Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
We’re barely into 2017 and already this year has been great for pop culture. From Netflix’s highly anticipated premiere of A Series of Unfortunate Events starring Neil Patrick Harris to HBO’s meme-able The Young Pope, there have been some great new shows on streaming. However, this Friday marks another premiere that will likely go under the radar except for those in the know: Season 2 of Netflix’s Voltron: Legendary Defender.
Since its Season 1 premiere in June of 2016, the DreamWorks reboot of the classic animated series has been met with both critical praise and fan acceptance. The series currently has a 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and large parts of Tumblr are devoted to threads, fan drawings, and fan theories about the series — typical Tumblr stuff. Also, the series has been applauded for its portrayal of LGBT themes. So what’s the deal with this series, why is it resonating with such a dedicated fan base, and why have you likely not heard of it until this point? Let’s dive into the lion’s den, so to speak.
What Is Voltron: Legendary Defender?
Legendary Defender is a Netflix series produced by DreamWorks Animation. Half anime-inspired animation, half CGI, the series is set in a world that’s being terrorized by the evil Galra empire, which has been destroying civilizations and enslaving races for years. The only force that has a chance of defeating Galra is the “Defender of the Universe” Voltron, a 100 meter tall robot warrior composed of five mecha lions. So far, it’s epic anime as usual.
The series follows the five Paladins, the pilots of the lion-bots. The energies of these five lions were bonded to Princess Allura’s life force and sent across the universe until a time when the galaxy needed them again. Fast forward to present day, and the universe needs some lion-shaped assistance. Most of the show is a coming-of-age epic for the Voltron’s five current Paladins. It’s a hero’s journey similar to Avatar but if you replaced elemental tai-chi with mechanical lions.
Is It Connected To The Original Voltron?
You bet. Voltron: Legendary Defender is connected to both the Japanese anime Beast King GoLion and the American Voltron: Defender of the Universe, both of which were popular in the ‘80s.
Who Are The Characters?
For the sake of brevity, I’m only going to focus on Princess Allura the five Paladins, aka lion pilots. Allura is the essentially the head honcho. She’s the crown princess of Altea and was the one originally responsible for granting the series’ five heroes their lion-controlling powers. She’s also the one who explains the complexities of this universe and sends our heroes out on missions.
The rest of the Paladins fall into fairly typical categorizes for the genre:
Shiro is the Black Paladin and the team’s calm and decisive leader. He’s the Guardian Spirit of the Sky, was captured by Galra before the series starts, and has a weaponized prosthetic right arm.
Keith is the Red Paladin as well as the Guardian Spirit of Fire. As you may expect, he is temperamental and a bit of a lone wolf, but he’s also very good with weapons.
Lance is the pilot of the Blue Paladin and the Guardian Spirit of Water. Arrogant and assured, he is the comic relief of the series and thinks of himself as a ladies’ man. He’s also a skilled fighter and has a rivalry with Keith.
Hunk pilots the Yellow Paladin, is the Guardian Spirit of Land, and stands as the heart of the team. A sort of gentle giant with a talent for engineering, Hunk is determined more than most to save everyone who’s enslaved.
And then there’s Pidge, the Green Paladin, Guardian Spirit of the Forest, and a large reason why this series has received a fair amount of praise. Pidge is the smartest member of the team and is a technical genius. Also, Pidge was actually born a woman known as Katie Holt.
Why Are Fans So Obsessed?
Much like similar animated children’s shows and anime-inspired fare, Legendary Defender is just good. It tells a compelling and detailed story of good versus evil that couldn’t be told on a live action scale without an enormous price tag. Also, the series takes great care to actually give its characters personalities, rather than letting them fall into predictable genre tropes. Sure, there’s some anime-esque craziness that happens from episode to episode, but for the most part, the characters in this series are given real emotional weight and watch as real people. However, it’s Pidge / Katie’s story arc that has gained the most attention.
Katie originally disguised herself as the male Pidge so that she could track down her family. Though the word “transgender” is never used, there is an underlying LGBT theme to Pidge’s story. The character even has a coming out moment to the team in Episode 6 when she admits to her team that she was in fact born a woman. The revelation is handled calmly and responsibly, with the show allowing Pidge to move forward using whatever identity and pronouns she prefers. It’s certainly not a strict transgender “coming out” narrative, but the emphasis on the flexibility of gender identity the show attaches to this character is impressive.
Voltron: Legendary Defender is far from the first children’s series to explore LGBT stories. The Legend of Korra famously ended with Korra and Asami walking off together hand-in-hand in the overtly romantic series conclusion (both characters are women). Steven Universe consistently explores sexuality and gender identity through its all-female-identifying gems and through some of its human characters. Even Gravity Falls ended with two male cops many assumed were best friends, kissing. These accepting narratives about sexuality are a growing and important trend in modern children’s programming. So if you have a friend who is incredibly excited for Season 2 of this Netflix children’s series, that’s what’s up.
