Voltron: Legendary Defender

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Bagheera
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Voltron: Legendary Defender

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Postby Bagheera » Tue Jun 14, 2016 5:06 pm

Anyone else seen this? I mainlined it over the weekend and was pretty much blown away. It's an updated version of the English adaptation of GoLion, done by the same crew that did Legend of Korra, but it still feels like the original (and avoids some of the arbitrary changes that dragged the original English language version of the show down). Some of the cooler bits:

  • The individual lions are absolutely badass;
  • The lions are different sizes and have more pronounced personalities than in earlier shows;
  • There are other superweapons apart from the Blazing Sword;
  • Said Blazing Sword is used to end a fight exactly once, even though it's useful at other times;
  • Pidge's character has a hell of a twist, and it's handled really well;
  • Princess Allura is amazing;
  • Zarkon's an awesome villain, and he's not an idiot; he sends one robeast to fight Voltron, and when that doesn't work he stops doing that (kinda);
  • Haggar's scary as fuck;
  • The mice are still there, but they have an actual purpose;
  • The Castle of Lions is actually useful;
  • None of the characters are dead weight.

It was a really fun show to watch, and it holds up on repeat viewings. All I want now is MORE!!!
For my post-3I fic, go here.
The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. -- Akane Tsunemori, Psycho-Pass
People's deaths are to be mourned. The ability to save people should be celebrated. Life itself should be exalted. -- Volken Macmani, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra
I hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Yes, I know. You thought it would be something about Asuka. You're such idiots.

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Re: Voltron: Legendary Defender

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Postby chee » Fri Jul 01, 2016 9:37 am

Lance's breath was ragged and sickly. He knew that without help, he would be dead in five minutes. No, four. If he got lucky. He would die like an animal, bleeding out on the white linoleum tiles of the men's washroom.

Pidge raised her weapon, now fully integrated into the tumorous remains of her right hand. It pulsed, sighed, and gasped on its own accord. There was no discernible difference now between the weapon and the rest of her body - it perfectly fused with her, a mass of biological circuits melding seamlessly with bone and sinew.

"Why?" asked Lance.

"Because the holographic screen is the retina of the mind's eye," replied Pidge in a cold tone. "The industrial light that wires our senses to the consensual hallucination of the matrix will become more real than physical space. And physical space will only be real insofar as it can be mapped and simulated."

Lance choked up a gob of blood. "You're not making sense!"

"I wouldn't expect you to understand. These are savage new times, Lance. And this places like this cesspool of a castle will be the first to go."

Pidge struck him again, and then every nerve registered agony. Lance felt himself convulsing, expanding, into some fundamental wrongness.

His last sensation was of being split open from inside. And then, Lance's body tore itself apart into a tumorous mass.

"All hail the new flesh!", Pidge declared.

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Re: Voltron: Legendary Defender

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Postby NemZ » Sat Jul 02, 2016 5:23 pm

Eh, it's not terrible. Not a fan of making Koran a complete doofus or the lions sentient (because then why do they need pilots in the first place?), but overall it's not bad. I do really wish they'd removed the repetitive footage gimmick, though Hunk having trouble with it the first time was amusing. Pidge's thing is... meh. doesn't seem to actually matter much so far. Surprisingly I actually do miss Prince Lotar.
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Bagheera
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Re: Voltron: Legendary Defender

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Postby Bagheera » Sat Jul 02, 2016 5:28 pm

View Original PostNemZ wrote:Eh, it's not terrible. Not a fan of making Koran a complete doofus or the lions sentient (because then why do they need pilots in the first place?), but overall it's not bad. I do really wish they'd removed the repetitive footage gimmick, though Hunk having trouble with it the first time was amusing. Pidge's thing is... meh. doesn't seem to actually matter much so far. Surprisingly I actually do miss Prince Lotar.


Re: the lions, I'd say they were more semi-sentient; it's a pretty common literary trope, where you get a device that chooses its user but otherwise has little in the way of agency.

