How Voltron: Legendary Defender Crashed and Burned (ft. Jalisa Weschen)

when I say vole you say Tron had confusing lackluster story arc Sulekha focus on its main characters are in the second half of the series and some seriously awful marketing that severely baited his LGBTQ audience vole what so volt Ron I was pretty into this series at first like most people it's hard not to get invested in a sort of hybrid of American and Japanese animation styles that takes direct influence from Avatar The Last Airbender in terms of its comedy and action beats the showrunners even worked on avatar in Korra it just seemed like a natural fit and as a result we got two seasons of the show that's entertaining action-packed dramatic funny just everything you could possibly want in an animated series it's too bad the show had to end up for season two but much like gravity falls it's probably better for them to quit while they were ahead solidifying this show is the masterpiece it deserves to be remembered as maybe the towel went down in another dimension but in this one everything shocks Voltron continued for eight seasons and just got so bad the best way I can describe it is this you know how Legend of Korra haters talk about the show like it's the worst thing ever made when come on it's not that bad Voltron is that bad the character arcs are messy confusing and all over the place the stories are unnecessarily drab and don't hold enough dramatic weight to compensate for that the villains are constantly shifting to the point where it's hard to get really invested in them as a threat and 75% of them don't even have compelling personalities to begin with and honestly the show's biggest crime in his later seasons is just how forgettable it is when I think of my favorite episodes from the show the space small one the one where they're being chased through wormholes the underwater one the one where king alfor is AI goes all Colonel Campbell on ass I ate all of my favorite episodes come from the first two seasons they're either really funny or really frightening with intensely dramatic yet also understandable stakes the characters are all likable and play off of each other so well there's seven of them to focus on which seems like a lot but their screen time is perfectly balanced even if their character arcs aren't sorry hunk the villains while generic and not super compelling are still a legitimate threat it's not like we're watching Steppenwolf here Zarkon is legitimately intimidating the first two seasons are so excellent because they perfectly straddle the line between sim and complex the plot lines are simple but the emotions these plot lines invoke in the characters are complex season three doesn't immediately take a nosedive it has a lot of good dare I say even improved elements first of all my boy lotor the estranged son of emperors Archon lotor is a far more compelling villain who also has to prove his worth not only to his father who hates him but also the rest of the golfer Empire he also has a team of generals including Ty Lee Jasper and his blind cat lady who then gets murder cuz I guess the show's cool with murdering blind people okay I'm gonna throw up a spoiler warning from here on out but honestly I don't recommend watching past season 5 anyway so I really don't care about spoiling this stuff if you do though then there's your warning so basically the reason lotor is in charge of the goal of our empire now is because the former Big Bad Zarkon was severely wounded in the season 2 finale but this begs the question why didn't Sark on just die there why bring him back at all if you have a compelling new antagonist to replace him well maybe it's because they wanted lotor to go through a character arc and personally kill his father and he does in episode 2 of season 5 what why episode 2 why season 5 why didn't you do this as a season finale since the death of the former main villain is kind of a huge deal this brings me to my main thesis statement of this visual essay ahem the Voltron show runners had no plan whatsoever and they just made up this [ __ ] as they went along wait what and if that wasn't the case then he likes this is even worse than I thought so basically after two seasons of lotor antagonizing team Voltron he professes a desire to work with them instead now that's pretty neat but it begs a question who even is the main villain anymore since you killed Zarkon is it this Sendak loser while he's just as boring as Archon and not nearly as intimidating you will never eat lunch in this town again is it this witch lady well she's just kind of been biding her time in the shadows she's not really a central organizing threat honestly we keep hearing after zarkon's death that the Galba Empire splintered and fractured and not what it once was and obviously that's not a great thing to hear about your main antagonistic force I mean imagine if a star movie phil goff the emperor halfway through and left us with a couple of emotionally unstable [ __ ] as our main antagonist oh wait and oh what a shock it turns out lotor is still a bad person even after he and Elora made out a little bit gross oh well at least in slow towards the villain again we have a compelling main antagonist to get or I guess he's just gone mad from quintessence poisoning or whatever and he's just some crazy guy now who's disposed of after opening a bunch of wormholes and never really heard from again that's cool too it's like I want to still be invested in these characters but I'm not invested in the threat they're fighting against it's kind of a joke it sucks too cuz there's really solid comedic and dramatic episodes in seasons 3 through 6 that first alternate dimension hopping experience the backstory of Zarkon and her Nerva low tours battle at the crawls arrow ceremony the altai in colony episode the one where they literally just play Dungeons and Dragons yeah I'm not even joking that happens and it's incredible but all of this gets buried underneath so many confusing plot lines and so many unnecessary character introductions I could barely follow the whole nonsense about Shiro being a clone all the time they switched lions but didn't switch the colors of their uniforms seriously am I the only one who is bugged by that Lance is piloting the Red Lion now we're rad you hacked loads motivations constantly seemed a flip-flop and being consistent and above all the actions just lost any charm at once had first of all and this is a problem in the first two seasons as well but every time they form Voltron they play the exact same thirty second animation every time and it's ridiculous but on top of that they just kind of run out of cool things to do with Voltron fairly quickly by the fifth or sixth season the action is just so tired and forgettable that is to say it's still done really well but there's nothing we haven't seen before anymore and any time they're in a tight pinch they just pull some new spirit focusing technique out of nowhere to save the day it gets real old real fast it's clear that this premise was stretched way too thin from an action standpoint but that doesn't even cover the characters and story the characters are just always splintered off from each other after season two Shiro goes missing for a while Keith leaves the group for a little to hang