#vld kieth

The Heroes the Galaxy Deserves

I was lucky enough to binge watch both seasons over the course of a couple of days. And hooo boy, what a wild ride. I normally don’t binge watch that intensely, so you know that it has to be good (to me at least).

Since the second season only came out a week ago, I need to warn you that if you haven’t watched it yet, you should go do that. Spoilers ahead!

Plot

I have to admit, when I first heard people talking about 5 lions fusing into a giant robot, it sounded pretty stupid to me. But wow, am I glad I was so wrong. ‘Cause Voltron is fuckin’ epic.

Right from the get go, I was entranced by the story. Seeing Shiro go from an innocent looking science mission to being saved from an earth base after escaping from aliens, the beginning really packs a punch. It doesn’t stop there either. The residents of The Castle of Lions never seem to catch a break. And I love it. The series keeps up an epic pace while still taking things slow at the right points.

I was lucky (in a way) that I wasn’t able to watch the series until the second season was out. That way I didn’t have to deal with the cliffhanger. Well, the first one at least. With Shiro missing at the end of the last episode, and his ominous foreshadowing about Keith leading the team if anything happened to him, I am concerned. And I love it.

Characters and Relationships

I normally end up picking out my favourite character(s) right from the get-go, and in this case, knew Shiro and to a lesser extent Keith, would be my favs before I even started watching. And hell yeah I stand by that. Not to say I don’t like the other paladins or Allura or Coran, I’m just not obsessed with them.

I’ll talk more about my favs later, but for now, I want to talk about how well the characters were developed. All of the characters fit pretty easily recognisable tropes, but deviate from their ‘roles’ enough to be 3D and interesting characters.

For example, Lance was the very stereotypical comedic relief, but he was still badass and given chances to show that he deserves respect and a place on the team. He even struggles with self-doubt and craves the validation of his other team members. In the second season, while trying to escape the prison, Lance realized that everyone on the team had ‘a thing’ and wanted to feel like he was irreplaceable too. Honestly, that is probably how I would feel if I was thrown into that kind of situation. He is so much more than comic relief.

Then there was the relationships between the characters that were developed and … just so NICE to see. They weren’t perfect, after all, no relationship is, but they were perfectly imperfect. This scene expressed that a lot for me. I loved seeing Shiro and Keith becoming like brothers. I am a slut for those kinds of relationships and fucking love how they developed. 

Then there was also Keith and Lance, who were the classic rivals at first, but came to respect and trust each other as they work together. And Pidge and Hunk being giant nerds together. Or how Shiro and Pidge bonded over her lost brother and father and Shiro’s connection to them.

And oh dude! Keith being part Galtra was so freaking cool! It made his character and the others around him so much more complex. Because of that, we got to see the others react to the information. Shiro’s “I don’t care, you’re my brother”, Hunk’s mixed reaction and inability to see Keith the same way, and Allura’s “I want to hate you but I also don’t.” They really made the characters seem more real to me. They weren’t blindly accepting of the alien race that had messed up their lives, but they also weren’t blindly against them or their friend just because of their DNA.

Visuals

There were multiple times where I paused the show to appreciate just how beautiful the graphics are. They use such vibrant colours and use them to set the mood really well. MarvelandPonder is more of the animation nerd than I am but I still feel there was something about how it was animated that was really pleasing to watch. Even just looking back at these pictures, the show looks so pretty!!!

Final Point - Shiro

I love Shiro. I love the way he leads the team, keeps them together and does what he can to protect them. I love how messed up he is. He spent a year being held captive, forced to fight, lost an arm, then returned to his home (ish?) only to immediately go on an epic space quest where he get hurt and captured multiple times again. Yet through it all, he is a strong leader, he is caring, kind, dedicated and dorky in his own right. He is literally everything I love in a character. I need more of him. I hope he’s okay.