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"You five were brought here for a reason. Together, you will form Voltron, the greatest weapon ever known, protector of the innocent, and our only hope to save the universe."

Voltron: Legendary Defender, also known as Voltron or simply VLD, is an animated series produced by Dreamworks and World Events Productions, and animated by Studio MIR. It aired on Netflix from 2016 to 2018 and was divided in 8 seasons.

VLD a complete Continuity Reboot of the Voltron franchise, based on 1981 series GoLion and its 1984 Americanized version "Lion" Voltron (though with some "touches" from Dairugger XV aka "Vehicle Voltron"), and made with a mixture of traditional and CGI animation. It has also spawned a series of comics, recopilated in 3 volumes, and has been dubbed in several languages (Japanese, Latin-American Spanish, Castilian Spanish, Portuguese, French, Korean, etc.)

Before the series properly begins, the members of the "Kerberos" expedition team sent by the Earthian military group known as the Galaxy Garrison (Commander Sam Holt, his son Matthew and the pilot Takashi "Shiro" Shirogane) are seen exploring Pluto's surface. Then the three are suddenly attacked and captured by aliens, two of them go MIA whereas the other is forcibly carried away...

Around one year later, an unknown spaceship crashes next a base of the Garrison itself in what seems to be the South-West of the USA. Shiro is found alive among the rubble and it looks like he's gone through severe physical, emotional and mental trauma, so he's restrained and locked away by the higher-ups, who believe he has gone completely mad AND dont want the info to spill. Three teenaged Garrison recruits (Pidge, Hunk and Lance) find out about this and start digging in, but right after they properly locate him and decide to rescue him, a hovercraft pilot who was kicked out of the Garrison a while ago (Shiro's best friend Keith) beats them to the punch. The group ends up pretty much running away and into hiding so Shiro can tell them what has actually been going on, what happened to the Holts, etc.

As the group keeps investigating and exchanging info... they find a strange mecha known as the Blue Lion, which Keith had seen before AND Lance immediately bonds with. It leads them to a planet named Arus, then to a spaceship named the Castle of Lions and its inhabitants: Princess Allura of Planet Altea, her Parental Substitute and advisor Coran and the Space Mice, who have been in suspended animation ever since before the fall of Altea itself, 10,000 years ago. After waking up from said sleep, Allura soon tells her five new companions that they are pretty much destined to become the pilots of the most powerful Combining Mecha in the universe: Voltron, formed by not only the Blue Lion but its Lion companions Black, Yellow, Green and Red. And from then on, the team must not only learn how to to work as such despite their VERY different personalities, but to properly bond with their mechas and then start fighting against their incredibly powerful enemy: the cruel Galra Empire, led by people like Emperor Zarkon, High Priestess Haggar and Prince Lotor...

Tropes used in Voltron: Legendary Defender include:
  • Adaptation Name Change:
    • Yurak becomes Sendak.
    • Though there have been other Lotors in the franchise, this one is inspired more by Sincline, despite the name.
  • Alien Invasion: While the Galara obviously do this every other episode, Sendak's invasion of Earth is the basis for the second half of Season 7.
  • Alternate Universe:
    • Hole in the Sky features the Paladins crossing over into a world where Alfor used Voltron to destroy Zarkon right at the start and led to the forming of the Altean Empire.
    • The Season 8 finale features several, most prominently one where the war never happened, Zarkon and Lotor never touched Quintessence, and Honerva passed... allowing the main Honerva, who has gone full Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, to slide right in.
  • And the Adventure Continues...: The story ends with the Lions going off into space, flying towards a nebula shaped like Allura.
  • The Artifact: The title sequence becomes outdated as early as Season 3 and never changes.
  • Artistic License Astronomy: Constantly and without even the tiniest bit of remorse or shame, usually relating to the shapes of planets and moons. Kerberos (a real life moon of Pluto) is drawn as a spherical chunk of ice when it's really shaped like a double lobe. Other planets, like Olkarion, Daibazaal, or the unnamed planet that Haggar test her komar on, are blatant violations of all known laws of gravitation.
