. It is a reboot of the 1984
series, and its animation is a mix of anime influence for characters and background and CGI for Voltron action sequences. The series premiered on Netflix on June 10, 2016 and consisted of 13 episodes.
For millennia, the evil Galra Empire has plagued the universe by conquering planets and destroying their inhabitants. The only known threat to the empire's power and plans, is the legendary "Defender of the Universe" Voltron, a 100 meter tall robot warrior composed of five lion mechas whose whereabouts are presumed to be unknown. In truth, Voltron was separated by King Alfor of Altea in order to protect the Defender from falling into the Galran Emperor Zarkon's possession. At the crux of the war that ended with the destruction of planet Altea, King Alfor bonded the five lion's energies to his daughter Allura's life force, and then sent them across the universe to different locations until the time for the next generation of Paladins to appear and pilot Voltron arrived. Princess Allura, her retainer Coran, and the Altean Castle were hidden on planet Arus along with the Black Lion. In the present, the Galra Empire's path of conquest and search for Voltron has led them to Earth's solar system. A group of space pilots-Shiro, Keith, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk-discover the Blue Lion and immediately get swept up into the Galran War. They meet Princess Allura, become the next Paladins, and reunite the five lions to form Voltron and combat Emperor Zarkon's nefarious schemes and ultimately defeat the entire Galra Empire.
Voice Acting Cast:
Steven Yeun as Keith
Jeremy Shada as Lance
Bex Taylor-Klaus as Pidge Gunderson/Katie Holt
Josh Keaton as Takashi "Shiro" Shirogane
Tyler Labine as Hunk
Kimberly Brooks as Princess Allura
Rhys Darby as Coran
Keith Ferguson as King Alfor
Neil Kaplan as Emperor Zarkon
Cree Summer as Witch Haggar
Jake Eberle as Commander Sendak
Episode Summaries: (FULL Spoilers)
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One small thing I love about the updated Lion designs is the fact that it makes perfect sense to make Black Lion bigger than
the other four Lions since the others connect to that one. You can also notice that Green and Red Lions are the smallest
since they are Voltron's arms while Blue and Yellow Lions are the second largest since they are the legs. It used to drive me
crazy that they were ALL the same size in the original 1984 cartoon. |
1–3 "The Rise of Voltron"
During a mission to
Kerberos, one of Pluto's moons, an expedition team is attacked and imprisoned by a hostile alien craft from the Galra Empire while Galaxy Garrison - Earth's primary institution for space exploration- has presumed them dead. One year later on Earth, three Garrison cadets Lance, Pidge and Hunk witness a vessel crash land and learn that it contains one of the missing team members, Shiro, who is been quarantined after escaping from the Galra. As they form a rescue plan, Keith - a talented, but reckless academy washout- arrives and rescues Shiro before them and the five escape into the desert. Shiro is unable to remember anything from his captivity, but the group are able to determine that the Galra are searching for a weapon known as "Voltron". They find a large robotic blue lion in the desert and learn that it is only one of five lions that form Voltron. The Blue Lion accepts Lance as its pilot and takes the five through a wormhole to the Castle of Lions on Arus, where they find Princess Allura, her royal advisor Coran and four space mice in cryostasis. Upon awakening, Allura is shocked to discover that 10,000 years have passed since they were placed in cryostasis. Haggar, advisor of Zarkon, leader of the Galra Empire, sense Allura's return and Zarkon sends Galra troops commanded by Sendak after them. Allura names the others as Voltron Paladins, bestows them with armor and bayards (the Paladins' weapons) and tasks them with finding the other lions. Lance and Hunk retrieve the Yellow Lion while Shiro accompanies Pidge to find the Green Lion. The Red Lion, unfortunately, is in the hands of the very Galra ship advancing on Arus. Unsure of whether to run or fight, Allura consults the artificial intelligence formed by the memories of her father, King Alfor, who admits he was wrong to hide Voltron and encourages her to fight. Keith, Shiro and Pidge infiltrate the ship so Keith can find the Red Lion while Shiro and Pidge, who repurposes a Galra drone dubbed "Rover", search the ship for prisoners, revealing to Shiro that his father and brother were the other missing astronauts from the Kerberos mission Shiro was on. With all four lions retrieved, the Black Lion is released from the Castle and selects Shiro as its Paladin. All five lions unite to form Voltron and destroy Sendak's ship before accepting their new roles as the Defenders of the Universe.
