Netflix's Voltron: Legendary Defender

This slideshow post seems to mostly say that Lance isn't dumb or shallow as some of the fandom thinks and also he's a secret ballerina.

Fairly feasible all around.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

From an in-universe stand point, it is funny that Blue chose him out of everyone there, and the point about his pilot status (only where he is because Keith dropped out) still stands, cause that means out of everyone else there, he was the next logical choice.

Well ok, there were likely other candidates who were also being trained, but Lance is still among them.

But yeah, you gotta be careful to not go too far with these things. Lance is one of those guys who can easily earn the ire of the fandom (which he does seem to in regards to some people), but he's also the type who some might go to great lengths (perhaps slightly too great a length) to defend.

So either people are hating on him too much, or gushing over him too much, which leads to extremes on both sides.

One Strip! One Strip!

So SDCC had a Voltron panel, and said panel has a live blog.

http://www.24liveblog.com/live/1396869

Spoilers (of course).

Urgh, I thought Season 2 was about Keith finally growing out of his Jerkass-ery. Please don't make this a recurring thing, Shiro coming back would be more important than ever if it means keeping that side of him tamped down.

Keith is an orphan with serious abandoment issues who has just lost his brother figure again and it's expected to 1) just move on and replace him and 2) become a leader when the past season made clear he doesn't feel ready or adecuate for the task. Obviously he is not going to be all pleasant and composed and stable.

Hopefully Allura will step in to take over the position instead, since a big part of the Paladin thing is the 'Bonded to lions' thing.

Please, ANYTHING but Allura being a Mary Sue. Please. We just had two seasons slowly setting Keith up to replace Shiro, don't flush it down the toilet.

Oh come on, Allura would not be a Mary Sue. Never mind how that term has lost any meaning from sheer overuse.

edited 20th Jul '17 2:27:11 PM by AdricDePsycho

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

She isn't now. Hardly.

But to be the physically strongest AND to have magic AND to be the pilot that leads the team? It's too much.

Never mind how she's the most qualified, if I'm gonna be honest. But what it sounds like is that she's too good to be the leader, which makes absolutely no sense to me.

edited 20th Jul '17 2:43:11 PM by AdricDePsycho

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

x6 It's fine if it's not a permanent thing, but if he doesn't wise up then even if justified it's still going to be insufferable to sit through.

She's not in any danger of it either. That would make her The Ace but she's still ladled with a ton of flaws and insecurities. If anything Shiro comes closer, though it doesn't mean that he is one either by any stretch of the imagination. She's the one with the most established leadership skills so she's the most logical choice whether it ends up being her or not.

I know how much you love Keith, but for the writers to make him a leader and praise him for it when he's acting too mentally unstable would make him qualify more as a Mary Sue than Allura, who happens to have a lot of useful skills for whom it would be totally in-character. Unless you're opposed to her having those traits in the first place. In which case, why?

edited 20th Jul '17 2:54:47 PM by AlleyOop

Like, I don't give a shit because Allura is still a character with enough flaws and idiosyncrasies to make her interesting. Fuck, she's more interesting than Shiro, to be blunt. But as I've noticed for a while now, any female character in a high position in a series is automatically a Mary Sue.

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

Huh, so season 3 is seven episodes? Might be a good thing; I feel the first two seasons were somehow simultaneously rushed *and* padded...though while I thought Space Mall was a highlight, them describing the season as having *more* of it with only seven episodes to work with makes me think this might suffer severe Mood Whiplash.

They really needed to show more of Keith and Shiro's relationship before now, though. They really did not have enough interaction to make either Shiro's extreme trust or Keith's overt angst in the footage described feel really justified. His bond with the Red Lion was more pronounced, which is one of many reasons I rather Allura step in as the new pilot if Shiro retires from the Paladin gig.

As for Allura having too many powers? Well, I kinda agree, especially since magic is the only one that ever comes up more than once. If anything I'm more annoyed that they never really gave a reason she wasn't a Paladin already.

