Voltron - the most powerful weapon in the universe has inspired a number of in-universe expys. This page is dedicated solely to them.
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General
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Voltron (and Altean tech) has light blue energy. Galra mechs and tech use bright violet energy. Earth tech reverse-engineered from both, such as the Atlas, uses honey-yellow energy.
- Evil Counterpart: Most of these were built specifically to counter Voltron but special mention must go to Sincline whose creator went out of his way to make it as close as possible to the original.
- Final Boss: The antagonistic ones are all fought in the final battle of the season, often at the climax and represent the final obstacle for the Voltron team.
- Humongous Mecha: All of them at least match Voltron's 100 meters. Atlas dwarfs Voltron to a ridiculous extent.
- Made of Iron: All of them can take damage to a ridiculous extent.
Voltron
The most powerful weapon in the universe, formed by combining the five individual Lions into a single fighting robot.
Voltron as a whole
- Adaptational Wimp: Unlike in the original series, forming Voltron is not an instant solution to the team's problems. Voltron often gets kicked around quite a bit before pulling out the right weapon or hitting the opponent in the right place to get the win.
- BFG: Activating Hunk's Bayard while as Voltron forms a powerful shoulder-mounted variant. Keith also manages to unlock a huge back-mounted cannon on the Red Lion that's far more powerful than its standard mouth-fired gun when he pulls off a Heroic Second Wind in his fight with Zarkon. In Season 7 whenever Pidge activates her Bayard, Voltron forms a powerful forearm-mounted cannon that seems to be similar to the Red Lion's back-mounted cannon.
- BFS: Activating Keith's, Pidge's, Hunk's and Lance's Bayards at once creates a sword even larger than Voltron itself.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Now has a giant "V" on its chest.
- Chest Blaster: Said V can fire a powerful beam of energy.
- Combining Mecha: The Blue and Yellow Lions form the legs and the Red and Green Lions form the arms.Shiro: And I'll form the head.
- Dual Wielding: In Season 7, Voltron gains dual swords when Lance and Pidge activate their Bayards together.
- Flaming Sword: For once, the Blazing Sword is literally ablaze. To use it, they need to use all five Bayards at once. Later on, the Blazing Sword becomes accessible whenever the regular sword is formed while Allura is powering Voltron with Quintessence.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Because of the Lions' Divergent Character Evolution, Voltron's left side (with the shielded Green Lion forming the arm and the Mighty Glacier Yellow Lion forming the leg) is now more heavily armored than its right.
- Homing Lasers: It can do this from its Shoulder Cannon, aside from its regular beam of death. At one point the lasers fly past their target in order to loop back and hit it in front.
- Humongous Mecha: As per tradition. It's very tall and has the strength to match. If this
◊ picture is to be believed, Voltron is 100.584 meters tall. That's 330 feet! - Icon of Rebellion: Voltron quickly becomes the symbol of the resistance against the Galara Empire.
- Interdimensional Travel Device: Due to the material it is made from, it is capable of going between realities without being harmed. Zarkon wanted it to open up another rift like the one on Daibazaal in order to gain access to more quintessence.
- Magic Meteor: "Space Mall" reveals that the Lions were made from a meteor that crashed on the Galra homeworld.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Gets new upgrades or abilities when convenient, even in the last few seasons when the Paladins have a better handle on piloting him. Alfor admits that even though he created the Lions, he has no idea what all their abilities are and theorized that they were evolving. Considering he didn't know the Lions could form Voltron itself until it was needed, he has a point. This sometimes comes up as You Never Asked.
- Perpetual Frowner: Its head was built with a permanent scowl on its face. But don't worry. It only fights bad guys.
- Rocket Punch: The Green Lion can be used this way, but it’s only used in the fight with the Sincline.
- Super-Toughness: Voltron's primary power seems to be a near-inability for its armor to be damaged.
- Thunderbolt Iron: Was forged from Quintessence-infused ore from a very unusual comet. Quintessence is a weird enough material as it is, but the Lion's appear to be at least partially sentient and can mutate new features as needed.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: In "Blackout" Haggar uses the Komar to absorb its Quintessence. To Haggar's horror, she realizes it's too much and it nearly destroys her. For reference, the Komar is meant to absorb the Quintessence of planets.
- Transformation Sequence: It has one, in which the five Lions combine to form Voltron.
- Wave-Motion Gun: The Shoulder Cannon's primary firing mode. Also comes in an arm-mounted form courtesy of the Green Bayard.
