Earlier this week, Voltron: Legendary Defender Joaquim Dos Santos posted an open letter to the Voltron fandom several days after the release of the series’ seventh season. In the letter, Dos Santos acknowledged the controversy surrounding Adam, Shiro’s ex-boyfriend who briefly appeared in season seven. Following the season premiere, fans expressed anger and hurt in regard to LGBTQ representation on the show, and how things ultimately played out for the character.

“I’d like to say that we created this version of Voltron with the intent of being as inclusive as possible within the boundaries given,” Dos Santos wrote. “Are there still boundaries? Well, for this type of action adventure/product driven/traditionally boys toys” show the answer is unfortunately yes.”

[Warning: Spoilers for season seven of Voltron: Legendary Defender ahead.]

Season seven introduces Adam through a flashback in which he and Shiro argue about the Kerberos mission. After Shiro laments the fact that his superiors are trying to prevent him from going on the mission due to his illness, Adam sides with the Garrison rather than his boyfriend. He leaves after effectively ending their relationship, telling Shiro: “If you decide to go, don’t expect me to be here when you come back.”

After leaving Earth in the Blue Lion and going on to lead Voltron, Shiro doesn’t return to Earth for several years. Adam’s ultimatum eventually comes true: when Shiro eventually does return to Earth, he discovers that Adam died while attempting to defend the Garrison base from the first wave of Galra cruisers.

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Although Adam only briefly appeared in the seventh season, his death was the source of major controversy in the fandom. Fans accused the Voltron crew of queerbaiting and invoking the “bury your gays” trope. Queerbaiting refers to the phenomenon of shows and movies hinting at the possibility of a queer relationship, but ultimately refusing to make the relationship romantic. The “bury your gays” trope refers to queer characters being killed off for shock value and/or to further the development of a more central character.

Some Voltron: Legendary Defender fans argue that Adam’s death was indicative of both of these tropes, arguing that they had been baited by cover images for the series that seemed to suggest a reunion between Shiro and Adam. Others argued that revealing that Shiro was gay at the series’ SDCC panel build up significant excitement only to lead to disappoint in the series and a lack of reference to Shiro and Adam being in a relationship in the series. In addition, many fans believed that Adam’s death perpetuated the “bury your gays” trope given that he was introduced to the series and killed within the season.

In an open letter to the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom, showrunner Joaquim Dos Santos addressed the fandom’s responses to Adam’s death in addition to highlighting some of the boundaries that still exist in representation today. “If anyone for any reason took away from this season that our intention was to queer bait the VLD fandom I’d like to personally apologize. I can only speak to our intent and I can truly say we did not intend to bait anyone. I know that is not any consolation but it is the truth,” he wrote.

Dos Santos further explained that purpose of Adam’s character in relation to Shiro was to first establish Shiro’s sexual orientation and also demonstrate that Shiro was already managing other conflicts prior to his departure on the Kerberos mission and subsequent capture by the Galra. This is an idea that both Dos Santos and fellow executive producer Lauren Montgomery expressed when we interviewed them about season 7.

In addition, Adam’s sacrifice was meant to heighten the stakes of the Galra invasion of Earth as simply as possible — recognizing a face among those who died in Sendak’s initial attack drove the gravity of the situation home.

“We were aware of the ‘bury your gays’ trope but hoped against hope that our struggle to confirm Shiro’s orientation would take center stage here,” Dos Santos wrote. “We crafted this entire series around the themes of sacrifice and loss and at the end of the day have to take responsibility for our creative decisions.”

Acknowledging the emotional response of the fandom, Dos Santos also expressed that he intended for Shiro’s reveal to be a moment of positivity amongst a war-torn season.

“There is no way for me to take away the hurt some of you have felt with the loss of Adam and from a bigger perspective how we fumbled a potentially larger positive social message,” he wrote. “The fact that there is a vocal audience demanding for the conversation to be pushed farther and faster is ultimately an incredibly positive thing and a lesson we’ll take moving forward.”