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Netflix's Voltron: Legendary Defender

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Beatman1 Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Gone fishin'
#3451: Jul 30th 2021 at 12:48:23 PM

[up]We may never know what the showrunners were thinking given the nature of NDA's and everyone's cordial commentary about the matters at play. What we do know is that no one is in a hurry to revisit VLD and this particular incarnation of the franchise may be sealed forever due to legal matters, a sealing that WEP doesn't seem to be too upset about.

Of course, all things being equal, it will likely be years before we hear anything about where this franchise goes next, but there will likely be a steady stream of more classic Voltron merch (like this super high end figure with all five combining lions that's available for pre-order) while VLD is slowly forgotten to the sands of time.

jessicadicicco610 Since: Oct, 2018 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#3452: Jul 30th 2021 at 1:04:08 PM

So I just came across this video. I'm not sure it gives us the whole picture, but there are some interesting details.

shackwave Ultraman Omega from Nebula M78 Since: Sep, 2018 Relationship Status: Hooked on a feeling
Ultraman Omega
#3453: Jul 30th 2021 at 1:23:26 PM

It's annoying they turned Bandai down, I feel disappointed they could of had more bad guy mecha's what's the point of adapting Voltron if won't freaking use Voltron, We could had well rounded characters and cool mecha stuff, (sigh) why did a good show have to shit the bed like this...

AegisP Kindhearted SSSSSNAKE Man Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Kindhearted SSSSSNAKE Man
#3454: Jul 30th 2021 at 2:30:21 PM

I hope the next EP will be more open to the concept of using the Gosh Darn Robot. Heck, I wish Genddy Tartakovsky does Voltron next. He did Sym Bionic Titan and WEP LOVED what he did with the genre there.

As long as this flower is in my heart. My Strength will flow without end.
miraculous Goku Black (Apprentice)
Goku Black
#3455: Jul 30th 2021 at 2:31:46 PM

It does suck that the actual Voltron robot is used so little.

I don't think we even got that many robeasts for it to actually fight.

"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
TargetmasterJoe from Velocitron Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
#3456: Jul 30th 2021 at 2:36:01 PM

and WEP LOVED what he did with the genre there.

Really? Where'd you hear that?

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Jul 30th 2021 at 5:36:14 AM

AegisP Kindhearted SSSSSNAKE Man Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Kindhearted SSSSSNAKE Man
#3457: Jul 30th 2021 at 2:40:57 PM

I read that on the VOLTRON forum way back when the head honcho for the brand said so. I dont mean Ted Koplar and so on. But the main guy and also the guy who oversaw Voltron back when Voltron Force was just beggining.

As long as this flower is in my heart. My Strength will flow without end.
Beatman1 Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Gone fishin'
#3458: Jul 30th 2021 at 2:53:21 PM

[up]x3 - 7 over 76 total episodes.

Which mind you, was a guaranteed order. There couldn’t be any premature cancellation

PhiSat Planeswalker from Everywhere and Nowhere Since: Jan, 2011
Planeswalker
#3459: Jul 30th 2021 at 3:47:27 PM

@ the character stuff: In my opinion Season 1 had a lot going for it in terms of most of the characters. Shiro was interesting and likeable, Hunk had jokes made at his expense but also had a lot of character focus with the mini Shay arc and developing confidence, which was a breath of fresh air, and Pidge hiding her identity and having her own agenda to save her family but choosing to stay and pilot Voltron for the good of the universe was good stuff. Keith was very abrasive but I was willing to stay for the others. Lance was meh but tolerable, and Allura had room to grow as a character.

Then everything imploded as the show insisted on giving more and more focus to Keith (who again, I found by far the worst character), killed Shiro off, and then proceeded to do nothing with the most interesting characters. By the end it's really like this group of people aren't even friends, they just work together. I thought Lotor had potential too as a child of two very conflicting worlds choosing to side with his mystical space elf side because he was a failure as a mystical space orc, but I think that was a fluke given that the writers laughed about his death and didn't understand why audiences were sympathetic to him.

With hindsight it really seems like season 1 being good was a lucky mistake, which is unfortunate.

Edited by PhiSat on Jul 30th 2021 at 4:51:46 AM

Oissu!
OmegaRadiance Since: Jun, 2011
#3460: Jul 30th 2021 at 3:50:43 PM

Lotor literally guts one of his own followers without a second thought. If anything playing him up as sympathetic afterwards never made sense. Just like his followers still working for him when he just made it clear he will kill them without a second thought the moment they’re inconvenient to him didn’t.

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.
PhiSat Planeswalker from Everywhere and Nowhere Since: Jan, 2011
Planeswalker
#3461: Jul 30th 2021 at 4:02:57 PM

Yes, the follower who was spying on him for the person he detested most in the world. But I agree he was really an idiot for not explaining himself there (also yeah I get it she's blind and mute but having her communicate in some way and explain her motivations would have been cool, she had a neat character design).

I'm not saying he absolutely had to be redeemed, the writers clearly didn't want him to be (though I will never be convinced that Haggar/Honerva was not a far worse person in every respect to him and the narrative wanted her to have audience sympathy so idk), I'm saying the concept of a half-Galran who recruited other half-Galrans because they were all discriminated against and choosing to preserve the culture of his hunted down and extinct brethren because he was a failure to the half-dominant ruling overlords has a lot of potential.

Edited by PhiSat on Jul 30th 2021 at 5:05:17 AM

Oissu!
OmegaRadiance Since: Jun, 2011
#3462: Jul 30th 2021 at 4:10:57 PM

The implication was that she didn’t know she was a spy, which is what we see Hagar always does with her spies.

