Voltron : Legendary Defender ’s fourth season is weird . A mere six episodes long ( after a normal - length time of year was split to createthe show ’s third and fourth ) , at times it feels like it ’s been cobbled together out of a time of year we never got to see the rest of . Yet despite that , it extradite some enormously satisfying chronicle fan have been itching to see since the show began .
The third season of Voltron was all about adapting to alteration . On the side of the wedge , Shiro ’s absence go toKeith becoming the pilot of the Black Lion and the loss leader of the Paladins , with Lance take his topographic point in the Red Lion ’s cockpit and Allura finally stepping up to Paladin condition to become the Blue Lion ’s fender . On the villains ’ side , you had the ascendance of Prince Lotor and his full general , a riveting mirror team to the Paladins that played with some more morally complex concepts that his savage of a father , Zarkon , eschew .
Even when the show surprisingly bring Shiro back halfway through the season , it rolled with its fresh status quo , force the Paladins to take with finding a novel hollow in their squad for a beloved friend , one they ’d all risen up for to aid fill the gaps will behind when he disappear . It sense like that this was a Brobdingnagian , lasting change in the show ’s makeup and direction , one that was pushing its persona in Modern and exciting counseling .
time of year four is mostly about undo all of that change , to diverge degrees of succeeder . The first episode of the time of year — by far the sapless of the Modern run — serves to re - upend the Paladins ’ condition quo , and in the operation , makes you feel like you accidentally vamoose a few episodes of story in between seasons three and four . The consultation is now dropped into a plotline where Keith , shirking his Paladin duty to train as a slick techno - undercover agent / assassin alongside the sneaky Blades of Marmora , eventually decide to leaves the squad , allowing Shiro — despite his struggle and eventual loser to re - establish a adherence with the Black Lion upon his homecoming last season — to speedily and conveniently re - take his place as the Black Lion pilot and as leader of the team .
Considering the past two seasons have been about Keith learn to accept his obligation and slow becoming a leader , the speed at which the show move him in this new direction is as alarming as it is gawky . Showrunners Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery recently pronounce thatShiro ’s rapid coming back to the show was a mandate forced upon them by Dreamworks , and it ’s keenly felt in this time of year ’s first step . Keith ’s distancing from the core group to become a Blade does set up some interesting ideas as the Voltron Force ’s burgeon coalition of Rebel retain to grow — something that becomes hugely important over the course of the time of year . But its overhasty resolution in the premiere feel like it fall out of nowhere in the worst style .
Another disappointment — although dealt with more slowly — is the Galra Empire ’s watering down of Lotor to make room for Zarkon to return as the Emperor and primary villain of the show . Zarkon and Haggar are largely still as slow and as under - employ as they were before Lotor arrived on the scene ; the only genuine difference is that Zarkon now has a full case of armor , so he sound a bit more robotic when he bark the occasional social club . Upending Lotor ’s position to make him an impotent threat and eventually establishing him as an opposition of the state so short after his introduction feels like a squandered opportunity . Even if it lead to the time of year ’s challenging cliffhanger — Lotor begrudgingly take to ally with the Voltron Coalition to defeat his father — Lotor ’s sudden change of fortune and seeming face spell to the good guy ’ side feel wildly unearned , another storyline the show was n’t given enough metre to secernate .
And yet , despite those grievance , there is still a long ton to love in Legendary Defender ’s late outing . The humor , which felt mostly absent from a rather serious time of year three , is back in full force play — especially with the jape - a - minute 4th instalment , revolving around Coran turning the Paladins into celebrities to repulse recruitment for the Voltron Coalition . It ’s a loud , hilarious admixture of Power Rangers / Super Sentai denotation , showbiz ribbing , and over - the - top anime parodies that manages to be both crucial to the denouement of the time of year and a delicious geological fault from the incoming difference of opinion between the Galra and the Voltron Force .
On the opposite side of the emotional spectrum , the second episode ultimately resolves a hang plot thread from Pidge ’s backstory , reconnecting her with the quest to find her drop sidekick and father . It makes for some of the most sumptuously delivered , heartrendingly emotional sequence in the show ’s entire run , and give some much - necessitate fourth dimension for the Green Paladin to reflect . The shortened time of year makes the fact these two wildly unlike instalment are so tightlipped to each other experience like some severe tonal whip , but outside of that setting they ’re hands down two of the best single episodes the series has ever done .
And somehow the two - part last is even better than that , as the bolster up Coalition at last resolve to stand together and make a bold move against the Galra empire , impress from a hidden base on multiple fronts to liberate a vaste swath of Imperial territory from Zarkon ’s grasp . There are some amazing action successiveness because of it — both from Voltron itself and from the ships of the Coalition ’s ragtag fleet — that would n’t sense out of piazza in a Star Wars flick . It ’s the space - natural action epic you ’ve been pass to see from the moment Voltron first formed , and the larger-than-life battle that unfolds feels clear , a desirable closing of the gruelling work our submarine sandwich have been building toward since the very beginning of the show . If we can expect more like this in the future as Team Voltron moves from triumph to triumph , then fans are in for a serious goody .
There ’s so much to love here that it ’s such a shame Legendary Defender ’s fourth season is at times as disappointingly frustrative as it is unco good . Its truncate nature makes its tonal swinging feel wilder than they should be — and even at its good , it never quite elude the tactile sensation that some corporate demand from up on eminent go to things being hack up and mixed up in way they were never mean to be .
That say , its job seldom feel like a fault with the genuine creative arc of the show , because when it put to work , it works , bringing a grand weighing machine to the show that it ’s spent the past three seasons lento build while still finding ways to ceaselessly upend its condition quo in unexampled and promising ways . Whatever form the next season of the show assume , a groundwork has been laid here for some very interesting storylines — single that are hopefully less cramp by the delivery of the show itself .
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