'Toon Reviews 17: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 Episode 13: Blackout + Final Thoughts

Blackout

This is the second part of the Paladins’ battle to end Zarkon’s reign which this season has been building up to, and it delivers on many fronts. 

It starts out with a confident tone that the Paladins can it off considering how they got Zarkon’s base through the teludav in the previous episode.  Working in their favor is Zarkon’s continued obsession of getting his original black lion.  At this point, it’s become so bad, he’s compromising common sense by flying straight into Voltron’s fray and using armor that hasn’t been tested.  Despite Zarkon’s behavior being a huge detractor, the episode knows not to make the battle too easy for our heroes. 

The battle offers Haggar a huge chance to work her magic by powering the base since.  She also creates a black hole that gives Voltron some very nasty blasts and drains the lions of their quintessence or energy.  The first of these blasts leaves a devastating effect when the lions float helplessly and the Paladins are unconscious.  However, as a previous episode established, the lions unleash advanced powers when their Paladins connect with them enough, and it’s a very pleasing sequence when it happens here.  It's not just the Paladins who get up to great moments here.  Usually, the supervisors, Allura and Coran, stay in the castle ship offering moral support behind their particle barrier.  In a battle this big, they let it down and initiate their own attack on Zarkon’s base as assistance.  It’s impressively brave to see them pull off a huge attack even if it gets them struck with a blast from Haggar that costs the castle power. 

Their support doesn’t stop there when Allura makes a bold move to face Haggar head-on with Blade of Marmora members Kolivan and Antok coming for support.  What follows is an intense combat scene with an actual death, a big reveal that Haggar is a being of Allura’s home planet when her mysterious cloak is let down, and Allura unlocking a new power to protect her from Haggar’s attacks, most likely due to being Altean just like her.  As for the Paladins, they continue to put up a good fight once they better connect with their lions. Shiro especially advances when he discovers his lions’ bayard, plugs it in, and unlocks its special powers that come in handy as Zarkon gets closer to controlling the lion.  It’s a great stage of development for Shiro unlocking these powers, and stand out even more when they bring the final attack that obliterates Zarkon’s armor and leaves Zarkon himself hospitalized. 

Like the last season though, there are lasting negative impacts from this last blow when the Paladins find that Shiro has disappeared, and a new Galra ruler, Prince Lotor, is called in while Zarkon is out of commission.  These are heavy aftereffects sure to shake up the dynamic, and give an enticing reason to keep watching this show.  With memorable action set pieces, shining moments for character after character, and moments with lots of promise for the future, this final battle ends Season 2 with style. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Blackout
2. Shiro’s Escape
3. Best Laid Plans
4. Greening the Cube
5. The Blade of Marmora
6. Escape from Beta Traz
7. The Ark of Taujeer
8. Eye of the Storm
9. Stayin’ Alive
10. The Belly of the Weblum
11. Across the Universe
12. The Depths
13. Space Mall

Final Thoughts

After leaving such a strong first impression with its first season, Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 greatly capitalizes on that season’s strengths resulting in not just a strong continuation of the story, but a well put together space odyssey that builds up to something great.  In fact, it’s so great it helps the show to move past its previous detracting points.

Through starting off exactly where the first season left off, the show starts to get an idea of where it wants to go.  Each episode offers a major step in the Paladins’ plan to save the galaxy, and when you put them all together, everything falls into a cohesive strategy with a definitive concluding point.  We start with the Paladins regrouping after being separated, then they learn about good Galra members out there, then they try to find out why Zarkon keeps tracking them as they form a new plan, then they form alliances with the rebel Galra groups who help them construct everything, and finally execute the plan which comes with its own consequences.  It’s an instance where nearly every episode matters in the grand scheme building up to a substantial final battle. 

