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squeakyleftsneaker · 13 days ago

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Some Style, Shit Substance: A Very Voltron Postmortem

A tale of squandered potential, and the necessity of multiple drafts.

For the past 3 weeks and change, I have been consumed by watching and taking copious notes on the 2016-18 reboot of Voltron, Voltron: Legendary Defender. This has been a truly baffling journey for me, I won't lie. Having some familiarity with older incarnations of Voltron I went in with a few expectations. That said, fairly immediately upon seeing the first episode, I realized it wouldn't be appropriate to view this show through that lens. Instead, I decided to take it for what it is.

In retrospect I kind of wish I hadn't. Because maybe I would have some residual fondness still for the original shenanigans. But still.

In the spirit of fairness, of experiencing a reboot through new eyes, and because I do not have the time to do an exhaustive and detailed rewatch of all other incarnations of Voltron for this purpose, I will, however, still be taking this show in isolation. I think that's only fair, and I won't be summarizing the show in any detail here either because, well, I'm worried about the length of this as is already. I will be going into this show from the granular to the very broadest of strokes, so obviously spoiler warning for all of this goes without saying.

The myriad issues with this reboot have somewhat ruined my life. I have been consumed by What If thanks to this show. I am haunted by this show. I wish I could tell you it was bad in a boring way. And it is at times. But it is also bad in several very interesting ways to me and so I cannot let this go. I am a dog with a bone. Or just boo boo the fool. I took all those notes and I want to do something with them. Dear reader, I have written so many words about this show without any order and the lack of order and cohesion rocks me to my core. So enough preamble, let's get into it.

It is very important to me to note that some of these characters lack last names.

Something like this seems a rather small quibble to open on. After all, the fandom assigned them some last names anyway, why should we be bothered by Hunk, Lance, and Keith never getting last names? And I think you'd be right to question the methods to my madness, this is a very small place to start, but I think it's a very illustrative place to open this show up.

Three out of the five characters from Earth that are at least nominally the protagonists of this show lack something so biographically simple as a last name. To me, in another context, an oversight I could forgive, I suppose. But you have to wonder, when Hunk and Lance's families are shown, when Lance's sister becomes a named and somewhat central character later in the show, why wouldn't you slip it in?

This is such a no brainer. When you're giving side characters who will only briefly appear, such as the MFE pilots Ryan Kinkade, Ina Leifsdottir, Nadia Rizavi, and James Griffin, full names, to not do so for your protagonists is just an odd oversight.

There's character details that simply don't make sense from moment to moment to moment. But the main thing that bugs me is that the characters, simply put, don't speak to each other. Whenever we see them during downtime, they're apart from each other. We're not watching a plucky group of upstart humans whisked into space with an alien princess to become friends and save the universe. We're watching a main cast with a level of civility comparable to coworkers in different divisions of a big corporation. These guys do not know each other.

Think I'm joking? Try to think of them hanging out. Just hanging out in the background of a shot, spending time together, chatting, anything, really. Or even better, when one character is missing, what happens?

Well you get your first real taste of the utter lack of bonding just two seasons and a bit of change in. Shiro dies, and not one character has a real moment that we saw on-screen to reminisce about with him. Not one. Keith goes away to the Blade of Marmalade and no one really says they miss him, nothing really changes in the team dynamic. Allura dies at the end of the show and we see the characters reminiscing and, well, you guessed it! It's not personal!

These people are not even friends, let alone a found family.

These people are strangers to each other, and to us! We don't know what they like to do, beyond Hunk being of course made to Love Food to the point where the show almost forgets that he's supposed to be a mechanic until they need someone to argue with Pidge.

I couldn't tell you what Shiro likes to do. I couldn't tell you much about Lance's background beyond "He has a big family. He's future-Cuban." I can't tell you anything about Hunk beyond "He's scared, he likes food, and he's a cheap tool for mean-spirited physical comedy for the writers." Pidge is Smart and Always Right. We know about Keith's backstory because he and Shiro share that much as a central focal point for the show until the show forgets about it (and put a pin in that, dear reader, we'll get there).

And lest I be accused of being a relentless hater, I'm being hard on it here because the show itself has a really great example of an interpersonal relationship done right. At least for most of it. From the outset of the first episode we know Keith and Shiro are friends from before all of this. We see them interacting in the background, we see how they interact with each other is different to how they interact with the other characters!

Moreover, the way their relationship evolves throughout the show has bearing on the actual story being told! Shiro's willingness to blow through an alliance with the Blade of Marmora for Keith, Keith's no-holds-barred determination to save Shiro, the way the story has them evolve from a more imbalanced relationship to ultimately becoming equals when they fall together at the cloning facility. It matters for the story that these two are the way they are, and the plot changes their relationship to each other.

