“Voltron: Legendary Defender” is a reboot series of “Lion Force Voltron,” which originally aired in Sep. 1984. “Legendary Defender” is about the Paladins of Voltron and their journey to stop an alien race, the Galra, from taking over the universe.
The pilot episode starts out with a space expedition on one of Pluto’s moons, Kerberos, collecting ice samples. The expedition, consisting of three characters who later play vital roles in the ending of the Galran Empire, are attacked by a Galran ship and are imprisoned.
It then continues a year later, where the pilot of the Kerberos mission, Shiro, crash-lands back onto Earth after being held captive by the Galra. He is broken out of quarantine by the Galaxy Garrison cadets named Lance, Hunk, and Pidge, as well as a dropout named Keith.
They find a piece of Voltron, an extremely powerful weapon that the emperor of the Galran Empire, Zarkon, has spent millennia searching for. This piece is the Blue Lion, a spaceship in the shape of a blue cat. The Blue Lion then takes the five of them far away from Earth to the planet Arus. It is here that Allura and Coran, the last two Alteans, are introduced.
The five people from Earth become the Paladins of the different lions of Voltron and fight Zarkon and his army until season 5, where he is defeated. A new conflict arises later in that season and into season 6, and it is then revealed that there has been a villain sneaking around since they were introduced.
Once this next villain is dead, the fate of the Galran Empire is in question as there is no royalty left to rule. The ship that had been their home since they got to space is gone, so their last resort is to head back to Earth over the course of season 7.
In season 8 the Paladins are back in space, alongside a large Earth battleship, the IGF-Atlas. They are investigating what Honerva, Zarkon’s wife, is planning for the universe. It is eventually revealed she is going to search through every reality she can to find one where she can be happy with her husband and son. It is through sacrifice that all of the realities she had visited are not destroyed.
My Review
At first, I loved this show. The pilot was compelling, and up until season 6, everything was actually pretty good. Season 7 sort of began to decline in writing by the end, but it still had some pretty good episodes. Then the final season took a nosedive in quality, and the ultimate ending left me pretty unsatisfied.
I enjoyed it a lot, and would give “Voltron: Legendary Defender” a good rating overall. I would probably recommend it to many people who enjoy things like aliens and space but I would warn absolutely everyone that this show is not at all perfect and fell victim to quite a bit of bad writing at the end.
