To be clear, Legendary Defender is the Voltron we deserve. The Voltron we’ve always deserved. Not the bootlegged GoLion and Armored Fleet mashup we were given in the eighties. In my opinion, the first season started off looking like real pedestrian fare. Then. Shit. Got. Real. By the end of this third season, the narrative evolves into a sci-fi fantasy with dark overtones and a modest sprinkle of political espionage! This ain’t a TMNT-type reboot. There is no tied-in Michael Bay flick that dumbs down the quintessential essence (see what I did there) of the story. Voltron: Legendary Defender draws a line in the sand for nostalgic reboots and stands guard.
To avoid spoilers, scroll down to the last paragraph. You’ve been warned.
Fight and flight choreography in VLD is top notch, Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos (known on the block as ‘Dr. Fight’) play no games. Y’all may recall them giving you that work in Avatar, Young Justice, and Legend of Korra. Furthermore, Voltron goes hard in the paint like Shaq in the 90s with swordplay alone. Never mind the dogfights (I’m talking space ship battles people)! Add to that RoBeasts catching them lion hands from the god body Voltron itself.
What VLD Season 3 gave us was a seriously well-designed story. It hit us with one of the most deadass richest backstories in animated history! Montgomery and Dos Santos used copious amounts of previously unused lore mined from all of the source material for the original Voltron: Beast King GoLion. The inclusion of that lore shakes things up. We see paladins switch lions, we even meet Sven (as an alternate reality version of Shiro)! Then the story gets even deeper. Season 3 ends with the full reveal of Haggar as not only Altean but as Zarkon’s wife, the genius alchemist Honerva! Zarkon and Honerva die, resurrected by the Dark Quintessence as the Emperor and the Witch. Then Zarkon awakens at the end like The Undertaker after the first pin. I was literally screaming.
The Season 4 trailer has the Paladins rallying their people across the galaxies to join ’The Coalition’ to defeat the Galra. Shiro is calling the shots from the Castleship while Keith forms the head in the Black Lion, Allura pilots Blue Lion, and Lance whipping the Red Lion. The war effort is in full swing, and the Voltron Force is out flying in formation like Beyonce in a fighter jet. Meanwhile, Lotor is in the cut gathering Quintessence to do who knows what.
Either way, we’re poised for a tense season with the universe hanging in the balance. So get your homie’s password and check out this loaded season 4 of Voltron: Legendary Defender on October 13th on Netflix!
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