An In-Depth Analysis of Voltron: Legendary Defender

Wow, well, anyway, this took a lot longer than expected. Voltron Legendary Defender is a Netflix original animated television show produced by DreamWorks about a group of space explorers who are forced to face the many challenges thrown at them by people like the Gullah, a race of aliens. about conquering the universe Along with the struggles of working as a team and returning hope to the universe, this series first landed on Netflix on June 10, 2016 and released its final season, ending Voltron's story on June 14. December 2018, during that time the show gained a huge and dedicated fan base, young and old, thanks to its family comedy.

Compelling premise and solid ratings. In this video, I am going to deconstruct and thoroughly analyze each element of this program in an attempt to make an unbiased judgment on the overall quality of the course. Being impartial is impossible, since when you get down to the real essence of any work of art, personal taste will always exist. And that is why before passing any judgment on this program, I think it is necessary to make it as clear as possible that you do. You are allowed to like or dislike whatever you like or dislike and you should never feel ashamed for doing so.

That being said, if you feel something different about Voltron than what's shown in this video, please explain why in the comments and I'll do my best to respond. This channel is still small enough that I can easily read and respond to every comment I receive. don't think Oh, even if I comment something, it's not that you see it as an excuse. Also, if you're going to argue, you better have already watched Voltron and this entire video first. I know it's like that. a difficult task But I'm not going to repeat myself Part of the reason I make these videos is so I don't have to explain my stance on something every time it comes up in a conversation that says there are a few more things.

I would like to mention before starting number one. This video will obviously contain spoilers for all of Voltron's

legendary

defender

. You have been warned number two, although I will make visual edits. This video can still be largely enjoyed with the audio alone. feel free to switch to another tab or just play this during a long car ride or something. Number three, the absolutely massive script for this video was made with the help of a wonderful human being named kiddicraft. Check it out, it's an awesome link for his channel it will be in the description number for this review it will in no way be a comparison between the

legendary

defender

of Voltron and the original Voltron cartoon that aired in the 1980s.

I'll judge the legendary defender based solely on his own merit and not that of the originals. So when I refer to this show simply as Voltron, please note that I am not referring to the original or its many other number five interpretations. Because I'm trying to leave no stone unturned in this video. I have researched elements of Voltron's Legendary Defender outside of the information provided by the show. I personally believe that no one should have to search for information about a program that is not provided by the program. And I think his merit should be judged without that additional information, but from that information.

It can help explain certain things about the show or give more context to analyze. I decided my best course of action would be to simply do the research. This is not to say that external information is bad, although it is in fact some of the most critically acclaimed and popular. This decade's cartoon, Gravity Falls, had so much content outside of the original work, from comics to short videos to an actual book I bought, that theories and unanswered questions about the show are still being discussed several years after the finale. of the program. But regardless of all that the severity of outside information falls the animated television show that aired weekly on Disney Channel was one of the most beloved cartoons of the decade on its own and that is what I will judge Voltron on its content, not because of the creator's Twitter posts or pre-production. art books, if I felt like I didn't understand any part of the content, I did that research to clear up my confusion.

But I still made note of the fact that I was confused in the first place, number six, I will link all the sources used in the creation of this video in the description. So I encourage you to take a look if you're curious. Number seven to make this video. I've seen Voltron, the legendary defender in its entirety, twice and all I see. Collecting footage from this video and doing research, which will probably equate to about three times. I felt like this was important information to include not only to reassure myself and all of you that I wasn't making any mistakes or being too biased towards Voltron. in the creation of this video, but also because rewatching Voltron has made me reconsider what taking a second look at a show as we saw it before has to offer: you should only rewatch shows that you truly love and know are worth the worth washing again.

This mindset caused me to almost exclusively rewatch shows that I would consider worth a 10 out of 10. Rewatching Voltron changed this for me. And yes, spoilers. I wouldn't give it a 10 out of 10. It made me realize that rewatching a show can be enjoyed in a completely different way than the first time simply by knowing: Does what comes next change the experience? immensely and while you may notice more flaws than you'd initially like to believe the show had, you may also notice so many great things about the show that you missed the first time around, of course I wouldn't participate in the second round of a show that I didn't originally enjoy it.

But thanks to Voltron in the future I plan to take a look at some shows I only have vague memories of and see how they hold up. Although I would say that if I hadn't planned on making this video, I wouldn't have re-washed Voltron. I'm really glad I did it anyway because watching this show a second time helped me really appreciate the concept that I only had a vague understanding of until now. Now that there's more than one way or reason to enjoy a show, and upon watching it again, you may find yourself liking it exponentially more than you did the first time, possibly for completely different reasons.

The first time I saw Avatar, The Last Airbender was when I was around 10 years old and I enjoyed it because of the funny expressions the characters make, the cool superpowers, and the exciting fight scenes. But after re-watching this show countless times, I can say that, while those elements still surprisingly hold up, I am captivated on a much larger scale by the individual character development and the eerily realistic depiction of a world at war and the effects that has on individuals in a similar way. I had a very different experience rewatching Voltron than the first time, and while I can't say the show is perfect after the double dip, I can say that I noticed a lot of details and understood parts of the story. better because I knew how it would end in the end.

I wanted to make this video because I feel like Voltron's legendary defender is a special show regardless of his flaws. I think this will be a show that many of us will remember one day. and I can say that it had a notable influence on the Western animation industry. I also think that more cartoons like Voltron deserve to be discussed and analyzed within the animation community as much as we do classics like Avatar The Last Airbender or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Additionally, I'm doing this

analysis

in such

depth

because other content creators have already made videos discussing the ups and downs of Voltron and I too wanted to document my thoughts on the show, but I also wanted to express my opinion as original and as high quality as possible.

So I decided to make the video so no one else would make it, neither an unscripted ramble about my personal opinions, nor a closer look at the intentions of the show's creators or how the show might have turned out, and certainly not another podcast because Well, those hurt my voice. No, instead I decided to go big and dissect the entire show in as much detail as possible. Now that we've written over 1500 words in the intro to this video alone, I invite you all to embark on this journey with Me, ladies and gentlemen, this is my in-

depth

analysis

of the legendary defender Voltron.

Although I will not analyze this program in depth. Chronologically, the beginning seemed like the most natural part to start talking about, and I already have enough to say about Just the First Episode that it deserves its own section. The first episode of Voltron is quite unique in that it runs for an hour instead of the standard 23 minutes. I think it's actually kind of a genius move, especially considering it's a Netflix original series. I say this because in the modern era where anyone can stream almost any TV show movie etc. with the click of a button, it will be much harder for an average audience member to become a dedicated fan than it will be. the past Simply because there are many more options readily available.

This has caused most shows currently airing to rely heavily on their premise to draw in audience members as quickly as possible. Just take a look at some of the most popular television shows of recent years. They all have such amazing premises that the average viewer could probably understand them well. Many of them just from the cover and usually within the first two episodes, these shows reinforce that theme as quickly as possible to be absolutely sure you know what the show is going to be about. Right off the bat, this strategy in making TV shows seems to be, at least in my opinion, a result in part of the 3-episode test, if you haven't heard of the 3-episode test or can't figure it out based on the name alone. rule that a viewer must watch three episodes of a show to get an idea of ​​whether they will like it or not For the record, you can determine whether or not you will like a show long before three episodes, but it may be partly due To the 3-episode test, the big networks, seeing that large swathes of their audiences were abandoning their shows within three episodes, decided that the best course of action would be to fill those three episodes with as much exposition and action as possible.

An attempt to get viewers involved in the story, keep in mind that this is not necessarily a worse form of storytelling, but it can throw off the pacing along with other aspects of a show if not used correctly. Voltron, however, stands out from other current television shows in that. It has a pretty unforgettable premise. I understand that that phrase seems a bit contradictory. But what I mean, is that in a time when you could let someone know? What show am I talking about in just one sentence. I couldn't do it with Voltron. If I told someone who's never seen Voltron that it's about this group of friends who pilot these big robots that can merge into a bigger robot that they use to fight evil aliens, they wouldn't be right. assume, based on the quick description I just gave you, that this show is different from 90% of other stitched mechas and even that description was probably more information than someone could gather from looking at the cover while scrolling through Netflix.

So how Voltron? Try to keep people from dropping it in the first few episodes? Well, as I mentioned earlier, it makes the first episode three times as long as a normal one, which gives the show a lot more time to naturally introduce the audience to the characters and make them more invested in them simply by having them in. screen. and interacting with each other, they can also be confident that viewers won't click and come back. Because the appeal of finishing one episode is much stronger than finishing three, that being said, the episode itself actually has quite a few problems. which, despite having all the time in the world, still falls into the trap of trying to cram as much story down viewers' throats as possible and ultimately diluting the experience in this episode.

The seven main characters are introduced. The five lions wake up and bond with a member of their group. Sendak attacks Eris and Voltron forms for the first time on screen. The problem with all of these major events happening in a single episode is that it minimizes the significance of each event individually. It's most egregious when you look at the Lions, the Lions are by far the most valuable asset anyone in the universe could have. The importance they have for history is insurmountable. The problem: Is that outside the blue lion? For starters, you wouldn't get this impression from the first episode, the first description of each lion comes in the form of Alura simply telling the other characters and subsequently the audience what special trait each one has and what kind of personality they have.you need to bond with them. ?

This seems like an extremely lazy way to set up the element that Lions can only form bonds with individuals and only those individuals can pilot them. The reason it seems lazy is because of a little rule called show don't tell in this. scene We are told that the Lions must be piloted by a certain type of person, but we are not shown what makes this moment even worse. However, how great the introduction to the blue lion was in comparison. Shiro refers for the first time to the blue lion saying that he is the Gaul. Raah comes to get a gun.

It is important to note here that he is not referring to Voltron as a whole, since the other Lions are not on earth and then he and the rest of the group believe that the Blue Lion is Voltron. But what is more important. the viewer doesn't know that the other Lions exist until long after the blue lion is introduced, so even if Shira were talking about Voltron, the impact Discovering the Blue Lion would have on the audience would be the same. The state of panic that Shiro is in. clearly on the prosthetic arm of him the Pidge UFO.

Advertisements along with radio signals repeating the word Voltron collectively create tension and anticipation about what this weapon could be or what purposes these aliens could have for it. But the show strives to inform the viewer, allowing them and the characters to discover it. on their own Throughout the next act of the episode, while each of the characters are given time to interact with each other with very natural dialogue, giving them a real sense of personality and what their role on the team will be like, the anticipation continues to build as they go. Enter the cave with the lions carved into the wall as it becomes clear that even Keith, the only one who knew about them beforehand, doesn't know what they mean or why they were created and the images do a fantastic job of conveying the mystical atmosphere de In this scene, at this point, the audience understands that whatever the team is about to discover will be important and will likely be the same weapon that Shiro was talking about earlier, as all of this unfolds.

We get several hints that the spears are somehow connected to whatever they are. you're looking for or at least that it will be important later, which turns out to be absolutely true. So not only has the introduction to the blue lion been prepared much better than that of the other lions, but it also naturally helps the viewer understand that these lines form bonds with specific people. Although that message will soon be contradicted. This can be infer when Lance touches the cave carvings causing them to glow When he is able to open the force field around the blue lion Directly after Keith is unable to do so and when the lion talks to Lance and none of the others.

This is what seems to show, not tell, and by establishing that the blue lion can bond with an individual once the other lines are confirmed to exist in the audio, we will probably have already discovered that each of the other members of the group is going to pilot a lion and based solely on its color design, it would be almost impossible not to know who is going to pilot which lion and this all leads to the next sequence of the episode where everyone else wakes up their lions. feel incredibly rushed. This is because we, as an audience, already understand the meaning of these robots.

So when each one wakes up so quickly on screen and in the case of the green and yellow lions off screen, it feels like they weren't. as important as we were led to believe. And therefore, they didn't really need any screen time to begin with, especially when that time isn't even spent promoting other lions in the same way that the blue lion, the awakening, was. Keith's redline was a little better in this regard, as he had to sneak in with a French recruiter and initially had difficulty connecting with the red lion. But ultimately, you could skip this entire middle section of the episode because it doesn't provide any meaningful information.

Even though it involves literally collecting the most valuable pieces of machinery in the entire universe. They could have cut to black and just put some text on the screen saying that then everyone went to get their lions and then go back to when Sendak is about to attack the lion castle and you would have gotten almost exactly the same amount of information as If you watch the entire second act of the episode, it basically makes you feel like the Lions aren't that important, which is not the impression you want to give and is This is made even more disappointing due to the fact that the bond between a lion and His paladin creates a very natural and clear method of conveying character development later in the series, as a paladin grows as a character their development is noted in their line, allowing them to unlock a new weapon feature or upgrade some type and in some cases, Paladins end up changing lions because they have evolved so much from how they were before, that they would be better suited for a different role on the team.

Some of the lions. The changes are done better than others, but I'll talk about that later. This is a very tangible representation of a character's arc and this is important for the first episode of the show because it doesn't effectively communicate the importance of the relationship between a paladin. and a lion. I'm going to expand on this a bit, but the gist is that in the first episode we don't know enough about the characters for their connection to the Lions to seem significant. But before describing why this. If the case is more detailed, my explanation will be much clearer if I first analyze the introduction to our main seven, so let's stick to the last point.

The main cast also suffers from the main problem of not having enough prep time to make them feel. Really important, but what's so interesting about your case? However, until Allura and the Quran are introduced, this problem seems non-existent. This is because when we come this early in a show, we don't need to know all the ins and outs of a character, just his basic personality and, hopefully, some information about his situations. Motivations are why we should care about them and the first episode of Voltron does a pretty good job of this. Shira was established as an important character by having her name be the first one we hear on the show in addition to being able to see it. his perspective of the inside of a collar ship as he drifts in and out of consciousness.

Her hairstyle is also too unique for her to not be an important character now. This isn't necessarily anything special, but this first scene nails it. What he sets out to do where things get really good is in the introduction to Lance hunk and Pidge. We open with the three of them going through a training simulation and not doing so well. Now I won't say that this kind of introductory scene has never been done. before, but it does a good job of clearly communicating what each character's strengths and weaknesses are, as well as the extent of their ability to work together.