- You Never Asked: The Lions don't really bother telling the Paladins what they can do until the Paladins literally complain about not having it (A sword, a gun, a bigger sword...). It sometimes feels like Voltron is making up his own weapons as he goes along.
The Lions
From left to right: Blue, Red, Black, Green, Yellow
- Adaptational Badass: Counter to Voltron's Adaptational Wimp status, the individual Lions are significantly more capable in this version, as opposed to pretty much only existing to form Voltron.
- Ambiguous Gender: Pidge refers to the Green Lion as a girl, and Hunk refers to Yellow Lion as a boy. The other Lions don't have stated genders. Although Lance speaks about the Blue Lion similarly to an overprotective boyfriend when he thinks Keith wants to use it.
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Word of God confirms that Black, Red and Yellow are Male; while Blue and Green are female.
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- Animal Mecha: The Lions are functional mecha by themselves. A Type 2 example as the Lions are fully sentient and frequently communicate with their Paladins in various fashions.
- Awesome Personnel Carrier: The Blue Lion has a troop transport compartment in its underbelly which Lance uses to deploy Blade of Marmora guerrillas into battle in the third season premiere.
- Conflicting Loyalties: The Black Lion due to the fact it has bonds with both Shiro and its original Paladin, Zarkon. "Space Mall" ends this with Black siding with Shiro.
- A very mild version of this, shows up with the Lions interacting with people other than their chosen pilots. Keith had to convince Black it was for Shiro's own good to allow him to pilot it, and Red actively ignored Coran's attempt to pilot it, in favor of rescuing Keith. Cue Season 3, and the Black Lion refuses to let a returned Shiro pilot it in favor of Keith.
- Cutlass Between the Teeth: The Black Lion can form a small dual-bladed variant of these to use at close range, it has a stronger cutting force than its jaws or claws. Season 2 shows all the Lions can do this, too.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Black Lion; despite being associated with the color black and initially having Conflicting Loyalties between Shiro and Zarkon, it's very much on the side of good.
- Divergent Character Evolution: In the original, the Lions had very few differences between each other. In this version the differences are greatly exaggerated. Most notable is Yellow, who is more likely to body tackle an opponent than use his lasers. Other differences include the discrepancy in size (with the two "leg" Lions being larger and bulkier than the two "arms," and Black as the head-and-torso being bigger than all of them) and their different facial expressions (Black, Red and Green, with "ears" on top of their head and facing forward, look alert and eager, while Blue and Yellow, with "ears" at the side of their head, look more relaxed).
- Elemental Powers: Each of the Lions have elemental associations that reflect their personalities:
- Black Lion: Blow You Away
- Red Lion: Playingwith Fire
- Blue Lion: Making a Splash
- Green Lion: Green Thumb
- Yellow Lion: Dishing Out Dirt
- Empathic Weapon: The show makes a point that each of the Lions are alive and choose their pilots. Throughout the show, the Lions will react to their Paladins' emotions or guide them to unlock new powers to protect them. Notably, the Lions will also change who they allow to pilot them-when Shiro is lost during Season 3, the Black Lion only allows Keith to pilot it. Lance loses his bond with the Blue Lion and forms a new one with the Red Lion, even as the Blue Lion switches its allegiance to Allura.
- Energy Weapon: Each individual Lion has one of these as a standard weapon. They're fired from their mouths.
- Excalibur in the Rust: Averted. Season 3 reveals that the Lions looked exactly as they do now when they were new.
- Fragile Speedster: Red has exceptional speed, but lacks in defense more than the others.
- Green Thumb: The Green Lion has a cannon that sprout roots.
- Herald: The Blue Lion. Keith being able to sense it and Lance being able to bond with it kickstarts the adventure.
- Hot-Blooded: The Red Lion is like this. Allura mentions that it is the most temperamental Lion, and it's also one of the most aggressive in protecting its Paladin.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Each Lion handles differently. When several of the team members switch Lions in Season 3, it takes them a while to get used to their new Lions' controls.
- An Ice Person: The Blue Lion is associated with water, and it fires a freeze ray from its mouth.
- Invisibility: Pidge modified the Green Lion with a cloaking device reverse-engineered from the Castle's training deck.
- Jack of All Stats: Both the Black and Blue Lions.
- Blue isn't as fast as Green or Red, nor does it have Yellow's immense armaments and defenses. Instead, it has a healthy mixture of all three attributes, a balance that is only dwarfed by the Black Lion and Voltron itself.
