Character Development and Diversity
In this post, we’ll be exploring the character development and diversity in Netflix’s Voltron Legendary Defender (2016-2018).
The newest version of the show is based on the original 1980’s version called Voltron Defender of the Universe (1983–1985).
The show revolves around five mechanical lions. All of which have very unique personalities and powers. The different lion colors are Black, Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow. When they combine they form a powerful machine called Voltron, which is also the name of the show. There were five previous users, or paladins, prior to the modern ones. The main characters are Coran, Princess Allura (both of which are from the lost planet of Altea), Hunk, Lance, Keith, Pidge, and Shiro.
First, we’ll talk about Shiro. Shiro is the original paladin (or user) of the Black Lion of Voltron; he is an exceptional leader. Shiro is well known for his space exploration trip to the distant moon of Kerberos, which is one of Pluto’s moons. This is where things go south for him.
Shiro was kidnapped, along with two other individuals, by a sinister alien race called the Galra. The Galra have existed for thousands of years and have conquered many a galaxy.
Anyway, Shiro was their prisoner for an entire year! During this time, his arm was removed for an experiment, and he had to fight in gladiator-style fights against aliens that were also being held captive. During a gladiator battle, Shiro gets a cut on the ridge of his nose which becomes a battle scar. Later, he was saved by a Galran who was a part of a resistance group, called the Blade of Marmora, and he was sent by them to find the Blue Lion on earth! He did just that and had made allies on earth that became his fellow paladins. Eventually, they met Princess Allura and Coran in the Castle of Lions, on a planet several galaxies away called Arusha.
Shiro wanted Keith to lead Voltron if anything happened to him. Eventually, Shiro goes missing and does not return for a painfully long time. When Shiro does, he cannot be the Black Paladin anymore, and he eventually accepts that. At the end of the series, Shiro finds his happiness again and gets married to a man. So, yes, Shiro is gay. Prior to the start of the series; it is revealed in season 7, that Shiro had a boyfriend. His name was Adam. Adam meant the world to him. After Shiro left for the Kerberos mission, and after Sam Holt came back to earth, Adam went into battle with other pilots against a Galran invasion on earth! He was killed mid-battle. And, when Shiro returns in season 7, with the other paladins, he finds out that Adam had passed. It broke his heart knowing that his boyfriend was dead and he never got the chance to say goodbye.
The next character we will discuss is Keith. Keith is the original Red Paladin, but then became the Black Paladin of Voltron until the end of the series. He is half Galra, which causes Princess Allura to not fully trust him for a while until he proves himself to her. His mother; a Blade member, left him as a baby, but he is reunited with her after he leaves team Voltron to join the Blades. His father was a fireman who died running into a burning building to save people, thus, leaving Keith, an orphan. He befriends Shiro after he gets him into the Galaxy Garrison; basically the show’s version of NASA.
Keith had a lot of anger issues that caused him to get thrown out of the Garrison, but Shiro never gave up on him. He helped him to find his true potential both as a person and as a paladin of Voltron. So, once Shiro returns later on in the series, Keith vows to not leave his side and to never leave the team, again. And, Keith helped to transform the Blade of Marmora into a humanitarian relief organization. Also, he has a rivalry with one of the other paladins…or maybe a crush?
Coran is one of the two Altean allies that the paladins make shortly after arriving at the Caste of Lions. He has orange hair and an orange and pretentiously curly mustache. He was the best friend of Allura’s father, King Alfor. Coran has been like a second father to Allura since Altea is gone and Alfor is, too. Coran stood by Alfor’s side until the very end of Altea, 10,000 years ago. He and Allura were in criopods, or sleep chambers, for 10,000 years, once the new paladins come along, and they were released from their sleep. He helps Allura train the new paladins. By the end of the series, he had become a great part of the team with his ability to pilot a ship and as a wonderful pep talker.
Hunk is the Yellow Paladin from the beginning of the series until the end. He is a great culinary master, which makes him the team’s cook. Hunk is really good with technology and teams up with another paladin to fix the tech on the ship. Hunk is the best friend of another paladin named Lance.
Hunk started off as a very unsure person who didn’t want any part of being a paladin. But, by the end, he embraced it and had a culinary empire. Hunk is the E6000 glue that keeps team Voltron together.
Pidge is the green paladin from the beginning of the series until the end, similar to Hunk. She teams up with Hunk to fix the broken technology on the ship.
Pidge lost her father, Sam Holt, and older brother, Matt Holt, on the Kerberos mission that Shiro went missing on. Pidge’s real name is Katie, but her nickname from Matt is Pidge. She always believed that her brother and father were alive after the Kerberos mission, and they were. By the end of the series, Pidge has helped train the next generation of legendary defenders and builds a robot named Chip. An important note to mention about Pidge is she does not wish to conform to stereotypes of what a girl should look like or act like. She cuts her hair so that she can go to the Garrison and find out what really happened to her brother and father. She is an excellent role model for numerous girls.
Allura is the second to last main character of Voltron. She is the princess of the now, non-existent, Altea. She trained the new paladins up until Shiro’s disappearance. Afterward, she joined the paladins in the Blue Lion. This happened after Keith bumped up from the Red Lion to the Black Lion, and Lance, moved to the Red Lion from Blue, so Allura took his place as the Blue Paladin. After earning the Blue Lion’s trust, she goes out to aid her fellow paladins when they are hunting down Lotor. Afterward, she enters Blue’s hangar, where Lance is, and she is wearing pink paladin armor. She says, “On Altea, we wear this color to honor those before us. I wear it to honor the paladins of old. And Shiro…” (Allura, Season 3, Episode 2). This lion switch happens in Season 3. Therefore, she stays the blue paladin from this point until the series finale.
Allura started off as an alien princess that just woke up from a very long period of sleep to a universe where her home planet was destroyed thousands, upon thousands of years ago. By the end, she became the team’s “strongest link” because of her unique connection to everything around her. She falls in love with the son of the Galra empire’s emperor, Zarkon; his name is Lotor. But, that doesn’t go so well, therefore, she chooses Lance. Allura also found out another secret… but, people who haven’t made it to Season 7 yet, don’t know what it is.
The final character that we’ll discuss is Lance. Lance is “a boy from Cuba.” (Lance, Season 5, Episode 6). He, as I said in the paragraph above, is the paladin of the Red Lion until the end of the series, after being the blue paladin for the first couple of seasons. He falls in love with Allura at first sight after her criopod opens and she falls into his arms.
Lance is very unique because he starts off the series as being a very hyper, adventurous teen. Yet, in the end, he is satisfied with his simple life on his family farm on earth.
Also, he gets special markings inside of an infinite void of other realities that are different from our own. He gets these markings after kissing Allura for the final time, in the final episode. There is a lot of crying in this scene, and that is all I am saying about the final episode. Prior to this epic finale, Lance asks her on a date, which she reluctantly accepts after the interviews with some very ignorant aliens. Eventually, he tells her how much he loves her and she tells him that she loves him back. Although Lance loves Allura, he flirts with the paladin Keith from time to time. So, does that mean that Lance is bisexual?
Make sure to check out the next article that’s coming out in about a month.