Immediately after this, the group receives a lecture about the mistakes they made and the show uses this moment to highlight. some exposition on the galaxy garrison since the atrocious first episode of Sword Art Online season 2. I've had a bit of a bad taste in my mouth from the exposition and I tend to get quite cynical about a show as soon as it starts discussing the state of the world or not to subtly establish major plot points, but I can actually say that this is done very well in Voltron. They are brief and only tell the viewer what they need to know for the following scenes to happen.

I get the feeling that these characters are training to become pilots. They don't work well together and the show's setting is the best of all the dialogue in this sequence. And for most of the show, it's very natural. I can't express how much. It takes me out of the experience of watching a show and the characters speak in a way that no human being would ever speak in this scene. There is also some foreshadowing about Pidge's family and the character we will soon meet as Keith, which I found enjoyable. Details were added in the rerun and the early parts of the show have a lot of moments as the personalities of the characters we just met are reestablished in the next scene, but based on their first moments on screen you can probably get a good idea. what each of these characters will be like based on knowledge of the general tropes and archetypes of television.

Still, there's nothing wrong with making sure your audience understands your characters as quickly and completely as possible. Especially when you know kids are watching, kids just aren't as observant as adults. So when your show has a y7 rating, you better make sure it's understandable to kids. The only new information we get in this scene before launching into Keith's introduction sequence in the Blue Lion is Pidge's extreme aptitude with technology and more clues about her relationship with the Kerberos mission. From this you might be thinking that These characters seem fine. So why does the introduction of Allah and the Quran make them so much worse?

Well, Allah and the Quran do not necessarily make caste worse. They're just the ones that turn characters we know very little about into pilots of the most powerful weapon in the universe. The Quran even points this out Princess, are you sure about this? ? They're not exactly the best and brightest the universe has to offer. See a learning from the Quran. Our aliens don't need to be introduced in some special, clever way for their existence to leave an immediate impact on the viewer. His aliens. all we need to know is that the fact that they exist leaves an impact on the viewer because aliens do not exist on Earth and this automatically makes them important characters.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for human characters: the existence of a human character surprises no one. So for them to feel like a meaningful addition to the cast of characters, they need something that sets them apart from the crowd, something that makes it clear why they're important and why the audience should care about them. Most of the time this simply means that the main character is the only person in the world with caramel hair and nothing else, leaving viewers to wonder why should they give? shit about this person for a couple of episodes. Before you accept that the answer to that question is because he's the main character, the point is that even though every single human character in Voltron is introduced?

Well, there's just not enough time to devote to those characters before they fly to Arras to endear us to all of them. Most early episodes spend the entire runtime developing the main character and one or two supporting characters. They just don't do it. has time to spend elsewhere in Voltron in the same amount of time a standard TV episode introduces five characters as I said, there are no major problems with the introduction of any of the individual characters. The problem is that the program doesn't give itself enough time. To expand the presentations, we have been given to characterize these people beyond the walking archetypes.

In fact, they acknowledge these archetypes in a later season. We all have our thing Keith is the loner I am the cerebral punks. The most pleasant attraction is that the Quran who makes the decisions is the wise old man? As a result of this rush to move the plot forward, when Elora assigns each of them a lion, you get the feeling that it really is them. Which makes them so special and it seems like the show wants us to think this, because Allura only describes the incredibly broad personality traits that each lion fits with this, plus the fact that we don't know enough about the main five.

She heavily implies that basically anyone who fits these descriptions could be a Voltron paladin, the idea that you have to be one. This chosen To become a paladin, what the blue lines of the Introduction largely implied immediately doesn't hold up and then it becomes clear that you don't even need to fit into a broad personality archetype when more than half of the lions change as a paladin in one episode. Seriously, you're telling me that Lance and Keith are similar enough that redlining is fine for either of them, even though they constantly clash before and after the switch.

How about a lure and blue? In fact, in that episode, Elora mentioned that she recognized special qualities in each of the paladins, which told her that they could pilot specific lions, but she never specifies what those qualities are. The only compelling evidence we have to start from is what the attractiveness says. us in episode 1 and if that's really all there is to it, then I know plenty of people who could pilot the five lions. ThisIt also wouldn't have been a difficult problem to overcome, as the Lions have had experiences that could shape the way they are formed.

Bonds with people Shiro is a natural leader like the black lion. But then we find out that both Shiro and the black lion were abused by Zarkon. This is a significant trauma that they share and ensures that the connection with the black lion feels real, but for everyone else. It's like, what is that? You're smart and daring. Well, why don't you take this two-ton robot with a laser cannon full of annihilating an entire city block? Oh, you say you are not selfish here, the spaceship with the power to hold. Another spaceship ten times its size, all yours.

No, I don't care that you haven't even told me your name yet. It's not like these machines are ten thousand year old relics piloted by my dead father and the guy who killed him and my Entire Race and the efforts to capture them because they coalesce to form the most powerful thing in the entire universe. This is further compounded by the interactions Alaura has with the main five. Naturally, her first reaction to the others is confusion and hostility, but all it takes is Shiro telling her that Zarkon kept him prisoner, a story Laura has no way of confirming, and apparently her first reaction is to assign these people to the machines. most powerful in the universe.

What I'm trying to say here is that because this part of the episode is incredibly rushed and the creators are more concerned with getting the plot moving than developing these characters, the actual narrative of the show suffers a lot and is most noticeable in scenes like In this one I also know that the main cast jokes around a bit to re-establish their character traits in front of Elora. And I'm sure many viewers are thinking that this softens the problem, but somehow makes it more obvious. What it does is reestablish that these very broad character archetypes are all she knows about these people, which makes it harder to believe that she knew what everyone's personality was like because of some unexplained magic and, Dear Lord, am I going to the city? in this show for your?

Unexplainable magic later if Elora was able to see what everyone's personality was. Which I refuse to believe is the case, since she never does anything like this again. Even when she would be useful, one would think she would be a bit more descriptive. What makes someone eligible to be a paladin? In fact, I don't even know how he knows which personalities go with which lions. There was only one other group of paladins, so it's not like they could have discovered some kind of pattern and Ellora wasn't even one of those paladins. At this point you're probably thinking I'm just going to complain about the whole show.

So before we move on to talking about the second half of this episode, I'd like to take this opportunity to mention one of the things about this show. which I really liked and which I felt was evident in the episode. Comedy, animation, and comedy go hand in hand because of the natural exaggeration the medium gives to its story. Both. In live-action comedy, it is often based on situations or dialogue, which it is not. say that it has less comedic value and in fact there are certain styles of comedy that work much better in live action than in animation, but there is a limit to what a human face can emote - animation has no limits as to how unique or stylized is each frame. on screen can be a legendary defender Not only does it have several wonderfully funny meme faces, but it also delights in the aforementioned situational and dialogue-based comedy The first episode does a great job of finding all the places where it fits in a joke Even if it's just a subtle one that not only increases the enjoyment value but sets the tone of the series very well.

This aspect of the show makes me happy that it is aimed at children while keeping older audiences in mind, which probably forced the creators to constantly find new ways to keep the The kids were committed to being a slapstick, over-the-top comedy without annoying older fans by just making fart jokes all the time. They certainly could have gone too far in either direction or halfway in both and come out with a worse product overall. But luckily, they really nailed it in this department and I found myself laughing at least once an episode. Well, then where was I?

Then Sendak comes to Eros for the Lions and a big fight scene ensues with all the characters we have. Met Y has some minor issues, but they don't go beyond the fight being predictable and pretty cheesy. I've already talked a lot about how we don't know enough about our main characters to really care about them, but one of the implications of This Problem that I have yet to mention is that the viewer has no idea why these characters are fighting which ones they are. the personal motivations of each of them to put their lives at stake in this scene and in subsequent episodes.

However, the exception to this flaw is the tone because during The Seagull Worship Infiltration we learned that Pidge's father and brother were the crew members of the Kerberos mission and right now, I'm sure you're thinking Oh, surely that would be a strong motivation that would make us worry about one of the main ones. characters how hypocritical, well the difference in pidge's case is that his motivation is much more identifiable, fortunately not many viewers know or can even imagine what it is like to be a prisoner in a foreign place by a fascist dictator, on the other hand, a lot people. knowing what it is like to lose a family member or simply someone close to you, the means of that separation, whether it be death, divorce, abandonment, etc.

It doesn't really matter because the entire achievement is the same, removing a loved one from your life and not you. There's no need to spend more time on this concept when your audience is likely to understand it from the beginning. You need to spend more time on a concept that your audience probably won't understand from the beginning. Yes, we know that Cheryl was Zarkon's prisoner, but we've only seen about a minute of him inside the ship on screen and they just dragged him away and he wasn't even really a prisoner at that point, they just kept him captive if you want us to understand what kind of effect being held on Zarkon's ship for a year had on Shiro.

You can't just give him a cool robot. arm and say, look at all the suffering he went through when we can't realistically imagine what that suffering was like, so combine the lack of drama at play with the fact that the entire second act felt rushed and this fight scene It really starts to lose its tension. and it's obvious from the moment it starts that Voltron will win, I mean of course they'll like going into this fight if you don't immediately know how it's going to play out. You are 12 years old, despite this, it is the first time. all the lions fight together And the first time we see Voltron in action So most of the audience was probably in love with the flashing lights and not the horrible CGI.

Regardless, this fight scene accomplished what it needed to establish that the main group can form Voltron, but they have some teamwork issues that will have to be addressed later and we're going to hear that the castle can't take much more of this. during every fight scene as far as the first few episodes are concerned. I would say Voltron was mediocre. It's pretty obvious that the creator wanted the viewer to understand what the show would be about through the credits and they achieved that. You can really go from episode 1 to almost any other episode and at least have an idea of ​​what's going on.

But I wish the creator would use the extra time they gave themselves so we can invest in the mists and threats they will face. Speaking of threats. I didn't even mention the scenes with Zarkon in them. And that's because they're bland. I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. But Zarkon is characterized as the most generic dictator of all time. He has no unique qualities. He's on the same level of simplicity as Firelord Ozai from Avatar The Last Airbender. The difference with him is that he was relegated so much to the background that we weren't. even seeing his face until the last season and by that time it had already been firmly established how powerful the enemy would be for Aang Voltron, cuts through all that fat very quickly and this could have worked very well to establish an immediate threat to our main characters If not They would have made a critical mistake.

We weren't shown the atrocities Zarkon committed until after episode 1. Yes, he kidnaps Shiro from pidge's family, but like I said, it doesn't have any dramatic weight since we have no idea that the other astronauts are the father and brother from pidge and sure all his time Zarkon spent as a prisoner is skipped and he gets a Totally Rad Robo arm. He signed me up as Archon Imprisonment and okay, he killed all the alt-hands. But I don't think it's necessary to explain why Zarkon appears on a monitor in a flashback after we've already met him and saying that Alton's fleet has been destroyed isn't very emotionally impactful.

I said it before, but it's worth repeating because it applies to almost every problem I have with this first episode. Tell the disparate characters. He doesn't literally tell us all the bad things Archon did. This episode doesn't really show us why we should want to see Zarkon defeated more than any other generic evil autocrat. I could describe it as if the creators had planned this episode but realized that Solo had described himself to Zarkon in conversation and in the first scene. But they still wanted him to be a character because, like I said, this episode wants you to know everything about the show right away.

So they added some dialogue and short scenes to portray him as being this evil guy who you should take totally seriously as a villain. But they didn't want to change the script too much and ended up with a really boring Dictator, who? I only like being on screen because he's purple. I like purple. This episode shows all his cards too quickly. They were good cards. I liked the idea of ​​a single character surviving the apocalypse and a prisoner of war character. But those ideas have no merit when they do not go beyond ideas. It's how audience members think.

Redemption arcs are good because they are redemption arcs. Regardless of how well it was actually executed in Zarkon's case, I feel like he would have been more effective as a threat if we could see his actions and the effect they had on the universe beforehand. we see his face. Honestly, it's baffling how much information they tried to cram into this episode. Editor's note. I understand. I've had a very negative opinion of this program, but keep that in mind. I'm still talking about episode 1. These aspects of the story will get a lot more detail later. My point is that from the beginning they are much less interesting because the first episode doesn't go beyond introducing the characters despite having plenty of time to do more.

I said before that the hour long length of episode 1 was genius But I feel like they made that genius move for reasons that weren't genius. I felt like their intention was originally to spread all this information in the first episode, but they realized they didn't have enough time in 23 minutes, so they extended it. to an hour and even then I didn't have enough time because there are a lot of things to cover. Imagine if episode 1 stayed the same length, but ended here. I don't recognize any of these constellations. We must be very far from Earth. The lion seems to want to go to this planet.

I think if the creator had done this, he would have given them a lot of screen time. Until this moment to flesh out the personalities of the main five and Allura to give an example of how this strategy is being done, right? I point to Avatar The Last Airbender. Yes, you knew it would happen sooner or later. It takes two full episodes to address the personality abilities of the main three and, more importantly, for this discussion. Motivations that make immediate sense for a one-to-one comparison. Ask yourself why Sokka and Katara are his children? tribe to save Aang and get involved in a global adventure?

Well, Aang promised Katara to take her to the North Pole to meet a waterbending master and Sacco wants to protect her little sister. Makes a lot of sense, now ask yourself why do Voltron's main five let the blue lion suck them into a portal and then go inside? A big battle with Sendak? Well, Pidge has some connection to the Kerberos team. Shiro presumably wants revenge on the guy who kept him prisoner. Lance wants to impress Allura. If this first episode did what I suggested and took the time to answer these questions, then the audience wouldn't be asking them.

After this hypothetical first episode, every subsequent couple of episodes could be devoted to waking up a lion or two and with the same care and thought. that was put into the awakening of the blue lions allowingHaving the Mane 5 form a real bond with Alaura and develop a clear and powerful reason to fight Zarkon even though I mostly complained about the first episode had some really fun moments. The presentation was great and so were the characters. They already had some lovely interactions specifically between Lance and Keith. They have a total naruto sasuke vibe that is immediately fun and brings a lot of personality to the group.

This episode was intended to give the audience a solid idea of ​​what to expect from the legendary defender of Voltron and it succeeded wonderfully in that regard and despite my complaints, I can really appreciate that about this episode and would even consider it a breath of fresh air in some way. Now that we've touched on most aspects of Voltron in its first episode. I would like to use the rest of the story to discuss each individual element of this program with a section of this video for each. Starting with the characters, more specifically Pidge. SOCOM took our parents from both of us.

