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A New
Defender
The final battle for Season 4 started off strong, and this is
a very worthy continuation. The many
great moments from the heroes and villains continue and even come with a fair
share of surprises.
When we last left
off, things seemed perfectly in the clear for everyone in the coalition, taking
control of cannons which led to an attack that granted them control of
Naxzela. The big takeaway from this is
that they’re on the verge of liberating a third of the entire Galra
Empire. In order to keep the battle more
exciting, a smart move is made to show that victory has not been fully
maintained.
While Voltron is still on
the planet, Haggar unveils a dark power by a special Galra
cruiser to awake Naxzela. As a result,
the planet doesn’t exactly come alive, but still leaves a huge impact on the
Paldins. Voltron is rendered immobilized
by a huge magnetic force emitted from generator-like cylinders rising out from
the planet’s terrain. This means the
Paladins can only move around on foot to see what’s going on with Naxzela. Through intense investigation and pursuits
from Galra soldiers, they slowly discover that the planet is actually a bomb
capable of destroying many solar systems.
It’s a shocking reveal to this whole battle where just when victory for
our heroes was in sight, the Galra had a deadly plan right under them all
unbeknownst. It’s especially a huge blow
to the coalition who not only fought hard to secure Naxzela in the last
episode, but for much of the first half of this episode, are unaware of the
danger.
Out of this comes an exciting
climax to avoid the explosion as fast as possible. On the Paladins’ end, the one to stand out
the most in this matter is Allura.
Protecting the Galaxy has always been a major goal for her, but is at
her lowest point with destruction of so many solar systems immanent. The fact that this is the work of an Altean,
Haggar, leaves an even bigger toll on her.
It’s actually surprising that Lance is the one to inspire her to keep on
trying thus leading to a very grand event to set the turnaround of the battle
in motion. Allura uses her powers to
connect to not just the blue lion, but all of Voltron, allowing the legendary
defender to move through Naxzela’s magnetic pulse and escape.
There’s still the matter of the bomb which is
still fated to go off and wipe everyone out.
When taking out Haggar’s ship giving Naxzela power seems impossible,
Keith gets a moment to shine as well.
Despite leaving the Paladins for the Blade of Marmora, he instantly
leads a move to help his friends and later plans to deactivate the bomb by
sacrificing himself. Personally though,
I don’t really see how that works when all he does is fly at the planet.
Then we have Lotor, now considered an enemy
by all of the Galra Empire, including his own crew. Even so, it’s amazing how he’s so collected
despite this, and that’s not mentioning his confidence. When he’s chased by Zarkon and his forces, he
leads them to an unstable star, and because of the ore his ship’s made of, he’s
unscathed while they’re immobilized.
Then comes the big surprise when in the end, he secures victory for the
coalition by taking out Haggar’s ship.
As to what this means, the audience is left in great anticipation as we
end with Lotor asking for a word with the Paladins. Considering how much of a loose cannon
Lotor’s been with everyone, anything really goes with him.
That’s just a big way this season finale
works as a huge package of action, emotion, and characters having their own
defining moments.
A+
Overall Rankings
1. Reunion
2. Begin the
Blitz
3. A New
Defender
4. The Legend
Begins
5. Hole in the
Sky
6. Red Paladin
7. Changing of
the Guard
8. Tailing the
Comet
9. Black Site
10. The Journey
11. The Hunted
12. Code of
Honor
13. The Voltron
Show!
Final Thoughts
In many respects, both the third and fourth seasons of Voltron: Legendary Defender go hand in
hand. It’s easy to see why given the
short lengths of both of them, and put together, they make for an effectively
and competently told story of the next step in the Paladins’ grand
mission. With a grand scope coming from
the capabilities Netflix allows for much of its original shows and passion
thrown into the story and characters, every episode offers a great experience.
With Season 3, the dynamic of the heroes and villains are
kept fresh with the events of the prior season in mind. The Paladins set the groundwork for expanding
upon their progress by spreading the word of Voltron and its power to all reaches of the galaxy. It’s a stark
contrast to how the show started out with how hopeless the situation looked for
the innocent and how much the Paladins needed to learn teamwork. Now many planets have enough hope and morale
to join a coalition believing they can actually stop the Galra Empire. Among these positive feelings an emotional
undertones with Shiro lost and a lot of episodes featuring the Paladins
learning to move on, especially Keith.
There’s sympathizing with each other, major sequences devoted to some
Paladins connecting with different lions, and emphasis on how meaningful the
change is to some. One character,
Allura, even ends up piloting a lion for the first time, and her anxieties of
adjusting to a position out of her comfort zone is easily identifiable. Keith is also of major note since he’s the
one Shiro personally asked to be the leader and his black lion, whom Keith once
was able to pilot, trusts him the most.
He lacks the confidence for the role and makes some major mistakes
during missions, but how he comes around shows growth
within his moody persona. The toll of
Shiro’s loss is compromised somewhat when in the middle of the season,
following an emotional look at what he’s been up to, he comes back to the
Paladins no trouble. Still they stick to
the changing dynamic allowing Keith opportunities to grow as a leader despite
needing guidance, at least for a while.
Enhancing
the range of feels from the optimism and heavier moments is a welcome dosage of
world-building. In the adventures,
there’s interesting details to the structure of the Voltron lions through a
mission that reveals a comet powerful enough to cross dimensions. The tidbits even apply to the main story when
the villains take it and make ships out of it.