out with his mommy and her friends a Laura I'm Paige do their own thing pretty often and honestly we just kind of lose that wonderful sense of connection we had in the beginning there's still funny interactions but just not quite as many and that's what I loved the beginning I love the big over-the-top reactions of great jokes I love the distinct animation styles that popped up all the time season seven actually started out on a good dramatic track the castle of lions they wrote in since day one was destroyed and just like pit they had been gone for three years after low tours wormhole shenanigans and honestly that really opened the door for some heavy dramatic stakes and still kept the focus on these characters without bloating things the first half of season seven is solid but then we get back to earth and what do we have too many characters there's so many boring humans we have to shift our focus towards and I could not for the life of me remember any of them her Nerva the witch lady who you assume is the main antagonist now that lotor is going doesn't even show up instead the seasons main villain is Sendak aka worse Zarkon aka basically the Voltron equivalent of malakut okay wait that's a little too mean I'm sorry the Voltron equivalent of Ronin no that's a disservice to Ronin actually the equivalent of the bad guy and Doctor Strange no the comments are telling me that they liked him damn it you know what he's just boring that's it he's a boring man they beat him and they beat a robot and it's not fun you know why the last season of Korra worked because even though it had a plethora of characters coming together to fight a robot each character was introduced to us in a previous season and they all have distinct memorable personalities it was satisfying to see everyone coming together to fight a villain who was actually intimidating on her own not some loser we are told we should be intimidated by on top of that Shiro the former leader of Voltron and de facto main character of the show is now relegated to a supporting role as the captain of the ship it doesn't really accomplish much in this season and the problem is even worse in season eight oh god season 8 this is the first time I came out of the season of the show saying wow that was legitimately awful the only things I liked in this season was baby lotor flashbacks and that one scene where Quran was talking to Lance as a stern father figure God actually come to think of it Quran is the one aspect that is never dipped in quality every other character has frustrated me at one point one way or another but Quran is the bright spot in a universe of bleakness and boring plants also the carnival episode I was trying to be whimsical just felt lifeless and forced it was like the space mall episode but with people who had the charm sapped out of their bodies over time if you're wondering whether I'm referring to the characters or the writers with that statement the answer is yes so yeah this tonal mess of an episode ends with Alaura accepting a dark entity in her body and ended up in a coma that's fun right I love tonal whiplash you know in the face of overwhelming darkness and despair the final season of avatar was still fun and the fun wasn't out of place like that play they went to right before the finale I had fun the finale itself was fun despite being intensely dramatic and the dramatic stakes were way clearer and way stronger than they were in Voltron season 8 avatar not only had fun moments but dramatic impactful moments that felt earned this season has one attempt at a dramatic impactful moment that doesn't even work because of how illogical it is I'll get to it in a sec okay so basically the plot is stopped her Nerva from destroying all realities because she wants to live in one where her family is alive and accepts her that's not at all a generic motivation that I've seen twice this year in that awful Cloverfield movie and and into the spider-verse both of which did it better because they didn't pour all their focus into it her nervous motivation is just not compelling and neither is the idea of multiple dimensions and timelines converging at least how its presented here you wanna know who did that better not just into the spider-verse not just the Cloverfield paradox this idea was done better by Scott the wisest video about dick Vitale's awesome baby college hoops side note I had a cameo in that so you guys should totally check it out but anyway let me break this down for you on how to do an alternate dimension hopping plotline correctly with dick Vitale's awesome baby college hoops spoiler warning for that video so the main villain is relaxed lacks the backstory here is clear in his video on Super Smash Bros intros he accidentally brought a copy of ultimate back in time three days before the game released this in turn created a tie and his mind was split across different timelines this led to a timeline where his warped twisted psyche became fixated on dick Vitale's awesome baby college hoops and it caused him to attack Scott because he was incredibly fixated on the Madden series there is a clear reason for him to be insane a clear motivation for his plan and also his plan makes logical sense now let's look at her nirvash she wants to be reunited with her family why didn't she show a desire to be with them before when they were both alive we get what she's crazy because of all the quintessence poisoning but like she's still smarter than this right she's this puppet master who's been pulling the strings this whole time doesn't she know better than the cause of destruction of every reality by doing this and also after alternate baby lotor doesn't accept her she's just like well fine if you don't want my money and then she actively tries to destroy every reality ever out of rage that's not compelling and also what a missed opportunity having multiple realities converged but never exploring alternate versions of the characters outside of this and that one episode in season 3 spider-verse yes many spider people and there's some compelling drama when they interact with this alternate universe Cloverfield paradox surprisingly yes the main character has this nice moment where she sends a message to her alternate self and tells her don't let your kids burn alive in a fire okay I'm sorry I'm pushing it a little there tick Vitale's awesome baby college hoops look at this the vegans that hated Scott in his own dimension are now his friends in this one that's really compelling Voltron has alternate dimensions and it doesn't do anything with it why didn't lotor come back with an alternate dimension army of evil alt aliens or something that made sense am i going insane okay so anyway Elora for some reason can suddenly sacrifice herself to stop her Nerva also she stalks her nerve out of being evil I guess okay but why Elora why not the Lions wouldn't that make more sense as they're made of super wormhole material or whatever I forget why is Elora denied a happy ending after all the suffering she endured hell why is lotor why did they make him sympathetic this season if they weren't gonna use him also Shiro doesn't die but he's literally useless this season so there's that why does the crew hate their most compelling and tragic characters is there a reason for this sacrificing