4 "Some Assembly Required"
When the Paladins are unable to form Voltron during a training session, Coran puts them through his own rigorous training in order to build a sense of brotherhood and trust between the Paladins. However, the Paladins fail miserably and are unable to connect. It is not until the Paladins engage in a food fight with Allura and Coran that they finally begin to work as a team and are successfully able to form Voltron.
5 "Return of the Gladiator"
As the Castle of Lions continues to prepare for departure, the team is met by the arrival of a local Arusian investigating the castle. Allura heads to meet the villagers along with Coran, Hunk, Keith and Lance while Pidge and Shiro tend to the rescued prisoners from the Galra battleship. From them, they learn that Shiro was a champion fighter in the gladiator ring that he and Pidge's brother, Matt were forced to fight in and that Shiro seemingly attacked Matt in bloodlust. Pidge and Shiro head to the crashed Galra battleship they had destroyed to retrieve prisoner logs, but are interrupted by the arrival of a Robeast created by Haggar to defeat Voltron. During the fight, Shiro remembers the Robeast as the Galra warrior he defeated in battle and is able to use his previous tactics to defeat it. Keith uses his bayard to form the Blazing Sword, allowing Voltron to deliver the finishing blow. Afterwards, Shiro reveals to Pidge that he remembered attacking Matt so that he wouldn't be forced to fight and instead be sent to a work camp with his father. Pidge apologizes for doubting Shiro, who tells him that his family would be proud of him before calling Pidge "Katie" and promising to keep his secret. With the defeat of the Robeast, Zarkon tasks Sendak, still alive and on Arus, with acquiring Voltron.
6 "The Fall of the Castle of Lions"
The team and Arusians celebrate Voltron's victory in the castle, but the festivities come to a halt when Pidge reveals his intentions to leave the team and search for his missing father and brother. As the team tries to convince Pidge to stay, Haxus, one of Sendak's soldiers, is able to sneak a bomb drone into the castle, causing it to destroy the crystal that powers the entire castle and severely injure Lance in the process. Coran and Hunk leave to acquire a new crystal, Keith and Allura rush to the Arusian village as it is being attacked by the Galra while Shiro and Pidge remain at the castle with Lance. However, Sendak attacks and overpowers Shiro before plugging a Galran crystal into the castle, the attack on the Arusian village being a distraction. However, Pidge evades capture and with Allura's guidance is able to sabotage the Galra's efforts to launch the Castle. Meanwhile, Hunk and Coran arrive at a nearby Balmera, a large petrified creature the size of a planet from which the Alteans acquire crystals. However, they discover that it has been taken over by the Galra and crash in the subterranean mines.
7 "Tears of the Balmera"
Hunk and Coran meet local Balmerans, Shay and Rax, who help them hide from the Galra. Shay admires the two and wants to help them, but Rax is cautious and insists they leave. Hunk and Coran are able to sneak past the Galra to find a crystal, but are captured and imprisoned. Shay helps them escape with the crystal, but is captured by the Galra after her brother informs them of Shay's actions. Hunk promises to return and save her people before he and Coran return to Arus. Still trapped outside the castle, Keith and Allura are unable to help Pidge take back the Castle. With Allura's guidance, Pidge is able to continuously sabotage the Castle's systems to further delay Sendak's take off. In flashback, Katie Holt watches the news in horror as she learns of her father and brother's apparent demise on the mission to Kerberos. Katie breaks into the Galaxy Garrison and accesses Commander Iverson's files of the mission. When she is caught by Iverson, she presses him about the crash despite probes showing no evidence one but Iverson reprimands her and bans her from ever entering the Garrison again. Some time later, Katie enrolls in the Garrison, but cuts her hair and wears glasses, passing herself off as a male student named Pidge Gunderson. The space mice are able to take down the particle barrier, allowing Allura and Keith to enter the Castle and help Pidge against Sendak. With Lance in recovery and Sendak imprisoned, Pidge decides to remain on the team.