Going deeper, some world-building offers looks into the Alteans by
showing that the moralities of our heroes and villains are not so black and white. There’s an alternate reality where the
Alteans turn out to be tyrannical dictators that seem welcoming, but then strip
away any and all free will. The finale
of the season is also a huge flashback showing that the Alteans were just as
capable of genocidal acts as the Galra, with the Altean king destroying
Zarkon’s planet first. In fact, there
was a time when Zarkon was a legitimately good defender of the universe only to
fall victim to quintessence overdose, the wont for which runs in the family. His wife starting out as a healthy woman
before becoming the witch, Haggar, over quintessence also adds to the lengths
of the suffering that made him the evil overlord he is now. I feel the villains seem to get more in depth
over time, and the backstories they receive in Season 3 make them more human
than ever. Really, the ways all the
characters on both sides grow and change through the triumphs and emotions of
the saga is a key factor to the episodes turning out so great.
As for Season 4, it’s a solid continuation of many plot
points brought up in the third one, though it’s not as solidly structure,
mostly in the tone of each corresponding episode. If you think Shiro comes back too fast after
so much of the team learning to move on without him, that’s nothing compared to
what’s done with Keith’s new leader position.
At the season’s start, he’s suddenly joining the Blade of Marmora with
little to no prompting. Yes, he
personally got them on the Paladins’ side and he is part Galra, but he’s always
been seen working with the Paladins since the Blade’s introductory
episode. Joining them for missions
really could have used more prompting.
It also could have made suddenly dropping being the Paladins’ new leader
after making good progress more acceptable.
At least Keith being on the Blade full time makes for another dynamic
change that sticks. From there, there’s
an even starker contrast in tones throughout the episodes, at least with the
Paladins. Sometimes there’s a great
emotional journey with a lot stakes like Pidge’s quest for her brother. That’s a true highlight to this entire set of
episodes as we’re put through heavy pathos at the possibility of death and
touching happiness when the great sibling pair is finally reunited. Then the Paladins’ adventures become more
light-hearted and disrupt the flow of events.
Some of them just get up to random antics in their downtime that don’t
amount to anything like with a subplot involving learning about how cows work
in “Black Site.” Another is just a step
in enhancing the coalition with floor shows that goes on longer than it
probably should have. It may serve a
cause, but I’m not sure “The Voltron Show” really needed to be an entire
episode. The last two episodes though
really bring everything together with an exciting mission to take control of a
huge fraction of the Galra Empire. There
are appearances with memorable alien characters coming together for one group
effort, awesome battles, and touching emotional support. The thing that leads everyone to victory is a
big surprise that leaves you wondering about what lies ahead, not to mention
show major cracks in the Galra Empire…
This leads me to a major highlight both seasons share, Prince
Lotor. He was only mentioned in the
Season 2 finale to take over while Zarkon was on temporary life support. The moment he’s first seen, there’s a lot of
interesting qualities to work with. He
has a literally colorful team of soldiers at his command who are easy to
identify for not being completely Galra related. His philosophies also go against the Galra
norm where instead of wiping out planets, he gets their leaders to join him so
to make his cause truly meaningful. That’s
a smart method for an antagonist that also makes for a welcome break from the
typical dictator role the Galra mostly possess.
Lotor stands out from the norm so much that he’s practically
unpredictable from an audience perspective.
He’s clearly fighting against the Paladins as he tricks them into a gas planet and steals the precious comet for his own purposes, but that’s not
all. He attacks the Galra too and tries
to steal one of their vital inventions.
This easily means he’s his own fighter, but it goes even beyond that. In some of the more important parts of “Black Site” Lotor is even willing to go against his own crew when one of his
followers is possessed by Haggar, and he just kills her with no regret. That just goes deeper than the average loose
cannon persona, and the fact that he just continues pulling great stunts
against his enemies is simply cold and brutal.
Yet again, he’s the one to ensure the success of the Voltron coalition’s
mission at Season 4’s end leaving major questions as to what this means. Is he going to join the Paladins, or does he
have some sick twisted ulterior motive for helping them this one time before
deciding to go against them like he did his own crew? With so much style charisma and mystery to
him, Lotor is simply an exciting villain character you can’t help but get
invested in. Following him is one of the
things that makes these seasons strong and the villains more interesting.
With all this said, these two Voltron: Legendary Defender seasons continue to hold up on the epic
scope needed to make this action space adventure as exciting as it is. The emotions are strong, the characters have
admirable development, the new additions are worthy, the world building keeps
things fresh, it’s clearly well thought out.
I do have a few gripes with some decisions like the abundance of
extraneous light hearted moments, some emotional changes being retconned, and
some underused characters. These things
keep the show from being the most exciting adventure I’ve seen, but the things
that are strong work well and keep me invested.
For that, I’ll be pushing myself to see the rest of the series before
deciding to come back to this show and share my thoughts on what’s next in the
story. For now, I’ll have many more
great moments from the series to look back on to remind myself of why it’s one
of the biggest things to come from Netflix originals. Well, until the next season reviews, vrepit
sa to you all!
Highly Recommended
- Saturdays and Sundays: Animaniacs Vol 3
- Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: Steven Universe Seasons 4 & 5
- Tuesdays and Thursdays: The Loud House Season 3
Life is about to get more animated than before with these upcoming reviews, but until then:
Stay Animated Folks!
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