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TheGreatLugia

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,078
first-trailer-and-poster-for-voltron-legendary-defender-season-21



The eighth and final season of DreamWorks Animation and Studio Mir's Voltron: Legendary Defender is out now on Netflix.

Untagged spoilers for Season 8 discussion are allowed.



The end has come, but the legend lives on forever.


The team:

Shiro: Captured by the Galra while on a mission, Shiro was experimented upon before escaping back to Earth. He returned with a weaponized robotic arm and vital information to lead the team against his former captors. Calm, thoughtful and wise beyond his years, it takes more than a fleet of Galra cruisers to get a rise out of Shiro. Voiced by Josh Keaton.


Keith: Orphaned at a young age before enlisting in the Galaxy Garrison, Keith is somewhat of a lone wolf considered to be the most talented pilot of his generation. He refuses to live by other people's rules, instead choosing to carve out his own path. Voiced by Steven Yeun.


Pidge: Pidge originally joined the team to search the galaxy for missing family members, but then came to understand the larger goal of conquering Zarkon and liberating the universe. Pidge loves and understands all things tech and often finds it easier to talk to gadgets than other humans. Voiced by Bex Taylor-Klaus.


Lance: Lance is all about having fun, even a million miles away from Earth's comforts and distractions. Full of confidence and even more full of himself, Lance thinks he's everyone's best friend, especially if they're cute and female. While his cockiness often gets the better of him, it comes in handy during firefights against bigger and better opponents. Voiced by Jeremy Shada.


Hunk: Hunk is the team's mechanic and he's a naturally good-hearted guy who is quick to laugh at himself. He's got a goofy sense of humor and hates and tension within the group, almost as much as his stomach hates flying. Gastrointestinal issues aside, Hunk is the team's foodie and he's constantly assessing alien vegetables to gauge their value in his recipes. Voiced by Tyler Labine.


Princess Allura: Often all business, Princess Allura is a whip-smart alien princess. Allura is the daughter of King Alfor, the original creator of Voltron. Allura has emerged from a 10,000 year cryogenic sleep to guide the team to defeat Zarkon. Often feeling the weight of the universe on her shoulders, she feels personally responsible for the success or failure of the new paladins of Voltron. Voiced by Kimberly Brooks.


Coran: Coran is Allura's royal advisor, entrusted to accompany here and keep her safe. He maintains a treasure trove of knowledge under his brain, but like a storage unit that's been flooded and pushed over a cliff, it takes a little while to find the pertinent information. Voiced by Rhys Darby.


The Galra Empire:

Emperor Zarkon: Emperor Zarkon is the ruthless leader of the Galra Empire. 10,000 years ago, Zarkon fought to steal the Voltron lions from King Alfor. Ever since Alfor sent the lions to the far corners of the universe, Zarkon has been on a quest to obtain Voltron once and for all. Voiced by Neil Kaplan.


Witch Haggar: Haggar is an ageless, psychic witch and a loyal advisor to Zarkon. Over the years she has formed a coven of druids, her own order of followers to do her bidding and aid her evil plans. Together they create the robeasts to battle Voltron. Voiced by Cree Summer.


Prince Lotor: Prince Lotor is a skilled an cunning warrior who will stop at nothing to capture Voltron and prove to his father, Emperor Zarkon, that he is a worthy heir to the throne. Lotor's sense of sportsmanship is atypical among the Galra, and puts him at odds with some of Zarkon's followers. Voiced by A.J. Locascio.


F.A.Q.

How Long are Season 7 and Season 8?
From Season 7 onward, each season once again consists of 13 episodes instead of 6-7 episodes.

Is Season 8 the Final Season?
Yes. Season 8 will consist of the last 13 episodes of the series.

When will Season 8 Release?
Seasons 8 is confirmed to release on December 14, 2018.


Art From the Show's Staff:



 
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HyperFerret

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,140
General Season 5 spoilers
I was absolutely giddy when I saw that Robeast coffin being shot out. It had been so long since we had a Robeast fight! I want more hehe

The White Lion was cool, it's a nice reference to the original show.

I also can't get enough of Korlia's dumb hair, at least we know where Keith got his haircut from. Lol. But the fact that the character designers made her so obviously related to him, ended up making Keith look rather dumb for not seeing it right away. But then, maybe he was in denial of ever seeing his mom again. At least now there's a bunch of cute fan art with these two.
 
