Friday, January 5, 2018

'Toon Reviews 11: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 1 Episode 11: The Black Paladin + Final Thoughts

The Black Paladin


 
 
 
 
 
 
This season finale finally puts the Voltron team at the base of Emperor Zarkon of the Galra Empire.  They’re set up to take on the opposing evil forces and put an end to their reign like they’ve been training for, or at least rescue Princess Allura.  However, for all the exciting action we get in the finale, the team gets a taste of just how powerful the leader of the galaxy’s ultimate evil truly is.  Zarkon uses Allura as bait to bring Voltron straight to him, and when Voltron is in view, he and his witch wife Haggar set up a barrier to trap them inside the area around the ship, and later freeze Voltron and separate the lions.  It’s already challenging enough that the team is unable to prepare themselves for such a strong attack, but their beating doesn’t even stop there when Shiro and his lion are pulled into the ship prompting the team to need to rescue him as well.  While Shiro is in Zarkon’s custody, we get more background on him when Haggar explains that she had built him up to serve Zarkon, and now that Shiro is a Paladin, she’s set on destroying him.  His encounter with her is especially terrifying when she creates duplicates of herself for Shiro to fight, attacking him mentally.  In addition to Shiro, Keith is another standout character in this finale, though he’s not as well portrayed.  During the battle with Zarkon, it becomes clear that the team simply isn’t strong enough to take him on, so despite Coran’s urging to retreat to safety, Keith flies in to defeat Galra once and for all as well as retrieve Shiro’s lion which, in an interesting turn of events, used to be piloted by Zarkon.  It makes you wonder if we’ll learn more about this reveal later on.  His moments of trying in vain to fight against Zarkon are pretty frustrating since he's taking on a task that he and the team are clearly not powerful enough at this point to take on.  There are a few times where he has a good advantage, but they don’t make much of a difference and Zarkon proves more powerful anyway.  Keith forcing himself through a task he clearly can’t do makes the episode kind of frustrating, though the positives are still great.  Also, even with Allura, Shiro and Keith eventually rescued, the season ends with something to look forward to in seasons to come.  If the team needing to retreat through a wormhole isn’t enough, Haggar puts a dark spell on the wormhole which breaks Voltron and sends the lions to different parts of the galaxy, leaving the Paladins on their own to try and find each other.  While three other seasons have been put on Netflix after this, for anyone who’s seen this season back when it first aired must have been left in anticipation to see what would become of the heroes.  I know I’m enticed to see that.  This season finale might not be completely satisfying, but with its character building moments and an ending that builds anticipation for the future, it’s a great end to this show’s debut season. 9/10

The Ranking
1.      Rebirth
2.      The Rise of Voltron
3.      Crystal Venom
4.      The Fall of the Castle of Lions
5.      Collection and Extraction
6.      Return of the Gladiator
7.      The Black Paladin
8.      Return to the Balmera
9.      Tears of the Balmera
10.  Some Assembly Required
11.  Taking Flight


Final Thoughts

As a first time viewer of Netflix-original series, from the 11 episodes of Season 1, I’d say that Voltron: Legendary Defender was a pretty great one to start with.  The crew behind this show prove that they’ve had a lot of influence from their work on Avatar, and have crafted something epic and grand, driven by action pieces and creativity.  The idea behind the workings of Voltron and how its piloted have a lot of fascinating and creative details behind it which is enough to keep the audience interested.  Every time it forms is almost always an exciting sequence as the lions attach to each other to form one big robot with majorly amplified animation and music as accompaniment.  The abilities of the titular robot are slowly revealed and built upon as the season goes on, starting with simply being formed into a giant robot, but several episodes show us its other abilities revealed during the heat of battle, particularly when a Paladin plugs in a bayard into the lion.  Every time it’s used for a fight is when the show is at its most exciting with fast-paced action, all its creative powers on display, and interesting ways of showing how the Paladins communicate with each other lightening the action with banter from pilots who are relatively new at working such a robot.  The show also prides on creativity in other areas like how Balmeras work and survive, and the properties and appeal of quintessence in the galaxy.

The epic scope is also built upon by the dark undertones of the goals of the Paladins and their crew.  The whole conflict is fueled by an entire empire claiming planets for its own and harvesting it for all its quintessence energy and crystals in the Balmera’s case.  A few episodes take the time to show how the people of the Balmera have been affected by their suffering at the hands of Galra, enacting a sympathetic response and realization of the enemy’s true power.  Then, you have the fate of the planet, Altea, one that has been completely wiped out with only two survivors to train the new heroes to ensure that other planets, including the Paladins’ home planet Earth, don’t endure the same fate.  Their emotional response to the loss of their planet is felt through reconnecting with it through a system of memories, particularly with Princess Allura using them to reconnect with her father.  However, when circumstances lead the memories to be deleted, the feeling of loss is stronger than ever.  Also, even with a weapon as powerful as Voltron, there are several times where even when it forms, the villains gain the advantage.  At first, the team is inconvenienced for a while when their castle is taken over and can’t immediately free the Balmerans, but those are tasks that just take time to be accomplished.  However, when they attempt to carry out their ultimate goal of defeating the Galra Empire, everything goes wrong when it’s too powerful for them to defeat, and not only do they have to retreat, but their weapon for peace is now fallen apart, and this is how the season ends.  The sheer fact that our heroes are left with a task to get through set to carry in for following seasons is enough to buy the seriousness of the villains’ threat.

As big, grand, and creative as this show is, it’s not one that I’d call a top-tier favorite of mine.  The biggest reason for this is because so much time is devoted to the dark effects from the villains and Voltron’s battles, there’s not a lot of time for character development.  That’s not to say that all the characters don’t have layers to them.  The Paladins are shown to get progressively better at being a team compared to the premiere and grow to realize the seriousness of their job as galaxy defenders.  Also individually, we have Shiro who slowly uncovers more information of his time as a Galra prisoner, Pidge’s conflict of trying to find her family amidst her important Paladin job, and Allura who starts off simply being the Paladins’ advisor, but is later shown dealing with the harsh effects of her home and father destroyed, and even actively helps and sacrifices herself for the Paladins.  Everyone else is predominantly dependent on one trait and shows little to no change throughout the season. Lance is the biggest offender through always thinking cockily and materialistically with little steps to maturity, not to mention constantly going from rivals to friends with Keith, never settling on a side.  Also, the villains suffer from lack of development as well.  It doesn’t matter if it's Zarkon, Haggar, Sendak, or anyone from the Galra Empire.  They’re all the same standard villains who are evil because they want power and nothing more.  They all think seriously with very little quirks and don’t come off as very enjoyable.  At least I can enjoy the heroes somewhat, even if some are underdeveloped.  Though since the show really can be strong in parts, it’s possible that the characters can improve and develop some later on.  Until then, those who do have strong development are those who really make this show.

Despite some underdeveloped characters and boring villains, the first season of Voltron: Legendary Defender has proven itself to be great for what it is with its grand scope, great action, and creative elements to suit the animation medium.  If you ever sign up for Netflix, this series is one you should look into.
Highly Recommended
That's all for this series for now, but I'll be sure to come back with reviews of the other seasons some time in the future.  For the next set of reviews though, we'll be going from digital streaming to physical media, looking into the Vol. 2 DVD set of DuckTales.  Until then:
 


Stay Animated Folks!

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