Netflix's Voltron: Legendary Defender

The ratings thing is definitely not just you. We're seeing on-screen deaths, a deeper exploration of Shiro's PTSD, and the whole Zarkon backstory. Pretty much everything but the dinner scene.

Edit - There's not much in foreign reactions yet, but a Taiwanese person who posts on Reddit said 'I can’t figure out what these Americans are trying to do’. I find that telling.

edited 10th Aug '17 11:20:45 AM by Beatman1

@Ghliz: I mean, her predecessor had to be as tall as Keith or more, yet the Green Lion's cockpit could fit either. But the Black Lion for some reason requires the pilot to be a certain height?

As for the action scenes, one thing I did notice is that the on-foot battles were much better. The Paladins are shown in open combat with Galra mooks, and actually hold their own against the Quirky Miniboss Squad before having to retreat. Before the fights have been so one-sided in the Galrans' favor outside Shiro vs. Sendak and Keith's raid on the fortress anytime they don't have the element of surprise, so that was honestly a refreshing change.

Though speaking of the animation, I'm really not liking how Voltron itself is animated in retrospect. It's a hard thing to explain for me, but one example is when they're pushing the meteor through portal and its legs do this gentle flailing. Its movements just feel too floaty a lot of the time.

Also, do we call it a Running Gag now that every season has a scene where they use the shield to block a Wave-Motion Gun which ultimately splits the shield and sends Voltron flying? I swear that happens every single time, to the point I was shocked when they reflected a beam into half a fleet.

It could be just a full transition from a TV to a streaming mindset on the production side of things, like how the first season of Kimmy Schmidt is paced for commercial breaks, but the other two aren't. And that would only be hitting now as the first two seasons were part of a single order,

I always thought the Lions/Voltron being CGI was a con against the show. It mostly works well, and it keeps the models consistent, but sometimes it's hard to believe that the giant robots are really in the same space as the 2D animated stuff. I normally don't notice it because every battle ship and Robeast is also CGI, but when Voltron has to interact with 2D stuff like the "comet" (I keep calling it asteroid because my inner science nerd won't let me use the wrong terminology) or that monster blob, it just seems "unrealistic".

Kuromukuro seems to blend the two well enough, but that show has a focus on the robot action.

Yeah, plus since they're animated at two different speeds, they sometimes unsynch. I saw a few cases where 2D energy beams couldn't quite keep up with the cannon that fired then. I will

edited 10th Aug '17 4:53:15 PM by TheGunheart

Well Zarkon was larger than all his fellow Paladins. And Keith is closer to Zarkon's height than Pidge is.

I suppose it's also possible that the seat might have adjusted if the Black Lion did accept Pidge. But it didn't, so...

I recall seeing an image if Shiro and Matt together doing something. Am I crazy? Because I thought that would have shown up in this season.

Anyone else expecting that Lotor will be smitten with Allura if they ever meet face to face later on? On the topic of Lotor, in the original Japanese his mom WAS Altean. Oh, and Daibazaal, the planet the Galra came from, shares its name with Japanese Zarkon.

I'm not totally sure, but is the cat Haggar had in the flashback episode the same cat that Lotor's blind lieutenant uses? And is it just me or was Zarkon afraid of that cat the first time he saw it?

edited 10th Aug '17 6:46:50 PM by WillKeaton

I could see this Lotor flirting with Allura, either because he genuinely finds her attractive or he's a being a dick. But it would take some serious character interaction before I'd believe he's carrying a torch for her.

I don't even remember them meeting outside of their respective cockpit o_O

Yeah, Kimiko Glenn leaked a pic of Matt fighting alongside a helmeted Shiro (though it could be Kuron). It's likely to be from the upcoming batch of episodes since a preview trailer that was released for it at a Korean con featured Matt Holt pretty prominently and in the same clothes, indicating it's not faked.

I'm surprised Glenn didn't face any repercussions for it, but knowing just how popular Shiro is and the Kuron subplot possibly throwing a wrench into anyone's ability to parse the scene, it might've been on purpose.

Wow, this season was pretty great. We learned a lot about stuff. That last episode with all the backstory was really fascinating.

Also I really enjoyed that alternate universe episode; I didn't realize I missed Slav until then.

One thing though: did they ever explain how Shiro ended up where he ended up? I mean last thing he was fighting Zarkon and used the supercharged sword, so how did that teleport him somewhere else?

edited 10th Aug '17 9:47:51 PM by Sabertooth1000000000

Has anyone drawn a single picture of Lance and Lotor fighting, or is it all just flirting, smooching, shagging, and Lotor being a sexual predator?

To be fair I don't think I've seen a lot of Lotor doing anything in fanart. This season didn't really give him much in the way of material aside from WMG about the last episode, so it's not going to do much against fandom inertia.

Nope, and I think it's on purpose. If you've skipped past the previous posts a lot of us suspect the Shiro who escaped and rejoined the Castle Ship is some kind of fake.

edited 10th Aug '17 11:22:23 PM by AlleyOop

x2 Why would anybody draw the two in any sort of way, they hardly interact with one another all season (let alone establish a relation of any kind in all versions of Voltron as Lotor seems to only personally interact with Keith and Allura for obvious reasons).

Than again, its fanart/shipping; anybody can be shipped no matter what little interaction they have. Isn't that right Avatar.

Hell the only problem I have with this season is basically length. Similar to Castlevania, this season seems like it just got started in terms of story telling especially with how abrupt it ended in the last episode. I mean a flashback episode usually seems like something that should be shown in a climax of a season rather than the end (unless its Courage the Cowardly Dog, that's an exception to the rule). So I guess I could say I am left unfullfilled at the end.

It is, normally these seasons are released in batches of 13 or so every six months but starting now they decided to release half as many, twice as often.

While it's not great for bingewatching I kind of like the new format better. The smaller season size actually makes for more to speculate about, and helps prop up interest in the show year round as opposed to semiannual massive spikes of activity then a fade to nothing and the fandom churning itself into a frenzy without canon information to rein them in.

I have to disagree with you on there. Not really a binge watcher myself as I usually pace myself with these shows, and I found the six month wait to be reasonable.

I'll tell you one thing, releasing episode this way means you only have to watch half as many episodes before you can come into this thread without worrying about spoilers.

You know, I made this joke before, but I can't wait for them to get to the point where they're releasing 1 episode every half month.

Turn it into Twin Peaks.

Do Lotor's lieutenants have names? What are they?

Do you think we'll ever see Earth again?

This season opened with them making a big deal about the new alliance with several planets and the Blade of Marmora, but after the first episode they all disappeared. Is this going to come up in the later half of the season?

They do have names. Acxa,Ezor, Zethrid, and Narti.

Purple-blue elf is Acxa, Red-Pink Ty Lee Expy is Ezor, Blind cat-lady is Narti and buff Blood Knight girl is Zethrid. Their names are mentioned like once or twice, but I didn't really learn them until I went looking for fanart.

On length, I also prefer to have the whole season at a time rather than half season every 3-4 months, mainly because mid-season finales are not as satisfying as season finales, but they will have to be presented as such, thus, we'd get a mediocre season and a good season over and over.

I read an interview a while back where they mentioned if Earth shows up it wouldn't be for a while. Shame, because I'm really interested in knowing the paladins' home lives and their families' reactions to them being missing for so long. Especially poor Mrs. Holt who's now missing her daughter in addition to her husband and son.