How ‘Voltron’ Represents Xennials the “Lost Generations” of Millennials in America
‘Voltron: Legendary Defenders’ & the ‘New Hope Generation’
When people refer to Millenials they are referring to two distinct groups, two age groups born in technologically different eras that they lob together as one.
The first being the “True Millenials” the one that old-folks aka Baby Boomers always complain about. The generation that is “destroying” industries across America, from napkins to Applebee’s!
Then there are the “Millenials” whom many will never recover from the 2008 Housing Collapse and Economic Recession. Whose student debt, because of the economic climate they enter the world into, along with other socio-economic reasonings, the will never be allowed to recover from.
These “Millenials” were the one who fresh out of high school and college entered the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, among the first wave of American Heroes. A Sub-Generation that that has rates of alcohol abuse, suicide, and even suffering from strokes in their early-to-mid 30s. Rates that have not been seen since the Great Depression, and in some areas exceeds that Era.
These are the Xennials — a sub-generation this author belongs to.
Millenials are two separate groups, the Millenials themselves and the Xennials, sometimes called the ‘Oregon Trail’ or ‘New Hope’ Generation.
There needs to be a distinction between them, and in this allegorical article there now is.
If you are from the “New Hope Generation” like I am, the generation that is stuck between Gen X & Millennials (1977–1983/85) and commonly referred to as Xennials, then you probably grew up watching Voltron: Defenders of the Universe as the first Saturday Morning Cartoon that you can remember.
Netflix’s User Data determined that Studio Mir’s update of Voltron would be a hit, among Xennials and their children. Ordering a 78 episode commitment from the get-go of Voltron: Legendary Defenders.
GOOD magazine describes Xennials as “a micro-generation that serves as a bridge between the disaffection of Gen X and the blithe optimism of Millennials.” A timeframe that varies among several commentators from 1977 to 1985, or from 1980 to 1983. As a Xennial myself, and having a younger cousin born at the end of 1984. There is this a distinction between himself and I, in how we remember the 80s in our earliest years.
The Heart of the Xennial micro-generation lies within 1980–83, but there are too many similarities shared with those born from 1977–80. Shared traits of the Generation that came before us, X, and the one that came after, Millennials. Forming a micro-generation that was born during the time of Star Wars (1977–1983).
A micro-generation that holds disenfranchised ‘grunge’ views of our place in society, while at the same time holding a great amount of optimism for our place in it. Making us truly the “New Hope Generation” as we serve as the bridge between the Reagan Era of the Baby Boomers, and the changing tide taking place in our socio-climate here in the States with the generations that proceed us.
We are not the generation that will bring about change, but we will be the catalyst between the Old Order (Galra Empire / Reagan Era Baby Boomers) and the new one (Voltron Coalition / Millennials & Gen Z).
Xennials is Team Voltron itself, the New Hope Generation.
We are the Lost Generation (Hemingway & Fitzgerald) to the Millennial / Gen Z’s Silent Generation (Dr. King to Bernie Sanders). Our generation was the first to experience the effects of 9/11. Our generation was the first wave into Iraq, who had just finished Boot Camp & AIT — Advanced Individual Training. Our generation was the first to volunteer to go off to Afghanistan. Our generation was just entering the workforce & marketplace when the Crash of 2008 hit.
We are the generation that is destroying the napkin industry (because they’re wasteful & useless), and we are putting Applebee’s out of business (overpriced with undervalued food). Many of us have actually used rotary phones, rabbit ears on top of our TVs, and we remember having to get up off the couch to change the channel.
We can still hear in our minds the sound a dial up modem makes, and You’ve Got Mail indicates in the image of email, or a highly forgettable movie.
Our generation is having higher rates of stroke at a young age, that has not been seen since the Great Depression. We are not lazy, our Baby Boomer parents raised us to believe in one thing; to expect our lives to be great from college out. While that same generation has handed us a work environment where they fight against us for a “livable wage”.
Joaquim Dos Santos & Lauren Montgomery’s Voltron: Legendary Defenders reflects the situation our generation faces through Team Voltron itself.