  • Ascended Extra: In a sense, the Blue Lion. She was always important, but she kicks off the series' plot and played a key role in Keith's birth since his mother was a member of The Resistance who was tasked with keeping the Lion away from the Galra Empire, and when she was severely wounded during her mission, she fell in love with a human man and had Keith with him....
  • Ascended Meme: "Space Dad."
  • Become Their Own Antithesis:
    • Zarkon was once the Black Paladin but is now Emperor of the Galra Empire and practitioner of the very atrocities that he once led Voltron to fight against. In his defence, he is Drunk on the Dark Side.
    • The Altean Empire in Hole in the Sky. Altea was a culture of artisans and healers who abhorred violence and it's now The Empire.
  • Bifauxnen: This series' version of Pidge is actually a boyish-looking girl named Katie. She used to look very girly in the past, but now she poses as a boy because her father and older brother are the other members of the doomed Kerberos mission, and she wants to find them.
    • Some fans also mistook Acxa for a boy in her first appearance, due to her short hair.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Project: Kuron. "Kuron" in Japanese translates to clone.
  • Boldly Coming: The Galra have spent the last 10,000 years having romances with anyone they could find. Becomes much more important considering the heritage of characters like Acxa, Ezor, Zethrid, Narti, Keith and Prince Lotor..
  • Book Ends: The entire story begins and ends with Lance and the Blue Lion.
  • Both Sides Have a Point:
    • In The Fall of the Castle of Lions, Pidge and Hunk want to leave Team Voltron. Allura and Keith argue that the universe needs Voltron and the two are being selfish by abandoning their duties, but at the same time, neither Pidge nor Hunk volunteered for the job and they do have lives to get back to.
    • In Best Laid Plans, Kolivan wants to abort their planned attack because Thace hasn't checked in, justifying this by stating that the Blade of Marmora does not take chances, which is how he claims they've survived for so long, and that Thace is due to play a vital role in their plan. Allura fires back that, not only has the trap already been sprung, but the Blades' unwillingness to take chances is why Zarkon doesn't even acknowledge them as existing.
  • Breather Episode:
    • Season 2 has Space Mall which zig-zagges this. While Allura and the Paladins have lighthearted stories, Shiro's plot is very important.
    • Season 4's The Voltron Show.
    • Season 5's Bloodlines is another zig-zag. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge goof off but Keith is on a vital quest.
    • Monsters and Mana in Season 6. The Paladins take advantage of some downtime and play a space version of Dungeons and Dragons.
    • The Feud of Season 7 is the most blatant example of this to ever exist.
    • Season 8:
      • Day Forty Seven, a Lower Deck Episode.
      • Clear Day is another zig-zag. While everyone is off at the carnival, Allura's subplot is vital to the season's arc.
  • Casual Interstellar Travel: The Blue Lion can reach the edge of the solar system in about a minute (for reference, the New Horizons space probe needed 9.5 years to make the same trip), and Galra ships can apparently traverse whole galaxies with ease.
    • Justified by the Castle of Lions, which uses wormholes to jump anywhere in the universe.
  • The Chosen Many: Justified since it takes five Paladins to pilot Voltron.
  • Combining Mecha: Voltron obviously, followed by Sincline.
  • Continuity Reboot: This shows is wholly unconnected to any of the previous Voltron animes.
  • Cool Ship: Though it was totalled in the Season 2 finale, Zarkon's flagship was a massive city-sized Base on Wheels. Coran does a Double Take just by seeing its blueprints and how big it is.
  • Crystal Spires and Togas: Olkarion.
  • Depending on the Writer: Is the Galra Empire interstellar (limited to the Milky Way) or intergalactic (spanning several galaxies)? Terminology used throughout the series suggests the latter but visuals lean more towards the former (of course this can go back and forth within the same episode). Season 7's The Journey Within inverts the usual pattern by having Voltron enter the Milky Way galaxy but with Pidge's dialogue (and the readouts on the Lions) suggesting that they're on the outskirts of Earth's solar system.
  • Disappointed by the Motive: In Season 8, the Paladins, while sympathetic to her reasoning, are shocked that Honerva/Haggar would risk destroying the Multiverse to find a perfect Alternate Universe where she can live with her family.