And then the show threw all the goodwill from that away in the final two seasons where they effectively do not speak. So we don't even get to see any ultimate culmination of what that all meant for six seasons. And even worse, there's no other paladins that interact with each other. So here we are, by the time we reach season seven, none of the paladins talk to each other anymore.

It's why the romances in the show feel so cheap. There's no consistent characterization, there's just a bullet point or two for what each character Does. In terms of character, we have no character.

This makes a plausible romance for any of these characters really fucking difficult to write. They just don't talk to each other! We see them in meetings, I guess, where we as viewers are getting valuable exposition about the plot that has happened offscreen (and I will get to that, but we're starting on a foundational level), but nothing really outside of it.

The romances in this show are, frankly, messy. Lance will do a total 180 in scenes whenever they need him to, going from a bit goofy to wildly insecure to someone speaking like he's been pulled out of a fourth-rate self published poetry collection, just so they can have Allura seem attracted to him.

Unfortunately it also just makes him deeply, deeply boring.

Allura is flattened down for the plot. She simply must fall for Lotor, and instead of doing so in a believable fashion, her rougher edges are softened away off-screen. Her trust is not earned, it is instead simply placed in Lotor by the writers. Lotor, a character who we simply never have reason to trust because there is no effort to make him trustworthy. They'll show us his childhood, and yes, this could make him sympathetic, but at no point could a viewer truly believe he wouldn't betray the paladins.

As much as he used Allura in the narrative, the writers used her more. Flattened out, shrunk down, and ultimately, I think the worst part is that she wasn't the only one.

A collection of odd and counterproductive choices are made here.

There's any number of decisions made in this plot that are, overall, baffling. For me the most obvious choice would be having Allura pilot the red one once Shiro dies. They establish Allura to being a more instinctive pilot than the others, they establish that she and Keith have a lot in common– and they're both emotionally driven. They establish that it was her father's lion.

And then they have her pilot the blue lion. The blue lion which was kept on earth and is being piloted by the everyman character. The blue lion which is supposed to be an emotional foundation. But Allura doesn't necessarily fill that role in the team! She pushes back against Keith's leadership, rightfully, she fulfills a narrative role that is to push the team, she's impulsive, she's taking actions that are more aligned with how the show itself describes the red lion and Lance is, within the limited degree to which they remember to keep him consistent, in a much more supportive role to the team still.

We're splitting the most human (to us) character from the most human lion! The one with the connection to Earth! Our point of entry into space in the exact same way Lance is our point of entry into this world! We're putting Allura in a role that's not aligned with what she actually does! Why?

It could be an interesting subversion of the trope if they did something with it but they just don't. At no point is that interrogated. You'll see this keep coming up over and over again. And I remain firmly convinced that had this show had more time in development, someone would've come up with this very solution. Time and time again, you see moments that could've been more impactful had she been in the red lion due to her personal connection to it.

There's other odd instances where characters are put at odds with what we know of them. One interesting one for me was making Keith a massive hypocrite and doing nothing with it. Keith who screws everything over to go get Shiro tells Pidge off for going scorched earth for her loved ones. Why? Will they address this tension? Nope!

At the same time they position him as the one who needs to open up and stop fighting with Lance in spite of the fact that to him, Lance is effectively a stranger and Lance is the one who instigates every time. The show also seemingly forgets about this antagonism when convenient but will bring it back every now and then for cheap comedy.

It's fine to have shifting dynamics! But we don't see them shift at all! One moment it's one thing the next it's the other and we still don't feel like these characters are anything other than strangers to each other.

Shiro tells the paladins to spend time with their loved ones before the Atlas launches in season 8. Keith is completely alone. Shiro is completely alone. Lance and Allura go on a date to meet his family where Lance speaks to her in a way that is entirely unlike anything you could reasonably believe. Allura is softened down to an insecure and uncomfortable girl in need of comfort. They took the dynamic between them of Allura being confident and Lance being flirtatious but ultimately insecure and made it so that Lance is a generic romance man and Allura is just so unsure and meek that she needs him.

With all due disrespect, I'm rolling my eyes.

Speaking of eyerolls we simply need to address the Curtis in the room. Who is he? I don't know! You don't either! We know nothing about this cardboard cutout Shiro marries. I wonder what the divorce rates are in this universe.

I'm sorry, I know this is mean, but I feel rather insulted by the show. They spend a rather considerable amount of time getting Shiro to a point where he seems to be an equal to the paladins rather than forced to be their leader, and then he just doesn't speak to them for the final two seasons.

We spend all this time altering the power dynamic for nothing. We introduce the idea that Shiro had difficulties with a relationship, he felt grounded, he felt the need to push past his limits because others were imposing them on him. I'm not asking for Adam to get back together with him in the end, I think that sort of thing would've been unrealistic– it ended messily and before extremely traumatic events for both of them. That's a soup of bad idea right there. But closure for the two of them wouldn't have been a bad idea.