Out of the storytelling is big expansion the show’s universe with many creative planets our heroes end up in like the technology-based tree planet, Olkarion, the decaying planet prompting immediate escape, Taujeer, and the secret base of the Blade of Marmora located between two black holes.  The steps to putting the Galra defeat plan together have many creative adventures to them too that take the Paladins to wild locations with insane and intense jobs to do involving escapades at a mall while getting important lenses, getting eaten by a giant worm, and going through with a jailbreak with a confusing idea of who to rescue.  It can occasionally get bogged down with a lot of time devoted to complicated explanations on how inventions like the teludav or creatures like the weblum worm work, but they usually turn out fine when we also get some light-hearted reiterations of the explanations. 

What really makes the storytelling stand out are strong themes that are prominent throughout several of the episodes.  A big one is about the importance of letting go of any prejudicial attitude as the Paladins find that some members of the Galra are rebelling against Zarkon’s rule.  They start out meeting one individual good Galra creature, Ulaz, builds up with them forming an alliance with an entire anti-Zarkon resistance, and culminates with a Galra traitor helping them at Zarkon’s base.  Some of them even go as far as to give their lives for the Paladins, making for some of the season’s more impactful moments. 

The final battle is an extremely satisfying payoff to all the work going into the plan with a lot of twists and surprises through showing how advanced the Paladins have become through controlling their lions with exciting blows against Zarkon, reveals of certain characters, and especially the aftermath.  Shiro disappearing and the call for Prince Lotor both leave a lot to look forward to in following seasons, and coming off of what may be the show’s most exciting battle leaves them with a lot to live up to.  The storytelling still isn’t perfect though, mostly through spending time on planets that don’t offer anything significant for future episodes like the trash nebula, the mermaid planet, and especially the space mall, mostly the shops not carrying the item of importance.  Even with that, there’s still plenty of plot development that adds to the appeal of the main story which thoroughly delivers in the end.

The characters we follow also impress with how more interesting they’ve become, at least most of them.  Some of them are still lacking in development like Hunk being predominantly nervous and thinking of food while Lance is still mostly a smart-talking fool, though the latter does have at least one genuinely nice moment on finding out what his purpose is.  Practically everyone else gets new developments that tie into the arcs started for them in the previous season.  Pidge, while not looking for her family nearly as much as last season, has one of the most beautiful moments of character development in the season when she expands her horizons beyond technical stuff.  Shiro goes through a lot of development through trying to make it as the Paladins’ leader through advocating his continuously returning memories for bigger causes, striving to establish a stronger control with the black lion so not to be overpowered by Zarkon, and even gives thought to who should take over for him.  You can easily tell how much Shiro has to put up with, so when he disappears in the end, you really feel for him and his teammates. 

As for his chosen successor, Keith is the standout characters for the season with a compelling arc of his own.  He has his own anxieties that only get more complicated when, in the first episode, Shiro requests him to lead the Paladins if something should happen to him.  A lot of time is devoted to Keith studying a blade with a Galra symbol on it, and protecting it from anyone who tries to take it, even the Galra resistance group everyone’s trying to get on their side.  His hesitations on becoming leader start to make sense when it’s revealed that he’s of Galra blood.  The impressive thing about Keith is that even with this reveal, he still acts the way he usually does while also having a much better control of his emotions when adventuring with the others.  He’s even fairly well accepted despite being half Galra by the rest of the team, though he does get a good amount of disgust from Allura.  Speaking of Allura, she has a relatable arc regarding prejudices against Galra, seeming stubbornly hesitant of believing there are good ones out there since they didn’t do anything to stop Zarkon for thousands of years.  It’s understandable behavior towards any victim of an evil race, though her behavior can go out of proportion, especially involving Keith.  This is why it’s emotionally satisfying when Keith going off to sabotage the Galra base opens her to accept him as a Paladin and family member.  As you can tell, a good number of our heroes are given a lot of defining moments and arcs that make them far more fleshed-out and relatable enough to follow. 