  • Dismantled MacGuffin: Alfor sent the Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green Lions to the far corners of the universe and locked Black behind a door that would only open if the other four were present, then hid the vault to prevent Zarkon from getting Voltron.
  • Ditto Aliens: Downplayed for the Balmerans but they are hard to distinguish.
  • Early Installment Weirdness: The Pilot Movie first implies the Galra Empire is limited to the Milky Way (though as said under Depending on the Writer, it very well could be), then it has Coran and Allura using human time measurements, and features Sendak in a different design along with a more restrained voice.
  • Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Following the end of Season 7.
  • Eldritch Abomination:
    • The creatures in the Quintessence Field.
    • Bob.
  • The Empire: The Galra Empire. And the Alteans, in an Alternate Universe.
  • Enemy Civil War: The Galra Empire from Season 5 onwards.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Space Mall. The Paladins (well four of them) accompany Coran to a mall in space.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Lance has a bad habit of doing this, most notably when he failed to pick up that Pidge was a girl. In fairness though, Pidge's disguise was pretty good and her gender is never treated as anything special.
  • The Fellowship Has Ended: The Paladins go their separate ways and live their own lives in the Grand Finale, but they do keep in touch.
  • Foreshadowing: There's a GOOD reason why out of the Kerberos' crew members, only Shiro was seen without his space helmet in the Downer Beginning. Sam and Matthew look a lot like one another, and so does Sam's daughter and Matthew's younger sister - Katie aka Pidge.
    • Additionally, Allura's Heroic Sacrifice in the Grand Finale comes off as less of a shock when one recalls that she's been shown sacificing herself for others as early as in Season 1. And especially with her offering her life to the White Lion rather than trying to conquer it like Lotor did.
  • For Want of a Nail: The Altean Empire in Hole in the Sky formed due to Alfor following Allura's advice and using Voltron against Zarkon.
  • Generation Xerox: The new generation of Paladins is quite similar to their predecessors. Justified since the Lions picked similar people to pilot them.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar
    • The "Quiznak" word in general, since judging by Allura and Coran's horrified reactions upon hearing it, it seems to be the equivalent of a Precision F-Strike in Altean.
    • The time when Shiro gets stranded in a snowy planet inhabited by tentacled creatures... such Naughty Tentacles-related imagery...
    • In a flashback, the younger Alfor tells the younger Zarkon the Altean equivalent of "You Need to Get Laid". It doesn't really help that soon afterwards he meets Honerva, his future wife.
    • At some point, Allura and Lance are training together... and to help him master the sword he's using, she stands behind him and tells him to control "a sword this powerful"...
  • Heel Face Turn: Rolo and his gang. Later Acxa, and ultimately Ezor and Zethrid.
  • Homeworld Evacuation: Daibazaal was evacuated at King Alfor's command when the Trans-Reality Comet began to destabilize it.
    • In The Ark of the Taujeer, the Taujeer attempt to use the eponymous ship to retreat their moon and wait out their planet briefly turning into a Death World.
  • Hubworld:
    • The Universal Station for the Galra Empire.
    • The Space Mall for the citizenry.
    • Olkarion for the Voltron coalition, later succeeded by Earth.
  • Humans Need Aliens: Inverted. The aliens need the human-piloted Voltron.
  • Humanoid Aliens
  • Insignificant Little Blue Planet: Oh very much so. The only reason Earth is relevant to the plot is because the Blue Lion was hidden there. Sendak only invades so he can lay a trap for the Paladins and get Voltron.
  • Life Energy: Quintessence. The writers outright compare it to medicine. A little is good (such as a spilled amount healing Keith's cut hand) but an addiction... isn't pretty. It's also been said to be (largely) an expy of the Force.
    • In an amusing reaction, once Sam Holt explains Quintessence to the Galaxy Garrison, an admiral laughs at what a ridiculous concept this is, noting it would have been picked up by medical equipment a long time ago.
  • Light Is Good: Light is very good.
    • The Paladins of Voltron all wear a shiny white armor.
    • King Alfor, and his daughter Princess Allura, both had white hair with Alfor wearing noble white and gold armor, contrasting Zarkon's darker red and purple.
    • The main two spaceships of the Paladins, the Castle of Lions and the IGF Atlas, are also a bright white.