Re: repetitive footage, AFAICT that only applies to the combination sequence, and in fairness there's only so many ways you can animate that before it becomes stupid. Also, there's something to be said for standardizing it, with only the background differing from sequence to sequence (though that's admittedly not something they went with here).

Re: Lotar, there's speculation that the renegade at the end might have been him. But then, there's speculation that the renegade at the end might have been anyone, so take that as you will.

Also, yay! Discussion! Glad someone else has watched this in the past two weeks.
For my post-3I fic, go here.
The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. -- Akane Tsunemori, Psycho-Pass
People's deaths are to be mourned. The ability to save people should be celebrated. Life itself should be exalted. -- Volken Macmani, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra
I hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Yes, I know. You thought it would be something about Asuka. You're such idiots.

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Re: Voltron: Legendary Defender

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Postby Ray » Thu Jul 07, 2016 5:14 am

This is great. This is probably the closest I'm ever going to get to another Airbender TV series (considering it's produced by several of the same people) so this is a real treat.

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Re: Voltron: Legendary Defender

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Postby Alaska Slim » Sat Jun 25, 2022 12:56 am

I come from the future to say: Yes, this is pretty great.

The world building is not on The Last Air Bender's level. Quintessence is a common power source & McGuffin, but other than war, it's not really made use of or integrated into the wider society the way bending was in TLA.

OTOH, I dare you not to think "Wait just a tick" by the time its all done. :tongue:

But in terms of the dialogue, the slapstick, the setting up and making good use B-plots into the A-plot, this show is consistently at TLA's level. You'll believe in the interactions the characters are having (most of the time; Pidge's dialogue with their brother is pretty cringe) and how they get from point A to B.

The moment I saw the scene in S1 where the characters are arguing what sound a gun makes, I knew I found my kind of writers.
Also, Lance is the 2nd coming of Sokka.

While Shiro is a great sage character who feels distinct from Iroh. "Patience rewards focus".

76* Episodes is a lot -- still need to watch 17 or so myself. But you don't need to go that far in to feel the same warm-fuzzies TLA could make happen.

* corrected.
Last edited by Alaska Slim on Sun Jun 26, 2022 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Voltron: Legendary Defender

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Postby Bagheera » Sat Jun 25, 2022 1:54 am

My capsule review: the first two seasons are some of the best television I’ve ever seen. Then someone got the nostalgia bug and it all went to hell.

YMMV, of course.
For my post-3I fic, go here.
The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. -- Akane Tsunemori, Psycho-Pass
People's deaths are to be mourned. The ability to save people should be celebrated. Life itself should be exalted. -- Volken Macmani, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra
I hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Yes, I know. You thought it would be something about Asuka. You're such idiots.

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Re: Voltron: Legendary Defender BP

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Postby Alaska Slim » Sun Jun 26, 2022 3:45 am

View Original PostBagheera wrote:My capsule review: the first two seasons are some of the best television I’ve ever seen. Then someone got the nostalgia bug and it all went to hell.

YMMV, of course.


I've seen people rate Season 6 as the high point, partly because we get peak Black Paladin drama; exploration of the Keith-Shiro dynamic. Partly because we get the full reveal of Lotor and see his ambitions crumble.

The return to Earth in Season 7 was a tad... strange, (why Earth? They're not an advance civilization. Alcarion would have been better as a ship-builder.)
And season 8 has the weirdest edited episode;
SPOILER: Show
they intended to kill off a second homo-pairing and probably realized last-minute that was going to create problems.


As to nostalgia -- I have no idea. Never saw Voltron. There is some oddly specific characterization that makes me think a reference is happening, but that otherwise goes right over my head.

To me, the writing stays consistent. Season 7 and 8 are considered weaker, but I like the "time lapse-- everything went to hell" dynamic.

EDIT:

View Original PostAlaska Slim wrote:
While Shiro is a great sage character who feels distinct from Iroh.


And yet, here we have Shiro referring to himself as a Space Uncle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt-S471 ... X&index=10

I stand corrected. :tongue:
"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing." - 1 Thessalonians 5:11

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"God is in his Heaven, and free men walk upon the Earth" - Rev. Robert Sirico, President of the Acton Institute


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