Well. It wouldn't have been a bad idea for Adam to live full stop. If only they hadn't killed him then maybe they wouldn't feel the need to rush a Happy Gay Wedding for the end credits. Shiro's character arc isn't fulfilled by romance! The show tells us he wanted to be free of expectations placed on him, the show strips him of all meaningful connections he might have, and as he finally gets to a place where both of those things can be fulfilled they shunt him off to the side.

But I guess we get two men kissing on screen? I really don't think I have anything kind to say about the show thinking that that's a substitute for a meaningful queer relationship. But with how they wrote seasons 7 and 8, there was simply nothing else they could have done without major changes.

I really think this show could've used several major changes.

It's just not shaped right, I'm afraid.

In the very first season of the show we get multiple multi-episode story arcs. This is a lot. They're very plot heavy episodes. This means the bulk of the first season is not spent establishing the characters, making them interact and setting the tone and overarching themes of the story through episodic plots.

I cannot overstate how difficult this makes setting up the remainder of the show. We enter season two with fuzzily defined characters, with a plot that is already in motion but not well established, and an utter lack of conventions set by the world.

No wonder there's a slew of exposition in the show. There's so much exposition I complained about it nearly every episode. This is bad for our immersion a lot of the time! Very early in the show we're told about the Balmeras and every detail about them. I cannot even begin to express how impactful that information would've been had it come from interaction.

The show spends a lot of time telling. Which, I thought the point of a show is, well, to show.

This bleeds over from the characters, where we're told they're friends but I struggle to see how they could possibly be when we never see them together. We spend so much time in the Castle of Lions, and I frankly couldn't tell you a personal thing about it! They have to give up the damn castle and we as viewers feel almost nothing because it's just not something we interact with beyond being on the bridge for an exposition dump briefing before an episode. It just robs us of the opportunity to connect.

We spend so much time with side characters in the final seasons of the show the main characters get lost. Because they have the exact same degree of development and depth as the side characters. We fundamentally do not know anything here.

There is a world where this show is shaped right– the first season is getting to know characters. Spend that time on episodic and self-contained adventures! Then give us the big tonal swing for the season 1 finale. Season 2 can stay somewhat similar, I think it really hit a good note there, just cut down on the exposition and definitely let us come to the realization of how Zarkon is tracking them rather than just telling us. Build it up like a horror movie. Give us the big sense of loss when they lose Shiro because we've spent time seeing him interact with other paladins! Then they can relate to Keith.

GIVE ALLURA THE RED LION for fucks sake it's an easy fix! Have Lance work through his feelings of insecurity with reference to Keith without having to step into his shoes! Have Keith come to the realization on his own that once they find Shiro, he'd need to step down.

For fucks sake the clone needs to feel insidious. Don't TELL us he's a clone from the start! Have him interact in ways that are slightly off. Have the characters actually notice, have them miss Keith or even just think about him every now and then when he runs off. Start building trust between Allura and Lance, make us trust Lotor before showing us what he's up to (and maybe explore the idea that Voltron is allying with the heir to the Galra throne). Address the character moments.

Seasons 7 and 8 are beyond rushed. I am fully on board for them doing a hero's cycle return to Earth, but my god they lack structure in both of these seasons. Focus. Focus on your main characters, focus on both the ways in which the Earth has changed but they have too. Let us see more of Lance's family and the ways they relate to him have changed! Let Hunk not be a cheap joke please! Maybe let Keith NoLastName and James Griffin work it out on the remix.

Give Shiro something to do please. Shiro and Keith in the final two seasons are friendless and Shiro gets to do fuckall. Keith is pretty damn useless in the show's finale too. Give them something to do! And please, please, please, remember your ensemble cast needs to interact.

What are we doing here, Bob?

The overarching plot of this show is a bit muddled. Ultimately you can, if you try your best, piece together the semblance of a plot as needed– there is a universal threat from the corruption brought in by the cosmic rift, and it must be fixed.

But that's kind of weird, isn't it? It negates the damages done by Zarkon's empire. It even negates Lotor's colonial impulses. It takes away from the Earth, it takes away from Sendak.

And it takes away from all of that not because it exists, but because it removes the source of their wrongs from their own choices. It removes agency. It cuts down our antagonists! Our antagonists are no longer persons, instead our principal antagonist is. A magical blob of evil from the space between dimensions. A primordial evil. One that robs everything that's come before it of intention.

The pacing is all over the place, not aided by the extensive amounts of exposition in every episode. It's not an unfixable show, but in the ways that the season structures are all off, so too is the thematic undertone of the show.

The show's ultimate conclusion brings us to leave one of the main characters behind, because what does Shiro even do right now. Keith is ultimately pretty useless, and really all of the paladins lack agency, even Allura, because they're following the whims of a magical evil space blob. Great. That's a great way to conclude.