  • Loads and Loads of Races: A new alien race seems to be introduced every other episode.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Humanity is seemingly the only race in the universe who doesn't know about Quintessence. In fact, they might be the only race in the Milky Way.
  • Lost Colony: Perhaps Hidden Colony as Lotor travelled the universe after Altea's demise and gathered up the Alteans on a secret planet to rebuild. It was a very literal battery farm.
  • Lower Deck Episode:
    • The Last Stand in Season 7.
    • Day Forty-Seven in Season 8.
  • Magic Versus Science: Downplayed. Altea seems to have been more Magitek than magic but the Paladins do seem to rely on mysticism more than the more scientific and technological Galra.
    • Inverted in Season 8. Haggar/Honerva takes on the magical role while the Paladins embrace the scientific.
  • The Main Characters Do Everything: Justified during Sendak's invasion. The main characters are the only ones who have the resources to do anything.
  • Manly Tears: None of the Paladins are above this.
  • The Multiverse: The Trans-Reality Comets pass through it naturally like bees spreading pollen.
  • Mythology Gag: Season 1 is set on Arus, Allura and Coran's homeworld in the '84 series.
    • In Some Assembly Required, when the Paladins are trying to physically place the Lions into Voltron's configuration, Shiro says "And I'll form the head", thankfully the only time he ever utters it.
    • In Hole in the Sky Shiro (the one native to the alternate reality) calls himself Sven.
    • Allura's nanny appears in Omega Shield as Lotor's Stern Teacher governess.
    • Lotor's Combining Mecha is called Sincline.
  • Near Villain Victory: In the pilot of all places. If it wasn't for Shiro escaping back to Earth and Lance convincing Hunk and Pidge to play hooky, then the Galra Empire might have gotten the Blue Lion.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: The Voltron lions. Justified since even King Alfor doesn't know what the full powers of the Lions are and suspects that they're actually evolving Mechanical Lifeforms.
  • Official Couple: Zarkon/Honerva, Sam/Colleen, Allura/Lance, and Curtis/Shiro.
  • Only the Chosen May Wield: It seems that the Lions can choose among their potential pilots and either accept or discard them. The original Blue Paladin, Blaytz, feared that Blue would not take him in due to "being different" (probably being Badass Gay), but it didn't happen.
  • Only the Worthy May Pass: Keith mentions he's explored the caves hiding the Blue Lion before but the glyphs only activate in Lance's presence.
  • Plot Coupon: Having the Blue Lion speeds up the collection of the other four significantly.
  • Politically-Active Princess: Princess Allura.
  • Power Crystal: Most alien technology uses one, either as a computer core or a power source. Most are harvested from Balmeras.
  • Promoted to Love Interest: In this series, both Lance and Lotor have bigger chances to become Princess Allura's Love Interests than in GoLion and the first Voltron.
  • Puny Earthlings: Zig-zagged. Human biology is pretty average but a lack of knowledge on Quintessence and more esoteric science causes others species to look down on Earth.
  • Reality Ensues: Surprisingly so in a series like this.
    • In the pilot:
      • The Paladins (who've just got their lions) do not know how to form Voltron, only succeeding because their mutual fear of dying rouses the lions into action. After that, they have to go through rigorous training to reenact the combination.
      • Lance, Pidge, and Hunk are initially at odds with Keith (Lance especially) so it takes quite a while for them to successfully gel as a team.
      • The Paladins do not know everything about how to use their Lions. In fact, they never fully unlock their familiars' full powers before the adventure ends.
    • Played for Laughs in Space Mall. Upon visiting the title location, the Paladins, but not Coran, realize that they don't have any accepted currency. There aren't many malls that will accept money from a civilization that has been dead for 10,000 years.
      • Repeated at the end. Lance and Pidge celebrate buying a PlayStation... and realize that the Castle doesn't have the ports needed to plug the console into.
      • Also played for laughs in "Belly of the Weblum." Keith and Hunk are given an aged videotape about the particulars of their mission, and the video keeps skipping the way an 80s VHS would in the 2020s.
    • Despite what the Season 2 finale boasted, Season 3 shows that taking out the Emperor doesn't equate to the empire's collapse. Someone else will try and take command.