Yes, but I'm going to get mine back. Pidge is by far my favorite character on this show because he has compelling motivations, goes through legitimate character growth based on those motivations, and is actually entertaining every time he's on screen. Yes, Pidge is for Voltron, what a peridot Steven universe is, and not just because they are both short and green, but it's a coincidence, right in episode one, we find out that Pidge's father and brother were the members of the crew. We see being kidnapped by the gall. with Shiro and it becomes very clear that Pidge is only working with everyone else so she can find and rescue them.

This is a very personal motivation that many viewers will be able to connect with as I described above and this makes Pidge feel very three-dimensional. From the beginning, especially next to her contemporaries, these skewed motivations quickly come to the fore in episode five, Tears of the Bull Mara, when Pidge decides to leave Team Voltron to find her family, leading to Keith punishing her. for his selfishness. and at the end of the episode she decides to stay after realizing how much the rest of the team means to her. My only wish here is that they had spent more time explaining why Piges' initial view of her situation was selfish.

I feel like I could have done it. It has been a great lesson to teach children the importance their actions have on others and why? You should not allow your own personal desires to impede the needs of many. I'll expand on this point soon with a better example. So bear with me, the situation is painted a bit like Pidge staying with the Voltron team, not because she had this revelation that could have been broadcast to the audience But because she had grown fond of the team and now values her safety as if she were family reading between the lines here Pidge is most likely assumed to stay Partly because of what I described above, and I have No problem with the power of the message of friendship.

I just think it was a missed opportunity, other than that. Pidge spends much of her time on screen as comic relief and reinforcing to the viewer how great she is with technology. But I feel like an underrated aspect of her character is her ability to function as a fantastic vessel for the audience if you want to write a story about normal humans caught in a space war with aliens. You can't just throw your viewers into the action or they will start to get confused and ask questions. This problem can be solved by creating a character in the universe who gets confused and asks these questions on the spot.

This not only allows the viewer to connect with said vessel by being in the same position as them, but it also answers questions the audience has and can be done in an easy to write and natural way, and this It's what makes Pidge a naturally curious personality, perfect for this role, taking her learning as an alternative and, for example, I'm willing to bet that most audience members would have been very curious about how the Altai worked in the language because, of course, they would. So how is this curiosity satisfied? Is the audience recipient curious too? Not only can you show that you know what your audience wants by giving it to them?

But you can easily do it in a way that makes perfect sense and fleshes out an already beloved character. It's a win-win, and on top of it all, I just praised Pitch for the most impressive aspect of his character: his consistency. she's all for it, it doesn't matter how good your initial idea is when setting up a character if you don't execute it correctly. We never see Paige act out of character for no good reason or suddenly be treated differently by the rest of the character. team, her character arc is about rescuing her family and she stays focused on that goal at all times.

You want to know why Pidge's discovery of her brother's grave was so compelling. This is why the viewer is constantly assured that Pidge is constantly seeking information about her brother and her father and she is willing to do anything to get them back. Seeing all the effort Pidge put into bringing her family back. Seeing all the hope she had that they were still somewhere. See how much she admired her. These people and how much she has grown in her journey to save them, it was all capitalized perfectly in Reunion, season 4 episode 2, to realize that it was too late to have failed.

Hit me hard. This was the only moment in the entire series that made me cry and it was deserved. Of course, we find out that pidge's brother is actually alive and that's cool, but the sheer emotion that just one frame of the graveyard scene can create with the context of pidge's arc up to this point is powerful to say the least and not how serious. It would have been almost effective if we didn't take the time to enforce how important it is to present this. You see, audience members don't get moved by the sad things that happen on the screen.

They get emotional about how those sad things affect the characters they play. We are already attached to the fact that ultimately it is not the action that matters, but the Reaction. The cemetery scene is not sad because it is about discovering that a good person has died. It's sad because it crushes Pidge and the implications this discovery could have on her mental and emotional health in the future are damning, to say the least. Imagine if you want. That Matt Really Died Pidge is obviously devastated by the brief period of time she thinks she is dead. So what if she never found out that he's actually still alive?

I can only imagine that she would fall into a pretty deep depression from feeling like she had failed to save him and this guilt would probably have manifested itself in self-loathing and hatred. Whereas it seems like every cartoon character these days is looking to learn a Love Yourself character arc. I was legitimately hoping that Voltron would use this moment to dive into that kind of story with Pidge and it could have been done very well here because if Pidge were to fall into a state of depression, the writers could have used it as a believable vector to tell that. type of story while also using previously established elements of the show to naturally advance this character's arc and be able to teach the audience a meaningful lesson about the Green Lion Paladin, who comes with the enormous responsibility of protecting everyone's lives. those who inhabit the universe if he becomes unable to play his role in that mission because he was unable to protect just one life.

She would be forced to learn the lesson the writers backed away from when they released, consider leaving the responsibility of Team Voltron, the responsibility that you have to put on. Put your personal feelings aside and do what's best for the bigger picture. It could have shown how people who are in a similar place to this hypothetical Pidge can overcome the days where you can't get out of bed and the voices telling you that you don't deserve to be happy and how to improve yourself and grow as a person and how Doing so will improve the lives of everyone around you.

The fact that self-improvement or growth experienced so far in this story is not what elevates it to get it out of this incredibly brief moment of misery. But instead it is something that was completely outside of its control. control Sends the message that the best thing someone in their current Position can do to get out of said position is to wait for a deus ex machina. It's actually a common theme among many of Voltron's characters. They show signs of personal problems, but their problems are never resolved or are resolved by forces outside their control. I also think it's important to mention that I don't think Paige did it.

She didn't do any work to rescue Matt. I'm just pointing out a missed opportunity here. Obviously I still think this is a very powerful scene because of the reasons I already mentioned, but since I have absolutely no personal experience with depression, I reached out. to someone I won't name and who is doing it to make sure I wasn't missing out on how someone like that might react to the graveyard scene. I did this because I firmly believe that the most important thing you can analyze in any job. The important thing about the media is how they can influence their audience.

There are people who will defend this show by saying: well, it's just a show for kids. There's no reason to worry so much about it Except people don't seem to notice when they see it. What does that say that people are enormously influenced by the media? They consume especially when they are children. The media has the ability to show you what it is like to be a member of an oppressed group in society. Make you think about whether it is moral to create self-aware machines, relate to a personal problem you have and demonstrate how you could solve it. about fixing it?

I know I made life-changing decisions because of the lessons I learned from the media I consumed and I would be a completely different person if I hadn't seen the media people who say it's just a kids show seem to fail. To understand the concept of metaphor, not all themes or characters in a story have to be one-to-one versions of their real-life counterparts. For the audience to connect the two, that's why I spend so much time on elements of a show like Pidge's character arc. It's because these are the elements that have the power to make real changes in the lives of real people.

So if there's any room for improvement, you bet your ass I'll point it out. But back to Pidge. I understand why the writers wanted Matt to be alive so they could reward Pitch for all of our hard work and rekindle interest in her at this point in the season-long arc. Later, Zarkon reveals that he has Pidge's father captured and is willing to do it. trade him for Lotor and Pidge immediately insists that the team is going to go ahead with this trade despite the other party members' hesitation to do so. And that hesitation is proven to be appropriate as Zarkon does in fact betray them and Pidge ends up taking his father back by force.

This is the effective end of Pidge's character arc, as his motivation beyond protecting the universe has now been fulfilled, and I actually really like the way Pidge acts. Without regard for logic and what the other members of the group want, it is very uncharacteristic of her and is framed as irrational and irresponsible She thinks of the lives we could save she thinks of the countless worlds we could liberate And she almost gets herself taken away to his father forever this tone characterization not only highlights how much he cares about his family but also more clearly sends the message that should have been sent in episode five and that could have been sent after the cemetery scene.

Unlike the cemetery scene. However, the conflict here is resolved directly by Pidge herself and the help of her friends that she has gained throughout this enormous journey. Pidge's entire story has been building up to this moment. So it's nice to see how far he's come in the process of achieving that. her ultimate goals and what she likes with Matt. It's just great to see her reunite with her father. And even after all this, when she no longer has any big moments in the show, she still plays her role as comic relief and Vessel to the audience, making her likable.

It's nice to have it on screen. If I had any remaining criticism of Pidge, it would be that her extreme talent with machines and computers, while an interesting and fun character detail, allows for many instances in the show where a problem is presented to the main characters. and Pidge just solves it by hacking into some mainframe or whatever. It's certainly not as engaging as magical abilities because the problems Pidge solves this way tend to be minor obstacles that the group has to overcome, but at least it would have been that way. Nice to see a better explanation of how Pidge was doing all these crazy machine-related stuntsthat said Pidge is fucking amazing, the best girl, the best character, moving forward.

I find it attractive to be a very interesting character to analyze, there are many things that happen with her. during the show and the simple concept of her character is also part of what makes her so fascinating. Allura is clearly based on an Amalfitano Last Airbender right down to the glowing markings on her face. And I don't mean this in a negative way. Hang is a fantastic character from a hugely influential show. So it makes sense that other studios would look at The Last Airbender and want to recreate that magic, but even though Alura appears to be a carbon copy of a slightly deeper look on the surface, you'll find that the similarities end up largely measured on the surface.

Aang's character arc is about learning to take responsibility and do what's best for the world and not himself, Alura's arc. However, it is centralized around his chronic xenophobia. Both respective arcs are based on the same premise: being the last survivor of a genocidal race. Looking back, I realized how different Elora and Aang really were and it was even more surprising that Elora was actually written. Well, not only did it have many different elements and significant plot points that advanced its arc throughout the show, but each of those points managed to serve that arc effectively. I also give props here because I think the lesson that can be learned from Alura's Arc Don't judge a book by its cover is a great one to teach children and while this message does not require a complex intellectual narrative to be told and in fact , is offensive, the simpler the story around that message, the broader the audience will be able to resonate with it.

I really appreciate when a show is willing to go that extra step and show us why the character has this prejudice. How it is negatively affecting them and the people they interact with and give a reasonable explanation for how they overcome it. Elora has all these elements. She is prejudiced against the dispute because Zarkon wiped out her entire race and those prejudices of hers make her create regularly. He comes into conflict with her while trying to help Team Voltron and realizes that not all Gara are as bad as Zarkon upon meeting several of them who fit that description.

Now I'm sure you're thinking if the appeal is more interesting and relevant to the main story. and main character Pidge Why isn't your favorite character and is there a big reason why that's the case? I hated Elora the first time I saw her. Ok, well, hate is a strong word, but I felt like she was getting a lot more praise from other characters than she deserved just for being a princess in the Lion Castle pilot. She knew that her entire race had been wiped out by the Gallic friction, but inexplicably I didn't care. She didn't help that either.

She was the main vessel of bullshit magic that solves problems for no reason, but we'll get to that later. That is until my second viewing. It was only after a new wash that I realized the one mistake Alura's character makes that brings down almost every aspect of her art. She is not devastated enough by the genocide of the alternate hands nor by the Koran of her, although that is to be expected. to better handle the situation. Seriously, her immediate reaction to finding out that her entire civilization was destroyed in what felt like a few minutes ago is to apparently get frustrated with Zarkon like he's that annoying kid in class who stole your blue-eyed White Dragon card. .

I know it was you, Kyle. Oh really. Am I supposed to be under the impression that the attractiveness is more than mild? I'm upset about this scene because she doesn't really do much else and I know she has the Koran to comfort her and I know she's probably more emotionally stable than, say, twelve-year-old Aang, and I know she has later scenes that establish how much she misses. her father But it's really not enough. Makes it seem like the loss of her entire civilization was no big deal. Imagine that you woke up one day and discovered that every other human being on the planet had been murdered.

To tell you the truth, I would probably kill myself just because there will be no one to subscribe to my channel. Now I know it's not that simple, but again, Elora seems to handle all of this too easily, as a result her xenophobia against the Gullah feels strangely unwarranted and just makes her look like an asshole. Like I said, this issue poisons Allura for the rest. of the show. It makes what are supposed to be hard-hitting moments feel less hard-hitting. Imagine that upon realizing that her entire race had been genocidal, Elora immediately fell to the ground and began to sob, although we don't know anything about Elora at the moment, we can do well.

It follows from this how devastated she is and how much this event will affect her behavior in the future. Even if we didn't know what she was like before Unfortunately, this didn't happen, so the best we can do is speculate on how much more powerful her art could have been if more emotion had been injected into it, but don't let that make you think otherwise. I like Elora, she has a lot of good attributes that outweigh the bad, like how she tries and manages to help her team as much as she can by piloting the blue lion and then getting involved in Gawler Politics. on the show and she makes this face.

As I said, however, the overall development of her character is in her relationship with the gara throughout the show. She constantly makes statements about how the Gallers are a vile, terrible race that just wants to enslave everyone. universe and the sheer frequency and lack of opposition to those assertive Asians makes the audience start to feel like they are right. This eventually gets to the point where when it is discovered that Keith is part Cholera, Alors becomes extremely distant towards him and although that plot point is quickly resolved it just goes to show how difficult it is for a decoy to not make such broad assumptions about the gara.

I'll say it directly. This is a commentary on racism and why it is bad and why it is a good thing. The creator. I knew what they were doing with Elora because, like the comments I made in the pages section, I think this is a great lesson to teach the target audience of this series and that it should be a top priority in a children's show. I mentioned before that one of the reasons I didn't like a decoy the first time I saw it was because she's the main source of shit, she solves all your problems with magic, and unlike the other aspects of her character, this was the one that I actually found even more unbearable the second time, simply due to how many alors used magic and solved the problematic situations that happen in the show and how many I had missed the first time, like seriously, no matter how many times remember this happened, it's probably double the amount of times The Decoy just fixes a problem without giving us any explanation is infuriating.

I know some people are thinking, but why is this so bad for the show and is it because it lowers the dramatic stakes if a character is in danger or just in a high tension situation but solves the problem through methods that have no no sense? or obviously we are written into the story just to get the character out of said problem, you start to develop what is known in the business as plot armor. Plot armor is the feeling that a character will never be in danger because of previous convenient moments. of them dodging the bullet in a specific case what makes this possible is the fact that we never get a very detailed idea of ​​Altai and alchemy.

How does it work? What are your limits? How can you use it creatively? It's because these questions are left unanswered that the creators can simply throw themselves out of the woods saying that a decoy used a new type of magic. You could go on all day with this shit and it gets very boring very quickly, this is because the audience will pick up, if only subconsciously, to the notion that one of your characters is invincible and because the audience starts To expect that from them, it becomes incredibly difficult to think that they will ever be in any kind of danger, which reduces the dramatic risks. sort of like Kirito from Sword Art Online in this sense.