- Level Up At Intimacy: The primary explanation for New Powers as the Plot Demands. Forming deeper levels of trust with your Lion allows you to upgrade their weaponry and unlock hidden shoulder weapons. This also allows Red Lion to sense Keith's and later, Lance's distress from long distances.
- Lightning Bruiser: The Black Lion has the highest overall stats, being listed as the second fastest Lion, possessing the second strongest armor, and having the highest damage rating.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Pidge's Green Lion bears a highly durable shield on her back that covers Voltron's left shoulder when combined. Notably, Pidge also has control of generating Voltron's actual shield in battle.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: The Blue Lion has a sonic attack, which can also be used to make sonar maps.
- Manchurian Agent: Black's bond with Zarkon is still substantial enough that he can have it disassemble Voltron and spit out Shiro via telepathic commands. Fortunately, it is not totally dominant over Shiro's own bond, as he is able to end the Emperor's fight with Keith and Red by getting Black to attack Zarkon. This continues to be a problem throughout Season 2 until "Space Mall", when Shiro is able to strengthen his bond with Black while weakening Zarkon's bond.
- Mighty Glacier: Yellow is heavily armed and armored, but is the slowest of the quintet.
- Playing with Fire: Red has a flamethrower attack that's more powerful than its usual laser.
- The Power of Trust: Season 2 has Shiro and Zarkon debate over what quality the Lions demand of their Paladins when they battle over the right to pilot the Black Lion during their astral battle in "Space Mall". Zarkon believes they respect power above all else, while Shiro argues that the bond is about trust. Zarkon mocks him and says trust has nothing to do with it. The Black Lion disagrees, and rejects its former Paladin... Quite violently.
- Purple Is Powerful: When the Lions streak through the air to form Voltron, they each leave a colored trail in their wake. The other Lions' streaks match their color, but the Black Lion leaves a purple trail. The Black Lion's cockpit also glows purple as well.
- The Reliable One: Blue, best shown during Allura's second time piloting Blue into battle. She has a reputation of being "the most accepting" of new pilots, she lets her Paladins in without a trial by fire, and her diverse skill set and Jack of All Stats nature means that her pilot doesn't have to watch out for any glaring weaknesses (like Yellow's slowness or Red's fragility).
- Teleportation: Keith notes in Season 3 that this is one of the Black Lion’s abilities. Even earlier, Blue was shown opening a wormhole on its own accord, something which no other Lion displayed, and which it never uses again.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: The Blue Lion gets a power boost underwater, which helps Lance and Hunk defeat a giant sea monster enslaving an underwater civilization.
- True Companions: Season 2 dedicates more time to the nature of the bond between the Lions and their Paladins. While Red gets some time to shine, most of the focus is on Black and Shiro. During an astral battle with Zarkon, Shiro's desire to bond with Black through trust rather than Zarkon's domination allowed Black to enter the astral plane and make it very clear who it considers its true Paladin. During the final battle, the depth of their bond unlocks Black's personal upgrade and allows Shiro to retrieve his Bayard.
- Undying Loyalty: In a bit of irony, the second season shows the Red Lion has this for Keith. It has gone on its own to rescue its Paladin multiple times and once tried to destroy a base to reach him.
- Utility Weapon: All the Lions (and Voltron himself!) have been shown using their awesome mech powers for non-destructive purposes. Often to great extent. However, Blue Lion seems to have a wider array of unique abilities that lend themselves to useful utility than the other Lions, including a Freeze Ray, a Sonic Cannon that can also be used for Sonar, and light refraction that can zoom in on far away targets.
- Water Is Womanly: The Blue Lion, the Guardian Spirit of Water, is confirmed to be female by the creators (and one of the only two female Lions along with the Green Lion) and is described by Lance as "beautiful". After Lance becomes the Red Paladin, Allura, a kind, graceful princess, replaces him as the Blue Paladin.
- The Worf Effect: As it has the highest level of raw power and armor, Yellow is often the first to get smacked about by the Monster of the Week to show just how much trouble the team is in.
Zarkon's Armor
Zarkon's Armor
Like father...
Zarkon's Armor is a robotic suit built in the Emperor's image, meant to combat Voltron one-on-one.- BFS: Can form one.
- Evil Counterpart: To Voltron, matching the legendary defender in size, strength, and adaptability. It's essentially a Voltron designed with Galra sensibilities and requiring only one pilot.
- Good Weapon, Evil Weapon: The BFS it can manifest is wicked and forked.