Oct 25, 2017
1,289
I wanted to be excited but after Season 3 got pieced meal, it really has ruined the pace for me. Season 1 and 2 (which also priemered last year) had a strong driving force pushing the narrative to two very satisfying season finales. They essentially felt like arcs for a show that had excellent escalation.
Season 3 however felt like it needed to added some great conflict after their victory over the emperor in season 2, needed to explain the backstory of Voltron, wrap up some lingering plot lines, extending some others and introducing new ones while also having one off episodes. It felt very disjointed and that there were no more seasons or arcs perse just new episodes added continuously to the overall plot.

I'm still going to watch it but Netflix is doing the same thing again, piece mealing this season and then releasing the rest in June but branding it as season 6. It feels like Netflix is just churning out episodes as fast as they can get them done to rush through the show and the main plot is suffering.

Edited for appalling grammar and sentence structure
 
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Volimar

volunteer forum janitor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,629
Gotta say feels kind of icky to reuse an old OT title. But man was that a good one.
 

HyperFerret

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,140
They aren't rushing the show, it's been in production for years. Season's 1 and 2 were the first act, Seasons 3 through 6 are the second act, and seasons 6+ is the third act.

What really screwed up the pacing was that the showrunners (General show spoilers from season 3 onwards just in case)
wanted Shiro to disappear for a lot longer and make Keith go through an entire arc of being a leader, but the executives wanted to push toys. And you can't be dropping a character for too long if you want to sell toys of them. So Keith's time as the black paladin was condensed and they had to move things around to fulfill their 72 episode contract.

This was confirmed with an interview, and I would have loved to see how their original design went. But alas. Season 5 is definitely a step above 4 though, imo.
 
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TheGreatLugia

TheGreatLugia

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,078
I wanted to be excited but after Season 3 got pieced meal, it really has ruined the pace for me. Season 1 and 2 (which also priemered last year) had a strong driving force pushing the narrative to two very satisfying season finales. They essentially felt like arcs for a show that had excellent escalation.
Season 3 however felt like it needed to added some great conflict after their victory over the emperor in season 2, needed to explain the backstory of Voltron, wrap up some lingering plot lines, extending some others and introducing new ones while also having one off episodes. It felt very disjointed and that there were no more seasons or arcs perse just new episodes added continuously to the overall plot.

I'm still going to watch it but Netflix is doing the same thing again, piece mealing this season and then releasing the rest in June but branding it as season 6. It feels like Netflix is just churning out episodes as fast as they can get them done to rush through the show and the main plot is suffering.

Edited for appalling grammar and sentence structure
I don't think the more recent seasons have been written in a different environment than the first two. I think the issue has been the more recent seasons getting split into parts after they were already planned out. Here's a recent quote about it from one of the showrunners (source).
Screen Rant: Season 5 is a shorter season with only six episodes, similar to seasons 3 and 4. Does having a shorter season affect how you approach the storytelling?

Joaquim Dos Santos: We went into these ones actually not expecting for these to be split up, so we had to – post having written the seasons and created the seasons – find decent places to split them up. So all these shorter drops are coming in what were previously longer form seasons and split up after the fact. We did try to find the most natural place to split them up but it wasn't our intention going in initially.

That being said, it does sound like the initial plan for what became Seasons 3 and 4 got changed like HyperFerret mentioned.

(Source)
Why couldn't have Shiro come back later on, perhaps a season or two down the line? Executive producer Joaquim Dos Santos has a fairly blunt answer. "We weren't allowed to from the executives. That's it. He had to come back. That's pretty much it. We wanted him to be gone for a much longer period of time and we weren't allowed to."

Co executive producer Lauren Montgomery adds, "Shiro's gotta sell toys."
Montgomery elaborates on the thought process of this decision, lamenting "there's a lot of give and take when you're working on a show. It's a very nice happy thing to think we have carte blanche when making this show and everything we do is our choice but that's just not always the case. Sometimes we have people we need to please."

Montgomery lays out the original third season they had planned, back when it was originally going to be thirteen episodes instead of seven.

"I think in our wildest dream we had a season planned out where Shiro just wasn't a part of it and our guys got to be the original Voltron lineup and be a mess and learn on their own and learn together and evolve. But when it comes down to it sometimes we don't get out way. Things are required of us so we do those things and we have to make it work with the story."
 
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SRG01

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,020
Was there a change in the directorial leads for season 5? Because it looks much better than the previous seasons...
 

Gold Arsene

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
30,757
I'm wondering depending on how things go with Shiro if Keith could wind up in the Black Lion again?
 
Oct 27, 2017
15,067
My impression is that
it gave something. It was something Lotor clearly wanted, so what on earth happened when the white lion was absorbed into Allura?

My speculation is that there's a sixth lion somewhere.