And nothing justified it the moment he will callously kill people he treats as loyal followers as disposable, because he always engages in that kind of cold ruthless pragmatism the moment he has a chance or something became inconvenient. His first scene even shows this with sending the Galra he bested and made a show of friendliness to a dead end outpost.

His later actions were more in line that beneath the facade is a man who will callously sacrifice others for his own objectives without a second thought, and it was learning that part of him that unsurprisingly made working with him impossible on a moral level.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Jul 30th 2021 at 4:13:22 AM

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.
Beatman1 Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Gone fishin'
#3463: Jul 30th 2021 at 4:21:44 PM

I think we can all agree that everyone character wise was bungled horribly. Characters that were consistent were often flat and one dimensional.

I kind of wish they did kill off Hunk like they planned so long as he went out in an epic manner like say…Musashi.

But that involves a robot battle.

I can’t blame WEP for trying to establish distance. When you get down to it, VLD was…not well told character-wise.

VengefulBale Bishie Gijinka Meta Knight from Nowhere Since: Feb, 2016 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Bishie Gijinka Meta Knight
#3464: Jul 30th 2021 at 4:56:14 PM

My real issue with Lotor was that he was given a horrible death and treated as a irreedemable monster yet Honerva tried to go full blown Omnicidal Maniac over her selfish desires yet got a Redemption Equals Death and an undeserved one. Like, c'mon writers at least be consistent with your treatment of characters

Prettiest Meta Knight Gijinka, ngl
Moth13 Since: Sep, 2010
#3465: Jul 30th 2021 at 5:13:42 PM

I don't really have that much of a problem with the Lions being the main robots and saving Voltron for the real big fights, like others have said, the character writing was the real problem with the series.

Anyway my biggest pet peeve was how Clone Shiro/Gyro was just killed off after the reveal happened. He was a member of the team for a not insignificant amount of time and there's not even a possibility of saving him implied.

HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#3466: Jul 30th 2021 at 5:43:29 PM

I rather liked their design for Voltron, which made the refusal to use it worse.

And now that everyone involved wants to forget the show even existed, we'll never get that design again.sad

One Strip! One Strip!
Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#3467: Jul 30th 2021 at 6:15:14 PM

My problem with how they handled Voltron was that they often treated it as the greatest weapon ever... except it got beaten pretty often. Which by itself isn't terrible—I don't want every episode to end with Voltron curb-stomping the Monster of the Week—but it was just happening so constantly, and even the humans built a better mech. It was just like "why are we supposed to care about Voltron?"

What I would have done is have Voltron itself be completely OP, insta-kill everything, but constantly contrive with multiple crises at once to force the pilots to separate so that one or two Lions had to solve a problem by themselves, obviously unable to combine into Voltron. This would also give a good opportunity for character development as the characters are paired off and have their own episodes (think ATLA's "life-changing adventure with Zuko"). Then, in the season finale, they're fighting five separate fleets (one for each Lion) until they somehow manage to trick them all into one spot, where they can combine and Voltron can beat them all at once.

But all of that could have been forgiven. It was the terrible character work that killed everything.

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#3468: Jul 30th 2021 at 7:22:48 PM

I’m kinda reminded of Wonder Woman 1984, which had very little action scenes overall in place of more character scenes.

Like at minimum for an action movie the action scenes should be well made as they provide the climax to the events of the movie like the final fight Cheetah. Failing to handle that makes the overall product worse as the emotional catharsis lessens.

Fight scenes are also very important after all.

Edited by slimcoder on Jul 30th 2021 at 8:55:30 AM

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
TheGunheart Some nights I rule the world (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Some nights I rule the world
#3469: Jul 30th 2021 at 8:54:28 PM

I feel like the poor use of Voltron and the extremely sloppy characterization are actually the same problem: a show full of cool ideas that could never properly handle any of them.

KnightofLsama Since: Sep, 2010
#3470: Jul 31st 2021 at 12:45:59 AM

[up] Honestly it never actually felt like it couldn't handle its cool ideas, it felt more like it couldn't focus on any of them. A lot of stuff felt like it was being built up and built up... and then the writer's forgot about it, left it dangling for ages and then when they finally remembered that it still hadn't been resolved, half-assed a "resolution" while they moved on to whatever idea had caught their attention at the time.

Shiro's clone was probably the most striking example of this but it was far from the only one.

slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#3471: Jul 31st 2021 at 1:11:24 AM

Prolly indicative of that is they kept splitting up the cast.

The whole Keith/Blade of Malmorra stuff.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Ultimatum Disasturbator from The Wiggle Room (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#3472: Jul 31st 2021 at 4:05:37 AM

Honest question since there is a LOT of negativity about Netflix's voltron,was there anything good about the show? I'm genuinely asking because whenever Voltron is mentioned is almost always negative

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
ultimatepheer Since: Mar, 2011
#3473: Jul 31st 2021 at 4:09:05 AM

It had plenty of good ideas and most of the cast started likable, it just went downhill fast.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from The Wiggle Room (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#3474: Jul 31st 2021 at 4:18:34 AM

and the problem is the negativity tends drag other topics down

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
TargetmasterJoe from Velocitron Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
#3475: Jul 31st 2021 at 4:42:02 AM

[up][up][up] I liked the characters and studio enough to watch up to the first episode of the last season. Almost didn't even realize the lack of giant robot action until I lurked in here out of curiosity.

EDIT: If another Voltron happens in the future, I kinda hope they, at the very least, keep some of the diversity VLD had. (Watch said new Voltron show be for like HBO Max or Disney+.)

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Jul 31st 2021 at 7:47:47 AM


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