourse and threats towards the voice actors and writers. Infamously, one Klance shipper outright ''blackmailed'' the creators by refusing to take down pictures of storyboards from a tour of Creator/StudioMir that could have gotten them sued by ''Creator/{{DreamWorks|Animation}}'' unless Keith and Lance got together in-show. It has since become known as one of the most toxic fandoms around, together with ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', and ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}''.

** This was ''expected'' to be the case with Lotor/Allura, but while they have some fans who ship them along traditional enemy-shipping dynamics, expecting them to behave like previous continuities, the ship primarily took off due to their positive interactions after he claimed to be GoodAllAlong. [[spoiler:Until Lotor's FaceHeelTurn in Season 6]].

** This was ''expected'' to be the case with Lotor/Allura, but while they have some fans who ship them along traditional FoeYay dynamics, expecting them to behave like previous continuities, the ship primarily took off due to their positive interactions after he claimed to be GoodAllAlong. [[spoiler:Until Lotor's FaceHeelTurn in Season 6]].

** Brutal one between [[FoeYay Klance]] shippers and [[HoYay Sheith]] shippers; Some Klance fans accuse Sheith of being an abusive or [[UnequalPairing exploitative]] relationship and that its supporters are pedophiles due to the potential age difference between the two. Meanwhile some Sheith shippers accuse Klance fans of overreacting and argue that Keith makes more sense with Shiro because they have a friendlier and therefore healthier relationship. [[HilariousInHindsight Echoes]] of the infamous ''[[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar]]'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Korra]]'' ship wars, down to the same relationship dynamics at play for some of the pairings, come to mind, appropriately enough.

** It's very commonplace for fandom to [[JustForFun/SurprisinglySimilarCharacters compare]] and make crossovers between Shiro and the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse version of ComicBook/BuckyBarnes (whom Joaquim Dos Santos acknowledged the similarities to) or [[Comicbook/{{Robin}} post-Red Hood Jason Todd]] (who shares the skunk stripe and also happens to be an AlternateCompanyEquivalent of Bucky). In Season 3 of WesternAnimation/YoungJustice, Red Hood appears and is voiced by Creator/JoshKeaton. Meanwhile, the Bucky jokes got even funnier in season 3 when Shiro shows up looking SeriouslyScruffy and very similar to the Winter Soldier, and downright hilarious as of season 6 where Shiro's major subplot is directly lifted from the climax of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''.

** It's very commonplace for fandom to [[JustForFun/SurprisinglySimilarCharacters compare]] and make crossovers between Shiro and the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse version of ComicBook/BuckyBarnes (whom Joaquim Dos Santos acknowledged the similarities to) or [[Comicbook/{{Robin}} post-Red Hood Jason Todd]] (who shares the SkunkStripe and also happens to be an AlternateCompanyEquivalent of Bucky). In Season 3 of WesternAnimation/YoungJustice, Red Hood appears and is voiced by Creator/JoshKeaton. Meanwhile, the Bucky jokes got even funnier in season 3 when Shiro shows up looking SeriouslyScruffy and very similar to the Winter Soldier, and downright hilarious as of season 6 where Shiro's major subplot is directly lifted from the climax of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''.

** The show has had quite the intensely vocal fandom, and after the massively unpopular [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]] [[ShipSinking ship-shattering]] finale, an equally vocal hatedom to boot. Most viewers believe that it had a strong start with an intriguing take on the original premise, likable characters, well-done, dynamic animation for hand-to-hand combat sequences, and engaging plot hooks. Later seasons proved more divisive due to an increase in mature storytelling and themes but also debatable underuse of the mecha and WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants leading to unfulfilling arc resolutions and meandering plot points. However, those who did not watch the show [[JustHereForGodzilla with a concern for]] {{Shipping}} generally believe that while it squandered a lot of potential, aside from the poorly-received final season the show on the whole is also nowhere as terrible as a lot of the backlash would have you believe.

** Bringing up the Keith/Allura pairing (which was the OfficialCouple of the old continuity) is one way to make Keith/Lance, Shiro/Keith, and Shiro/Allura shippers all act hysterical. Some
have even labeled Keith/Allura a heteronormative ship while excusing Shiro/Allura [[DoubleStandard even though both are heterosexual pairings, in the latter case involving a confirmed gay man]]. Meanwhile, many Keith/Allura fans tend to be vocally opposed to these other ships on principle and accuse them of [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks constituting franchise heresy]].

** The show's lack of any continuation or expansion post-controversial S8 finale has been blamed on all manner of EpilepticTrees, such as the creators' fear of reprisal from the fanbase, a punishment from WEP licensees for altering the characters in ways they disapproved of, or poor merchandise sales. An interview panel from the show's voice actors in 2021 revealed that they had indeed planned to make a continuation to the show including at least one sequel film, but Hulu's acquisition of DWA early in 2018 forcing them to terminate their contract with Netflix early, preventing them from making any more content.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: During a training exercise, Lance briefly morphs his Bayard into a longsword, letting him cut down a group of drones in one swing. It gets him some compliments and exposition from Allura for its symbolism, but it never shows up again, and he stays a purely ranged fighter for the remainder of the series, although he is briefly seen using the sword when battling King Alfor's spirit within Honerva's mind during "Knights of Light, Part 1".