Even the villains feel more fleshed out, which is great considering how one-note all Galra members were in Season 1.  In addition to there being good Galra, this season adds some relatable members to much of the Galra like many of them fearing their leader when interrogated, or getting overly excited and confident over successfully carrying out a mission.  Even the leaders are a bit more interesting with Zarkon having a relatable flaw of obsessing over something, in this case his old black lion, to the point of losing focus on the main mission, and Haggar being revealed to be Altean like Allura, leaving something interesting to explore in the future.  The Galra are still not the most interesting villains, but I do give credit for being more multilayered than they first let on.  If anything, the Blade of Marmora is stiffer than they are at this point, though I would take the Blade over a grating neurotic like Slav, but that’s beside the point.  What matters is that while there’s still a ways to go with character development, it’s apparent enough that Season 2 has brought a lot of progress to that.

There’s no doubt that Voltron: Legendary Defender is more interesting as a series than ever with its second season with a well-flowing story, new heights reached by many of the characters, and an overall creative and epic scope.  If you like the first season, you’ll easily latch onto the second one and, like me, be excited to see what the show does next.  Until the look at the next season of this show, Vrepit Sa.

Highly Recommended

That's all there is to Season 2 of Voltron: Legendary Defender. I hope you enjoyed these reviews and stick around for my eventual look at the third season.

In the meantime, there's going to be a review set of a show new to this blog to fill in the third slot.  From the wild mind of Joe Murray, be on the lookout for reviews on the first season of the Nicktoon classic, Rocko's Modern Life. 

Also, don't forget about the reviews of Steven Universe Season 2 and Hey Arnold Season 3 currently in progress.

I'll see you all next time with more great reviews to share. Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!

'Toon Reviews 17: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 Episode 12: Best Laid Plans

Best Laid Plans

The first part of the season's final battle is impressive with a consistent focus on the Zarkon defeat plan.  However, the way the team puts everything together not only gets them closer to their goal, but also leaves several impacts from the characters’ moments. 

Keith in particular stands out among the heroes by offering to infiltrate Zarkon’s base, being of Galra blood himself, to input a code to make it susceptible to viruses, which Pidge will provide.  It’s great to see how far Keith has come, playing to his usual traits of willfully sticking to his risky ideas, but having strong reasons to validate them.  There’s also a heartfelt scene between him and Allura before he leaves.  Allura has had a lot of Galra prejudice throughout the season which wasn’t always comfortable, with some disdain towards Keith becoming more prominent recently.  For her to confirm to Keith that she’s become less judgmental through seeing him and the Paladins as family is great, and shows that her views are not all black and white. 

With the antagonists, they continue to improve as well.  The trend of good members of the Galra is as strong as ever. Much of their moments are spent on interrogating the member they found out allowed the Paladins to escape a while back, a commander named Thace.  Even the empire's emperor is shown to have humanity.  Zarkon has had the black lion, the Voltron lion he used to pilot long ago, on his mind, but now, his desire to get it back has become very obsessive. It’s starting to get in the way of the Galra Empire maintaining control of the galaxy right down to falling for Shiro’s trap of using the lion as bait to get his base to the teludav.  The obsession is a relatable flaw to anyone, so the audience can see a part of themselves in the main villain. 

As for Thace, it’s a bit contrived that Haggar’s druids let him go while Zarkon’s absorbing energy to track the black lion.  The druids could’ve kept him cuffed up during that time and what later happens could’ve been avoided.  Even if we don’t have a logical explanation for them letting Thace go, his moment with Keith is thrilling and impactful.  Thace helps Keith by trying to enact the code needed to shut down the anti-virus system, but the druids changed the code.   With that, Thace turns the control room into a bomb and lets Keith escape while he stays behind to fight the druids before the bomb explodes, sacrificing himself in the process.  It’s not as impactful as Ulaz’s sacrifice since we don’t know as much about Thace, but the lengths this Galra soldier goes through for the greater good are still of high value. 

