It's been a question long asked among nerds: "Why the hell don't they just form Voltron at the beginning of the battle and save everyone a lot of time?" It turns out there is an answer, which will finally be revealed in next week's season finale of Voltron Force. But Topless Robot has an exclusive clip if you want to know now:
My love for Voltron Force has been pretty well-documented on TR, and this clip shows why. It's taken the original Voltron cartoon, and answered every question any nerdy kid ever asked about it ("Why don't the Ro-Beasts attack while Voltron is forming? Can the Lions reform in different ways? What happened to Sven? Where exactly did Voltron come from?") and actually made vastly entertaining episodes out of all of them. The show has also been great at putting Voltron in situations its never faced before -- I can't deny I gasped a tiny bit when the Cthulu-esque Ro-Beast tore Voltron into his component lions at the end of the clip. Anyways, the finale airs next week on NickToons at Wednesday, 8pm EST -- and the way I hear it, this isn't the only shocker in the episode...
My love for Voltron Force has been pretty well-documented on TR, and this clip shows why. It's taken the original Voltron cartoon, and answered every question any nerdy kid ever asked about it ("Why don't the Ro-Beasts attack while Voltron is forming? Can the Lions reform in different ways? What happened to Sven? Where exactly did Voltron come from?") and actually made vastly entertaining episodes out of all of them. The show has also been great at putting Voltron in situations its never faced before -- I can't deny I gasped a tiny bit when the Cthulu-esque Ro-Beast tore Voltron into his component lions at the end of the clip. Anyways, the finale airs next week on NickToons at Wednesday, 8pm EST -- and the way I hear it, this isn't the only shocker in the episode...
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26 comments
Well, strictly speaking, when they're making an orbital drop assault on a giant monster in a ruined city, the proper strategic move would probably be to just bombard a few iron-nickel asteroid fragments at the target at mach 15+, first. Just sayin'.
(Voltron is the deadliest son of a bitch in space.)
I may be misremembering, but I seem to recall an episode of the original show where the lions took a hit just as they were forming Voltron, scattering the partially-transformed pieces all over the landscape. It blew my little mind, seeing the let's-form-Voltron animation that had never before been interrupted, be interrupted. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it since--there seems to be a Japanese cultural bias against interrupting transformation scenes.
I know that the formation sequence was stopped trying to get into "formation launch" (the very first Voltron formation in fact) but once they got that escape velocity I don't think it was ever stopped. Same in this series, the ro-beast kept jumping the lions before they had a chance to start forming, which is what led to the "flash-form" bit. In the original series, they did have a moment when the Blue Lion was blown off (the interlock was damaged) and it just dropped off in leg form, I don't know if it reverted to lion form.
The original answered "Why don't enemies attack while Voltron is forming?" It was answered when an enemy attacked while Voltron was forming, only to find that the formation process created a temporary shield.
Other commenters have mentioned other "unanswered" questions were answered.
And AMFG is right... Poor judgement doesn't equal "Don't form Voltron right away". The team in the clip had an arrogant leader. Then they waste time talking to each other, instead of fighting. Then they get caught by the same kind of attack that would work on a later forming Voltron, unless we are to believe that a Lions-first approach would have destroyed all of the enemy's tentacles before combining. Ultimately, the Voltron-first tactic fails simply because the writers dictated that it fail, without giving much thought to *why*.
THAT'S the new cartoon? Talk about shitty, I had to turn it off halfway through!! Clearly, I'm not missing anything. Voltron clearly got the Cartoon Network treatment.
...and still calling bullshit. Poor judgement on a given situation does not equal forming Voltron right away is a mistake. Sure, it didn't work in THIS particular situation, but it may work in others.
Plus, I've always wondered, regarding Voltron Vehicles: What is the point of risking losing one ship thus rendering the giant robot useless?
It's not useless, per se. Though I imagine that one-legged Voltron is still gimped when it comes to an ass-kicking contest.
To be fair we did learn about Sven in the original eventually. Handled much better then Golion too in my opinion seeing how that was "Oh... The guy who just died is popular? Lets bring him back by brining back his identical brother who acts just like him!" It was sloppy...
But Sven got a much better ending in the original. Poor poor Sven. Went from a wife and being king to a dying son and trapped on an ice planet...
Considering Voltron was originally built as a giant robot, and not 5 pieces, the strategy part doesn't make a lot of sense. It works great now, but until Haggar tried destroying Voltron, it couldn't even work. Voltron had to outright attack.
They have definitely taken the American storyline in this. From what I recall of the Original Japanese version, He was a (possibly sentient) Robot who was so powerful that he thought he could defeat anyone and challenged the Goddess herself and he is broken into five pieces so he can learn humility. Ah, Japan.
Considering that just about all the fights Voltron gets into usually consists of percussion attacks (punching and kicking) and the sword I never understood why the lions were so weak when they would hit at rocket speed but seemed to work better as one robot.
I find the episodes to be rather hit or miss, but overall, I dig the cartoon. They do answer a bunch of questions from the original. It's very much like they picked a childhood fan and consulted with them to make this new cartoon. "Why don't we form Voltron in different configurations?" "Why don't we have voltron ripped apart?" "Why don't we shorten the 'Form Voltron' animation so we can get into the battle?" Nice.
"My love for Voltron Force has been pretty well-documented on TR"
yes; i've got all of the crime scene evidence collected. if you know what i mean.
For fuck's sake, Starfighter, are you TRYING to alert the FFF community?! Jesus, I can hear Abraxas typing already...
-walks in with a tray of tea and snacks while wearing pink apron- My Dark Lord, your snack and tea is ready. I made you your favorite: Souls of the Innocent with Brown Sugar and Fruit Cutlets. XD