the Lions makes way more sense because it shows the world doesn't need Voltron anymore it would be dramatic and impactful but sure kill off the character who most deserves a happy ending I guess why not and Lance becomes altai in somehow for some reason what is going on okay so the ending is generic and not impactful in the slightest the epilogue is bland Shiro literally married some guy we've never seen before cuz we got to get our LGBT brownie points without putting in any effort towards actual representation look guys the korrasami moment and the bubbling kiss are impactful because in both instances we know both of these characters and a relationship between the two of them felt logical and natural you can't just throw in this random marriage with some Rando in there and expect everyone to suddenly forgive you for oh my god I just realized I didn't even talk about Adam the actual worst thing this show did and I haven't gotten to it yet alright look I don't go to this show for representation if I did I would have stopped watching when I found out pitch wasn't actually asexual I watched for the compelling characters and fun storylines but a lot of young people were excited to see some legitimate diversity and representation in an animated series so when the showrunners promoted the fact that hey she rose lover Adam is going to be introduced in season seven people lost their minds they were so excited for a one-minute flashback where the two of them don't embrace or give any indication of being a couple and a 15-second scene later where Shiro is grieving the fact that Adam is now dead yikes I being Adam up before the season came out was a choice if you didn't do that then nobody would complain want to know why because everyone would just think that these two were best friends or something that's how pitiful this representation is it's not even an attempt of representation it's an exercise in audience manipulation there's really no other way to put it also there's a whole two-part flashback scene where we see earth preparing for war in the three years where Voltron has been gone if you wanted Adams sacrifice to mean some since apparently we can't have him alive to actually be with Shiro then why not make him a key player in that two-parter that way he would mean something as is no we just throw him and yeah give us some points we did representation right oh boy okay so now comes the part of the video where we talk about shipping and by we I mean someone who actually cares about shipping y'all remember my one editor jalisa right we made a ytb collab a year ago she was in the other collabs she edited this video that you're watching right now for me remember well anyway she's gonna take it from here shipping Oh quiz knack not to point out the obvious but shipping in the vld fanbase is a flaming dumpster fire and I'm not going to say something glib like it didn't have to be this way because every decision the showrunners marketing team and some voice actors made along the way seems deliberately conducive to the worst kind of shipping environment possible as if they were following a recipe for creating massive ship wars first of all we have ambiguities Alaura in particular is very age ambiguous room Ridley she had her age argued about amongst the writing staff with Tim Hedrick or Heydrich at least I know now it's not Hendrik oops who reportedly wanting her romantic end game to be shiro while showrunners Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim dos Santos were pushing allora and Lance or Oh Lawrence I mean how any writing team can have something as important as the general plot and romantic end games left undecided during most of the writing process is beyond me this should be one of the first things you decide when you're making your story outline or at least something you decide early on however the showrunners allowed it to go unchecked and unresolved throwing in bits of endgame foreshadowing with Lance lotor keith and matt along the way and consequently letting laura get passed around like the 99th idol of none ville on the wall might i also add that she was in a coma sleep for 10,000 years and is an alien who have it you aslam the rest of the cat jirô - was done a disservice by the age ambiguities because the show was said to feature five teenagers when Shiro is in Canada twenty five making him seven to ten years older than the other paladin's not including Elora because not even the showrunners seem to know her true age we've already touched on the whole Adam Fiasco so I'm going to continue straight ahead to talk about the elephant in the room I'm pretty impressed with myself for even getting this far without talking about Keith and Lance just look at this scene we are a good team now think about it in context having taken place after this scene and right before this episode from the very first season Keith and Lance's relationship was romantic coated and the creator's knew this they knew this in fact the executive producers did a whole interview about plants the ship was so popular that it stayed in the top three spaces on Fender metrics for the whole two years of Ultron's run that's a pretty big ship and the marketing team milked this for all it was worth Glantz Netflix thumbnails Hot Topic plants merch tagging DreamWorks videos as glance the only problem is that it was never made Canon in the show if it went into the details we'd be here for eternity but the shorthand is that Keith and Lance for romance decoded despite not being endgame to see a complete analysis I'd recommend fictional crystals as to theory videos on the matter as they're pretty straightforward and impartial anyway the showrunners knew people would ship plants and the possibility of their relationship was used to gain views in other words it was bait also this that no-good thanks jaleesa I couldn't have said it better myself because I don't care enough about this show to really look into all that Voltron legendary defender crashed and bird not only because it lost the sense of simple fun and great character dynamics that were present in the first two seasons but because it's so drastically lost touch with what its fan base wanted to see that is to say if they had developed the plot lines and relationships they did end up going with in a meaningful way that would have been fine but they didn't they did their own thing and as a result we had a sloppy inconsistent series that could have been the next avatar but ultimately wasn't I feel so bad for the voice actors animators artists and some of the writers who poured their heart and soul into this project only for it to end up being so awful and so despised by its fanbase in the end some of the Voltron fanbase is pretty terrible but I feel so bad for the people who genuinely fell in love with this show only to be so disappointed by the end of it but it just left no impact on me in the end after all these years I've never forgotten the endings of avatar and even Korra I don't expect to remember this show's ending in a few months time and one last thing I also wanted to make a point about this wasted season 6 tag along all day and lady who looks like Zelda but I couldn't for the life of me find a place for her in the script just like how the writers couldn't find a place for her in you