With all these character actions in place, the episode reaches an exciting climax where the whole team rushes to move their big teludav over Zarkon’s base now infected with Pidge’s virus while the Voltron lions reassemble.  It’s a grand sequence that impresses with how well it works after many episodes of buildup, thus making a perfect moment of satisfaction to make worth out of the trouble and sacrifices made prior.  However, when the episode ends with a statement that this is just the beginning and the Paladins forming Voltron, the excitement remains as you’re left with something to look forward to next time. 

With all this said, all the shining character moments and the built-up climax really delivering make this a truly great penultimate episode for Season 2. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. Shiro’s Escape
2. Best Laid Plans
3. Greening the Cube
4. The Blade of Marmora
5. Escape from Beta Traz
6. The Ark of Taujeer
7. Eye of the Storm
8. Stayin’ Alive
9. The Belly of the Weblum
10. Across the Universe
11. The Depths
12. Space Mall

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the last episode of this season which sets the next steps of the plan into motion and leads to big game changing results.

If you want to stay updated for more reviews, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter.

If you would like to check out other Voltron: Legendary Defender reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 17: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 Episode 11: Stayin' Alive

Stayin’ Alive

A big strength for this episode is the genuine emotional satisfaction in the status of the Galra defeat plan through the moments of team members looking back on their progress.  In fact, the start of the episode demonstrates this with Allura confiding to Coran about the prospect of defeating Zarkon which includes discussing how strong they are from their alliances.  It’s a calm moment showing the heart of the adventure that’s pleasing to see in a show with lots of big action scenes and space adventures. 

Also helping is that we see this idea through many alien races helping with the battle strategy such as the Olkari and the Balmerans.  Speaking of the Balmerans, it’s nice that unlike some alien creatures who show up in one episode and never again, the Balmerans come back after over a season and provide a big help for the greater good.  There’s even another scene to fit the calm tone where Allura, who healed the Balmera, is trusted enough to take its most enormous crystal.  It really brings to mind the heart of what the Paladins are fighting for and has an endearing use of many characters we’ve met together for a noble cause. 

However, the nice tone of the episode is compromised for the majority of the episode when the Robeast who attacked the Balmera last time appears for a fight, now powered by crystals.  This means that the focus is on a huge monster brawl fitting the overall tone of the series.  Allura proves to be very reliable in her own way and capable of more than simply giving orders to the Paladins as she fights the Robeast for a while.  However, despite holding a good fight, she still needs the Paladins, so they come in to help.  The fight itself is as thrilling as one would like an action scene to be with added challenges of the enhanced power of the Robeast and that they start out the fight with only a few Voltron lions, so it’s not so easy to defeat it the way they did before.  However, a few of the advancements the lions got this season play a role in the final takedown like the blue lion’s ice powers and the green lion’s vegetation, so the fight stands out more for reminding how much the Paladins’ lions have changed for the better. 

While this fight is great, it connects to a major concern of the episode.  The whole Robeast fight doesn’t have a point and just seems to pad things out while the teludav is being built.  The Robeast comes at the right moment, the Paladins fight it for a while with their new powers, and we move onto the attack plan once it’s defeated.  It feels like a standalone battle you can skip and not miss out on much despite how fun it is. 

However after this when the rest of the team meets Coran at Olkarion where the big teludav is completed, the nice, wholesome tone from the beginning returns resulting in another heartwarming moment of the Paladins looking back on the good times they had and what they could do after defeating Zarkon.  They kind of exaggerate when they say there won’t be a need for Voltron after that ignoring that there could be other evil threats out there, but that’s just me.  It’s still a sweet ending that’s nice to see from a show like this just before the following episode’s more substantial battle. 

