Amph Voltron: Oh that Defender

I've started watching the Voltron series on Netflix. It's not really doing much for me so far. I watched the original show religiously in the 80s; getting goose-bumps every time the team formed the robot with the awesome music leading it up. The characters in the new one are just silly for the most part. I don't really like Princess Allura's character. At times she does seem serious, but in others she seems as immature as most of the others do. I also think there's too much comic relief in the show. That's really the only purpose that mustached guard with her in the castle serves. I'm not all that thrilled about the animation; which is obviously digital compared to the hand-drawn original. Not to mention Voltron just seemed far more intimidating in the original hand drawn version than the digital one. I'll continue watching the show to see if things pick up; especially where I can actually care about any of the characters.

Someone made a video of the new lions forming with the original's dubbed music.


Here's the original lions forming

 

My thoughts from two years ago that I found in other threads.

3/28/2018
Voltron: Legendary Defender - be about it. So good!

7/24/2018
Side note: The best show that exists that has strong mini arcs/seasons, character development and growth, compelling storylines with main and side characters you actually care about: Voltron Legendary Defender on Netflix. Great writing and when they get in a groove it's hard not to binge the next episode. Early season cliffhangers were painful, but made it all the more reason to return. If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it.

***

From memory, things do pick up. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and there are some episodes geared towards the kiddy side vs the adult side that are a little rougher to get through but you just gotta have fun with it and go along for the ride. It's the journey, not the destination. I'd compare this series to Avatar: The Last Airbender (which I loved) and it shouldn't be a coincidence because people who worked on that worked on this.

Allura reminds me a lot of Korra and I appreciate the stronger female character compared to her passive 80s counterpart. She's going to be silly sometimes and serious other times so her character always tracked for me. I think everyone acts within their character and grow and mature with each season. I appreciate the overall direction this series went compared to the 80s one.

I hope you keep watching and it gets better for you.

 

Not that I'm complaining, but it was interesting how they obviously changed Allura's skin complexion for the new series (and she's in fact voiced by an African American VA).

I wonder if there's a way to watch the original series somewhere on streaming. Would be nice if Netflix offered it; but I didn't see it there.

 

I was also unimpressed with Legendary Defender's early episodes, but really fell in love with the series later on. They offer a lot of great reinterpretations once they find their rhythm, while the plot proceeds in interesting ways that are both novel from the original and very much grounded in what they laid out earlier on. You do have to separate it in your mind from the older series, but once you do I think it' a deeply enjoyable series.

All that said, I've heard this fanbase has a reputation for extreme toxicity, which is unfortunate given the thoughtfulness of the show.

 

I don't really care about a toxic fanbase; I make my own opinions. For all intents and purposes, I'm glad that the reboot of the series brought Voltron back into the spotlight. For a couple of decades; it was all about the Power Rangers which IMO was a complete ripoff.

 

It appears to be available on STARZ. ($9/month)
https://www.starz.com/us/en/series/42129/episodes?season=1

 

It also sometimes goes up on the WEPTV YouTube channel.

And if you're saying to yourself "Who the hell is WEPTV?" well, now you know why it's tough to find.

 

Did the format change at all? Do they change it up? In the 80's every episode was the same but with a new super duper robo-beast. They throw said beast at the planet, the five lions are on patrol separately, they get beat up, then the lions get together, form Voltron, form Blazing Sword, cut beat in half. Repeat.

 

As a lover of action cartoons (be they American Animation or anime), this show definitely satisfied that love in the action-department.

The animation looked great and I really liked the anime-inspired look. I didn't grow up with the original series, so I don't know how the characters were in that show, but I enjoyed the characters in this iteration well enough. Keith and Shiro were probably my favorites followed by Pidge and then Allura. Lance-like characters irritate me; Coran's schtick grated on me after awhile; and Hunk, while okay himself, was not given nearly enough development or screen time for me to actually enjoy him.

My issues with the show came down to:

Spoiler

1) Shiro's diminishing importance as the series went on. Though, with Keith being my other favorite, I did like his arc of assuming Shiro's previous position as leader.

2) Making Shiro gay for brownie points then killing off the boyfriend who could have been easily headcannoned away as a good friend (in the one scene they shared) in order to try for brownie points again by marrying him off to some guy who was, essentially, an extra. For those who frequent TV Tropes those are the "Word of Gay", "Bury Your Gays" and the "But Not Too Gay" tropes at work--- with a dash of "Badass Gay", because...Shiro. I understand that Voltron is TV-Y7, so baby-steps have to be taken when it comes to LGBT+ stuff, but I'm also sick of the scraps they give in an attempt to appease and bait the members of the community. They may not do it with ill intent, but, to be frank, nothing was gained nor explored with making Shiro gay/same-sex loving. Having gay characters doesn't even need to be this BIG thing where the nuances of homosexuality are always discussed and critiqued; that even exhausts me, though there is definitely a space of insightful "queer" dissections. I just hate the half-a**ing of it all. I accepted it with Korrasami, because those are my girls, but the scraps aren't sustainable anymore. In Voltron's case, no representation would have been better than bad representation.

