Netflix's Voltron: Legendary Defender

Allura’s eyes being reflected in a lion spirit. Personally I think it’s a load, because they would need to you know, write about giant robots, but people are viewing it as a tease.

Saw another Robeast in the trailer. Kind of nice to have another one.

Apparently, at 0:13, You can see Sendak in the background, with what looks to be a new arm.

Personally I don't think the White Lion is meant to be piloted in that scene, it looks like a spiritual manifestation. We're probably going to see them explore more of Altean magic with Allura and Haggar.

I do kinda wish it weren't so obvious that Lotor will betray them at the first opportunity. They kinda cemented he was untrustworthy in his very first scene which we complained about months ago.

It could be a deliberate misdirect, I remember the trailers for Season 2 indicated that Shiro was going to die pretty horribly, and now we know that he has Contractual Immortality, and all of these scripts were written years before the show even started airing on Netflix. Personally I'm thinking it may have something to do with whatever's up with Shiro instead.

That said, he was still written out of the show, and would've been out longer if not for Executive Meddling. I mean, for Lotor his desire to usurp Zarkon's rule was pretty clear from his introduction so I'm really not expecting he'll be an ally for long.

Essentially the trailer is doubling down on everything from last season.

More magic whatzis with Allura and the lion spirit which is clearly not a robot. More Blade of Mamora for more Avatar style fight scenes. More fleet battles. And very, very little Voltron itself.

I truly think the writers would have been happier if they could have made their own second-tier space opera without the giant robot because between the trailers, the episodes, and panels discussing the series, they clearly want to talk about it as little as possible. It’s the elephant in the room and they clearly don’t want to discuss it.

Why did they make Voltron then if they don't actually want to use Voltron? I mean, what's the point?

Because Voltron's a more well-known IP than Exosquad or Silverhawks.

Well fuck them.

I came to watch Voltron. If they didn't want to do that, then they shouldn't have taken the job.

I read an article talking about the White Lion and apparently it appeared one episode in the original Voltron from the 80's. What was it's role there?

It was a spirit. A literal white lion that Haggar conjured as a spirit to trick Allura into thinking Alfor was speaking through it. Not a machine, just mystical bruhaha.

If you really wanted to do a team show without giant robots like they do, they should have remade Centurions. Here in VLD it was apparently revealed some of the cameos and the Shout-Out to other franchises were done without the showrunners knowing and they told the animators to knock it off. They clearly don’t like the robot, the mecha genre, or anything related.

edited 17th Feb '18 11:33:48 AM by Beatman1

They seem to like the Robot just fine. But it's kept as an actual trump card.

Also we saw the robot several times in the last trailer including a fight with another Robeast which is the best time to show off the robot in a non curbstomb.

edited 17th Feb '18 4:49:09 PM by Envyus

They did that in the last season trailer and it was pretty much a fakeout in a comedy episode, with most of the big set pieces being fleet battles. Which would be fine if that's what they wanted to do, but it makes the robot fit in all the more awkwardly. It shows up for a few moments, doesn't do anything, and then goes away because they don't know what to do with it. Not to mention they completely avoid talking about it in any sort of publicity except how much they don't want to use it.

It just begs the question of why this property. Why not an original IP or an IP without Humongous Mecha?

edited 17th Feb '18 5:08:21 PM by Beatman1

Because Dreamworks is the company that got the licence and hired them to make a show to sell toy robots in the first place?

They clearly got the wrong people.

Okay, I may do a lot of grousing but let's please not turn this into a complaint thread. I know, total laugh coming from me, but best to dial it down some notches before the season even airs.

edited 17th Feb '18 9:16:57 PM by TheGunheart

Fair enough. All complaints will wait till the season airs.

Still surprised no one has tried to remake Exo Squad TBH. You would think that story could use some added maturity and better animation.

Speaking of the Voltron mech, merchandise-related spoilers: Voltron will get an upgrade of some kind that causes it to resemble the Stealth Voltron from Voltron Force. The Lions themselves will also get some kind of upgrades of their own, and the trailer hinted at Lance in Red Lion discovering a new power-up ability for the main robot.

Oh my God, I would love a Silverhawks reboot and I've never seen a single episode of the original.

In all seriousness, though, the Voltron stuff is fine. I think they use Voltron just enough to make it not seem overused. In fact, everything with the aesthetics and the action is phenomenal if you ask me. And more Avatar-like stuff is never, ever a bad thing. I actually wish this show was more like Avatar, honestly.

edited 18th Feb '18 7:22:57 PM by deuteragonist

Voltron is entirely rendered in CG right?

That's prolly why the scenes with it feel so damn stiff. There's no fluidity or intense motion cause its too limbered. I mean I recently watched an AMV of Getter Robo & damn that was some pretty mecha animation.

I'm just not sure how it could be improved other than changing the animation style for big-V.

CG can be really really well done as last year proved with the anime Land of the Lustrous about genderless androgynous rocks that have female voices and use male Japanese pronouns I'm just pointing this out so people don't mistake it for Steven Universe

And also had really crap CG with Berserk.

The recent Mazinger Z Infinity used CG for most of its robot fight scenes and they all looked really good for the most part.

Then again, there’s a few things from Infinity that could substantially improve Voltron. Like the Mazin Girls, for instance.

edited 18th Feb '18 8:58:13 PM by Beatman1

Alright then we need better, higher-quality CG.

Transformers Prime had better CG than this show for one.