Allura is a likable character overall, though thematically she's very OneNote, which makes it pretty easy to get bored, but she rarely insults the audience's intelligence outside of the shitty magic and she has some pretty good jokes here and they're not the best. character. It's not the worst. Well, I discovered a section of my notes about Elora, but I don't want to rewrite this entire section to make it fit more naturally. So I'm just inserting it here at the end, revealing that Elora has been asleep for 10,000 years and that her people are dead As soon as she's introduced to her It immediately turns Alura's entire character into a trait - a trait that makes perfect sense as far as what his motivations are But it makes it difficult to add anything else that defines his character.

There's a reason The Last Airbender waited until we knew Aang's personality before revealing that he was the avatar who had been trapped in an ice ball for a hundred years and that his entire race was dead, they needed to show you what this is like. character. before turning him into the one whose entire race was genocidal. And that's what Voltron does to Elora. This is a lot like creating a character in your show. Queer If you reveal it immediately, the viewer automatically characterizes it as gay or trans, etc. But if you build that character before the big reveal and give your audience something to endear them to said queer character, then when you do. reveal it, the moment will be infinitely more impactful and instead of consuming the character, Son queerness for lack of a better word will add to it.

What's so funny about Voltron? Is it correct that Pidge pages are characterized as the most attractive for technology? motivations for joining Voltron and just being a joy to watch interact with the other characters. That's why revealing that she's a girl is such a big moment for her and even the reveal itself is done fantastically as it's treated like it's no big deal because doesn't Elora have very few moments in the ones really? She escapes that first description as a victim and it's a shame because she really could have been a fantastic and interesting person to watch grow beyond her problems and establish new elements in her personality.

But from what I can gather, it seems like the creators played around a bit. too confident with her beau Lanson, they both suffer from the same crippling problem, which is why I've decided to group them together in this section. They're both woefully underdeveloped punks much more so than Lance. This is the kind of problem that is difficult. analyze because how can you analyze something that doesn't even exist? To be fair, neither Hunk nor Lance are completely lacking in character development. Lance has to realize his role on Team Voltron as the right-hand man instead of the leader and is completely in love with Allura.

But I'm We'll get to that later, Punk also gets some development and learns to take on the responsibility he has as a paladin no matter how scared he is and struggling with missing his family, but unfortunately not much more can be said about this. The characters, while other members of the team don't have a lot of plot points and separate arcs woven into their developments, at least stick to what was present and this is what they seemed to stumble over when writing Lance and Hunk Hang Chris Eve. There's virtually no major development throughout the entire runtime, making him feel more like a background character than anything else.

He appears from time to time to make fun of a prankster. But these kinds of throwaway moments in the show do little to achieve that. the audience invested in his character. The only time it really feels like the heartthrob's character has a pulse is at the end of season 7, where he and the rest of Team Voltron return to Earth and the heartthrob has to watch his friends reunite with their families without having idea of ​​where. It is, and having to deal with the possibility that they might not even be alive when the hunk tells Keith how much it's been eating away at him, you really feel the weight of the emotions he must be feeling, which is partly due to the sheer acting. of stellar voice About returning home, to a peaceful land, and that would have been great, but I realized that nothing.

Nothing would have been better than seeing my family. This was easily the highlight of the entire so-called uncles arc, but it could have been a lot. If there had been more dedicated heartthrob episodes like many of the other characters had, and if there had been more conflict that arose due to the heartthrob being homesick, the audience would have had a deeper connection with him and the degree to which he felt Nostalgia On several occasions, Hunc mentions that he misses his family and would like to return to Earth, but this is never the cause of any conflict for the team, unlike, for example,For example, Pidge insisting that the group swap Lotor for her father because of his fixation with saving his lost family simply stating that a character has problems is not enough to make most audience members care about them.

It is necessary to show the audience how those problems are negatively affecting the characters. So the gallant is pretty basic. But what about Lance? He surely has more things going for him. And yes, he does. Lance has many historical moments in the show that demonstrate a lesson he has to learn or a development. He has to achieve that the problem is that, despite these moments of what development should be, Lance does not develop out of the immediate. After said historic moment He simply goes back to making jokes about being pretty. A Selfish Joke put it best by saying that Lance had a lot of opportunities to develop as a character, but the writers didn't take advantage of those opportunities.

I can explain this problem better by drawing. a connection to a more extreme example of the same thing happening on a different show. Gravity Falls is a masterpiece if I've ever seen one, but it suffers from this same problem in one of its most important characters. Mabel Mabel begins this show as a The immature Goofball who constantly makes fun of Dipper falls in love and becomes obsessed with half of the boys she meets and ends the show with the exact same character even though there are numerous instances in the show dressing up. It seems like she has learned her lesson, but then immediately reverts to her old ways.

This is most egregious in the episode she uses after the promising dipper. She would help him find the password to the mysterious laptop found two episodes earlier. Mabel goes to hell to pursue another random guy based solely on handsomeness. he is The problem is that this episode comes after four separate occasions in which Mabel's obsession with boys causes conflict for the other characters. She's fine, not so much with Gideon, but more because of his inability to reject his advances. But still the point is that she should have learned her lesson, but she didn't change her behavior.

And this is where we return to Lance. Like I said, he's not as extreme a case as Mabel. He has more serious moments with the other members of the group and generally appears to be more mature. But it seems like he would have changed a lot more depending on the extremity of the events that happened to him, for example seemingly dying and coming back to life. You would think that an event like this would be mentioned later, but it simply isn't and Lance doesn't seem to have been greatly affected by this. incident moving forward The next shot of him has him with this goofy look on his face, presumably because Elora seriously touched him, am I supposed to believe that this is the face of someone who just suffered a possible fatal injury because he seems to have completely Forgotten on this topic, I largely omitted Lance's relationship with Elora from this section because it would have been impossible to discuss it without going into the final season of this show.

But I have an entire section of this review dedicated to season eight. So I will return to that point later. This was definitely one of the shorter sections of this video and that's because because of the kind of criticism I had about Lance and Hunk for the lack of substance and their characters, there really wasn't much to it. To analyze, I also don't want to sound like I didn't like every time one of these characters appeared on screen. They're both entertaining, but they had the potential to be so much more, which is hard to ignore when pitted against each other. some of the other characters too, can someone explain to me why it was necessary to give Lance a sword?

He uses it in battle literally once for four seconds. The same goes for those turrets. Keith is an excellent character conceptually, but the execution of his entire art made that excellence suffer. Even though I would say he is one of the best characters in the series, one of his character's biggest weaknesses comes from the amount of time that it takes her arc to make significant progress, so much so that when I was writing this script and I legitimately thought I had forgotten a large part of her story because all I could remember were fragments of it that were separated by seasons, but after rewinding and making sure I wasn't missing anything, I realized that I had remembered almost everything that happens during the show, unfortunately, this problem would have been difficult to avoid considering the large number of characters to keep track of in the episodic narrative and the method of releasing the show one season at a time with months between each. new episode drop Fortunately, watching the show now that it's all set and ready to be watched helps with this issue a little.

It's similar to Stephen's bombs in that sense, although not as much as Extreme Keith gets a moment or two in the spotlight and then a long run. You're welcome while we wait for the next season, then come back with two unrelated events, making his arc take much longer than it needs to end now. I'm sure many of you are thinking that a character isn't supposed to develop throughout the season. The entirety of a show and the answer is not to talk about The Last Airbender as proof that she was introduced to the main group at the beginning of season 2 and her effective character arc was resolved almost exactly one season later with very few Total.episodes that contributed to that arc and Toph never changed her basic behavior throughout the entire show.

Despite this, she is one of the most beloved characters among Avatar fans, and this is because she was so adorable and fun to watch. She never needed to change everyone. I am perfectly satisfied as she remained the sassy and sassy independent character that she is and she stayed that way and people loved her. Keith is not fun to watch this way. He's a loner, he's quiet. He doesn't like to be the center of attention. The only time the focus is put on him is in specific moments that are crucial to his arc. And those are few and far between for the most part.

However, he steals the spotlight in any scene. in which she is. That's why you don't need to change someone massively or have her come to a life-changing revelation for her to be a great character. But even if this were the case. Even if the characters were always at their best when they have to go through some kind of long transformation that doesn't suddenly fix the problems with Keith Sark, you can have a character arc that spans the entirety of a show, but you have to keep it interesting throughout. the process and, logically, progress in that arc. at a natural pace and this is where the problem with Keith lies.

The actual episodes that further his development and give us insight into his past are some of the most memorable and engaging of the entire show because they offer insight into an already beloved character that we fans have sadly been deprived of. These moments occur between long intervals of unrelated events. This creates the problem of Keith Sark feeling very dragged down. It doesn't even really begin until the second half of the second season, where the group encounters the swords of Marmora and the focus is on Keith's longing to discover the truth about his past and confronting his abandonment issues until then, everything what we really have is a dialogue between keith and shiro.

Suggesting that they have a long history together, but no big revelations. Keith was easily the most compelling character in season 3 and episode 1 of season 4 and that was the only time in the series where the position he had been placed in as the pilot of the Black Lion related very well to his character's struggles. and allowed a very natural and continuous progression of his arc. Unfortunately, after this brief period, remember that Season 3 was In just seven episodes, Keith leaves the group to go work with the Blades of Marmora and remains almost completely absent from the show until halfway through the sixth season.

To be completely fair, the brief glimpses of Keith's adventures with the Blades are some of my favorite episodes. the program It is very satisfying to see a different group dynamic than the one we have had in the main team. Blades are strictly utilitarian, planning every action they take and never taking risks. This is in stark contrast to the leave no man behind mentality. the core team has done it and it's interesting to see how Keith reacts to this new environment and being around new people. Plus, simply leaving the main group improves the world-building. Construction of the third universe.

Yes, let's get to the construction of the universe. Show what this story is like. It's not just Voltron vs. the gall bar. There are individual factions and groups on both sides, which really makes it feel like a real war where each side has a lot to follow and ask to carefully strategize your every move, of course, the most memorable event that occurs during the Keith's departure is his reunion with his mother, Leah. This is where things get confusing for lack of a better word. I don't think anyone would disagree that it's cool and satisfying that Keith meets his mother and learns about his parents' past, but Keith realizes that all of this has no bearing on any of the decisions he makes later in the story. program. of the razor's edge.

Keith's arc is effectively over. He has learned about the past from him. He knows his place on Team Voltron and his mother's presence simply makes his abandonment issues disappear into thin air. By the way, that's not how abandonment issues work. The only time he really understands standing out with Shiro after this is in the Black Paladin episode which certainly contains possibly the best fight scene in the entire show, learning about his mom and his dad is really cool. But there's no use for Keith's arc at all, it simply exists so Keith and Lia Crowe can form a close bond and give a mediocre explanation for why Keith's personal problems have disappeared, but once again, their new relationship never has any meaning. meaning for the plot.

I guess it's also worth mentioning that it would have been a real shame if we hadn't done it. I couldn't learn about Keith's past. So I'm glad they included it. It's just that if there was a way to reveal Keith's backstory without him leaving the team, that might have allowed the creators to involve him more interestingly in the main story. Keith is half a gora. What if he fought for Gaul and they kicked him out like Lotor did? Latour is only half-angry and that didn't stop him and Keith can pilot the Black Lion, for God's sake.

It just makes sense and it would have been very interesting to see what reaction the Gallic REM power might have to continue taking power. And his Ark. It's about him becoming a leader. This makes a lot of sense, and it would have been great to see it happen. How am I the first person to think of this? Okay, it's not a fanfiction. This is the kind of thing that would have been possible if Keith had stayed with the group, and once again I must reiterate that this doesn't mean I hate episodes that focus on Keith. with swords, it's true, although their absence also damages what could be considered the most important part of his arc, his relationship with the other paladins, Keith can leave the group because Shiro can pilot the black lion again, this explicitly goes against from the idea that the team has formed a close bond with each other and the idea that the Lions select specific individuals to pilot them.

I'll expand on that last statement even more in the Shiro section, but I'll preface it by saying that the Shiro clone who replaces Keith not only fits back into the black lion and the rest of the group, but he does it too quickly. Andy brings up the point of the relationship between Keith and the group. Keith is simply treated as too replaceable. When Cheryl disappeared and Keith took over the leadership position, the group had many growing pains. There was a whole mini arc about how the group would function differently now that more than half of the paladins were in new lions.

And this improved the feeling of camaraderie between them, but once Keith decides to leave, no one seems to miss him. Are there no scenes where the group laments Keith's absence or conflicts that arise because of it? I'm sure he'll just replace it. Without conditions, this entire situation undermines the concept that Team Voltron was this group of people who had become such close friends to the point of considering themselves family due to the experiences they had gone through together. And on top of that, once Keith returns after what I'll remind you was two years for him, he doesn't miss them either, at no point do we get Keith to comment that it's good to see them all again and after this he's still extremely professional with others, one could argue that this is because he matured a lot in the two years he was away.

That's why he acted this way towards others and could even be seen as character development. But there are two big holes in that argument. The first isthat this development happens too quickly on the screen. A little over a minute passes from the moment Keith and his mother arrive on that space whale to the moment they arrive at the colony. Rimmel is done in a minute. I will remind you that it consists of a montage of them doing basic survival things that lacks dialogue and the second problem is that at no point in that minute. It is? he suggested that Keith had to learn a lesson or develop himself in some way besides learning how to care for a space wolf and basic survival skills.

None of this translates into emotionless utilitarianism. I'm sure those of you who are very observant will point this out. that Keith could have acquired these personality traits from Marmora's swords and I admit that is possible. The problem is that Keith is surrounded by people who are extremely utilitarian and professional. However, he is shown on multiple occasions disobeying their orders or contrasting their values. Certain Keith may be a little more professional than the other members of the group. But compared to the Blades he is working with, he is not even close and this is a great thing for his character.

That's what he was talking about when I said it was funny. seeing Keith surrounded by new surroundings It just makes it hard to believe that the Blades are instilling these new character attributes in him. When Keith verbally rejects them, this all amounts to a feeling of disconnection between Keith and the others. They're no longer close friends, they're just partners who happen to be co-pilots of this big robot, and that's a problem when the main theme of your story is the power of friendship and found family, and Keith is possibly the biggest offender of this. As I mentioned at the beginning of Keith's section, I'd say he's one of the best characters on this show on his own, but it seems like a lot of the big decisions the creators had to make moving forward with his plot had a negative impact on him. the quality.