The team leader Shiro being end of the generation that came before us, Gen X, and Pidge being the one that came after, Millennials / Gen Z. While Keith, Lance, and Hunk, are the ones bridging the gap in between as the, Xennials. With Coran & Princess Allura representing the struggles between the Old Order (Baby Boomers) and hope that is yet to come.
Together Team Voltron quintessentially is The New Hope Generation.
Voltron: Legendary Defenders teeters on the edge of being a children’s cartoon and an adult animation, that is progressively becoming darker and more mature as each season passes. Highlighting the American Dream of Xennials’ childhood in the 80s to early 90s, in the first season that was lighter, brighter, and more full of silly antics and anime-type exaggerated faces.
Netflix’s data research informed their executive that a show such as Voltron would attract the New Hope Generation, as a show that many would watch along side their young children, and who would then go out to buy the toys and comics. To share in the playtime fun with those same children, along with having something that could be kept as a collectible for a remembrance of their past.
As the show progressed and Team Studio Mir, led by Dos Santos & Montgomery, began to have more artistic freedom. A result of its success, while sticking to certain guidelines Netflix has set. The themes that reflect the New Hope Generation became the driving force behind the show. Adding a sense of narrative momentum that exceeds the run-time allotted per episode, and in the frame of episodes per season.
A structure that reflects the New Hope Generation themselves. A generation that is both, open to change of what is acceptable in society (Pidge & transgenderism), and one that is hesitant to make dramatic changes set forth by the generations before (Kieth / Prince Lotor & family identity).
Season One began with, what I was presumptive to assume, was one of the biggest missed opportunities in modern television, “not having the character of Pidge be a girl!”
I quickly began to question my presumptions, and when the reveal that Pidge IS A GIRL! That she was cross-dressing to disguise herself as a boy to join the Galaxy Garrison, I blown away with this show. As a theme of transsexualism & LGBTQ identity, that is only heightened by actress perfectly cast for the voice, Bex Taylor-Klaus who came out publicly via Twitter as gay. Were being put front and center.
But by S2 that was end of the matter. Something that is shared among the New Hope Generation, as Xennials have been incredibly open in supporting the civil rights of many groups. Not just the LGBTQ, but those with disabilities, racial issues, but one that though supportive is not always proclaiming to be apart of the movements themselves.
Xennials are on a quest to find their own identity as it has either been lost, from the expectations of the generation that raised us (Reagan Era Baby Boomers), or that same parental generation telling us that we can dream for anything but then as we grow. Tell us that we must accept the status quo of being lucky to just have ‘any job’, and to not question the ideas that we are no longer living in the 1950s.
Princess Allura’s father King Alfor, and Keith’s Galra mother Krolia of the Blade of Marmora, represent the detachment from the generation before, and the need for their children to correct the societal changes that they had made; which resulted in the rise of the Galra Empire.
While Prince Lotor’s fight against his father Emperor Zarkon in having the vision to set forth a change, that is meant for his generation and not the generation that came before. With one fighting to maintain their sociopolitical relevance, while the other looks towards improving their livelihoods and creating an environment that will provide hope of a easier future for their children.
The New Hope Generation is stuck between the one that came before it, the Galra Empire, and the ones that came after, the Voltron Coalition. We are the generation, Voltron itself, that is paving the way for change but we will effectively not be the one that creates and solidifies the advancements our society will make.
We will just paved the way for it.
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About the Author:
Ryan Carroll, Editor-at-Large @ SilkCelluloid.com
Born and raised in the Missouri-Ozarks Ryan studied Film Production, and East Asian Culture, at the University of Kansas where he was a UGRA recipient that led him on a seven-year long, Journey From the West, to China. Where he worked with Warner Brothers, the China Film Group Corp. and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Before returning to the States, where he specializes in Chinese Anime & Comics, China’s Box-Office, and Chinese entertainment-tech industries. He has a dog in China, Abigail, and a dog in the Arkansas-Ozarks, King Blue, who help ease his anxiety of suffering from the “Two-Dimensional Complex” that is trying to understand the Culture Industry landscapes of the Middle Kingdom.
