Netflix Retrospective: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 1 episodes 2-4

Some assembly required

Hey, writers, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes wants its episode title back!

After the intro, we hear an alarm go off in the castle. Allura is telling them Zarkon’s attacking and they need Voltron now. Hunk falls out of bed and gets to action. Shiro’s already awake, Pidge is sleeping in the corridor with her laptop (I can relate) and Keith just puts on his coat and runs over. Lance, meanwhile sleeps through the alarm. Coran then begins overacting in an attempt to sell it

Coran was supposed to be timing them but he had a meat thermometer for some reason. Allura’s not impressed, only Shiro is in uniform and none of the others have their bayards. Lance enters late, completely oblivious. Hunk makes a good point about all this being a lot to process in a short period of time. Allura counters by showing them the vast portions of the Universe the Galra have conquered and will need to be freed. They say that an attack on Earth is inevitable but hasn’t yet happened.

They’re going to be leaving soon, and they need to learn to form Voltron on a whim rather than just when attacked. The next few bits of dialogue regarding Pidge are badly written and delivered. Like that Coran ranks them by height though. They proceed to their Lions with Hunk having some comic relief issues. Damn it though it’s a bloody long route from the command centre into the Lions, glad they skip over that most episodes.

They decide to fly in sync like they did during the attack, but it doesn’t work. Keith suggests they stack the Lions on top of each other, but Hunk messes that up first time and the second time still doesn’t work. Allura notes that they only formed Voltron in the heat of battle, so she begins a diagnostic on the Castle defences, the particle barrier and lasers that fire on target, and she’s locked onto the Lions, this doesn’t go well as the group split up to evade fire.

At Galra command, we get a meeting with Zarkon and one of his commanders. He’s returned from his mission early to avoid losing half his crew to an unstable moon. Zarkon isn’t pleased, the half that survived would’ve been stronger, he sees weakness as in infection and has the Commander taken away. Haggar has been working on something that should be able to defeat Voltron.

The Castle defences shut down when Coran tested the fire suppressors, so the group managed to get in, but Coran offers some actual wise words. The original paladins of Voltron fought hundreds of battles together, and were a tight unit, which this team is not. They formed Voltron last time because of survival instincts. So, why didn’t he mention this earlier? Could’ve saved us 10 minutes

Anyway, time for a training exercise. Each of the team have a shield, they need to protect each other, as they fall through the floor when hit. Hunk and Pidge are taken out immediately. Lance and Keith are taken out when they talk too much and Shiro gets hit when there’s no-one left. Trust exercise. Invisible maze for Lance, unfortunately it’s Keith. I don’t know if it’s Lance not following instructions or Keith is a lousy leader, because we will get to that in season 3

Stage 3 is forming a bond with the Lion, they’re told to nosedive and their helmets are blinded, the objective is to pull up as late as possible without crashing. Hunk exits first, whilst Keith and Lance speed up and end up crashing. Pidge leaves next, whilst Shiro seems to have mastered the drill and pulls up just before hitting the ground.

The next exercise is about keeping their minds open and clear, which is a bit of a problem for Pidge, given the secret I didn’t bother keeping secret. They’re all tired and are about to rest when Allura puts a stop to it, and puts them against a gladiator robot, which totally whoops their asses and Allura calls them out on. If you think Allura is being cruel, you’re not entirely wrong, but she’s not doing it without a reason.

Lunch time and Coran has cuffed them all together, forcing them to work as a team to feed each other. Allura finally crosses a line and they 5 of them defend each other, FOOD FIGHT! And it worked, they’re finally working as a team. Now, they’re going to try again and form Voltron. I’d be impressed if it were that easy, and impressed I am because yup, the stock transition is playing, they’re forming Voltron. Allura had this plan the entire time.

Haggar has completed her weapon and is about to send it out.

It’s a nice episode to give us our character dynamics, though it ultimately does lack any major action scenes.

Rating 7.5/10

Return of the Gladiator

The 5 of them return from a workout as Voltron. Pidge immediately heads to question the prisoners and is joined by Shiro, who’s worried about what he might hear about himself. They’re approached by a local, whilst Princess Allura wants to approach peacefully, so she, Coran, Hunk, Lance and Keith head out, the attacker sought answers, he believed the raining debris from the exploding Galra ship, and Voltron himself were signs the ‘Lion Goddess’ was angry.