It was really fun to see Keith from the show as a whole, but he turns to Lance and learns about his relationship with Shiro and his heritage. But as time went on, we saw less and less of him and he eventually faded into the background. An unfortunate fate. for the Voltron boss, but at least it was good while it lasted. I saved the joy for last when talking about the characters because the analysis of his arc moves on to talking about the rest of the show in general and after half an hour of just talking about the characters.

It's about time we move on to other elements of the show before all that, however, we still have one character left to discuss and look, I really didn't want to have to complain about the characters on this show as much as I have and I feel especially bad for doing it to Shiro, considering he might be my favorite character on the show behind Pidge. But screw it, he sure was a fan favorite for me and many others from the beginning due to him being the most emotionally stable character on the entire show. and his ability to connect and communicate effectively with all the radically different personalities on the team.

He really is the glue that holds the team together and a perfect role for the Voltron leader. Not only this, but he has a genuinely fantastic setup for his arc. Me too. I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record saying it started out great just to complain about it. Later, but be patient, I'm sure he was kidnapped by the Gallic line along with pidge's brother and father. Kept aboard Zarkon's ship as a prisoner, forced to participate in gladiatorial combat to entertain the masses for a year, and had his arm forcibly replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic.

All this. he scarred Shiro and left him with a clear case of PTSD. Similarly, Zarkon used the black lion to commit violence unimaginable for ten thousand years. Later, she is still under the influence of Zarkon, this connection between the black line and Shiro makes a lot of thematic sense and allows for the show: she clearly advances towards her arc through her relationship with the black lion, every time she takes a step to get over it. Due to his PTSD, he forms a stronger connection with the Black Lion, directly helping Team Voltron by unlocking the Black Lions' wings or making Zarkon unable to track them.

Unfortunately, everything I just praised about his arc only applies to the first two seasons at the end of the second season. She rode dies as revealed later and a clone of him, also revealed later, returns in his place in season 3 and Very Quickly before she forgets him. Why exactly was Shiro the only one who died? I mean, the explosion that seems to kill him didn't kill any of the other friends. And Zarkon was literally inside the explosion, but he made it out alive. However, somehow I am sure that his entire body and suit were destroyed while he was inside the black lion. .

I don't know, I just thought I'd mention it regardless of her being a clone, who will now be called Koran Returns. Nothing I mentioned above about Shears' story no longer applies. The Quran never has a moment to increase the bond between him and the black lion. He doesn't have to deal with Zarkon trying to get the black lion back. He doesn't even have flashbacks to his time in prison, which are replaced by brief moments of Hagar trying to take over his mind, which is a whole new trauma. I will admit that Keith finally saving Shiro from this new trauma was a good move and it works.

Well, it secures the story, but ultimately it means nothing and I'll explain why in a moment. . Of course not. Makes sense. The Quran could not connect very well with the black lion or be exactly like Shiro in any other sense. But if that's the case, why can she even pilot the black lion? Is it because Quran vaguely shares Shiro's personality, the Keith-like outbursts? If so, then this once again contradicts the concept that paladins are chosen specifically because of their unique attributes. In fact, I am sure that his spirit was literally within the Consciousness of the black lion as the Koran piloted him, the black man had to have known whoever was piloting him. he was no Shiro and yet he allowed Quran to do it anyway.

This means that Voltron's black lion head had four different paladins over the course of the show. Interestingly, there is a season 7 episode that addresses this exact topic. The main five separate. of the lions and drifting through spacecausing them to go crazy at one point in the episode Keith says this while crazy through space Then once the team regains their sanity, Keith says this reason We were brought together as paladins, something more important They brought us together as friends But honestly, space-crazed Keith sounds more believable based on the actual events that happen in the show, this applies to sharing specifically and that his relationship with the other paladins never seemed to be based on friendship.

Shiro Much like Keith in the second half of the show talks to the other paladins as if they are the family of unfound coworkers, the only exception to this is Keith Shearer, who was a role model for Keith growing up and, as As a result, he personally taught him many life lessons that permeate Keith's entire personality. Keith is the only character who sees Shiro as a person rather than a hero or teacher. Keith is the only character who was allowed to recognize the hero's flaws and learn about the things he struggles with, like that terminal illness that was added to his character for apparently no reason and this is part of what makes him become increasingly depressing.

Chiru's relationship with Keith deteriorates throughout the show's runtime at the beginning. Shara, when Keith had multiple personal moments together where it was obvious they had a bond like a family, then Shiro dies. and Keith can't talk to him for four seasons and once Zero returns he starts acting the same way around Keith as he does with everyone else and also apparently never gets over his PTSD despite going through it . many more traumatic things. As you already know, dying simply disappears once you revive after the second season. Shiro simply stops being a character. Everything that happens to him in seasons 3-6 doesn't actually happen to him.

It happens to Quran and when it happens to you. When he returns, his arc stops abruptly and never ends. Jiro is easy. The biggest downfall Voltron has ever had, if you ask me, because his arc had a lot of potential. He could have gone from a soldier-type character traumatized by his past and unable to make meaningful emotional connections to a mentally healthy person who knew how to be open and vulnerable. with his feelings as they are, although Shira's arc is fucking depressing and we haven't even gotten to You want to talk about queer representation in Voltron You want to talk about fucking queer representation in Voltron Legendary Defender.

It's horrible, it's possibly the worst queer representation I've ever seen on an animated TV show and that's a very low bar to clear. Remember how I said I was going to judge this show based on its content and nothing else. I'm not going to break that rule, but I am going to bend it, and this is because the reason queer representation on Voltron is so bad has to do with content outside of the actual show. I'm sure you're thinking, "Hey, no." Don't you say you wouldn't judge Voltron based on outside information? And I said that, however, in this case the discussions and theories about characters on this show being queer were so rampant online that you would have to have been living under a rock not to have heard about it and have it influence your experience with the program.

And that's precisely what I'm trying to convey to most Voltron fans, including myself, we heard that Shiro was gay before season seven and I went into season seven with that expectation. For those of you who somehow missed all of this, either through sheer luck or because I've never seen Voltron and like to listen to myself talk, in which case thank you very much. Let me give you the full context, so Voltron came to Netflix in 2016, an era of Western animation that we're arguably still in and where seemingly every show was trying its hardest. being politically correct and inclusive of minorities, I have no problem with any of these things for the record.

I'm just making a general observation that can be made of the 2010s, the giant of these shows was Steven Universe with massive success largely attributed to its If we address just this topic and in a time where diversity in the cast of a show is almost universally praised, it makes sense that Voltron would have wanted a piece of the pie. So the logical conclusion from the Voltron writers' perspective would have been to place a character who is part of a minority at the forefront. Unfortunately, this did not happen. There was a part about Paige pretending to be a boy and although I love how the gender others think she is doesn't change anything about how they act towards her.

Paige only pretended to be a boy because she was dressing up, not because she identified as a boy. So the whole situation surrounds a possible discussion about transgender people that is not within the context of the show. Of course, anyway, instead of having a central character he will be obviously queer from the start. We get romantically coded customer scenes, a comic-con panel announcing that Shearer was gay, and a literal last-second kiss between Shiro and a completely unexpected background character. That's all. Seriously, the three things I just mentioned are all we have as quote-unquote queer representation, and each of them seems to be symptomatic of the same problem with creators.

They are too cowardly to have non-heterosexual characters be an integral part of their show But they still wanted to capitalize on the fans who came to the show for diversity. That's why there are so many romantically coded scenes between Keith and Lance, why they announced that he was gay for sure outside of the show itself, and why it was confirmed. in the show literally seconds before the credits roll. All of these aspects of the show are things that the mainstream audience wasn't going to miss, but that the casual viewer who isn't as obsessed with the show might not think about or even realize, but this is an in-depth analysis, damn it. be.

So let's dive into each of these examples starting with clans. As I said a moment ago, there are many scenes with Keith and Lance that are romantically overlaid now, coding is a technique commonly used in media of the current era in which a character or characters are given traits that would suggest that they are of a certain sexuality, gender, race, political point of view, etc. Without said characters being outright confirmed as part of that group, a good way to test whether a show is doing this is by asking if an inserted group would act the same way this character acts or more.simply does this character fit the stereotypes of the insertion group in this case?

The question is whether two people who are in a relationship would act the same way Lance and Keith act and the answer is clear. Yes, we did it, we are a good team. So what's the problem here? You have unfinished business with gay kids. No, I don't do quite the opposite. In fact, the problem here is not that these suggestively gay scenes exist at all. They're just not gay enough. These moments don't make it absolutely clear that Keith and Lance are attracted to each other, which means that someone who is homophobic, which is a Bad Thing, could reasonably assume that these two aren't gay, especially since Keith has a couple of scenes romantically coded with Elora and Lance is clearly attracted to her from day one in an argument over whether Keith and Lance are gay or not.

I think the parties Saying they're not would win simply because it's not openly said on the show and only about 5% of American adults identify as LGBT, but the mainstream audience doesn't care that they care about boats and this It was all they needed. going crazy writing fan fiction and theorizing and Reddit threads. I want to make a TV show about a group of friends but one of them is gay, could be gayer, even plant themed miniatures and Netflix products were made and this just perpetuated the cycle. Imagineer booked a table at a super fancy restaurant because you'd heard all over town that they had the best food in the world.

But when you got there, all they gave you was an appetizer. You'd probably be disappointed and want more, and that's exactly what core fans felt when Keith didn't succeed in Lance's relationship. So okay, the whole Clint situation is pretty frustrating, but I definitely wouldn't call it offensive that Shiro is gay, however, how do you screw up so much? The presence of queer characters again? The presentation of said queer characters is definitely not the problem. The problem was confirmed to be gay and that he had a boyfriend who you would see in season 7 at a Comic Con panel and naturally everyone went crazy, the hype was astronomical and the news spread. faster than fires in paradise is that this was such a big news that if you are anything more than an extremely casual viewer, you heard that Shiro was gay, even the Netflix thumbnails suggested this, but then season 7 came out and we got a .

Flashback scene with Shiro and his boyfriend Adam. What suggests they are in a relationship? But it could also have easily suggested that they were close friends. Then, seven episodes later, comes a scene where an air combat team led by Adam is killed in the resistance against the invaders from Gaul, and finally a 16-second scene of Shiro mourning Adams' death. in action plate Which is even less suggestive of a relationship between the two, the theme here. Isn't that anywhere in the program? Is it confirmed that Shiro and Adam are a couple? For the casual viewer who didn't find out that Shiro was gay beforehand, it would be very possible that they would think that Adam is a close friend of Shiro's or even his cousin or something, but I'm not going to delve too deeply into this. part of the problem because it's basically the exact same problem I explained in The Client section of this video, so you can apply everything I said there to this Shiro and Adam scene, which makes this much worse than shipping the customer.

The creators confirmed that Adam was Shiro's boyfriend, hyped up season 7, and then gave us 0 notable information about Adam killing him and acting like it was never a big deal by making Shiro mourn his death for 16 seconds and paired with an equally useless character. This would have been more acceptable if the creator had simply not said anything about Shiro and Adam and allowed fans to speculate like they did with Keith and Lance. That would have been better than intentionally raising public hopes and dropping the ball harder than the United States. I dropped bombs on Japan. This is what I was talking about when I said I was going to break the rule of only analyzing the information that the program itself gave us.

Shiro being gay was such big news that it reached a lot of Ultron and black audiences. What is his perception of the show and what is the purpose of the analysis? If not to decide what the quality of something is and therefore how much someone can expect to enjoy it, all the people who were excited to learn about Adam certainly didn't enjoy this and made their opinions very clear. There is one more thing to talk about. although And that's the moment where the show actually confirms that she was gay. I seriously considered moving this part to the section about season 8.

But that would have interrupted the flow of this script so far and there really isn't much to say here. This is the most disappointing confirmation of a character's sexuality I've ever seen, partly because I already knew who is gay, but also because this moment changes literally nothing about Shiro's character, the kiss between Shiro and Kurtis. Yeah, I had to look up his name to remember that he appears at the end of the last episode. The quote-unquote She Rose arc has already concluded. Everyone's is the point. What I mean by deconstructing Shiro being gay is that it was completely unnecessary and didn't change anything about his character or the story in general.

There are no scenes where you can go back and have a different experience knowing that Shiro is gay and his sexuality. influences, none of his decisions nor any of his relevant relationships. It seems like the creators of Voltron wanted to bring representation to their show in some way, but they only gave it a half-hearted effort. What's especially depressing is that there are still Voltron fans praising it for its queer representation? How low should your standards be? Suggestive dialogue and a character who is simply gay even though it doesn't change anything in the story is enough to satisfy our desire to see queer people represented in media if the creators of Voltron wanted to have a gay character in their story.

They should have had a scene of Keith and Lance kissing Shira talking about how much she misses Adam and a central conflict revolving around that, as Kiddicraft pointed out, even if they didn't want to scare away homophobic viewers. They could have at least had Shiro talk about Adam in those paladin vlogs they could have posted it on the DreamWorks YouTube channel, then at least they wouldn't have had to worry about Shiro being openly gay in the actual show, which shouldn't be nor is it a restriction in the first place, but it still could have developed his character a little more and given Adams' death a little more fillip.

Fans who cared enough to seek out that information as a final note of this section I would like to mention that there is something to be said about the lack of importance of queer characters in a television show or any minority, I know that a show does not need a reason for a character to be gay, Mexican, autistic or whatever, and I know that complaining about how queer and Voltron related material can make me seem like a little homophobic But that's not my intention, the underlying problem I have with these elements in Voltron is that they were a disappointment, the core audience obviously wanted the show to address this issue and the creators intentionally or unintentionally took advantage of them by providing a ridiculously small amount of content on that front and acting like it was more than what which turned out to be you Presentation is something that many critics will say doesn't really matter when discussing the merits of a work, and while it tends to be a much more subjective point of discussion, I still think there is a valuable reason for breaking away from the visual and listening experience of a program This is because the presentation affects your experience of a program if the direction is done poorly.