8 "Taking Flight"
On the way to the Balmera, the team stops to help two rebels, Rolo and Nyma, on the run from the Galra. While the others are open and trusting to the pair, Hunk is cautious and guarded and eager to get to Balmera as soon as possible. Lance flirts with Nyma, who convinces him to take her for a ride in the Blue Lion, but once they are alone, Nyma ties Lance to a tree while she and Rolo take off with his Blue Lion. The other Paladins pursue them into an asteroid field and Keith is able to flush them out and they reclaim the Blue Lion. Rolo and Nyma are left stranded once more, but Rolo expresses gratitude for the Paladins sparing their lives and genuinely hopes that they can defeat Zarkon.
9 "Return to the Balmera"
Allura, Coran and the Paladins return to the Balmera to free the natives, but must hold back their firepower so as not to hurt the Balmera. Shiro and Pidge scout for Galran forces, who are strangely absent, while Lance and Keith work to disable a Galran fleet of ships. Hunk searches for the prisons and is able to find Shay's family, including her brother Rax, but learns that she was taken by the Galra to the heart of the Balmera after they arrived. The Paladins make their way to the Balmera's core to rescue her, but fall into a trap. Shay uses the Balmera to transmit a message to her family, who are able to free them with the Balmera's help. The Paladins form Voltron and are able destroy the Galran fleet, but their victory is short-lived by the arrival of another Robeast.
10 "Rebirth"
The Paladins scramble to battle the new Robeast, who's omni-directional view and multi-firing ability make it difficult for Voltron to counter, forcing them to retreat to the tunnels below and regroup. However, they learn that the Balmera is dying and unless they leave, everything on the Balmera will die as well. Though the Balmerans are reluctant to leave their home, Allura convinces them to flee to safety. The Paladins distract the Robeast while the Balmerans climb to the surface to escape on the Castle-ship. However, the Balmera's waning life force causes structural damage to the tunnels, leaving many of the Balmerans trapped. Unable to fully evacuate, Allura decides to perform an ancient ritual once performed by her people to rejuvenate the Balmeran. Hunk's bayard forms a large shoulder cannon for Voltron, granting the Paladins equal fire power against the Robeast, but they are still unable to defeat it. With help from the Balmerans, Allura's ritual is able to revive the Balmera, which defeats the Robeast by encasing it in crystal.
11 "Crystal Venom"
As Allura recovers, she spends her time enjoying the company of her father's artificial intelligence. With Sendak in custody, they decide to draw out his memories in order to learn information about Zarkon and the Galra empire. While waiting, the Castle begins displaying strange behavior: Hunk and Pidge are attacked by malfunctioning kitchen equipment and later stuck in zero-G, Lance is locked in a cryo chamber and later almost sucked out of an air lock while Keith is attacked by a rogue training droid. Shiro monitors Sendak and begins interrogating him, but is mentally tormented by Sendak's voice prompting him to eject Sendak into space. Coran concludes that Alfor's AI has been corrupted by the lingering effects of the Galran crystal as they try to stop Allura, convinced that Alfor is taking her back to Altea, from driving the Castle-ship into an imploding star. At the urging of the real Alfor, Allura tearfully destroys her father's memories in order to save the ship. Despite the loss, Allura stands strong and maintains that Voltron is her father's legacy.
12 "Collection and Extraction"
While combing through Sendak's memories, the team discovers the location of a secret Galran transport hub. Allura joins the Paladins in infiltrating the station in order to extract information, but find nothing useful. When another ship arrives, Allura decides to infiltrate the ship herself to extract its information by making use of her Altean ability to change her skin color and height, allowing her to resemble a Galran soldier. Shiro accompanies her, unwilling to let her go alone as well as needing his hand to access Galran technology. While waiting, the Paladins spot one of the Druids with two large containers of yellow fluid. Keith pursues them and Coran discovers that the Galrans have found a new way to harvest Quintessence, a form of fuel that has also allowed Zarkon to live 10,000 years. Keith is discovered and battles the druid, but is injured by the druid's lightning only to be healed by the yellow fluid before escaping in Pidge's Green Lion. Shiro and Allura are also discovered and flee to the escape pods, but Allura sacrifices herself to allow Shiro to escape and she is captured by the Galra.