One of the prisoners explains the nickname we keep hearing for Shiro, ‘Champion’ he was an undefeated gladiator, who defeat one known as Myzax, the creature we saw Haggar play about with in the last episode to create her new weapon. Matt Hold, Pidge’s brother was also a gladiator but Shiro injured him. The prisoner thought he was thirsty for battle but what he was really doing is kinda obvious. So obvious, I’m surprised Pidge didn’t notice straight away. Wanting more answers, Shiro and Pidge head to the ruins to find any prison logs.

The others meet the neighbours, and we get some comic relief until Allura gives them their mission statement and everyone cheers. They begin downloading the data but a meteor is heading right towards them, Shiro has to get her away before it crashes. Inside the meteor is the gladiator, a mechanised version of the gladiator Shiro fought before. He has some kind of plasma ball which he can swing around and kick their asses.

Cue stock transformation. The monster is able to kick Voltron’s ass, almost causing them to fall onto the village, although they do manage to get the battle away from them, it’s still kicking their asses, using the orb as either a distraction or attacking them with it whilst they’re attacking it. Shiro begins to realise what this monster is, and what it’s weakness is. The monster’s weapon needs to be recharged after 3 strikes, and is briefly vulnerable. You’d think Haggar would’ve tried to remove that weakness but nope. Thankfully, the shield Pidge brought up is helpful.

Unfortunately, a direct blast doesn’t work, Shiro had a sword last time. The Red Lion asks Keith to insert his bayard. He does so and Voltron has a sword which slices through the monster and destroys it. A little bit convenient but it is early days.

Haggar is disappointed but Zarkon has another plan. Commander Sendak is still alive and he’s been instructed to take the castle, he plans to exploit the fact that team Voltron care about the natives. Then we get some resolution, it was blindingly obvious that Shiro only hurt Matt in order for him to be chosen to fight in his stead but… Oh, and Shiro knows Pidge is female, but promises to keep it a secret.

It’s a solid episode, not much actually happens but it pushes along the subplots and provides some nice action

Rating 7/10

The Fall of the Castle of Lions

We open with a celebration of the monster’s defeat in the last episode, Shiro’s concerned about the castle’s current open-door policy. Shiro goes to inspect the perimeter. Meanwhile, Sendak and his second in command Haxus inspect it from afar. They see Rover with Pidge, and Haxus has a plan to send in a bomb drone by cloning Rover’s signature. But he has to get close enough to do it.

Allura begins speaking to the mice, and they reveal Pidge’s secret, much to her confusion. Lance begins reminiscing about home with Hunk as Allura tries to confront Pidge subtly, but it gets awkward. Pidge reveals she plans to leave tonight, having decoded what data they could steal the Galra ship before it blew up.

She first goes to Shiro, outside, close enough for Haxus to clone the security code and send in the bomb drone. Coran joins Lance on the bridge as they both reminisce about the planets they’re no longer on. Keith is not happy about the news Pidge is leaving, since it means they can’t form Voltron. Hunk too misses Earth. It’s about to get loud but Shiro stops them, they can’t force her to stay, that’s not how a good team operates.

The bomb drone enters the bridge, and Lance coins onto it being a bomb pretty quickly, he jumps on Coran to get him down, the explosion powers down the castle.  Coran is OK, but Lance is badly injured, and without the crystal, they have no power. And without power, the bay doors in the castle are holding the Lions in, what’s worse is the village is under attack by Galra sentries.

Pidge left the bay door to the pod she was going to steal open, so they can use it to scan for a Balmera, a beast that can make the crystals used to power the castle. Pidge and Hunk join him, whilst Keith and Allura head to the village to defend them, Shiro electing to see to Lance and watch over the castle. Unfortunately, the attack on the village was a distraction as Sendak begins his raid on the castle.

Sendak has a weird robotic hand to fight against Shiro’s, but his hand seems to be an upgraded version and Shiro and he end at a stalemate. But when Haxus threatens Lance, Shiro has to surrender, although Pidge is watching from above. The Galra had planted bombs in the village, but the sentries there were fake, all a diversion. Sendak begins repowering the castle using Galra tech, they raise the particle barrier and prepare for Launch. The only hope for the castle is Pidge, who’s tasked with sabotaging the ship.

Hunk and Coran arrive on the Balmera but find that’s been turned into mining colony by the Galra and they’re quickly spotted. They take cover in the mine where they crash the ship and find creatures living in the mine. After losing communication, Pidge has to be more direct and slash the ship controls, but her tactic is successful and has delayed them, unfortunately she was spotted in the process.

It’s a good episode, and one of the better showings for the Galra.

Rating 8/10