Speaking of
a sixth lion
, what happened to Lotor's two meteor rock ships from last season? I totes thought they were setting at least one up to join with Voltron & give it a power boost. Acxa and her gang have one while Lotor must have the other. I hope the writers haven't just forgotten about them already.
 
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TheGreatLugia

TheGreatLugia

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,078
Was there a change in the directorial leads for season 5? Because it looks much better than the previous seasons...
a few left the production. doing a kickstarter right now I believe.
I want to say Steve Ahn was the only director who left, but he had already worked on a few episodes this season before leaving the team since he's credited as directing a couple of episodes.

I do wonder if there was a change in the overall storyboarding process this season, though. The way most of the action scenes were put together felt a bit different to me.

Season 5 Episode 2 Spoilers:
https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/1e7e3a7f6129eb4f6d7fe5f368b25c6f.mp4
https://sakugabooru.com/data/1cabb2fa6f28b25e99e667afb758a546.mp4

Season 5 Episode 4 Spoilers:
https://sakugabooru.com/data/33e9bdea892a3fe5b4a84c955a712154.mp4
https://sakugabooru.com/data/6ce68890f28da9e53149961ecb7cf7f0.mp4

Season 5 Episode 5 Spoilers:
https://sakugabooru.com/data/db4bf27ac10c27a1a51c9c7deb452561.mp4
 

Wilsongt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,508
So after finishing the season...

I have a feeling Lotor goes bad again. While it was nice to have him join up with the group, I have a feeling he is going to hold a grudge against Allura for obtaining the power he wanted for himself... That's going to eat away at him.
 

GeoGonzo

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,334
Madrid, Spain
So after finishing the season...

I have a feeling Lotor goes bad again. While it was nice to have him join up with the group, I have a feeling he is going to hold a grudge against Allura for obtaining the power he wanted for himself... That's going to eat away at him.
I actually only started seeing Lotor as a trustworthy ally on the very last chapter, for the rest of the season I was wondering "is he turning now?" again and again. He actually took his failure to pass the test rather well, gracefully conceding Allura did all the work.
Anyway, it was a good bunch of episodes, right?. I really like the worldbuilding they do in this show.
 

HyperFerret

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,140
So I was thinking about Sam going back to Earth to tell the Garrison about the Galra and I remembered that Shiro had half a sentry fall into his escape pod. The Garrison must be aware that aliens are a thing since Shiro definitely didn't come back on one of their crafts plus they can study the pieces of that robot that was in it. I wonder how they are going to handle Sam telling them more information. Hmm.
 
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TheGreatLugia

TheGreatLugia

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,078
I just read through some points about one aspect of Season 5.

Haggar's flashback shows Lotor was born after Zarkon and Haggar had already been brought back from the dead. In addition, the Black Bayard's default state seems to change when held by someone containing Quintessence.

The Black Bayard's default state:

tumblr_inline_p52lhvTaiO1qfzmuo_500.jpg



The Black Bayard's default state when held by a Quintessence possessed Zarkon:

tumblr_inline_p52kckbwg11qfzmuo_500.jpg



The Black Bayard returning to its normal state as Zarkon dies:

tumblr_inline_p52knoBQUD1qfzmuo_500.jpg

tumblr_inline_p52knst6qC1qfzmuo_500.jpg



The Black Bayard's default state when held by Lotor:

tumblr_inline_p52kjqUT4d1qfzmuo_500.jpg



Lotor's eyes don't glow like Zarkon and Haggar's, but it's possible that Haggar can shapeshift to look more normal and that Lotor might have inherited the ability.

tumblr_inline_p52o6z9mzt1qfzmuo_500.jpg



As a result, I'm wondering if Lotor could have been possessed by Quintessence since birth without ever realizing it. The screencaps and full theory which makes additional claims and were originally posted here.
 
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Gold Arsene

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
30,757
So I was thinking about Sam going back to Earth to tell the Garrison about the Galra and I remembered that Shiro had half a sentry fall into his escape pod. The Garrison must be aware that aliens are a thing since Shiro definitely didn't come back on one of their crafts plus they can study the pieces of that robot that was in it. I wonder how they are going to handle Sam telling them more information. Hmm.
People have been speculating about earth creating Vehicle Voltron.
 

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,241
Liked this season a lot. They did some new things that I didn't expect. I really need to watch Avatar and Korra since I like this team's output here.
 
Oct 28, 2017
122
I love this show. There were some surprising advancements in the plot, and everything they are doing with Lotor has been fantastic.
...It doesn't hurt that he's cute, too.
 

DangerMouse

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,402
Same, I love this show. This was a great new set of episodes.