Channel: Schaffrillas Productions

Views: 1,427,603

Rating: 4.844995 out of 5

Keywords: Schaffrillas Productions, Voltron, Voltron Legendary Defender, Keith, Lance, Klance, Allura, Allurance

Id: ae5oovf1CEo

Length: 20min 32sec (1232 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 28 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/LapsedVerneGagKnee]

It feels like this is...at least the sixth video essay on the subject.

Does this one mention the robot? The first five didn’t which pretty much immediately confined them to “missing the damn point” territory.

Edit - Yup. It’s like they’re seeing the point for a second but they are too focused on muh representation to realize.

[u/Grantagonist]

20 minutes of nerd venting... hard pass.

[u/Waffuru]

Kinda tired of all these "This is why Voltron sucked" videos.

[u/PegaFoxx]

I knew I saw this thumbnail somewhere before and that's because it's repeatedly shown up in my YouTube recommendations for the past month.

[u/Maturius]

Aw man... it really did didn’t it

[u/LetsOverthinkIt]

Okay, I tried. Made it less than 5 minutes. The suggestion that Lotor killing Zarkon should have been handled in a more predictable and trope-y way by making their fight the culmination of a season finished it for me. (If your fix-it suggestions are bad writing, perhaps you're not the best judge of what is actually good writing?)

[u/[deleted]]

Imagine not knowing squat about what you are talking about, then trying to sell your "colab" then, still not getting the point of the whole damn show, then thinking that you can actually write a better show just because you write shitty scripts, and then being blissfully unaware of your own ignorance.

Then slap a bunch of idiotic editing and forced memes on it and you get this video.

BTW the show is not perfect but this guy doesn't know what is wrong with it, much less how to do it right.

[u/moonsunstars69420]

Klance was literally never going to be canon, they had 8 ish minutes of interaction together in eight seasons no matter how many lies those shippers spread on twitter, the gayest relationship on that show was between shiro and keith (did anyone in that garbage fandom notice that almost ALL the mlm fans in that fandom shipped shiro/keith as did many mlm people outside the fandom??), and if any pairing was baited it was definitely shiro and keith, and why does any of that matter when they killed allura in s8 for no good reason, and s8's writing was so terrible with nobody in-character except for pidge? The amount of plotlines alone that were dropped and never explained, it was hideously terrible lol

that said you can enjoy s8 of voltron if you pretend it is an entirely separate show from seasons 1 to 7. it is very noticeable in hindsight that a bunch of writers and other staff left the show after s6, and i wish they'd stayed cause the show went downhill (dropped like an anvil into the ocean) once they were gone.