Editorial: My thoughts on Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2

So season 1 was an impressive outing for Voltron: Legendary Defender, season 2, which came out earlier this year had a lot to live up to, did it succeed, here's my take.

Season 2 starts with the team split up. Shiro is wounded and being hunted by viscious beats with only Keith to save him. Pidge is on a junk planet with lots of furry adorable creatures, Princess Allura and Curan are in a vortex-time loop where Curan is getting younger with each passing and Lance and Hunk are on an underwater world being subjugated by a mind-controlling plant thing. The episodes do good jobs of showcasing individual talents. Keith's determination and planning, Shiro's encouragement, resourcefulness and leadership, Pidge's creativity and intellect, Lance's quick thinking and Hunk's loyalty.

It's not long before they're all back together however and it's time for Shiro to have more plot convenient flashbacks, this time of a Galra soldier who helped him escape back to Earth. Princess Allura's arc over the season begins hear because she's essentially racist against the Gallra, it's quite understandable given the size and strength of Zarkon's fleet and how long he's been spreading his foothold but there are Galra that are willing to fight against him. The Blade of Marmora. Ulaz, the Galra who helped Shiro escape was a part of that group and left some co-ordinates in his arm.

They pay him a visit but Zarkon manages to track them down, they both blame each other for this. Ulaz sacrifices his life to allow the team to escape, but warns them to work out how Zarkon is tracking them before they seek out the Blade of Marmora headquarters. Keith notices a blade he's had since childhood is similar to the one Ulaz had.

After an episode called Greening the cube featuring a technological civilisation which will return later in the season, we have an episode which reminded me a little of episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender where they are continually tracked and attacked. Not helping matters is the fact that team can't complete a full wormhole jump thanks to some cracked lenses. Now fully aware that Zarkon is tracking them, Keith believes they might be tracking the blade (which is nonsense since the Blade of Mamora would've been annihilated easily if that were the case) and Princess Allura has a more valid reason to believe they might be tracking her.

As the rest of the Paladins try and save a ship from a dying world falling into the acid, the two leave in the pod Pidge modified last season. When Zarkon tracks the castle down anyway, they try and head back but the pod explodes. The Red Lion comes from a vast distance to rescue Keith and with the knowledge that Zarkon was the original black Paladin, it becomes clear Zarkon's tracking them through the Black Lion.

Shiro goes to form a deeper connection to his lion whilst all except Princess Allura head to a space mall to find more of the lenses they need. Hijinks ensue. Shiro's connection does become deeper and keeps Zarkon from tracking him. They meet up with the Blade of Mamora and Keith eventually discovers that he is part Galra, which somehow makes it to the ears of the Princess and hampers their relationship a bit.

The group form a plan to take down Zarkon, it's only 26 episodes in so you know it can't go entirely well. But the next 3 episodes are dedicated to the preparation for the enacting of said plan. Keith and Hunk head to get skultrite, the core ingredient in the lenses, Shiro, Keith and Pidge head to a prison to rescue a scientist who is annoying and is computing stuff about parallel realities. Princess Allura heads to the Balmara to gain a giant crystal whilst Coran and the blade construct the wormhole generator, with the aid of those they rescued in Greening the Cube. All the while, Haggar and her witches close in on Thace, the traitor within Zarkon's ranks that allowed Voltron's escape last season.

With everything prepared, the attack begins but Thace is discovered before he can do his part. Keith heads on board to do it for him, using his Galra heritage to gain access. He succeeds and not a moment too soon. They transport Zarkon's command ship away from the fleet, and drain it of power. Voltron moves in but Haggar and her witches power it down as Zarkon attacks in a giant mech suit. They manage to power back up as Allura and the Blade soldiers go to stop Haggar and her witches, they discover that Haggar is from the same planet as Allura and that Allura's able to withstand the magical blasts.

They destroy the suit but the ship powers back up before they could destroy it and Zarkon laid a harsh blow on the team. Shiro is missing. Zarkon is heavily injured so Haggar asks that Prince Lotor be summoned.

Voltron: Legendary Defender season 2 is a great followup to the first season, though once again not without flaws. Animation-wise, it's the same studio doing basically the same thing, it was awesome then and it's just as awesome now. Andrea Romano continued as voice director so you know the voice acting is spot on. The music is excellent.

Keith has the main arc of the season, discovering more about himself and how that changes how he's seen by people around him. There are still competitive moments between him and Lance, which he seems more engaged in this time, honestly, Allura and Hunk are the only two we see much of a reaction to the news from. The others are completely unfazed by it. It would've been ok if more were demonstrated here. Self-discovery also puts him on a path to becoming a leader. Shiro chose him as a replacement early in the season, rather unsubtley foreshadowing something happening to him later on. I hope next season we'll see further development on this front.

Pidge's main development comes in Greening the Cube, where she grows more understanding of nature as she encouters technological people who adapted their craft when they were forced out of the cities, she used this to forge a deeper bond with her lion and unlock a new weapon.

Princess Allura's racism arc struck me as off, not because I can't see why she'd feel the way she does, that much is obvious but the way she feels after Ulaz's sacrifice and how she was cold to Keith after discovering his heritage felt off for her character, she's usually smarter than that.

In the episode Space Mall, Shiro tries to deepen his connection to the Black Lion to prevent Zarkon tracking it. He finds out about some history and how Zarkon sees the Black Lion as a tool rather than an independent thinker. It's this that helps him unlock his battle mode later on.

The episode Escape from Beta Traz is Lance's only character development episode of the season, where he's pondering his place on the team as no-one really thinks of him as the sharp-shooter he thinks he is. Here's the thing, neither does the audience, really. In this episode he does something impressive but this arc remains kinda unresolved and needs to expanded upon next season.

In the episode Eye of the Storm, Coran ended up with a case of the slipperies, a convenient disease that wasn't foreshadowed in any other episode and disappears immediately after this one. He's in denial about it initially and rejects people's help when they say he might be but he comes around. Hunk has no character development of note this season.

With the villains, Zarkon's growing obsession with the Black Lion is ultimately his downfall, at least for now. Haggar remains a compelling secondary villain and I'll be interested to see how she compares to Prince Lotor next season. None of the commanders are anything special once again.

Story wise I have a couple of small gripes, the first being that Shiro mentions going to the Blade of Marmora headquarters during Eye of the Storm, whilst they're being tracked. My second is just the nature of the series. Their idea of bonding with a Lion feels kinda forced still, it should take more time, practice and care but it feels like it just happens when the plot necessitates it.

Worldbuilding is especially good this season, a lot of planets are given some exploration, we get a bit of history, we see the Balmara again, we get some really cool looking designs, asteroid fields, explosive crystals, this season has just about everything and the fact that everything is in 13 episodes whilst not feeling rushed at all is a minor miracle.

Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 is another great series, and I'm sorry that the nature of the show means I've had to spoil this much of it. Go watch it if you have Netflix