Liked this season a lot. They did some new things that I didn't expect. I really need to watch Avatar and Korra since I like this team's output here.
Yeah, loving both of those shows and their animation was why I was looking forward to this so much and its been great ride.
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,923
I'm liking this morally ambiguous variation of Prince Lotor.

It's a way smarter way to handle the character compared to the sneering, evil stalker from the original show. The way he's written now, I could easily see him falling and it wouldn't surprise me or feel unearned, but I kinda get the feeling if one character is going to heel-turn in the second half of the season...

It'll be Shiro. In the Voltron mindscape, I think he was trying to tell Lance that his body is already dead. That's why it took him so long to manifest even though the other paladins appeared immediately.

Also, props to the actor who plays Lotor for being really convincing. Insane to believe that's the same guy who voiced Marty in the Back to the Future Telltale games.
 

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,241
It's a way smarter way to handle the character compared to the sneering, evil stalker from the original show. The way he's written now, I could easily see him falling and it wouldn't surprise me or feel unearned, but I kinda get the feeling if one character is going to heel-turn in the second half of the season...

It'll be Shiro. In the Voltron mindscape, I think he was trying to tell Lance that his body is already dead. That's why it took him so long to manifest even though the other paladins appeared immediately.

Also, props to the actor who plays Lotor for being really convincing. Insane to believe that's the same guy who voiced Marty in the Back to the Future Telltale games.
What's the theory there? How can he be dead? He's rather convincing.
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,923
What's the theory there? How can he be dead? He's rather convincing.

Haggar's a necromancer. She's come back from the dead once and brought Zarkon back from the dead as well. I get the feeling Shiro died when Voltron first blew up, but was brought back to life by Haggar with some kind of subconscious conditioning as part of the Operation Kuron she keeps mentioning. At first I thought she was trying to use him as a mole to get Lotor into power, but it doesn't really feel like she's supporting Lotor at all even after remembering he's related to her.

The other thing I'm wondering about is who she really wants to have as Emperor. Her "iron mind AND iron fist" line doesn't really seem to apply to Sendak, who always felt like a pawn, and she clearly doesn't think very highly of Lotor himself for being a half-breed without all of the Galra brutality.
 

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,241
Haggar's a necromancer. She's come back from the dead once and brought Zarkon back from the dead as well. I get the feeling Shiro died when Voltron first blew up, but was brought back to life by Haggar with some kind of subconscious conditioning as part of the Operation Kuron she keeps mentioning. At first I thought she was trying to use him as a mole to get Lotor into power, but it doesn't really feel like she's supporting Lotor at all even after remembering he's related to her.

The other thing I'm wondering about is who she really wants to have as Emperor. Her "iron mind AND iron fist" line doesn't really seem to apply to Sendak, who always felt like a pawn, and she clearly doesn't think very highly of Lotor himself for being a half-breed without all of the Galra brutality.
Ah yes, but he did regain or rather gain, for the first time with this theory, the Black Lion's trust. That's rather amazing for a clone. Especially since the Lions do have sentience.
 

HyperFerret

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,140
What's the theory there? How can he be dead? He's rather convincing.
There are several fan theories roaming around.

One is that the original Shiro died after the Kerberos mission but not before they extracted enough of him to create clones. That would mean that the Shiro who landed on Earth was also a clone and conveniently found his way back, the same as the current Shiro conveniently found his way back to Team Voltron. This theory is the most interesting.

Another is that Shiro got teleported to the astral plane by the Black Lion after the fight with Zarkon to protect him, but since his body is gone too he may actually have died and perhaps Voltron is his only link to the living world via quintessence.

There's also the fact that Shiro gained a tuft of white hair after his time with the Galra. Characters who have a strong link to quintessence have typically had white hair such as Alfor, Allura and Haggar. Shiro may have had suffered quintessence experimentation, causing hos hair to turn white. (And might be why his bond with the black lion was so easily strengthened)

The show alludes to memory manipulation a couple times. Shiro having amnesia in the first part of the series, the scene where Hunk wonders if Shiro got implanted memories through his arm, and how Matt says that there's no way the brain can be hacked. But the show has proven that biological matter can be "hacked" to the point of having a "virus" in season 5, perhaps as further foreshadowing.

I'm probably over-analyzing a kid's show though.
 

StarCreator

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,855
Finished this batch of episodes.

Does anyone actually believe that Zarkon is dead? It seemed to happen pretty suddenly and we never saw his face the entire time.
 

