Voltron: Legendary Defender has legendary characters

On January 20, 2017, the second season of “Voltron: Legendary Defender” was released on Netflix. The show is a reboot of 1980s cartoon “Voltron: Defenders of the Universe,” which was, in turn, based on a Japanese cartoon called “Beast King GoLion.”

Season two of “Legendary Defender” follows the five pilots of Voltron, known as Paladins, as they continue their fight against the Galra Empire and deal with personal issues inside the team.

The plot of “Legendary Defender” is enjoyable, but it is not anything particularly remarkable. The show’s real strong point is its characters.

They have interesting relationship dynamics, and, for the most part, they all seem like whole, fully fleshed-out people. For example, the relationship between Allura and Keith becomes incredibly strained when her prejudices affect how she views him in light of a revelation about his character.

This season focuses a lot on the characters of Shiro and Keith, and for good reason: both characters have major issues that come to light this season. However, this means that some of the other characters don’t get as much screen time.

Hunk, in particular, has thus far only been used as the team’s chef and ray of sunshine, and he hasn’t had much of his backstory or character shown yet. Still, the show doesn’t completely forget about him. In one particularly enjoyable episode inside a space mall, he has a scene in which he acts like Gordon Ramsay. That same episode also includes a glorious “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” sequence.

Season two of the “Legendary Defender” definitely isn’t perfect; the recurring cutscene in which they form Voltron, for example, gets annoying pretty quickly. However, the comedy and the lovable characters make it worth watching, and the huge cliffhanger at the end of the last episode leaves the audience begging for season three.