Voltron: Legendary Defender came into my life like a damn hurricane earlier this year when I binged all of the episodes upon getting the chance to interview the cast and showrunners. I instantly fell in love with the paladins and the world building and the sound effects. I became a new card carrying member of Sheith Hive. I was really excited for the show to come back and even though someone spoiled a particular plot point for me like 30 mins after I started watching the episodes at 8am PST, I liked the season.
The season, at only 7 episodes, felt at odds with itself and the quality in my opinion suffered for it. This third season just felt like a prologue to whatever is coming up in season 4, so much so that I wish they had just kept these episodes and put them with the ones airing in October. I am impressed that they were able to do a bottle episode, an overall arc, and a world building flashback all in one season, but the series just sort of ends flatly.
Luckily for the show, the struggle of the paladins trying to reform Voltron and a new team dynamic was enough to carry us through. I really enjoyed these character beats and even though the series is only 7 episodes, I felt they did a good job of pacing the struggles and triumphs of the team because they kept everything rooting in character.
Speaking of character, I was most surprised at Lance’s character growth. yes , he’s still the annoying guy who hits on women and is kinda dumb, but he was forced to step up a bit with Keith having to take more of a leadership role and he does it wonderfully.
The MVP of the season has to be Lotor and his brigade of bad bitches, a four team female general squadron. I. LOVED. THEM. Lotor is the perfect villain for these paladins because he is just as evil as his father but infinitely more devious. The way he handled a near mutiny in episode 2 was a thing of beauty. His generals are amazing, each with a distinct look, power, and skill set, and I would honestly be happy with a spin off of how those characters came to be.
There’s lots of good in the series that I can’t wait for the next season on October 13. I am going to include more thoughts in a spoiler section below.
SPOILER SECTION
So there’s a lot of fan service in Voltron, that me as someone who had never seen the other version, just don’t get. Den of Geek did a good job of recapping just how many references there were. The Sven thing went completely over my head other than the fact that he looked like Shiro.
Speaking of, that alternate reality episode was really interesting, particularly for Allura. I hope they revisit this concept in season 4 (otherwise what was the point).
Getting the actual story about how Voltron was formed and the history with Alfor and Zarkon was really fascinating. I normally don’t care too much about villain backstory but seeing how all of this played out was breathtaking. Knowing that he was initially good and how his love for his wife, and her exposure to particles from another world, led to them becoming evil and both planets blowing up was so cool.
HOWEVER, it honestly was awkward as hell to have this be the crux of the finale and didn’t really make sense to the season tbh. Such a strange choice for an ending and nothing really seemed to slot into place. It was nice I guess to get this backstory but not really necessary in a finale.
They put my man Shiro through it this season but I’m so happy he’s back. I liked that he didn’t immediately jump back into the leadership role (my poor baby) but when he finally cut that raggedy long hair, it was good to see my Shiro back. Also, yall know I’m Team Shieth, so to watch their dynamic play out with Shiro aboard the castle and Keith leading the group was fun. Both have such strong personalities and Shiro is definitely the better leader. I’m actually excited for how Shiro is going to take to being the new Allura, since she’s now the Blue Lion Paladin.
Also, is this the real Shiro or a clone? I’ve seen a lot of speculation that he’s not real Shiro, but I wonder why he would be doing some of the things he was doing if he wasn’t real. I just..
Allura was bad ass this season! It took her a while to get used to the Blue Lion but she’s infinitely more ingenious with it than Lance ever was. Also, that light whip thing she has? So cool.
And finally, the moment of the season:
SHEITH!!!!