    • While Shiro spoke highly of how he thought Keith would make a great Black Paladin, the reality is quite different. Aside from suddenly being thrust into the role, Keith was a loner who still had trouble getting close to his teammates. His initial team leading skills aren't hugely successful.
    • Keith suffers an identity crisis in season 4 and begins putting Marmora missions ahead of his duties as the Black Paladin, compromising Volron's missions. It forces Shiro to step up and reclaim the Black Lion so Keith can work through his identity issues. (This is because Keith's VA wasn't always available.)
    • Given that Lotor is an In-Universe Base Breaker, the Galra Empire splinters once he takes command.
    • Due to Year Outside, Hour Inside, the Paladins actually spent three years inside the Quintessence Field. When they return, the Voltron coalition is in shambles without their morale booster and greatest weapon. Even more, since the Paladins just up and disappeared, they were presumed dead by everyone on Earth.
    • Despite all the Altean knowledge that Sam Holt brought back to Earth, the planet is not ready to fight off Sendak's fleet. The Garrison may exist Twenty Minutes Into the Future but the Galra have conquered galaxies.
      • As Sendak himself says, the main Galaxy Garrison base is the only stronghold on the planet that can resist the Galra. Given that Sendak was already the ruler of Earth when he made that claim, all he has to do is wait until they exhaust their limited supplies. And sure enough, the Garrison is holding many meetings to try and find supply depots.
    • Coran is put at the controls of the IGF Atlas... and realizes he has no idea how it works. The ship may have been derived from Altean designs but its controls are built for humans.
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The blatant disregard these writers have for distances would make the Ben 10 staff look like astrophysics geniuses. If Space Is an Ocean then this show treats galaxies like islands in chain.
  • Show Within a Show: The original Voltron anime cameos as one in the Season 8 opener. The Paladins are largely unamused by it. Lance in particular doesn't like the Allura/Keith romance.
  • Space Age Stasis: The Galra Warships, despite being said to have advanced during the 10,000 year Time Skip, can be matched by the Castle of Lions. The Castle was built by Coran's grandfather. Coren was Really Seven Hundred Years Old when he went into cryo-sleep.
  • Spanner in the Works: As said above, the Galra Empire would've easily taken over Earth... if not for Takashi "Shiro" Shirogane, a certain pilot that they kept prisoner, managing to escape and alert the Earthians. Additionally, the future Paladins weren't exactly in the position to join Shiro and all, or even to be near the Lions - if not for Lance pretty much forcing Hunk and Pidge to sneak into the facility to rescue Shiro, AND for Keith doing likewise to take his then-Only Friend away and to safety, they wouldn't have been led to the Blue Lion... and then to the Castle of Lions and Princess Allura, and then to Voltron itself...
    • Few later, Sendak and one of his lieutenants manage to take over the Castle of Lions, severely wound Lance, capture him and Shiro, and lock Allura and Keith out. (Hunk and Coran were headed elsewhere to get more powerful crystals for the Castle). He did it taking advantage of Pidge trying to leave to follow leads about her family... but did not count on her NOT actually stepping out of the Castle itself, or on Allura managing to both contact Pidge through transmitters in her earrings AND use her Psychic Link with the Space Mice...
    • Bandor and Romelle can be seen as this for Prince Lotor. If not for Bandor managing to tell Romelle the truth behind Lotor's "Altean colony", she wouldn't have told the Voltron Team about it either...
    • The biggest one, however, may be the Blue Lion. La Résistance tasked one of their Action Girls with keeping Blue hidden from the Galra, which took place on Earth itself. In the middle of her mission she was gravely wounded, and fell in love with the human man who saved her. The half-human child born from their union grew up to be the aforementioned Keith, and with time he and his True Companions ended up overthrowing the Empire itself.
  • Spiritual Successor: Transparently one to Avatar: The Last Airbender. It has many of the same writers and artists, lots of comparable characters (Lance and Sokka, Keith and Zuko, Allura and Katara) and even shares an animation studio with The Legend of Korra. Why both shows even had a genocide as the backstory with a survivor awakening after thousands of years.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers:
    • Keith's parents were this in the past. Krolia was a Galra Action Girl and spy from La Resistance who crashed on Earth, then was saved and nursed back to health by a human firefighter. They fell in love and had Keith, but since she was a Galra and The Empire ultimately found out that the Blue Lion was on Earth, she had to leave her lover and son to keep them safe. And years later, when Keith and Krolia were reunited, she found out from Keith that her beloved died when their son was still young.