So you may not be able to follow what's happening on the screen very easily if the voice acting is bad and the voices don't fit. The characters are very good. You may be equally distracted or even annoyed by these elements, as they can enhance your enjoyment of a work. Look at the biggest fight scenes in my hair academia, for example. The art style of the camera movement and timing is precise and this enhances the weight behind each hit. It builds up the tension and energy of these battles and then compares it to some of the fight scenes in One Punch Man season 2 where the animation can be Genki and it's generally hard to follow everything that's happening on screen because to poor direction and editing.

So where does Voltron fall on this spectrum? Well, I think the presentation is pretty solid overall, but why if I had to point out one thing about the visuals that stood out would it be the character designs? Each of the characters has a number of different outfits that look great on them. Each of them has a primary color that distinguishes them from the others. Shiro is Black Pidge's green, Lanza's blue, etc. And they are all consistently rendered in great detail. Even the villains who appear less frequently on screen clearly put a lot of love into their designs.

They all look great to the point that you could use just about any character design on this show as a lead role in their own series, but why do these designs look so good as an example? Let's look at Keith. He sports a red jacket with a gray t-shirt under dark jeans and red and white boots. His outfit follows a light red, white and black design with a hint of yellow on his jacket which cleverly makes his jacket look a bit like the face of the Red Lion, take this as a lesson in color design to make your character look visually pleasing.

Generally you should follow the 60/30 rule 10, sixty percent of your character is taken up by the main color, 30 percent by the secondary color, and 10 percent by what I like to call the accent color. In addition to this, there are things like what colors? They go well together, which is a completely separate video, but as a simplified reference point, draw a scalene triangle. On a color wheel, follow the 60 30/10 rule and browns and grays are always good for filling in empty spaces. Also, don't over saturate. Your colors, even the Lions, somewhat follow this rule, you can see that the designers put a lot of thought into the construction of each character and it really shows especially in how they place them in the scenes.

You can often notice that each character has their own stance. For example, Keith can commonly be seen leaning against walls, Lance slouching a lot, Pidge sitting criss-cross, etc. It's just little details like this that bring a character to life and make it feel like they each have their own unique and distinctive Personality moment to moment, although there is at least one downside to all this praise. And because it takes a lot of time and effort to add these little details, the characters are rarely as animated as those in, say, Adventure Time's Gurren Lagann or The Last Airbender, the characters stand still for a long time. and talking or sitting through the entire show and it can be quite easy to just check it out in your head until the action starts before even re-watching the series.

This as the show progressed because I got so used to seeing the same backgrounds and characters that I started paying more attention to those visual elements and was a little disappointed to realize that almost all of the conversation scenes are just panning shots. whoever I'm talking about, which gets a little boring if you want to prove what I'm saying, just mute the show and play an episode and you'll start to notice how little the characters move in these scenes. Now compare that to something like Kill, which has characters constantly moving as much as possible and visually reacting to what's going on around them.

Voltron uses a clever editing trick to counter this usage: he moves the foreground, midground, and background layer separately as the camera pans to make it feel less noticeable. It's like you're watching a two-dimensional show and more like a three-dimensional space, but this doesn't replace the actual animation of the characters. Another problem that highly detailed characters create is that when they move, particularly in action scenes, they feel a little stiff again. This is just a symptom of over-designing your characters personally. I would prefer if Voltron was more willing to warp his characters and animate them more freely for lack of a better word.

However, it is similar to something like the kill la kill mentioned above. That show goes all out with the idea Panty and Stocking o tengen toppa, gurren lagaan, the shows both animated by studio Gainax. By the way, in Gurren Lagaan, each of the characters are visually distinguished from each other, not in color, but in their silhouette, the unique body types and accessories of each of the characters make them easily identifiable even when animated in a way more cartoonish, thisIt allowed Gurren Lagaan to have its characters in constant motion even in the conversation scenes that coincide with the frenetic and energetic story it retells. it's just my preference for animated images and TV shows and I completely understand that more hyper detailed static shots appeal to some viewers more than constant motion and to that extent Voltron isn't as ridiculous and bombastic as shows like Gurren Lagaan or Kill La. kill, so having the characters constantly squashed and stretched could lead to a lot of tonal dissonance.

But the few moments where they really shake up the animation style and get more ridiculous don't feel out of place in the slightest and are some of the most memorable. Moments throughout the show Like the Calton milking scene which was fucking hilarious and was largely due to the dramatic camera rotation and the warped Quran and Ellora. They're not depicted in great detail or even in color and that's what their mortified Voltron expressions emphasized. I needed more scenes like this, scenes where the animators were willing to simplify the art in order to create more experimental and extreme images, but simplifying the art would have even more implications than that.

As I mentioned before, each character is pretty identifiable just by their color palette. So what if during some fight scenes they didn't draw those extra lines and instead focused more on expressive keyframes and camera rotation that would make the action stand out more and since everything moves so fast, no one Will you really notice the intricate details in someone's image? armor where the flaps of his clothes Anyway, the medium of animation is based on the principle of exaggeration. That's why anime characters have such big, expressive eyes. That's why their arms and legs often turn into noodles.

That's why they are made of such crazy colors, it's all in service of exaggerating the emotion these characters feel and if you don't believe me, look up any emotion, then person and see what the results are, now replace the word. person with anime and notice the difference. My point is that Voltron could have been more expressive with the visuals of him. They still could have had those hyper detailed shots, which look great. But they could have also used some good old fashioned shots. Simplification and even if they really wanted the vast majority of the show to look as detailed as possible, they could still spice things up by experimenting with color depending on the emotion of the scene or adding some interesting camera angles, focusing on dynamic shots. composition Now, I'm sure on this point.

Some people are thinking of making you angry. Idiot You keep talking about how the show should move more, but you completely forgot about the scenes with more movement. The cgi robot fights and no, I didn't forget those. CGI robot fights are certainly more exciting than sitting characters. for about three episodes. This is because the group forms Voltron very frequently, and while this show has better CGI than most other animated series I've seen, it becomes too repetitive to constantly engage with. Voltron looks the same in every fight, simply swapping between a handful of weapons available to the team, and while there is more movement in the fight scenes with Voltron, it rarely amounts to more than shooting flying lasers with brandishing swords.

There's just nothing that revolutionizes the way the team fights in Voltron. say metal bending Revolutionize earth bending in avatar or frozen water or lightning bending. So what could be done to solve this supposed problem? Well, the way I see it, the best way to keep the audience interested in these battles would be to give Voltron a permanent upgrade of some kind that was visually distinct from its base form. Obviously, doing this too much and too often would result in DBZ. , which I'll get into later, but what if Voltron got some kind of new accessory halfway through the series?

What if Pidge made a small, specialized battle pod that would frequently accompany Voltron into battle, adding a whole new layer to space combat? team to discover new creative uses for said device. This is the kind of thing that makes a dedicated audience member happy because it gives them a sense of reward for sticking with these characters all this time. It's a visual confirmation of the team's growth and plot progression. This is the kind of thing that well-thought-out visual design can accomplish in a long-running television show, and while Voltron paints a very pretty picture, it's only a matter of time before its audience gets bored of watching literally the same thing over and over again. and again, although I think Voltron looks pretty good overall.

As I said at the beginning of this section, Voltron's visuals are serviceable without any major flaws. There is just so much space. to improve So, yes, it is certainly a pleasant experience for the eyes and also, damn, since they are very funny. Oh my God, hearing noises. Mm-hmm. Moving on to audio is another area where this program works ably without any major flaws. But it still has a lot of room for improvement. The only element I would say is downright bad is the lack of memorable music. The only song I can play in my head is the theme song and I don't know if that's why. is it a good piece of music or is it because the show plays it at the beginning of each episode.

And every time they form Voltron I lean towards the last time, why do they play the same 1/2 minute long clip and the entire opening every The only time the group Voltron is formed there is not a single person who has not been skipped the transformation sequence once he realized how often it plays, who made that decision. Time went back even if this would be considered a good track by a musical connoisseur. I'm NOT the fact that we hear it so often dilutes its impact in a given scene when I hear the beginning of the Guardian theme from Breath of the Wild, I immediately get nervous and feel a bit of adrenaline knowing that I have been discovered by and you will have than fighting one of the most powerful enemies in the game, that first note wouldn't be as effective in shooting fear up the player's spine if they played it every time an enemy detected you, it would make every encounter with a guardian feel like one more battle and that's exactly what playing the theme song in every Voltron lineup does now.

I'm not saying they shouldn't have built Voltron up so much, that's ridiculous. What they should have done is have Voltron form more off screen if this was the case on the few occasions they showed it on screen it would have a little more weight to it. This change would have improved scenes like when the team first forms Voltron under Keith's leadership or after Zarkon destroys the Lions in the Season 2 finale. But even if this change were made, it still wouldn't fix the issue of not There are featured pieces of music just for fun. I looked up the original soundtrack and thought it was actually pretty good.

Like I said, I'm not. music expert, so I can't combine all the chords and specific instruments to give accurate constructive criticism. But from what I can tell, it's obvious that these tracks were made with the intention of being background music and they serve that purpose. Well, the songs that are played. Quiet scenes invoke a very spatial feeling, as they tend to be slower and more mystical than songs from shows that take place in more familiar environments like Earth. The themes for the action sequences are energetic and really get your blood pumping. The songs that sound sad.

The scenes are somber and delicately rendered. All this is useful. It does the job. It's supposed to and I'd even say it does that job pretty well, it's just that with movies like an animated film that is universally praised for its first 15 minutes, which features a wordless montage only accompanied by music that excited everyone around it. They saw her. Cry, I know how much of a difference a show's music can make. I just wish there were more topics that took center stage and I felt like they deserved my full attention. But as it is, I'd really just have Voltron Oh s D playing in the background, but the music isn't the only part of this show's sound design.

We also have to talk about the voice acting, which is pretty good in English. Anyway, well, you've got a head out there. Each of the voice actors look like they are really having fun playing these characters and it really shows. Everyone in the main cast can do a full range of emotions and sounds. Compelling to begin with, even the villains have excellent voice actors in my opinion. Especially Lotor and some people might think Zarkon is just a generic deep strong voice man. But I really love how grumpy he sounds in a way. You can test how much voice acting adds to a program by simply removing it.

Read the comic form of the show. If it exists, activate subtitles, etc. And I think if you took that away from him. from Voltron You would lose a lot of the heart of this series, the jokes, emotional milestones, and characters' personalities are made to feel much more real thanks to the voice acting. Audio is much more important than I think many people give it. Credit to and I would like to see it covered in more depth by people who are more knowledgeable about this topic than I am, but I hope I was able to word this section in a way you can understand.

Voltron had a good presentation. I'll be honest, I wanted Voltron's villains to be in a section of their own, but there's a lot of connection between these two elements of the show that I didn't realize and I found myself struggling not to transition from one to the other. the other as I write this script, so bear with me, it will make sense later as time goes on, there seems to be an increasing popularity of serialized storytelling in media. If you don't know that serialization, as applied to television shows, is the practice of telling an overarching interconnected story throughout the runtime of a series.

And I should mention that there are varying degrees on the episodic serialized spectrum. Now I have nothing against serialization, but its popularity has created a bit of a cultural distaste for episodic storytelling. be seen as childish or lacking intellectual value. This is because most episodic shows are made for children, as children may not be able to remember everything that happened in the last episode. Which is a good point, it's just that when episodic storytelling is applied. can be extremely successful Just look at Adventure Time, Gravity Falls in The Last Airbender. Each of these shows has some overarching elements, but they are primarily monster-of-the-week type experiences.

And I don't need to point out how successful and loved. These shows are basically everyone Unfortunately, although as serialization becomes more prevalent, series that might do better as episodic stories go in the other direction, Netflix in particular is a big part of why this is the case due to their method of releasing a full season. one show at a time Although I think binge-watching is the best way to enjoy a show because you don't run the risk of forgetting information between episodes, especially for people like me who tend to watch a few episodes of a show and never get Netflix's release method has caused everyone who makes shows for them to have their episodes mixed together, pay attention to every episode of a Netflix show and most of the time there will be a scene where the villain speaks vaguely about how their plan has just begun or something, they want to create that desire to watch just one more episode and get to know what the villain was talking about or hear the second half of that sentence that was cut off by the credits.

And like I said about episodic storytelling, serialization can work amazingly. Well, as long as the story it applies to is suitable to be told in a serialized fashion, but how does everything I just said apply to Voltron? Well, if you ask me, Voltron is one of those shows that should have been more episodic but became a more serialized DEQ experience due to its release nature. The main conflict in the story is that the Gaul responds that he would cause the death and enslavement of countless lives. -it forms throughout the universe in one way or another and Team Voltron doesn't want that hurdle you have to overcome by creating a conflict like this and frankly any conflict in a story answers the question why should the audience care? and in this situation?

The best way to answer that would be to establish a lot of fun? supporting characters throughout this scenario so that when the universe is essentially under threat of destruction, the audience thinks Oh no, all the interesting characters.We meet on the road, we are going to die, so I want the protagonists to prevail and what would be the perfect way to do that? Having more episodes that tell their own standalone story involving a new, unique character and how the current antagonist is hurting those people, you know, is coming. So let's get this over with. This was done masterfully in Avatar The Last Airbender, where there are countless episodes that took place in small villages or towns that provided the main group with a conflict that would not only be resolved by the end of the episode, but showed them and the audience first-hand hand how many lives it was necessary to save katara and the entire sokka tribe jet in the gyeongjong bandits king bumi haru master pakku the beifongs the kyoshi warriors the cabbage guy the list goes on and on and on and that's not to mention the main cast We meet so many memorable characters in The Last Airbender that they all get at least one wash-and-return episode later in the series to remind you how many incredible personalities the main cast met along their journey.

Which reminds you of everything that What are you fighting for? Voltron has very few of these types of characters. Literally. The only ones that are in the same ballpark as everyone I just listed from the last airbender are the Marans bull, the old car II, and I guess Marmora's swords, but I'll get to those later. We meet both alien races. They leave a memorable impact early on and return later to help out the main cast and remind them what they're fighting, because there aren't many episodes focused on all the literally colorful characters we could meet. Voltron z-- the narrative is deeply rooted in its main characters and the threat they face and I have already discussed the problems I have with each of them.

Another common problem you run into with serialization is that you have to keep your story focused on the main conflict. at all times and although Voltron is not as serialized as, for example, The Legend of Korra, which frequently encountered this problem. You can still see how it affects Voltron, a lot of episodes focus on one on one confrontations with the Gallic rebuttal ships and commonly climax during said confrontation and as a result this often robs the tertiary characters of their time. in the center of attention. We're constantly shown the Gallic feud doing bad things, but we rarely get a sense of how their actions are hurting specific people beyond that.