13 "The Black Paladin"
With Allura's capture, the Paladins are quick to mount a rescue mission. When they arrive, Zarkon activates a particle barrier, trapping them inside. Voltron is quick to destroy most of the Galran forces, but are forcibly separated somehow by Zarkon and Haggar. The Paladins scramble to rescue Allura while Shiro is suddenly ejected from the Black Lion. As he tries to get back to his lion, he encounters Haggar and is easily overwhelmed by her powers, only to be rescued by Allura and Hunk. Zarkon moves to claim the Black Lion, revealing himself as the original Black Paladin of Voltron, but Keith intercepts and battles him, against Coran's advice. Zarkon easily overpowers Keith's Red Lion with his mastery over the black bayard, being able to form a multitude of different weapons in an instant. Before Zarkon can kill Keith, Shiro rescues him with the Black Lion. The Castle-ship is unable to form a wormhole to escape, until suddenly one of Zarkon's commanders destroys the sentries guarding the barrier generator and shuts it down. As they escape through a wormhole, Haggar hits it with her lightning, causing the portal to become unstable. The lions are separated from the Castle-ship in the wormhole, each of them falling to parts unknown.
The Verdict:
Netflix released all 13 episodes on June 10, 2016 and I honestly totally forgot about it until a friend reminded me over the past weekend. The first season is technically 10 episodes because the first episode is the length of roughly three episodes rolled up in one.
While I love the updated visuals and reworked designs for the classic tried and true Voltron formula, I have to admit that my biggest issue with this series is how it's titled Voltron, but it's more about the pilots than actually the legend of Voltron itself. Granted, that's not really a bad thing considering in the original Voltron anime, 90% of the plots revolved around a
Power Rangers style formula of the Space Explorers/Voltron Force pilots sitting around the castle on Planet Aris until one of Witch Haggar's Robeasts show up. At least we're getting a lot more character development here in this series.
That being said, I felt they rushed a few developments at the cost of less screen time for the Lions and Voltron. The revelation that Pidge was really a girl (Katie Holt) was reminiscent of plot twist used to fool Prince Lotor in the original anime when the pilots were captured and forced to give up their Lions to save Pidge's home planet being held hostage. I don't know what they are planning with Shiro but it seems like they are going to combine both the English and Japanese storylines for Sven Holgersson in the original
GoLion Voltron anime. I loved the plot twist where Zarkon was revealed to be a fallen Paladin and proved to be just as formidable without a Lion than with one. It reminded me of the dynamic when Team Dai Gurren fought the Spiral King in the
Gurren Lagann anime. It was a nice touch that Haggar the Witch isn't a one trick pony in this iteration as well. I'm looking forward to seeing more from those two as the titular villains moving forward.
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For those old enough to remember, but this was Coran's response to how to deal with Allura
when she wanted to be a Paladin in the original Voltron anime... |
I think the biggest takeaway from this reboot or rather re-imagining of the Voltron lore is that Princess Allura is nowhere from being the damsel in distress cliche that she was in the original continuity to the point that it was pathetic, regardless of the fact she ended up being one of the pilots of the Voltron Lions. I can't be too surprised when
Avatar and especially
Korra sported multiple strong female characters.
For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed this reboot of the Voltron lore, even though it screams the same wit and humor that
Avatar: The Last Airbender and
The Legend of Korra are known for. I guess that's their niche for their works since it's the same studio behind this reboot. At the same time, I guess everyone would be happy for a fresh take on Voltron after that mess Nickelodeon put out there called
Voltron Force that pretty much bastardized the original lore to the point it can't be salvaged.
Season Two was recently confirmed and I hope they listen to the critiques of this first season. They sacrificed a lot of action in favor of establishing and laying the ground work for a lot of character development that could have been saved for later down the road. You would have thought that they would have learned from the response from
Korra and
Avatar that the show thrived more when they had a perfect balance of action, character development, and comedy. Season One had a bit too much of one and not much of the other and I hope they change that with the next season.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
Watch it for sure, but don't go into this series thinking that this is the same Voltron that you grew up with from 80's. This is a different creature entirely - and that not necessarily a bad thing. In this case, change is a good thing. I'm sure there's more fans like myself glad to see Voltron revived for a new generation of audiences in a proper fashion. The season leaves a LOT of questions unanswered but I hope the wait for the second season isn't that far away.