 

I have Amazon Prime; but even though I do have the Starz premium channel on cable I think I'd still need to pay extra for that streaming channel; which I'm not about to do. I've looked on eBay and they have some good prices for the DVD collection of the entire series.

 

Very much so. You're correct that this was the major flaw of the original series. This is part of what I was referring to when I was praising their plot. They do it a lot of footwork both in trying to change the set-up of battles, and to give narrative rationales for why confrontations unfold the way they do, not just within each week's episode, but across the arc of many encounters.

 

One thing that was interesting was that the "vehicle voltron" spinoff series was never carried over into future Voltron reboots, and there's been a handful of them over the decades.

 

I echo this sentiment. There is no wash-rinse-repeat in this show and for that reason, among others, is why I definitely recommend it.

 

This series is quite good. I watched it through its whole run (like later they released half seasons, but they came out more frequently) and enjoyed it a lot. Its a pretty big reinvention of the original, mostly in the mold of Avatar with continuing plot lines, plenty of mysteries and regular changes to the status quo.

I don't like a few of the later events but the quality stays mostly good. Maybe a bit too much humor here and there but a quite good series.

And yeah, too bad vehicle voltron never got much spin-offs. I've seen it referenced and brought back but the Lion Voltron is pretty much the most iconic form.

 

I'm into Episode 8 of the first season and I'll admit things have certainly picked up in terms of the story and drama. One of the glaring differences between this series and the original, in terms of storyline, is Pidge's background. It's been decades since I watched the original, but all I remember about Pidge was that he was a pint-sized genius who got through the ranks with the rest of the crew in sort of Doogie Howser-esque fashion. In fact, I don't remember if the original show even spent much time at all focusing on the main characters' backgrounds.

 

So I'm well into Season 5 of the new series. It's gotten pretty deep; certainly more than I remember the original series being. One thing that gets me though, for those who've watched the series.

Spoiler

Why is Haggar so shocked/dumbfounded when she realizes that Lotar is actually her son? At this point it's already been revealed that she was married to Zarkon while she was a normal Altean; so who else would've been Lotar's mother? And she wouldn't remember giving birth?

 

Just finished the series. Well it certainly had a fine, if somewhat unexpected resolution.

Spoiler

In the last season, things got a little on the absurd side as it had the Atlas ship transforming into a giant robot a la Mega-Maid from Spaceballs.

Not sure how I'd compare this series to the original. This is a long series, with a handful of filler-episodes that at least on one occasion I skipped almost entirely since it really had nothing to.do with anything.

 

I don't 100% remember, but I think the Quintessence messed with her memories.

Despite asking the audience for some leaps of faith in logic at times, overall the main story is solid and while it's tempting to skip the filler episodes, I did find some enjoyment with them as it made me care about the characters to see how they interacted when they weren't in the midst of a battle or action sequence.

 

Maybe I was exaggerating a tad at skipping; I only fast-forwarded through one episode.

Spoiler

The one that is basically a half-hour rip-off of Family Feud. The Paladin team went up against Zarkan and his family. It was just dumb IMO and contributed nothing to to the story besides some cheap laughs for the kiddies.

 

Yeah, the one that sticks out to me is where they're at the "mall".

 

Well the mall episode still served somewhat of a purpose; since they were looking for something in particular and it was the only place anywhere to find it.

 

Personally, I don't think there is a comparison. IMO, this new series is the fastest computer on the market while the original series is an abacus.

The original, or at least my memory of it, was the model popularized by Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers - main character(s) have an issue, enemy attacks, heroes fight and fail, they need to call on their lions, they fail again, so they have to form Voltron to defeat enemy, and the issue at the beginning of the episode is resolved quickly and simply in the end. Next week - wash, rinse, repeat. I don't really remember any character having three dimensions. The princess was constantly treated as the damsel in distress trope - even when she took over as a paladin.

Talking about it makes me want to revisit the new series again, but I'm in the middle of a "Young Justice" refresh/rewatch of the first two seasons before I dive into the third for the first time.

 

I actually downloaded the first episode of the original Voltron series on Amazon Prime (it is available for free); you don't see the lions form yet, Allura isn't in the picture either - but you see all of the main Paladin team without her. I forgot how absurdly fake the Swedish accent was for Sven in that original series. Apparently his character was replaced entirely by Shiro.

 

Yeah if I'm not mistaken, Sven's name was Shiro in the original, but when it was "Americanized", they changed it to Sven.

 

Giving this a start. I like it. not sure about this LtC Takashi guy, waiting for him to leave or get killed. Forgot all about the mice. I hope this Hunk has nausea joke stops. the humor and banter is decent enough, little touches like Hunk not sure if his suit is gonna fit. I do not recall the original show having mystical qualities but no biggy. I did nto realize there were so many episodes so this will be a long haul.