Voltron: Legendary Defender: I Say Volt, and You Say Tron! Volt! Voltron?
June 13, 2016 9:00 AM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe

Five unlikely paladins find themselves piloting giant robotic lions with the power to join together into the mecha-robot, Voltron. Tasked with saving the galaxy, they are forced to overcome their own pasts and limitations if they have any hope of defeating Emperor Zarkon and his Galra Empire.

For more information on Voltron: Legendary Defender, check out the front page post!
posted by Atreides (13 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Overall, I liked toys quote s a bit. It's not at the level of Avatar, but it's still decent, with a ratcheting up of the drama from early episodes to the cliffhanger finale.

Liked:
More women in the cast
The effects work
The fact that these are not Earth's best and brightest here.
The peanut conversation.
That Allura has more of an active leadership role here
The fact that the Paladins are completely outmatched by the villains. Add in, even a nameless druid kicks a hero around.

Disliked:
Only one person of color
Lance. Just....Lance.
Coran annoyes me.
posted by happyroach at 10:01 AM on June 13, 2016


OH MY GOD YOU GUYS THEY ARE GOING TO ASSEMBLE VOLTRON!!!1!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:09 AM on June 13, 2016 [3 favorites]


I'm about halfway through the season. The level of animation production definitely screams "Here are lessons we learned from Korra!" from the fight choreography to the painted backgrounds. The result is some impressive and beautiful animation, and arguably, they're melding the CGI a little better into the other stuff than Korra did.

The only thing that's really dragged me down on for production purposes....the music. When Voltron forms, it should be exciting...and while there's a little bit of a build up, the result if a lot of fizzling out. The opening score is just a bit plain and distinctly unmemorable. Maybe I'm spoiled from Jeremy Zuckerman, but the music just ain't really there half the time.
posted by Atreides at 1:41 PM on June 13, 2016


I haven't watched this yet beyond the first couple minutes of the first episode, but the Korra pedigree is enough to get me to check it out (along with the fact that Voltron was my absolute favorite cartoon as a kid). On the music front, that's disappointing. Is the original theme tune referenced anywhere?
posted by Kosh at 1:44 PM on June 13, 2016


I think the new theme may be trying to riff on the old...but not very well.
posted by Atreides at 2:48 PM on June 13, 2016


There's definitely more than one character of color, Shiro is Japanese but I don't think we're meant to read Hunk, Lance, or Keith as white either - I believe Lauren Montgomery has talked about this in interviews. I also found it cool that a lot of the cast is voice actors of color.

Anyway, it was fun, a solid B show for me. The humor was cute, the animation was gorgeous, the cast is super appealing. But all of it could be a little better overall, you know? They covered a lot of ground in only 11 episodes, and since Netflix does that weird thing with kid shows where season 1 is only half of what the first season would actually be, fingers crossed we get more later in the year and it goes deeper.

(I keep thinking "it's a kid's show, they'd never actually go there" wrt Pidge being trans or nonbinary, but these guys brought us Korrasami so...????!!!)
posted by ariadne's threadspinner at 3:14 PM on June 13, 2016 [2 favorites]


I was amused at the battle where they formed Voltron and the blazing sword right away...and it didn't go so well.
posted by Pryde at 9:33 PM on June 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


I really really don't want Pidge to be trans because there are so few women characters still. I want one of the other coded-male characters to be trans - Shiro would be a good choice in my head for some reason.

I love Rhys Darby, but I keep expecting Flight of the Conchords lines or sing-a-longs to suddenly happen when Coran speaks because his voice is so distinct. A musical episode would be interesting.....
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 3:23 AM on June 14, 2016


I'll admit that I haven't seen the 80s cartoon for a long time, but I do remember Lance being my favorite character, skeptical and sarcastic and hot-headed and skilled. In the new version they seen to have made him both the least skeptical and the least skilled, and he's been characterized as a worthless buffoon. The little kid in me feels betrayed. It's like they gave Keith's old personality to Shiro, and Lance's old personality to Keith, and Lance got the personality of season 1 Sokka. Maybe he gets better later (like Sokka). I don't know. But the original didn't have a ("good guy") character so completely without virtue and I don't understand why that was done with Lance.
posted by OnSecondThought at 9:23 AM on June 15, 2016


I love Rhys Darby, but I keep expecting Flight of the Conchords lines or sing-a-longs to suddenly happen when Coran speaks because his voice is so distinct. A musical episode would be interesting.....

I was wondering where I knew that voice.

I'll admit that I haven't seen the 80s cartoon for a long time, but I do remember Lance being my favorite character, skeptical and sarcastic and hot-headed and skilled. In the new version they seen to have made him both the least skeptical and the least skilled, and he's been characterized as a worthless buffoon.

I think Lance is pretty much the same as you described and is one of the more fleshed out characters. He may be one of the most heroic characters on the show so far, given him saving Coran's life and nearly losing his own. That's a level of courage that not all the other characters have really had a chance to display so far (I'm 2/3rds through).

I'm really enjoying my slow progression through the new season. Thoughts: Is it just me or does there appear to be some Evangelion influence? Zarkon looks like the little brother of Unit 01 and the Galra Monster just screamed Angel in how it moved, appeared, and fought.

I loved that they gave these rock-type people, who one could easily expect to be somewhat savage and primitive based on their appearance, a speaking pattern similar to classical theater/Shakespeare. That was a nice touch.

There are a couple instances where I felt like the writers included dialogue, almost always with Shiro, where you feel as if they're talking to the critical member of the audience, "Why don't they do that?! Don't they know that's a trap!?" What with Shiro saying things, "Obviously, it's a trap, but...." and what have you.

Allura continues to be an awesome female leader.
posted by Atreides at 9:42 AM on June 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


Quintessence means orgones, right?
posted by chrchr at 8:45 PM on June 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


We (46, 36 and 4) are loving watching this and are on Season 4 so far. I love Pidge.

Now I think I can possibly introduce kiddo to A:TLA.
posted by jillithd at 3:12 PM on March 4, 2018


I finished season 1&2 and it's really great! The magic of a giant robot made of robot lions combined with memorable characters and decent plotting kept me watching. Onto season 3!
posted by numaner at 5:09 PM on September 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


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