Forum - View topicREVIEW: Voltron: Legendary Defender season 5
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Stampeed Valkyrie
 Posts: 826 Location: PA |
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I completely forgot about this.. 5th part.
Looks like I will binge it this weekend with the weather being crappy and all. I hope it reverses the slide from what was a good startup to Dumpster fire territory, but from reading the review.. it doesn't sound as such. |
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DigitalScratch
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I think this review is pretty fair overall, as I feel a B us about as high as this season ranks. The fight between the Galran generals was absolutely the best part of the entire season. The scenes were so much fun to watch and were so intense. But other than that, Allura and Lotor’s development, and Pidge’s family finally getting closure, it’s a pretty average few episodes.
I sadly think that the writers have zero idea what to do with Hunk anymore and while he’s not nearlyas obnoxious here as he was in say S3/S4, I’m worried he’s slowly going to be weeded out into the background as the “funny fat one” As far as predictions for S6 and beyond, my main focus is on Lotor. I love him and he’s easy on the eyes but I just have a strong feeling he’s not as good or helpful as he says he is. But the entire season he hasn’t done anything to suggest he has ulterior motives, and I want to believe his relationship and care for the Paladins (Allura especially) is genuine. But I don’t knoq I just don’t think he’s safe |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4364 Location: New York |
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I can’t help but feel like Obi-Wan whenever a new season hits.
“You were the chosen one!” They focused on the wrong things and I’ll come out and say it, I think the showrunners or someone on the writing team hates giant robots. |
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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I think if it was hate they'd wind up making a wacky mission statement showing 'we know how this goes and it is wrong.' I think the creators just wanted to relive their Avatar/Korra days. One of the characters is the Sokka type, and when you take a trip over to Sakugabooru all the cool art is about them fighting complex martial arts, almost nothing mechanical. They're trapped in just repeating what they know. |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2245 |
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As someone who totally missed the Voltron boat beyond "Oh, yeah, that was an...80's thing, right? Maybe with robots", I actually feel like Voltron itself is the weakest part of this series overall. This team doesn't seem great at making compelling dogfights--they're more interested in what's going on *inside* the cockpit rather than outside it--and because just about everything is in space, it comes off feeling kind of floaty to me (though this may just be the okay-ish CGI at work).
But that's pretty much fine by me, because I'm really more vested in the characters. Maybe if these robots had a stronger sense of personality I'd care more about the Lions and Voltron by extension, but outside of a few good Lion-centric episodes, these might as well be color-coded cars for all the narrative impact they have. Generally though, I do agree that this series feels an awful lot like Korra-lite, and reminds me most strongly of the first season, where there's very little downtime or breathing room to hold over the overarching story, which makes me feel like some characterization points leave a lot to be desired in terms of depth (especially for Hunk), but honestly, I was just glad this season was finally hitting on plot points that had been on the back burner for ages. Also the Keith-Krolia tag team fight was the best fight of the show, bar none. |
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Animeking1108
Posts: 1244 |
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That, or they want to put character development over action. |
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Beatdigga
Posts: 4364 Location: New York |
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Well if that’s the case they failed. Badly.
Not to mention it shouldn’t be an either/or. You can do both but they’re too busy with their lame Avatar fight scenes, scenes which lack the choreography and fluidity of the actual Avatar. How about next time hire someone who likes giant robots? |
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Animeking1108
Posts: 1244 |
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Take off your tinfoil hat. |
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Beatdigga
Posts: 4364 Location: New York |
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They clearly have different priorities. It never comes up in interviews except to complain about it and that they do fight with executives over keeping it out, it doesn’t come up in panels, and it’s not a focus. They don’t like it. It’s not a conspiracy or anything so egregious, it’s the actual show and interviews with the EP’s that say it. Because they’re not good at this.
And what do we get instead? Boring fight scenes that feel like Diet Avatar without the choreography or drama of the former, characters that are flat as cardboard, and comedy that’s not funny. |
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JadeDahlia
 Posts: 70 Location: New York, NY |
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I'm in complete agreement with whiskeyii's comment. I'm much more invested in the show for its characters than anything else, so if anything I wish there was more focus on some of them (Hunk in particular needs to be treated as more than just a fat joke for sure). Having more Voltron/robot action would take away even more from time for character development and interactions between the Paladins.
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mrsatan
 Posts: 909 Location: Olympia, WA, USA |
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I dropped this show sometime during season 3. Mostly because there's not enough Voltron. Also, the constant humor irritates me.
It also took too long to get to the status quo of the original. I was happy when they finally got Shiro out of the way, but it sounds like he's back from what I'm reading here. It's better than the original Voltron dub, but I feel it is still inferior to GoLion. |
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Flü
Posts: 165 |
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B is a bit generous but fair. I enjoy Voltron more with each season, especially since the series shifted a bit of the attention away from the main group. Sadly the worldbuilding is still very inconsistent and the humor plain annoying, which keeps it down a bit.
On a related note, what is ANNs policy on reporting on "non-japanese" media at this point? Voltron gets a full review, while (the arguably more relevant) RWBY doesn't even get news-entries, unless its Japan-produced spinoffs or crossovers. Is it because the Voltron-franchise kinda has Japanese origins? |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11109 |
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Whenever I read in interviews that a creator wants to focus more on the characters and the ground battles then the giant robot battles, even if they preface it by saying that they want to make sure the giant robot battles have more "impact" as a result, it usually does come off to me like they aren't that interested in the actual giant robot the show is supposed to be about. I mean, I can see how the traditional "monster-of-the-week" formula can be tedious and limiting, but at least it gives the robot something to do every episode. |
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Stampeed Valkyrie
Posts: 826 Location: PA |
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so 2 episodes in on season 5.
And I have to admit that I see the points being made in this thread.. Better to retitle this series Paladins.. that occasionally do something with Voltron.. rather then the current title. I'm also not digging the whole Lotor turns good arc going on.. this has been done before in previous voltron spin-offs and was predictable as well as annoying. Reminds me of the Space Balls quote.. "Evil will always defeat good... because good is dumb!" I'm already pushing myself to complete this season.. if this is how I feel at the end of Season 5.. then I am done with this reincarnation. at this point 2 episodes in.. and we are clearly in Dumpster Fire territory.. probably not as far in as say Macross Delta was, but it's definitely on course to catching it. |
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Beatdigga
Posts: 4364 Location: New York |
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This show’s been a dumpster fire since Season 3. The threats against the VA’s and their families don’t help.
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