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Moments of comedy or awesomeness earlier on can lead to much darker echoes later in the show:
** Keith piloting Black to save Shiro is a moment of awesome in Season 2, as Keith quietly and respectfully requests Black's help and the Lion agrees to work with him. Cue Season 3, and Keith is ''begging'' Black not to power up in response to his presence, as that means he has no choice but to assume Shiro's role. Unfortunately for Keith, once again, Black wakes up.
** Lance's "jealous boyfriend" moments over Blue, declaring them "best buds for life, for real!" and telling Keith to keep his hands off Blue as she and Lance are "very happy together!" become devastating when Blue locks Lance out in Season 3 to take Allura on as her pilot, and then (in Lance's opinion) proceeds to co-operate more fully with Allura than she did with her Earthling pilot. It's mixed with irony too, as Keith didn't take Lance's Lion... but Lance took over Keith's.

* HarsherInHindsight:

** While Adam's death was a firestorm in its own right, the controversy it caused wound up being the tip of a greater iceberg due to being indirectly responsible for the show's AudienceAlienatingEnding. The original finale was intended to be much more open-ended, [[PanderingToTheBase but in order to appease fans who were upset at Adam's death, it was changed to show Shiro conclusively marrying and kissing another man]]. While it had [[BrokenBase heavily mixed reception]], the knock-on effects for the endings of the other characters in order to accomodate it ended up being widely disliked on the whole, even by fans who had less strong opinions on Adam.

* AudienceAlienatingEnding: The finale is loathed by a majority of the fanbase for many reasons including [[spoiler:killing off TheWoobie Allura out of left field in a DiabolusExMachina, teasing the return of Lotor only to reveal he was DeadAllAlong when many viewed him as a complex and sympathetic villain who hadn't been utilized to the extent they had hoped, Honerva becoming a KarmaHoudini who gets everything she wanted and is EasilyForgiven for nearly destroying the multiverse in a fit of rage, and for many of the main characters' fates, especially Lance who inexplicably acquires Altean traits and drops all of his established ambitions to [[TheMourningAfter pine after Allura]] for the foreseeable future, and Shiro who marries an extremely minor crewmate whom he barely interacted with as a hamfisted attempt at an AuthorsSavingThrow for the way they handled the situation with [[BuryYourGays Adam]]]]. A lot of fans refuse to watch the last episode or the last season in general out of distaste for what happens in the finale. Not even a later WordOfGod confirmation that [[spoiler:Allura was not truly dead]] could stem the controversy, as the same source of that confirmation also involved the executive producers [[DearNegativeReader acting openly dismissive towards the outraged fanbase]]. Although one of the creators, Joaquin Dos Santos, apologized on Twitter due to the nature of her death, it was overshadowed because it took over 2 years after the finale's release for any acknowledgement of the backlash, much less an official apology.

*** WordOfGod revealed that the poorly-received epilogues for the main characters were created as a [[ForWantOfANail direct result of the decision to give Shiro the above scene]], and that the original ending was supposed to be much more open in regard to the paths each of them took in their lives. Given that a common complaint about the epilogues were the sense that the heroes became TheFriendsWhoNeverHang (resulting in a BrokenAesop over the show's core themes), and that they led to more pessimistic readings of [[spoiler:Allura's sacrifice, which was intended to leave the possibility of her return open]], it's likely that a significant portion of the backlash and poor fan reception over the finale could have been avoided if they kept the original ending, causing it to actually backfire.

* EndingAversion: The finale is loathed by a majority of the fanbase for many reasons including [[spoiler:killing off TheWoobie Allura out of left field in a DiabolusExMachina, teasing the return of Lotor only to reveal he was DeadAllAlong when many viewed him as a complex and sympathetic villain who hadn't been utilized to the extent they had hoped, Honerva becoming a KarmaHoudini who gets everything she wanted and is EasilyForgiven for nearly destroying the multiverse in a fit of rage, and for many of the main characters' fates, especially Lance who inexplicably acquires Altean traits and drops all of his established ambitions to [[TheMourningAfter pine after Allura]] for the foreseeable future, and Shiro who marries an extremely minor crewmate whom he barely interacted with as a hamfisted attempt at an AuthorsSavingThrow for the way they handled the situation with [[BuryYourGays Adam]]]]. A lot of fans refuse to watch the last episode or the last season in general out of distaste for what happens in the finale.

** Season 8, [[EndingAversion the final one]] has a reception that is almost entirely negative. Between extremely messy treatment of most of its characters, the deaths of [[spoiler: Allura and Lotor]] (the former for being poorly set-up and needlessly depressing, the latter for being needlessly gruesome and killing an UnintentionallySympathetic character), the poor quality of a number of other episodes, a very obviously [[ExecutiveMeddling last-minute]] DistantFinale that left many baffled, it's little wonder its audience score is so low. An attempted AuthorsSavingThrow for the above BuryYourGays instance largely didn't work, especially in a year that included the finale of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' and the wedding special of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''.

** The creators, when speaking of Lotor, claimed that he wasn't a character who could get a redemption arc, and people [[DracoInLeatherPants forgot he was a villain.]] It's true that Lotor was hardly a saint; he tried to kill hundreds in the name of accomplishing his plans and deceived Allura, the woman he loved, to make it happen. But he was also a ChildOfTwoWorlds who had sympathy for both, a VisionaryVillain who had a genuinely good end goal, was an ally to the protagonists for half of his appearances, and a survivor of an abusive family. Allura tells him to his face that he's [[OverlordJr just like his father]], which seems undeserved as his father's motives were truly selfish and he killed far more people. And when [[spoiler:Honerva, his mother,]] gets redeemed while still living despite her attempt to [[spoiler:''destroy the universe'' in a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum]], it makes the claim that Lotor was beyond saving seem even more myopic. His final fate and [[spoiler:FamilyUnfriendlyDeath]], which the creators actually laughed while discussing, came across as bizarrely cruel when far worse villains got redeemed or at least died with dignity.

* FanPreferredCouple: For better or worse, Keith/Lance, or "Klance", is by far the most popular ship in the fandom.