Stars: 3/5
The death of the Saturday morning cartoon has given rise to the anytime Netflix cartoon. For younger kids, this means watching “Bolt” for 12 hours, then “Dinotrux” for another eight. For older kids, this means watching shows like “Voltron: Legendary Defender” to capture the feel of shows older generations grew up with, like “Justice League” or “Teen Titans.”
Season five of “Voltron: Legendary Defender” was tense. Not for me, but the 12-year-old deep inside of me.
At first, the show continued the classic good versus. evil narrative with the alien Galra colonial threat, but with new ally Lotor, our heroes were faced with the suggestion that maybe the only good Galra weren’t just the formal rebels, the Blade of Marmora. The Galra aren’t bad, they’re just drawn that way.
Speaking of the way things are drawn, Lotor’s hair in the first episode really grinded my gears. One strand of hair went straight through his eye and gave his face half of its character. For this and other more significant reasons he’s annoying for a while, but I started to feel bad for him once his past received some exposition.
I spent a lot of this season feeling bad for the main characters. Almost all but Hunk, who isn’t focused on at all, have some familial strife. Lance misses his family, Pidge’s father suddenly comes within reach, Keith gains a family member and Allura connects with her father in a magical way.
Former big bad Haggar is probably the most pitiable character of the season. She loses her whole family before she knows they’re family, then proceeds to alienate the last living relative who doesn’t know their connection. However, she’s definitely still evil. She keeps an eye on things through Shiro, who presumably doesn’t know he’s being used.
Shiro’s apparent loss of autonomy is frankly unnerving coming from a children’s show. It’s obvious he’s not himself, a fact his team somehow can’t pick up on. The difference crept up on me often while I watched, though. All I want is to know what’s up with my man Shiro.
On the brighter side of things, there’s a cute mini-subplot in one episode aboud Pidge, Hunk and Lance teaching a robot to have fun. Their antics help take the “dire” out of defending the universe and serves as a reminder that in spite of everything they’re still kids who were abruptly flung into an intergalactic power struggle.
A lot of action and plot is stuffed into those six 20-minute episodes. Everything happens fast, and if you’re not paying attention it’s easy to be genuinely bewildered when suddenly Voltron is being engulfed by a giant plant monster.
The slower moments toward the end of the season really let the effects shine. Some of the last few settings are bright and gorgeous, which really contrasted with the start of the season. The last episode is definitely the most visually captivating.