We're probably going to be enslaved or killed in droves. ARS collecting quintessence from Alton's is a perfect example of this. We know that all the tans are dying, which is bad, but we don't get to know any of them personally, except for some kind of mascara, but she's used so obviously as a plot device and nothing more than I couldn't give a damn. if I tried. All we know is that her brother died due to many experiments and she wants to help save the universe. But she literally does nothing except yell at Lotor for killing Alton, which Allura does anyway, at least she seems intent on helping the team in any way possible and I'd be willing to assume she does it off screen, but the Two other races I mentioned don't come close to this level of personality.

Which isn't much to start with. None of them stand out in the slightest in any of the episodes in which they appear. They all look almost identical to the other members of their respective races and I can't. Remember any of their names for the life of me, except Shay, they only exist to be victims of Gaul, Rahul needs to be saved because it's the right thing to do, and as a result, when we find out much later that the old man brings home, the planet is totally lifeless which leads one to believe that the old car really doesn't hit that hard.

If it weren't for pidge's reaction to this event, there would have been virtually no sympathy for the paralysis of the best engineers in the entire Universe, the fact that the creators decided not to waste time establishing a compelling story for at least one of the vintage cars. It meant that we had no one to connect with, and as a result, finding out that they had lost their homeworld left little to no impact. Every time the older Careys appeared on screen, the show used their connection to Pidge to develop his character because they were simply more concerned about Pidge. than bipedal cockroaches and I don't necessarily blame them because this pidge's connection to the former Carey leads him to form a stronger bond with her lioness.

Even if she didn't do anything to earn that stronger bond, it's just that she had certainly other ways they could have made pidge's connection to the green one feel more natural in other episodes. That way they could have used the screen time devoted to pidge's development in Carey's episodes to develop Wilk Ari's. But unfortunately, this program seems to think. that any time not spent on the main characters or the current villain is a waste of time, which is simply not the case. Establishing a solid supporting cast, especially when those cast members are as different and diverse from each other as the aliens are in Voltron, sets the stage. your story unfolds and feels much more real and alive.

Remember how I said Marmora's swords improved Voltron's universe-building? Well, that's a perfect example of how serialization helped Voltron use. The OL carrion balm. Aaron's had room for improvement. What separates the swords from the balsam irons and the Iqari is that the swords are actively fighting Gaul, remember? They are not just victims. This means that the show can focus on them for most of the entire episodes and not lose sight of the central plot. Furthermore, they didn't need to go into much detail about the members of Blade either. individual backstories because they were characterized enough by all the effort they put into resisting Zarkon's imperialization while Elora and Quran are in cryo-sleep based solely on the base of Marmora's swords, you feel like you understand what kind of people the members are and how difficult it is for them to have been fighting a war alone for thousands of years.

That's a hell of a lot better than a race of anthropomorphized rhinos who just sit around and mind their own business until they manage to attack the protagonists in need to save them and still gain a step further than necessary with swords by having the mother of Keith as a member. They gave us an idea of ​​who the crow Lia was, what her motivations were for resisting the Gawler Empire, and how much effort she put into it. She is put up to fight for what she believes in and then sent to rebuild the swords with Cola Vaughn after he massacre a large portion of her members and she decides to go with him because she knows Keith can take care of her. itself.

This point and it would be better for the universe if the two went their separate ways. It's really moving and this is the kind of story that would only have been possible if a lot of thought had gone into it. Or maybe they just stumbled upon a good situation through sheer luck. But I'm going to assume it was the first. I just wish the same was thought of for Che or Reiner X's characters, and yes, I looked up Ryder's name. I give the creator a lot of shit for the missed opportunities and there will definitely be some people who think I'm being too critical and that even if the mayor of the ball is a moose and not as developed as the crow Lea, they still give us a reason to hate the Gallic Empire because they are attacking completely innocent people. lives It's just that the writers showed what they were capable of when they tried hard.

They showed that they could use the story's presentation style to enhance its dramatic weight rather than hinder it. They showed that they could create a supporting character that was interesting and contributed to the main story in a way that was satisfying and felt natural and that's what makes these missed opportunities that much more disappointing. They exactly demonstrated the claim I made earlier about serialized and episodic storytelling that when used correctly, both can do wonders for your story and when used incorrectly they do the opposite. Episodic storytelling tends to work best in a narrative that establishes its main characters from the beginning and throws them into a bunch of unique and entertaining situations that somehow contribute to a larger goal.

Serialized storytelling tends to work best in a narrative that has many moving parts that are directly connected to the main story and need to be tracked to keep the story moving. Voltron leans heavily on the serialized side of things even though it's seemingly set up to work around an episodic formula, the main cast and their ultimate goal are introduced very quickly and placed in an environment that practically guarantees plenty of locations. and unique sets, but we spent a ridiculous amount of time in the same places throughout the show. So many episodes open in the Lion Castle by simply floating in space with nothing to distinguish these shots once we get to the previous seasons, it gets boring after a while, especially when we only get to see one room in the castle for the most part. part of the time.

Other than that, the main story of the first two seasons is pretty simple. It stopped Zarkon, they didn't need to focus on this as often because any Revelations we may have about Zarkon doesn't change the fact that he needs to be defeated. Fire's Lord. Ozai this way is that after season 2, Zarkon is out of the picture and is introduced to Prince Lotor and for a while. This actually worked quite well suddenly. The goalkeeper remembers that he was in disarray. We had to keep track of the main group. What Lotor was doing and the witch are all at the same time without letting them confront each other because that can't happen until the narrative climax.

This was the kind of story that was perfectly suited to serialized storytelling and seemed like it was going somewhere, but then it turns out that all Lotor wanted was quintessence and ruling over the alternate hands in the Gara empire. Now who does that? It reminds me of the The lotor presented by the creator is a complete mystery, his intentions and motivations were totally unknown and from season 3 to 6 we slowly discover more and more of his plan with some twists and turns, such as learning that Hagar She is his mother and he is half of Altay. giving him a connection to Elora or that he intended to work with Team Voltron to unite the Gaara Empire and bring peace to the universe.

Wow, what a complicated and well-written character. Of all my enemies Voltron hagga and the rest of agora. They have everyone's. I hope to create this extremely interesting new character only to make him the same villain. We already spent two seasons in the last minute. Believe me when I say that making a villain evil for the sake of being evil is the most boring way you can. possibly writing an antagonist, especially when you focus your story heavily on that antagonist, you see that people are not born evil or without the capacity for sympathy unless they have some kind of mental health problem.

Most people probably haven't come across so many true ones. Psychopaths in their lives and as such, they rightly assume that most people are not psychopaths. This is the first hurdle you must overcome as a writer when creating an antagonist. You can't just make them evil for no reason because that makes you look like a villain. like an idiot and stupid people aren't intimidating because here now this doesn't mean you need your villain to be in some kind of moral gray area. You just need your audience to understand on a basic level why they are doing the things they are doing.

I direct your attention to Thanos as a widely recognized example of a great villain, as many people know. He wants to prevent overpopulation by killing half of all life in the universe. Obviously, this is a terrible plan because it requires the sacrifice of countless lives. But the question is: does that OS solution solve the perceived problem? Yes, Fanie provides his solution to many planets. The results speak for themselves when there were fewer people on these planets, each person had more resources to live on. Thanos has even seen the results of what happens when no solution is implemented in his home.

The planet Titan became overpopulated and its entire race collapsed because of this from Thanos' perspective. He is doing the right thing when he didn't implement his solution. They all died when he implemented a solution. Half the population survived. This is the set of data that Thanos has and all of his actions in Infinity War are based on that information. But despite this, no one supported Thanos. Without a doubt, he was still the antagonist because his plan involved literally killing half the population of the universe and we know that there are better ways to deal with the problem of overpopulation.

When you focus a large part of your storyin the villain, intentions become integral and this is where we return to Voltron as if Thanos Lotor was presented as someone who was doing terrible things with the best interests of the universe in mind. We can understand why you would think it's okay to sacrifice countless alternate hands if it meant many more would survive. just utilitarianism 101 and not to mention that Latour was raised by Zarkon, who may have had just a tiny bit of influence on how Lotor developed his worldview. However, he still had to be defeated because his methodology was off, which made Latour sympathize even when his Alton cologne was revealed because the show still imposed that his intentions were in the right place just like OHS fan a OHS fan difference however, they pull the rug out from under us in the final battle Revealing that saving the entire day and culture was never theirs to begin with, the intention is simply to gain more power from the Quintessence.

Hey, you know how we spent three seasons slowly building up to this really interesting and fun thing to see an antagonist who is genuinely concerned about the well-being of his friends and wants to bring peace to the universe. Yadin eating it. Let's have him addicted to space cocaine all the time and well-written sequences revolving around low tours become irrelevant at the seemingly last second. So we can have a villain who is unforgivably evil so no one can feel bad for him. but apparently they forgot that we already had that villain in Zarkon who despite receiving a little more screen time than necessary for the aforementioned serialization problems was still kept simple.

His goals were to conquer the universe and obtain more quintessence. He simply wanted the most basic power. possible motivation for a villain But it largely worked in the first two seasons because we spent more time with the protagonists and their stories hadn't been spoiled yet. Interestingly, the show does almost exactly the same thing with the villains Hot on the heels of season 6 with Worse Elements surrounding them, the first half of season 7 doesn't really have a central antagonist, focusing on Team Voltron's return to Earth. and it's actually quite fun when we return to Earth. However, the main antagonist becomes Sendak, who has exactly the same thing.

Objectives while Zarkon and Lotor capture the lions. Take control of the universe, harvest the quintessence yada yada yada. We're now in the penultimate season and all of the central antagonists have had the exact same boring motivation: we don't need a third version of the same guy now. Ignoring the fact that we've been through this before and that Sendak is considerably less intimidating than Zarkon by virtue of him being literally less powerful and having a lower rank. Sendak fulfills his purpose in season 7 very well, his ultimate goals involving the death and enslavement of millions. His motivations are simple, but they don't really matter. anyway, and the show doesn't focus on him too much.

He would be saying the same things about Sendak as he did about Zarkon in seasons one and two if Sark in circus seasons 1 and 2 didn't already exist. So the villain is Bien, and now that we've been introduced to a bunch more characters, all of whom are unified under the same goal of not letting Sendak take over Earth, we have a lot to keep track of besides the simple villain, so the serialized nature of the show can really shine well No, I mean, it's not that episodic storytelling would have been much better in this situation, but they just don't specifically play to the strengths of serialization.

No one gets any relevant character work because there are so many characters, having many characters can work very well in a serialized show. Stranger Things season 1 accomplished this masterfully, but Voltron simply introduces too many new characters, too quickly, and has almost no time to develop them beyond the general archetypes as a result. Nothing is interesting in the least. All of the main character arcs are pretty much over at this point. None of the supporting cast is developed and the villain cannot be developed without making him a worse villain. So yeah, season 7 started out pretty fun, but ended up being very disappointing. partly because they reuse story elements where they weren't appropriate, but they surely learned their lesson in the season.

Oh no, wow. Just wow, season 8 of Voltron's legendary defender is staggeringly terrible, the kind of terrible that makes me hate it beyond belief and also love it for Being as bad as it is, I can say that there isn't a single thing about season 8 I enjoy UNAC Lee and that is not an exaggeration. Every element carried over to Season 8 from previous seasons crashed and burned and every new element crashed and burned harder. I left a few things out of the earlier sections of this video because I knew from the beginning that season 8 had to be approached as its own beast and disperse all the ways it thoroughly shits on much of the show throughout this analysis.

I've underestimated how horrible it is, but let me finish my Deconstruction of Haggarva, both as a conclusion to my discussion of the show's Antagonist and as an introduction to my criticisms of season 8 as a whole. Hagar was introduced in the first episode as nothing. More than Zarkon's assistant and she does nothing but help him. Small snippets of information are occasionally given to the viewer over a long period of the show's runtime, including her as Alton, her true identity as a nervous wife of the Archons, and his low regard for her. his mother We also found out how he became Hagar, so basically ten thousand years ago this asteroid landed on dives, all of which formed some sort of wormhole between universes and the area between universes is made up of Zarkon's super concentrated quintessence and a nerve We investigated it together. in all the divers and finally they got married.

But as they devoted more and more time to their research and continued to be exposed to the quintessence, they became obsessed with the potential power it could grant them and apparently because of all this, a nerve fell ill. It culminated in Zarkon tricking the other paladins into opening the rift between Reality even further so that he could expose Nerva to the purest Quintessence possible to heal her; Unfortunately, both he and a nerve died in the process from absorbing too much. However, later they came. presumably now running in Quintessence and Nerva also has amnesia, which led her to take the name Hagar and the position of Zarkon's right hand.

By the way, nothing is really explained about how quintessence affects the body and mind. It just seems like a really addictive drug that can kill you, but also brings you back to life and burns Keith in that episode. But it also seems to be what Zarkon uses to strengthen himself with that robotic suit. So who even? But eventually a nervous wreck brings back her memory of being Zarkon's wife and eventually being humble to her mother, which coincidentally is the same episode in which Zarkon dies. Am I a bad person for thinking it's really funny? Oh, with his memories recovered, he decides that all he wants is to be with his family again.

She then captures Lotor, brings him in and tells him the big news: what Lotor? He refuses to recognize her as her mother, this naturally upsets Nerva and once Lotor is defeated and killed, he decides to travel to another reality where her family is still alive so he can be with them. And now we're finally making our way into Season 8 territory. Now meeting her family is a slightly less generic motivation than just slightly gaining power. But he is hampered by the fact that season 8 spends much more time on Nerva than necessary. They could have explained why a herbal Eve sacrifices billions. of lives worth spending time with your family again OR how much effort you put into trying to reunite with your family only to have the chances of that happening in your reality shattered, but that's not what the focus is on instead.

It's about how she's going to execute this plan and how the main team is going to try to stop it, which rings hollow because it's so hard to get invested in why Inervate is doing this in the first place and even the parts of the plan that the show focuses on. It makes little or no sense either because of inexplicable magic the writers pulled out of nowhere, that is, literally everything related to other realities or because they simply did not follow logic. Specifically, her method of getting the colony's alternate hands to help her is absolutely nonsensical.