- Good Wings, Evil Wings: Its most defining feature and primary defense. The wings themselves are jagged, spiky and pointy
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Shiro's bond with the Black Lion allows him to phase through Zarkon's Armor and steal back the Black Bayard, which powers the armor's weapon systems, and form the Blazing Sword, which Voltron uses to defeat the armor.
- Humongous Mecha: As said above, it's just as big as Voltron, who's 100 meters tall.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Voltron's sword, but it isn't enough to stop it until the team forms the Blazing Sword.
- Lightning Bruiser: Something that can keep up with Voltron, you bet.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Its wings can come around and interlock to form a shield.
- Made of Iron: Survives an assault from a Castle of the Lions that's converted all power into weapons, then puts up a lengthy fight with Voltron. Being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice wasn't even enough to put it out of commission.
- One-Winged Angel: Despite warnings that testing wasn't yet complete (none of the previous test subjects had survived), once inside, Zarkon becomes the greatest opponent Voltron had faced up until that point.
- Purple Is Powerful: A given due to Galra aesthetic, although this one has red highlights as well.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: It's designed with Zarkon's Bayard in mind. Similar to Voltron, it gains access to new weapons once the Bayard's been locked in. It's Zarkon's mastery over his Bayard, as first demonstrated in S1E11, that allows him to manifest different weapons.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: It's mentioned a few times as having killed all previous test subjects, but Zarkon's obsession with obtaining the Black Lion drives him to ignore all warnings and use it anyway.
- Whip Sword: Just like how Zarkon could with his Bayard in "The Black Paladin", the Armor can summon one up to scale. It can even deliver a massive electrical shock.
- Winged Humanoid: Unlike the original incarnation. It looks like a giant, mechanical Zarkon with wings.
Sincline
Sincline
...Like son.
The Sincline Ships are Combining Mecha built from the trans-dimensional comet. For all intent and purpose, it's a Voltron built in Lotor's image.- Adaptational Badass: A weird case. Sincline is Lotor's original Japanese name. Here it is the name of a massively powerful robot that even Voltron can't defeat.
- Beam Spam: Its favorite attack. Both in ship form and Mecha form.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: Fully formed Sincline has a wicked tail whip with a fork at the end.
- BFS: Can form two.
- Combining Mecha: Three Sincline ships combine to create a powerful robot, just like Voltron itself.
- Dual Wielding: It wields two swords in both hands.
- Evil Counterpart: Even more so than Zarkon's armor. Sincline matches Voltron in size, power, materials and was a Combining Mecha as well.
- Good Weapon, Evil Weapon: The BFS it can manifest are Sinister Scimitar.
- Humongous Mecha: As said above, it's just as big as Voltron, who's 100 meters tall.
- Lightning Bruiser: Surpassed Voltron in terms of speed. In term of power, its beam completely overpowered the Castle of Lion's cannon.
- Made of Iron: Survives numerous attacks from the Castle of the Lions and Voltron and was only defeated through a Phlebotinum Overload.
- One-Winged Angel: Lotor's answer to Voltron. It is even more dangerous than Zarkon's armor.
- Phlebotinum Overload: The Paladins ultimately defeated it by overloading it on Quintessence.
- Purple Is Powerful: A given due to Galra aesthetic, but deserves mention as one of Voltron's most powerful foes.
- Teleport Spam: Can move in and out of the Quintessence field at will. Lotor used this to devastating effect in his fight with Voltron.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Though not explicitly mentioned, with the "body" Sincline's ship only recently finished, it's unlikely that Lotor has done much testing.
- Villain Decay: Inverted. When it reappears in Season 8, it manages to beat Voltron so hard that it knocks it back into the five Lions, which then comet-crash into the ground below — a feat that previously took six planet-busting lasers to pull off.
- Whip Sword: Its tail served as one.
Komar Robeast
Altean Mech
- Achilles' Heel: Its chest cavity when charging up the Wave-Motion Gun.
- Call-Back:
- The Paladins note that its Energy Absorption feels similar to the Komar.
- Its color matched the palette of the evil alternate Altean Empire
- Diabolus ex Nihilo: The Paladins treated it as such, since they had no idea who or what it is, and it just randomly showed up right after thwarting Sendak's plan. Even the revelation of its power source raises more questions than answers. Season 8 answers these questions, and reveals there's more than one.
- Dual Wielding: It wields a Morph Weapon that can turned into two swords and sickles.