    • A way to see Shiro and his First Love, Adam. According to the flashbacks they were both members of the Garrison, roommates and lovers, but their relationship soured when Shiro was revealed to be lethally ill and, much to Adam's displeasure, wanted to join the very dangerous Kerberos exploration mission. Some time after their break-up, Shiro went into the mission, was captured with his teammates and spent some time as a prisoner; later, it's revealed that Adam was killed in action alongside many other pilots. When Shiro return and finds out, he's naturally very depressed and then visits Adam and his companions's memorial, sadly staring at his lost love's 'plaque' and then quietly whispering how sorry he feels for him.
    • Lance and Princess Allura become this at the very end. He begins as a Hopeless Suitor towards her, trying to woo her as much as he can; she does care for him, but she's annoyed by how persistent he is. Around Seasons 5-6 she falls for Prince Lotor and, while Lance is quite jealous, he sets his own feelings aside to give priority to hers. After Allura and Lotor have a fall-out due to his villainy, she and Lance keep growing closer, and they get officially together at the start Season 8... and in the Grand Finale she sacrifices herself for the sake of the universe, and at the end he lives on more or less serenely, but never stops loving her. (There is a bit of hope for them at the end: the Lions left at the very end and may have set out to find a way to bring Allura back., and Word of God states that there is a chance for her to return.)
    • And surprisingly, Emperor Zarkon and High Priestess Haggar aka Prince Lotor's parents from the Galra Empire can also be seen as such. Zarkon's Start of Darkness came from him trying to save his wife/Lotor's mother, Honerva, who had been poisoned and driven mad by Quintessence - but he failed, she was completely consumed and then became Haggar, and everything went From Bad to Worse.
  • Stock Footage: The Lions combining into Voltron.
  • Technology Marches On: Allura and Coran (and the Space Mice) have been in cryosleep for 10,000 years. Galra technology is a fair bit more advanced than what they remember though it seems Space Age Stasis set in at some point in those 10,000 years.
  • Teens Are Short: Averted by the 17/18-years-old Hunk (who's The Big Guy) and Lance (who's of average height) but played straight by the quite shorter 18-year-old Keith and especially 15-year-old Pidge.
    • It's quite egregious following Season 6 as even after Year Inside, Hour Outside, Keith is now, at least, 20 years old and is still shorter than Shiro.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Everyone with Keith (mainly Lance, save for Shiro) at first. By the Season 2 finale, it's clear they're all Fire-Forged Friends and True Companions.
  • Time Skip: The Altea-Galra war took place 10,000 years before the series started.
  • Twenty Minutes Into the Future: The show is set after Earth went through World War III and rebuilt into a multicultural melting pot and developed intra-system space travel.
  • Void Between the Worlds: Between the worlds lies a vast, possibly endless, field of Quintessence. Accessing, and mining, it is Zarkon and Lotor's goal.
  • Where Are They Now? Epilogue:
    • The Holt family went on to revolutionize the tech industry. Pidge and Matt established a pilot team that strongly resembles the Vehicle Voltron.
    • Hunk retired from the military and established a culinary empire.
    • Lance became a farmer and continued to spread his Star-Crossed Lover Allura's message of universal peace and cooperation.
    • Kolivan and Krolia became the Galra representatives in the new Galactic Coalition while Keith, along with Lotor's Amazon Brigade, turned the Blade of Marmora into a humanitarian organization.
    • And Shiro not only recovers from his ordeals, but finds a Second Love. His VA has said on his Twitter that he remains as the captain of the Atlas.
  • Whole-Episode Flashback:
  • You Keep Using That Word: In a visual sense. When maps of the Galra Empire are brought up, the maps always show solar systems whenever the characters are talking about galaxies. Of course, as detailed under Depending on the Writer, the characters really could be talking individual solar systems which would play this trope perfectly straight.
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