And the show looks at Allura, at the first incarnation where she's not represented as white, at this woman who has lost everything and come out fighting on the other end, at this woman who they made fall for a colonizer, and decides that the best thing she could possibly do for the universe is die.

This Black woman must die to fix the sins of her people, that corrupted the villains. You see, it's really the woman's fault. It was Eve that brought Adam the apple. The show at no point questions that. The show concludes, ultimately, that it is a good thing for a woman to die for this. That's a great note to end your story on, I guess.

The assortment of errors tells a story I cannot endorse

To do something worthy, in Voltron, is to sacrifice yourself. Lance does it. Keith does it. Shiro succeeds at it. The show's conclusion is that Allura can only save the universe through her death. Fatalistic, and I can only hope that theming was unintentional.

But there's another undercurrent that unsettles me in the show, with the status quo of the universe. It's the unquestioning belief that Lotor was doing something right at all. It's the unquestioned reality of hereditary monarchy. It's the unquestioning position of superweapons as a moral necessity.

Voltron is a weapon, made of smaller weapons. Voltron used to be the collection of the powerful. Though the show gestures at Zarkon considering there to be inferiors and superiors, it sure as hell does a fantastic job at reinforcing the notion. The Earth is governed by military authority. The Altean castle is weaponized. There is no Eden for Voltron, there is no peaceful before time. We learn the Alteans are supposedly diplomats and not warriors and yet there is a need for diplomacy as organized by a hereditary monarchy, and a desire to make a superweapon from an unknown material.

I keep emphasizing that Voltron is a superweapon because when Lotor ascends the throne and uses Voltron to his political aims, that should matter! There is an inherent tension with a superweapon being considered a symbol of peace. A tension exacerbated when it aligns itself with the heir to a colonial empire.

A colonial history that the show itself never questions. When the paladins help to fix a shield on a "labor planet" at no point do we think about what the phrase labor planet implies. In episodes where they're trying to rescue the aliens, very little time is spent actually getting to know the aliens. We have little time for sympathy for the colonized.

We see the Voltron show, pure pageantry at the service of ego, juxtaposed with real loss of life, from the Blades, from the rebels memorialized with the phrase "The path to freedom is won through sacrifice." And then there is nothing to indicate those two things are in tension.

We see Honerva corrupt her husband in something that could almost be a parody of Adam and Eve. He is, of course, narratively redeemed in the end in spite of killing countless people, in spite of effectively committing a genocide of the Alteans. Honerva must be fixed by another woman, a woman who can only do the greatest good for the universe by dying.

I am not inclined to be charitable about these decisions.

Does the show realize it's in tension? Does the show realize it is telling us as viewers that the powerful are sympathetic, that we normal people are to be sacrificed, that the military and weapons are an ultimate good, that good and bad are intrinsic to a person and not

I'm not going to shy away from the fact that it leaves a foul taste in my mouth.

Ultimately I don't think any of the more insidious parts were deliberate. We fall back on tropes, on the stereotype, on the language of a genre that has been largely determined by the society that formed it (psst just a hint for this kind of science fiction, that's a lot of white dudes), when we don't watch ourselves. And how can you keep a wary eye on plot, on structure, on the nuances of the politics of the world you're writing, when you're taking three years to put out eight seasons of this show. That's not enough time for a PhD in my field of study! Let alone a long-term science fiction show with a writing team, animation team, etc.

When you rush, you say things you don't intend to. We all are guilty of this. If you think you're not you're probably lying to yourself. This show was so rushed I'm not at all surprised it turned out the way it did.

I'm just disappointed.

For all its flaws this show displays technical proficiency in a lot of areas. The animation is beautiful, they consistently write and animate great fight scenes that make wonderful use of vivid and unique environments. I think that Keith and Shiro as an interpersonal dynamic for the first six seasons of the show is terrifically done in places. I think the fight between them at the cloning facility is probably the peak of the show in writing and animation. Spectacular, heart-wrenching, and serves to bring them to an equal playing field.

Some moments of the show are genuinely funny. The writers have a good grasp on humor when they're not doing mean-spirited physical comedy with Hunk. There's a lot to like about the potential of Voltron. The voice acting and performances are great! I think they got a really lovely cast together and they play off of each other well!

It's just impossible to write something of this scale in three years and have it work out. It's impossible because we need time and space away from our writing to think about what it needs changed. We need to take the time to explore other ideas.

I love science fiction. I will always love science fiction. And this show was made by people who are good at what they do. They just didn't have time.

El flojo trabaja doble. By not drafting over and over again, they made it almost impossible to salvage this show. Take more time, the work in the later seasons to bring about a fulfilling ending would've been achievable.

As it stands the show is a colossal wreck. A tale of a lot potential, a sea of good ideas, and a road to hell paved with good intentions.

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