- Energy Absorption: Its energy-scythes and dark energy beam attack are derived from the Komar, enabling them to quickly drain entire planets of quintessence. This ability allows it to be incredibly self-sufficient, turning its enemies' energy against them.
- Good Weapon, Evil Weapon: Its weapon is a Sinister Scythe.
- In Name Only: The main characters refer to them as "Robeasts" — even though, as piloted mecha, they don't actually fit the term.
- Lightning Bruiser: Matches and even surpasses Voltron at some points.
- Light Is Not Good: Is almost pure white, with only its blade emitting traditional Galra's purple.
- Made of Iron: Survives numerous attacks from the Atlas and Voltron, and was only defeated through a Phlebotinum Overload.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: Its pilot and power source is a live Altean — revealed in Season 8 to be a member of Lotor's Altean colony who was militarized by Honerva.
- Purple Is Powerful: Downplayed compared to other Galra-based mechs. Its body is white, but its visor, weapon, and attacks are purple.
- Sinister Scythe: Its weapon's default form.
- Sizeshifter: Sort of. When it engages the Atlas, it's able to project a much larger version of itself out of Hardlight.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Justified over the course of season 8 since Honerva made multiple copies. The first one was a surprise that came at the end of a long and grueling battle sporting abilities that the Paladins had never before seen. But since all the others are constructed exactly the same, each successive confrontation gives the Paladins more information about their capabilities and weaknesses.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Its black-and-purple chest beam is a variant of the Komar.
IGF Atlas
IGF Atlas
Atlas mech
Sam Holt's magnum opus. Using his knowledge of ship building and Altean technology from the Castle of Lions' databases, Sam envisioned it as a battleship that represents Earth in the universe. After the Galra attack on Earth, it was unable to be fully charged until Coran powered it with the shrunken Castle of Lions.- The Battlestar: Its' function for most of the battle of Earth.
- Expy: To Vehicle Voltron, and/or its' carrier ship the Explorer (although as a Mythology Gag VV's components are seen under construction in the epilogue). Also to the SDF-1.
- Fusion Dance: In Season 8's finale, it fuses with Voltron to even the odds against Honerva's Sincline-fused Armor.
- Good Counterpart: To the Altean Mech. Both of them appear in the same battle and both have a bright color pallete, but Atlas is decidedly on the side of good.
- Humongous Mecha: It dwarfs Voltron, who's 100 meters tall.
- Jack up with Phlebotinum: The addition of the Infinite Mass Crystal fully charges it, transforms it into magitek, and enables it to transform into a Humongous Mecha.
- Meaningful Name: The Atlas. One of the things it does during its first battle is withstand the force of a planet-vaporizing beam - taking the hit for Earth - for roughly four minutes of screen time. Shouldering the weight of the world indeed.
- Mighty Glacier: It has immense power, but the sheer size makes it slow moving and an easy target.
- Shapeshifter Baggage: Unlike Voltron or Sincline, it was not designed to transform, with the protrusions that become the legs completely changing shape in a flash of light, and the hands simply blinking into existence.
- Superior Successor: To the Castle of Lions, if only after being upgraded with Altean magic — which enabled it to become a Transforming Mecha.
- Transforming Mecha: Is this instead of a Combining Mecha like Voltron.
- The Worf Barrage: Inverted Trope. Atlas's particle shield could withstand the combined blast of six Zaiforge cannons, yet the Altean mech's chest beam dispelled the shield in one hit. Played straight in its battle against the Altean Mech, which manages to No-Sell a shot from its arm-mounted Wave-Motion Gun by blocking with its swords.
- The Worf Effect: Despite its mech form's dramatic entrance into the story, it inevitably ends up on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle after failing to do any damage to the Altean Mech, serving only as a distraction to let Voltron get in a finishing blow.
Season 8 Enemy - Spoilers
Honerva's Armor
This must run in the family.
- Fusion Dance: Honerva merges her mecha with the Sincline in order to power it up enough to Curb-Stomp Battle Voltron. This also makes it the size of the Atlas.
- Storm of Blades: Honerva can use the crimson Hard Light blades that comprise her mech's wings as ranged weapons, and as conduits for the Komar.
- Thinking Up Portals: It can use its wings to drill through the fabric of space-time and open portals between dimensions, though this results in the dimensions it drills through being destroyed.
- The Unfought: A variation in that the main characters never quite manage to engage this thing directly until after its Fusion Dance with Sincline. Unsurprising, considering it's the size of the Atlas.