She literally just tells them that she is Lotor's mom. That lotor is dead, Voltron killed him and she's going to avenge his death and the alternate hands immediately swore allegiance to her. Seriously, you're expecting her to believe that some random woman could walk into the neighborhood and say, Hello, everyone. your Lord and Savior is dead But it's okay because you can follow me and no one cared enough to make sure she wasn't lying. It's almost as if this is bad writing, but even without taking into account the poorly written circumstances surrounding their plan and the disappointing presentation.

Of her motives, Nerva still falls apart as an antagonist when she travels to another reality where her family is still alive. She arrives and Baby Lotor insists that she is not her mother, which angers Nerva, as she now intends to destroy all realities. Whose idea was it? Oh. So, first of all, why can't a nerve adapt to looking for another reality where there are loads of babies, except sir? There are seemingly infinite realities. So why did she throw a tantrum after just one failed attempt? I don't understand it and let's talk about that tantrum. Do you remember what I said?

Believe me when I say that making a villain evil for the sake of being evil is the most boring way to write an antagonist, especially when you focus your story heavily on that antagonist, that's exactly what Voltron does with Nerva. She could absolutely win, no destroying every reality. In fact, she would be killing countless versions of Zarkon and Lotar and then she would have nowhere to go. poisoning, but does that really make her retarded? If not, why are the things she says challenging? Rationality If a Nerva really believes what she just said, she is literally mentally disabled.

This writing is worse than tumblr fan fiction and it frustrates me to no end that the creators thought could anyone watch this and not think what a fucking idiot? This is quite possibly the least compelling villain I've ever seen. But we're not done yet in the collective consciousness of all realities, which is actually a reality now. Allura uses more alt and magic to remind a nerve that she used to be happy. I think it is not explained. Well, or nothing and Nerva just does a complete 180 and apologizes. Oh yeah, sorry for literally destroying one reality except one.

I guess there's nothing we can do about it now, so Allura decides that the only way to bring back all the destroyed realities is to use the quintessence in a nervous body as a life-giving force to bring them back and doing this will kill Nerva. and Elora, what the hell is she? No one could have predicted this would happen because this is the first time we're told that all the tan magic can do this again. I have to bring up the point that magic is unexplained when the audience doesn't understand the cost of limitations and In the general process of using whatever magic is present in your story, the dramatic stakes become useless because there is no reason to believe that the protagonist cannot solve any problem that arises with the new spell or ability that was not revealed to us. previously You want to know why the Airbenders' latest magic system was so obviously well designed.

It was because he made it very clear to the audience. What were the teachers capable of? They can only bend an element when said element is present. Teachers must move their bodies to do. an element moves, benders can only control their element, etc. By establishing these rules, the writers could put the characters in situations that increase the dramatic level at stake, take the desert episode for example, the team is stranded in the desert and has to find a way back. For society, the lack of water means that Katara cannot bend. The sand makes it difficult. Size has meaning without value.

Aang can't just fly away and get help or he risks losing the group and Sokka is high on cactus juice so he can't. Think about one of their classic plans, although there are no antagonists actively threatening the group, you still understand that they are in grave danger. Voltron doesn't have any of this type of writing in season eight at any point. Do we get an explanation of how to alt? In works of magic? He can apparently redirect other forms of magic, generate power from nothing, find and present lost memories. Bring people back from the dead andregenerate destroyed realities.

Is there nothing I can't do if we're supposed to assume that Elora had these kinds of ridiculously powerful magical abilities the whole time? Why not just Stan? Oh, she wipes out the entire King Gallic Empire, the show never makes it clear that this isn't something she can do, why should she believe that? She shouldn't be able to do it when she can do all this other shit. Like I said in the Allura section, there are so many times this happens even in previous seasons, but never before has this type of lazy writing been used when the stakes are so high.

They are so tall On top of that, this moment kills Elora for no reason why she did everything she did that required her to die. Allura just says that she knows the risk and then says goodbye to the group, but why is the series finale where the creators decided it would be a good idea to start setting up the consequences of using extremely powerful spells. The worst she endured before this was just general exhaustion from overexerting her magical abilities. But they never seemed to be physically exhausting, especially to the point of damaging her body. Elora is simply denied a happy ending because the creator wanted this moment to be emotional and forceful and it achieves the exact opposite of that by confusing the hell out of most of the audience members, not only does it create this aura of denial of a conclusion satisfying, but it destroys Lance's quote-unquote arc.

I already talked about Lance up to season 7, but I skipped season 8 for reasons I'm about to get into in the first episode of season 8. Lance asks Elora on a date and she accepts. Later in that episode they confirmed their love for each other and became a canon couple sounds great on paper, but the devil lies in the details. This episode takes place after seven seasons in which Lance had a one-sided relationship with Elora. Lance says that he was in love with Elora from the day he met her and there is no shortage of scenes where Lance's feelings towards Elora are raised.

So the question is if he was so in love with Elora why did it take him until season 8 to say anything? But that's not even the worst thing about the episode's release date. Lance has no intention of asking Elora out until the beau pushes him to do so. And even when she does, Allura says no before Rimmel pushes her away. All of this amounts to Lanson's relationship with Alura not having the weight it should depending on how. We have been preparing for this for a long time. Lance says he's wanted to ask Allah out for a long time.

But he never did in the months since they defeated sin in season 7. Does that sound like someone who is desperately in love righteously? It's presented as if Lance is too nervous to ask Elora out, but that wouldn't make much sense. Considering Lance's entire arc was about accepting who he was, now is not the time to make it seem like Lance is still dealing with feelings. inadequate or insecure in himself because the plot was apparently already over, their relationship feels especially unsettling because Elora has had romantically coded scenes with several other characters besides Lance. Most of the characters Elora was very clearly attracted to him before finding out that she's a bitch. and that her breakup, so to speak, is as emotionally draining as she was, makes her feel like Lance is some kind of rebound.

I said one-sided relationship earlier for a reason, all signs point to Elora not being as invested in this relationship as Lance, which makes the conclusion of their story especially depressing, but I'll get into that in a moment and say that when shows the two of them together as a couple, they are quite cute, the dialogue feels like a real couple joke and they. Obviously we are still in the new phase of the relationship where everything is perfect. And your partner is the best in the world. I wish there were more scenes like this because not only would it allow us to see them being more adorable, but it would also cement in the viewers' minds that Elora and Lance are in fact a real couple. and not just a rebound adventure, but unfortunately her presence as an item is extremely minimal in the final season and she only appears in a few rare scenes, including the one I mentioned earlier where Elora sacrifices herself to save each reality in this scene.

Lance begs him not to. sacrifice himself But Elora tells him there is no other way and leaves, but not before they share a kiss and Elora gives all the marks to Lance, you can already guess what my reaction was at this moment, so to mix things up a little things. Here it is. Kitty makes a handmade interpretation of this scene. It doesn't make any fucking sense. Like I said, I hate this scene as much as I do because it completely shits on Lance's Ark up to this point. Lance obviously struggles with self-esteem issues and it seems like the writers wanted his relationship with Elora to be an indicator that he finally overcame those issues and how did he do it?

Rewarded for this, the love of his life dies. He loses the lions and retires at a very young age to help on his family's farm and never finds love again. Imagine you were in Lance's position while watching this show and you had a crush on someone, but you were too nervous to ask them out and you found reconciliation in a TV character who felt the same way. What lesson does Lance's situation send to impressionable viewers? That if you start a relationship with the person you've been in love with for years, they will win. I don't love you as much as you love them and you're damned if you'll be heartbroken and never get over them.

I mention this point as a major flaw because Voltron is a show aimed at children. People who have never had serious relationships before or haven't even had them at all. a lot of life experience This type of story would be more acceptable if Voltron was written to be a tragic story that ends up being Koran never gets to say goodbye to Elora Lance loses the love of his life he's probably terminally ill Okay, it turns out his new body does not have the disease. But they never say it openly in the series and I already mentioned that I stick to the context of the show, so there is no outside information.

There's something disturbing about how the best way to describe the ending of a children's show is depressing. I'm all for more mature content in kids' shows. But the themes are really what matters here. Gravity Falls had a lot of serious and even just straight-up elements. Seriously, scary visuals, some of the shots in this show look like they belong in a horror movie, but at the end of the day, even though its ending is quite melancholic, the message it sends to viewers was that life goes on and Although all good things come. all the way That doesn't mean even better things aren't waiting for you in the future;

It tends to be very easy to identify the themes of a children's show because children are not going to pick up on the finer details of the story. Many times one of the characters simply says the lesson the audience is supposed to learn and it works many times, but in Voltron the negative messages he sends are so blatant that even children could pick up on them and the positive ones. themes that he pretends to have, that is, that friendship makes you stronger and that the bond between the family formed is unbreakable, etc. It rings completely hollow because the characters don't feel like friends, everyone is doing their own thing and the main six almost never are.

They are in the same room together and when they are alone they talk about the current mission or what the plans are to defeat Nerva. If you showed someone who had never seen Voltron just season eight, they would probably come away thinking that the main characters were nothing more than Associates, this goes against the idea that their friendship is what allowed them to defeat an enemy so ridiculously powerful. Either they needed to make the Paladins' bond stronger or make a nerve less of a threat, but this is the solution. final season and the only way we know how to ramp up the tension is the same way The Legend of Korra's most hated arc does, by making the villain much bigger and intent on killing more people.

It's just a bigger piece. I have registered this. The DBZ effect is because, like Dragon Ball Z, it's the writers' inability to find a more nuanced way to make dramatic stakes that causes this problem. This is also very common in superhero movies where if the hero doesn't save the day, the villain will take over the world or destroy the universe or whatever. This could be used well in a story like I said. All you have to do is establish a ton of tertiary characters and make the audience care a lot about them. Voltron features a lot of tertiary characters, but you know how I feel about them, as a result the threat of countless people dying is nothing more than that statement and it means nothing, people literally die all the time.

If simply saying that a person died was enough to provoke an emotional reaction in an audience member, the showrunners would never have to give their characters personality. If you want an audience member to care about someone's death, you need to present them as a real person. Not just a number on the confirmed kill counter. What makes this uniform? More frustrating is that the end of a nervous plan was? Completely meaningless to the dramatic stakes of the story because you already have a main cast of characters that the audience has come to love. Lions are made of that interdimensional comet material.

So why not make a nervous plan to use black magic to take control of the planet? The lions kill the protagonist so they cannot stop her and use the lions to open a portal to another reality. Team Voltron could then fight a nerve check with the power of friendship, showing how much they've bonded with their lions and each other, all while putting them at immediate risk of death. Look, I just made a fairly simple edit to the story that would have greatly improved it and didn't involve appearances from mere shitballs as an excuse to scam Garen into logging in.

What creates this problem is that bigger is always better. And if Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs taught us anything, it's a bad attitude because it can easily lead to all the problems I just discussed. Season 8 is very transparent with its lack of effort. which I screamed at my monitor at least once per episode while watching it. I wasn't kidding when I said there wasn't a single thing about UNAC Lee season 8 that I liked and that's why I enjoyed watching it so much. All I loved to do was criticize the media, as evidenced by the existence of this video, and I love speculating about how things could have been better.

Maybe in another reality, Voltron never had any of the problems. I analyzed it in this video. Maybe there is a reality where you have even more problems either way. This is the final product we ended up with and I wouldn't have it any other way. Ok, he was alive, but it's a good final line, ok. There's a reason I attribute almost all of the problems in Voltron to lazy writing and it's because the show has good elements. The same people who wrote the arc pages wrote season 8. The same people who wrote the first half of Keith's arc wrote Adam and Shearer's relationship, etc.

I thought the love and effort that was present in many of The attributes of the show just fade as it goes on, the first two seasons are widely considered to be the best and I personally think the third season is just as good, but once the fourth season starts you just lose what Voltron It was always about friendship. Keith leaves the group and Shiro is dealing with being a clone himself. No one but Pidge and the hunk. They just hang out together and act like real friends. The sense of camaraderie is lost even if it happens slowly over time.

And that's the sad part. Voltron had the potential to be an incredible experience and if you had been paying attention you would have noticed that almost all of my complaints about the show came from elements that were introduced. later or get worse as the show goes on and as a result I feel like I couldn't give this show an adequate rating out of 10. I feel so differently about much of the show and in such different ways that I would try to group it together. All together as a number it would be a little misleading if I simply averaged my score for each season the entire show would be about a 6 out of 10, but when I look back on my experience I realized that many of the elements that made me love Voltron.

I loved it because I thought they would lead to a satisfying conclusion. I've been on the record saying that a bad ending doesn't ruin a show, but after watching Voltron I don't think I can take that statement anymore. Lotor Shiro and Keith's characters are excellent examples of this. I'll always remember the highlights of his arcs and think, man, what an emotionally powerful moment. I wish it didn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things.the things I said in At the beginning of the video I wanted to do this analysis in part because I think Voltron is a show that deserves to be discussed and broken down in depth just as much as shows like The Last Airbender.

I don't think a show has to be an absolute 10 out of 10 to warrant a rewatch or a closer look because at least for me the purpose of a review is to learn more about myself than the show. In the process of making this video, I've become more accustomed to recognizing the things I like and don't like in my media and for that I'm grateful to Voltron. I don't know if listening to me break down this show for over two hours has the same effect on you, but at least I hope you can walk away from it. this with the motivation of thinking a little more deeply about the media they consume.

Obviously, I'm not telling everyone to make hours and hours of videos about the shows they watch because seriously, I didn't have to break down this show that much. Detail how I did it and still there are parts of the show. I didn't mention that I barely talked about the Quran. I want to summarize, but there has to be a stopping point somewhere and I did my best to mention everything I thought was relevant if I somehow missed something, although I appreciate your comments and if there are enough things to add, even I could follow up. upload video But it wouldn't be as long or require as much effort as this video, but with that being said, I applaud everyone who sat through this entire analysis for the idea that someone would be willing to listen to me talk for so long. about anything it is totally wild.

One more time. I would like to give a huge thank you and congratulations to Kitty Kraft, who is a huge help in the script writing process of this massive effort. The link to her channel will be in the description and if she wants more content from us together. They are both hosts of the podcast channel. Zoomer cast links are in the description. If you enjoyed this review, please show it by leaving a like and let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this style of video that I've become much more experimental with. my content and I enjoy experimentation, but I know that eventually I should settle on a style and stick with it.

Thank you very much for watching the video I hope you liked it and see you in the next one