Something was up from the fact that Keith immediately appears to rescue Shiro when he arrives on earth at the beginning. Keith just tends to internalize a lot of his stuff, and since we don't ever get an insight into it's mind we only know how he reacts when he has visions of dead dads/angry or rushing into danger like an idiot.

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

Having a ton of powers isn't a problem in itself depending on the execution. Much of her characterization is as Da Chief and the Black Lion's favored skill is good leadership rather than just being a great person in general. It's not hard to draw a connection between those two traits and it wouldn't shill anything about her beyond something that we all already know. And even if she was the Black Paladin the show has made it clear that Keith is the one they want to put the most Character Focus on no matter what they do with her.

At worst there was the conclusion of the Balmera arc, but that was almost entirely a clusterfuck of pacing and scale rather than any problem with how they handled Allura's portrayal.

edited 20th Jul '17 3:51:12 PM by AlleyOop

I think they're worried because we just saw how powerful she was using magic at the end of the last season, where she even manages to best Haggar backed by quintessence. If it comes too fast it can feel like they're going wrong with her, but I doubt it's the case.

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

That's unfair. Keith wasn't a jackass in season 1. That would require him to have had a personality.

I still think he does despite what others might say.

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

I still wish that if anyone takes over the Black lion from Shiro, it'll be her. But I sort of don't trust the show's writing enough to actually do that.

Yeah, I actually have a freakin' list of reasons I want Allura as the new Black Paladin.

• She's already qualified for the role as the team's leader.
• Having a woman be the lead pilot of a team-based super robot show would be awesome.
• Shifting Keith and Lance to fill their original series roles comes with all sorts of issues (what about their bonds? Do they swap armor? Bayards?).
• Keith has shown absolutely no leadership potential whatsoever thus far (he can't even follow orders), and I'm not looking forward to an arc about him having to learn it.

Unfortunately, the teaser mentions shots implying that yes, Keith will pilot Black Lion and a shot of Allura looking at Blue Lion. Could be a case of Never Trust a Trailer (season 2's was misleading as hell), but still.

edited 20th Jul '17 4:47:05 PM by TheGunheart

The problem is that it is too much, and begs one obvious question.

If she could do all this, why wasn't she commanding in the first place?

The characters are devastated, but I don't want them to hit their heads and have someone solve their problems for them. I want them to overcome their weaknesses, and emerge stronger. All of them. Hunk and his whole Cowardly Lion vibe to be defined outside of food, Lance to get over his inferiority complex, Pidge to find her family, Allura to be the queen she's meant to be, and Keith to be the leader Shiro saw him as.

Otherwise you get Voltron Force, and that sucked. 25 episodes of trying to make us care about Daniel only to tell us to forget it in episode 26.

edited 20th Jul '17 4:49:33 PM by Beatman1

Did Voltron Force really suck that bad? I know I used to watch it years ago, but I can't seem to remember a single thing about it.

Huh. I may have just answered my own question...

edited 20th Jul '17 5:01:31 PM by deuteragonist

Because someone needed to pilot the Castle Ship and she's definitely best at it due to being directly familiar with the technology and it being coded to her biometrics. Regardless of which lion she pilots someone will need to take over for the Castle when she's gone, which puts them all in a weaker position than if Shiro was still around.

Being in charge of the Black Lion does mean she can administer orders more directly as a field commander, and just because she might have good enough leadership capabilities for the Black Lion to choose her as a replacement doesn't mean it'll do more than cooperate or that she'd be good at fighting while in it.

She was? Half the time she was making the decisions for the team, with Shiro deciding the execution (ie: a General to a colonel).

As for why wasn't she a Paladin? Can be plenty of reason (Maybe she was raised thinking it's not her role, as a princess), Maybe she's got hangups about how the Alteans failed.

Pretty sure to be a Queen you need a kingdom (queendom?) and... subjects. Like, I don't think what's keeping her is a personality hangup so much as a logistical one.

Fixed

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I do agree Shiro returning is the best solution, since they sort of forgot to give his character arc a resolution. "Wrestle Black Lion's control from Zarkon and die from it" isn't exactly satisfying.

edited 20th Jul '17 5:13:45 PM by Ghilz