Voltron: Legendary Defender

As you may or may not know, the fifth season of the latest Voltron adaptation has recently been released on Netflix. I will be the first to admit that I love this show to bits, but does it deliver on the hype? Of course, this up to the individual to decide, but I hope to throw in my own opinions on this matter.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a longtime fan of this franchise and have only watched a portion of another Voltron series. I am not familiar with all of the lore, so this will be mostly ignored in my analysis. This analysis may ALSO include spoilers, and I will do my best to warn you when spoilers arise, but please be cautious that something might get spoiled for you.

The writing: I personally love the writing in this show. I won’t lie and portray it as some mind blowing or artistic style, but it is easily understandable and can easily adapt to different moods for different scenes. I do have a problem with the show’s pacing, but I will not elaborate on that until the story section.

The characters: Now, how can I say this in a way that doesn’t come across as ultimate fangirl? Y’know what? You came for my opinion, and I’m gonna give it. I love the characters… most of the time. Let me explain. I find almost every character enjoyable to watch and can easily root for them. The main cast has distinct personalities and I just can’t get enough of them. I personally don’t like Coran, but he serves his purpose and I can’t blame the show for including a character like him. Now, I should explain my problem with the characters. I will be referring to three main examples: Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro. Now, why would I have problems with such wonderful and endearing characters? The inconsistencies. I will, however, pardon Shiro because I have my own theory for why he has been different in the most recent season and the previous ones. I will avoid elaborating on this further to avoid spoilers. Pidge, however, is a different story. Early in the show, you learn that Pidge is searching for their family. Pidge is probably my favorite character in the entire show because of their drive, intelligence, and loyalty. It breaks my heart to see them cry, and I can’t help but smile when they finally get the happiness that they deserve. Surprise, surprise, Pidge does eventually find their family… and I had a problem with it. Pidge reunites with their brother, Matt, and it is one of my favorite moments in the entire show. You can feel all of the tension, suspense, love, and relief that the characters deal with in that moment. Then… [SPOILERS] Pidge and Matt find their dad. You can see and understand Pidge’s desperation to find him, even at a great sacrifice. Pidge runs forward to hug their father, risking their own life in the process, to find that he was, in fact, a hologram. This made sense. This was heart-wrenching. When the real-deal comes along, it doesn’t. They see each other, they get along fine, they talk about how they missed each other, the dad tries to bring his children home… and that’s it. The dad leaves. Why waste all of that buildup? Why are Pidge’s emotions so… muted? I thought that it was probably just me overthinking it, but when I talked to a friend of mine (the same one who got me hooked on the show), she had the same problem with it. I’ll leave it at that since I don’t have much else to say about it. [END SPOILERS]. Finally, let’s talk about Hunk. He is probably the Paladin with the least character development since the beginning of the show, so shouldn’t it only be natural that he’s the most stable? Yes. And he normally is. He is the goofy, gluttonous, intelligent, teddy bear character (think Bolin from Legend of Korra, the resemblance is uncanny). And, he is also racist????? See the disconnect? One of his closest friends is revealed to be part-Galra (the “enemy” aliens), and he makes a racist remark. For clarification, when I say “racist,” I do not mean malicious, I mean that he treats someone differently based on their race. His friend is clearly hurt by it, and I expected Hunk to apologize, because he’s too friendly to intentionally hurt someone, especially a friend. AND HE CONTINUES TO COMMENT ON HIS RACE! No, Hunk WOULD NOT do that. Maybe you could convince me that Hunk would comment on it, maybe even make a joke of it to try to comfort his friend. But, no. He literally says, “Becoming Galra made you a better human.” Like, why? Why would Hunk have said this? Especially when his friend was on an emotional rollercoaster and clearly stated that he was upset by that. I just, I can’t stand it. I’m not even that big of a fan of Hunk just because I feel like I’ve already seen his character done before. However, my friend was outraged. She has been holding onto hope that Hunk would finally get his time in the spotlight, and she couldn’t believe that they would write Hunk in this way. I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong, but that rubbed me the wrong way.

This wouldn’t be a proper review if I didn’t address the elephant in the room. THE PACING SUCKS! The story overall is paced really well, but the seasons are divided in a way that doesn’t make any sense at all. For example, [SPOILERS] the main villain is offed in the most recent season… less than halfway in. I knew that they would kill him this season. I was ready for him to die. But the rest of the season took a dramatic turn, focusing on Lotor, Allura, and Haggar instead. [END SPOILERS]. This isn’t an isolated incident either, and even casual watchers (such as myself) have had problems with the pacing.

Overall, I love this show, but even I’m not foolish enough to think it’s perfect. Thank you for reading!

This review has been brought to you by the mother hen, Reveur