While this episode is mostly a detour, its moments are impactful enough to watch and enjoy on your way to the season’s final two episodes. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Shiro’s Escape
2. Greening the Cube
3. The Blade of Marmora
4. Escape from Beta Traz
5. The Ark of Taujeer
6. Eye of the Storm
7. Stayin’ Alive
8. The Belly of the Weblum
9. Across the Universe
10. The Depths
11. Space Mall

The next Voltron: Legendary Defender review puts the takedown of Zarkon into action while somewhat turning the best laid plans upside-down.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a Steven Universe episode that resolves an arc, "Friend Ship."

If you want to stay updated for more reviews, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter.

If you would like to check out other Voltron: Legendary Defender reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 17: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 Episode 6: The Ark of Taujeer

The Ark of Taujeer

This adventure is a big display of this show’s creativity and has the benefit of everything that happens coming together to develop characters and answer one of the biggest questions of the Paladins. 

Regarding how Zarkon constantly locks onto the Paladins no matter how far they go, we already have the possibility that Allura might be giving them away.  However, this episode provides another possibility tying into the past few episodes featuring short scenes of Keith pensively looking at a blade with a Galra symbol.  Although it’s never outright stated, there are hints that Keith has a bit of Galra inside him.  When everyone talks about how Zarkon keeps finding them, Keith says that he may be the reason claiming that Zarkon left a mark on him when they fought. 

Later, when he decides to leave to protect the team with Allura, he advocates that not all of the Galra are evil, even if his suggestion is shot down by Allura.  From these moments, we get a few sides that make Keith more interesting.  Not only is the idea of him being of Galra blood a remarkable possible attribute, but him believing there are good Galra out there shows how despite his tempers, he’s still considerate and open-minded, which means a lot contrasting to Allura’s biased attitude on the subject.  However, despite good intentions, it gets concerning that they’re abandoning their posts where they perform all their vital tasks with Keith helping to form Voltron and Allura piloting the castle, which the Paladins even bring up, and those tasks are desperately required in the episode’s mission. 

The mission provides the episode’s creativity, taking place on the Galra-controlled planet of Taujeer.  It’s inhabited by blobby figures with intercoms at their faces and talk with a robot filter to their voices.  The problem they face is also creative.  The outer layer of Taujeer is decaying like a layer of dry skin, exposing the aliens to deadly acid, and the Galra forces expect them to survive it, so they cut one of the engines on the escape ark.  This part of the episode mostly consists of four of the five Paladins doing what they can to keep Taujeer safe which is difficult without Keith, and a Galra attack, which proves that he and Allura were not giving the team away, makes it worse. 

Speaking of the attack, there’s a lot of time devoted to the commander in charge, Morvok, one of the more fleshed out members of the Galra Empire.  Rather than just acting menacingly, there’s an enjoyable edge as he shows a lot of focus on the possible quirks of fulfilling his mission and how over-the-top he is when commanding his troops.  He stands out among the villains for being both threatening and somewhat entertaining. 

As for the Paladins, following Coran’s hilarious attempt to pilot the red lion in Keith’s absence, the episode’s biggest reveal comes when the lion runs off and retrieves Keith and Allura just as they decide to go back to the team.  This allows Voltron to be formed, spelling Morvok’s defeat and the Taujeerians’ rescue.  The red lion locating its Paladin might not sound big, but this little moment has a lot of weight. A lion has a strong connection to its Paladin even when they’re really far apart.  The black lion once belonged to Zarkon, so his connection with that lion is strong enough to track the Paladins.  It’s impressive that Keith and Allura thinking they’re endangering everyone and everything to the mission ties into this huge reveal, allowing the story to really progress. 

Along with the interesting character developments and creative aliens and planet, it’s an ark worth getting on for a great episode. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. Shiro’s Escape
2. Greening the Cube
3. The Ark of Taujeer
4. Eye of the Storm
5. Across the Universe
6. The Depths

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next Voltron: Legendary Defender episode where Shiro aiming to get better connected with his Voltron lion is told alongside a trip to a space mall.

If you want to stay updated for more reviews, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter.

If you would like to check out other Voltron: Legendary Defender reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'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!