Headscratchers / Voltron

Voltron

• Why don't the colours of the pilot match up to their lions?
  • Keith (Red) pilots the black lion
  • Lance (Blue) pilots the red lion
  • Sven (Black) and Allura (Pink) pilot the blue lion
  • The only correct ones are Pidge and Hunk, who wear green and yellow (or orange) respectively.

• (I'm sure there's a logical answer, but I never found it when watching...) If the only thing that kills a Ro-Beast on a regular basis is the Blazing Sword, why don't they just use it right away?? Not like there's collateral damage.
  • They have to wear the Ro-Beast down first so they can get a clean shot in. There are a LOT of examples in Power Rangers and Super Sentai where the Rangers go for the Finisher straight away and get their ass kicked because the monster was fresh enough to repel the attack.
    • This was illustrated in the fifth episode of the lion series, where the robeast knocked the blazing sword out of Voltron's hand.
  • Indeed, there's a whole Voltron-specific example of this in Forgotten Superweapon.
  • There is a very logical answer; if they used the Blazing Sword right off there'd be no episode.
    • Most of the time, anyway.
  • To quote MST3K: "Why doesn't Godzilla go for the flame breath right away? Because the man is a professional."
  • It has a Will requirement.
  • Ever play Street Fighter or similar games? You have to use a few moves and get hit a bit to build your gauge before you can execute your super.
  • There is one fanfic out there that offers an interesting, if completely non-canon, explanation...Voltron had been hidden and unused for so long, that by the time the pilots find the lions, their internal power source has been severely degraded; exposure to the sun slowly recharges it, but that process takes a lot longer than it should thanks to the decay. (Even longer if they take any real damage...the lions in this AU have a really good auto-repair function, but it tends to drain the batteries.) So every single fight, they need to stall for time just to build up enough power just to form Voltron, and then stall some more after that to build up enough power to use the Blazing Sword. To keep the baddies from figuring out what's really going on, they are more or less forced to act like they COULD use their better attacks at any time but don't because they are just that macho. ( In story, the pilots groan about having to do this, because not only are they extremely vulnerable during these periods, but also because they are just professional enough to know how bad it makes them look.)
  • The guy who writes (wrote?) "Random Thought Table" @ SJ Games Pyramid once did a whole article on this— about how in real life the first thing you'd ALWAYS do is form Voltron, grab the blazing sword, kill the bad guy, go home. But they ALWAYS first run into the creature without lions, get beat down, grab their lions... get beat down. Form Voltron... get beat down. Form blazing sword— save the day. It's entirely for dramatic effect because most episodes of the show follow that formula (children like repetition!)
  • Again, not exactly compliant with canon, but it makes for an intriguing alternative explanation.

• Is there some type of general Japanese heroic archetype going on? I mean, Go Lion, Combattler V, and Cyborg 009 seem to have the same basic cast... (Using the Go Lion team's Voltron names for clarity.)
  • Keith = Hyouma = Joe/009
  • Princess Allura = Chiziru = Francoise/003
  • Lance = Juzo ~ Jet/002
  • Hunk = Daisaku = Chang/006
  • Pidge = Kosuke (Younger) = Ivan (Youngest)
    • Five-Man Band.
    • To be fair, this sort of thing is MUCH older than 70s Mech anime. Combiner mecha and Sentai just took it to its logical extreme.
  • The post-Sven Lion-Voltron Force is practically an expy of the G-Force.
    • Keith = Mark/Ken
    • Lance = Jason/Joe (Though Lance is a lot less grim, he's the snarky 'Lancer' guy, so it fits).
    • Princess Allura = Princess/Jun
    • Hunk = Tiny/Ryu
    • Pidge = Keyop/Jinpei (except Pidge doesn't speak gibberish).
    • So, in a nutshell, a Five-Man Band consisting of A noble leader hot guy, a snarky second hot guy, a pretty woman who may or may not be paired with "Hot Guy #1", a big lunky guy with massive strength who's a Big Eater and sometimes funny and an agile little boy who appears to be about 10-12 years old.

• So it was Haggar who disguised herself as the Space Goddess and broke Voltron into five lions, I can buy that. However, the same Space Goddess saved Voltron from the Omega Comet about halfway through the series. Did Haggar betray Zarkon or something?
  • Perhaps it was the REAL Space Goddess that Haggar disguised herself as.
  • In the original GoLion, GoLion was an ancient, sentient robot whose origin was lost to time. He fought for the love of it and to prove his power in combat. His duels cut a path of destruction throughout the universe, terrorizing its inhabitants. As a result, the Space Goddess punished him by splitting him apart.
  • Haggar could have always been a double agent. It would explain how she has the power to split Voltron up but keeps making inferior robeasts and schemes that never pan out.

• The "armor" in The Third Dimension. How the hell do they take it off? I mean it looks like they've all been roboticized. In other words, don't forget that there's a body under the costume!

• What the hell is a dynatherm? I mean, I can parse the rest of the Technobabble: interlocks = what holds the thing together, infracells = I'm imagining some sort of technobabble power system, megathrusters = propulsion. So what exactly were dynatherms supposed to be and why does it matter if they're connected?
  • Well Dyan means Power, Therm means heat. So heat power? Maybe the Lions and by extension Voltron run on a Thermal Engine?
    • Powered by the Hot Bloodedness of the pilots!
  • Perhaps that big power turbine that has to connect with itself to spin, in the power source shots?
  • Could be an exhaust system for the power sources. Each Lion's tailpipe is connected to a larger system when Voltron is formed.
  • This troper's WMG.
    • Interlocks are the locking mechanisms that hold the lions together.
    • Dynatherms (dynamic thermals) are the lions' power source: All five lions connect their drive systems in to one unit.
    • Infracells (infrared cells) is Voltron's radiator (likely why it has wings: the radiator is built in to the wings).
    • Mega Thrusters are the propulsion systems.

• Since the Drule homeworld is doomed and Zarkon is technically a vassal of the Drule Empire, Why doesn't the Drule Empire simply either go to Planet Doom or one of Doom's conquered worlds.
  • More than likely, Planet Doom, and Zarkon's realm in general, are too far from the center of the main Drule Empire to rule effectively from there. It's why Zarkon has a relatively free hand in his domain. It's simply too far out in the boonies.

• Why does Zarkon, technically a vassal of the Drule Empire, get to have so much magic stuff (like Haggar's creations) but the main Drule Empire has to settle for mundane technological creations?
  • Thing about magic weapons is that they are all Haggar's creations. Haggar is likely loyal specifically to Zarkon, not to the Empire on whole. It was implied somewhere, either in the main series or the Fleet of Doom movie, that a) Haggar used to be Zarkon's lover/concubine, which would explain her being loyal to him and b) that she gets her powers from dark spirits/demonic forces/Doom's dark deities, which apparently have a special arrangement with her. As for why the Drule Empire didn't coerce Haggar into working for them... maybe they tried and failed so badly that they didn't dare try again.

• In the fifteen or so years since Zarkon attacked Arus, destroyed the castle of Lions, and killed King Alfor and most of the royal family, why was Arus just left alone, its few surviving people just pressing on? Why is Arus not completely occupied by the forces of Planet Doom? Also, why did Coran not rally some good men from the remainder of Arus's population to the castle? After all, the five lions were stored right there along with the keys. Surely, there must have been five worthy young people amongst the population of Arus. There was nothing special about the five space explorers.

• During the "Fleet of Doom" movie, the Lion Voltron pilots reminisce about their time at the academy. We see a flashback of the pilots of both Voltron teams, save for Sven. So where was Sven during all that?

---