Hellwarden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
34,155
It's a decent season, but it suffers from the same problem the last few have. This show doesn't know how to balance the character moments and action. This season is loaded with action, but there's not much in the way of characterization. (One day Hunk will get an actual moment of real characterization guys. One day.) No where is this more prevalent than how quickly the gang gets behind putting
Lotor on the throne, after he really didn't risk anything.

Lotor-"Trust me! Put me on the throne!"
Gang-"Hmmm, I don't know."
Lotor-"COOOOMMME ON!"
Gang-"Well, since you say it like that..."

I feel like this season can be summed up as follows.
Lotor on screen? It's okay.
Any other time.....ehhhhhhhhh. The fact that Lotor gets the overwhelming majority of action scenes this season probably isn't a coincidence. He probably sells the merch.

Stray thoughts...
-Either Shiro is Shiro or he isn't. I feel like this plot point has gone on for ages. GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!
-Watching the Galra empire immediately turn on each other was probably the funnest part of the season.
-Shiro and Keith didn't talk with each other once the entire season, and Lance and Allura had a semi romantic moment. I'm sure tumblr is taking this just fine.
 
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TheGreatLugia

TheGreatLugia

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,078
No where is this more prevalent than how quickly the gang gets behind putting
Lotor on the throne, after he really didn't risk anything.

Lotor-"Trust me! Put me on the throne!"
Gang-"Hmmm, I don't know."
Lotor-"COOOOMMME ON!"
Gang-"Well, since you say it like that..."
Wasn't everyone except Shiro against putting Lotor on the throne? After the team confronted Shiro about it, he went off alone with Lotor to do it himself.
 

KarmaCow

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,164
Wasn't everyone except Shiro against putting Lotor on the throne? After the team confronted Shiro about it, he went off alone with Lotor to do it himself.

Yea, did I miss something or did they skip over the gang confronting Shiro going behind everyone's back and sorta giving the Black Lion to Lotor?
 
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TheGreatLugia

TheGreatLugia

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,078
So in a recent Season 5 interview with the showrunners, they seemed to talk about Shiro coming back quickly again. Their wording makes me wonder if at one point Shiro was supposed to die at the end of Season 2 (source).
So in this season – well really, for almost the whole series – there's been something strange going on with Shiro. Lance picks up on in it in this season, which is great. Should we be suspicious of Shiro?

LM: The idea is that Shiro's been through some crazy, crazy stuff and it's definitely taking a bit of a toll on him. He was super awesome, perfect hero guy in season 1, but he came back from, seemingly, the dead. Just fricking showed up and it's difficult. I think in our attempt to–because ultimately, what happened is he was supposed to exit stage left but we ended up needing to keep him around. And so we needed to factor in something interesting about him so that he wasn't just the perfect guy who solves everyone's problems. This is us doing some damage control.

JDS: I would also say that even if you look back to the first season of Voltron, Shiro was dealing with some stuff. He was having flashes of Zarkon images, some PTSD-type stuff. He's kind of been tortured from the beginning.
Was there a moment or a character you didn't expect to be a big deal but then the fans just went crazy for?

JDS: To be honest with you, this is funny but I think we were a little surprised by Shiro. That was kind of a big one for us. We had seen Shiro as a conduit for allowing Keith to rise to the leadership role and the Space Dad phenomenon was something that we weren't expecting.
 

PSqueak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,464
Was wondering when this thread would happen, because, HOT DAMN, what a fucking roller coaster this season was.

We all knew something was up with shiro and that he was going to be a plant, but at least they gave us hope that real non traitorous shiro is still somewhere in there, im betting Lance telling him 'i didn't hear you' is a lie and Shiro did brief him on something important about being compromised and Lance is waiting for the right moment to reveal to the others what it was.
 
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TheGreatLugia

TheGreatLugia

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,078
PlanetSmasher I'm replying here since I originally posted in the trailer thread by mistake.
From everything I've heard...

The plan wasn't to kill Shiro off, but leave him out of the show for longer. He was always coming back, but the plan was to leave him out of the show for a while to let Keith be the leader. Shiro's unexpected popularity led the execs to request they bring him back sooner.
That was my impression from the interview last year, but this new interview is making me wonder if they originally didn't have much planned for Shiro's character after Season 2 since they talk about him being a bit too perfect in the early seasons and how his original purpose was to help Keith become the leader. Granted they could also be saying some of that because they don't want to give any extra information about what's going on with Shiro in Season 5.
 
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TheGreatLugia

TheGreatLugia

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,078
Wow, way to steal my thread title from GAF : ^)
I was originally just going to make the title "Season 5 Out Now," but I changed my mind after someone in the trailer thread reminded me of how good that thread title was.

Besides, you got rid of that title when the newer seasons started dropping anyway :p