Reflection and Analysis

Voltron: Legendary Defender (Season 1)

I watched Voltron on Netflix and found myself honestly impressed.

I'll start off by saying I loved the old Voltron series, but that I also prefer Voltron over Beast King GoLion. For those who don't know, Voltron was edited from the Anime series Beast King GoLion. Quite a few people also know that the editing of Anime for a Western audience is one of the major issues within the Anime community; the act is generally frowned upon. I'm actually normally against the editing as well, but Voltron's one of those exceptions. 

Hands down a few people prefer GoLion over Voltron due to the original series having a lot more violence. The series felt more violent than works like Akira with a mother getting nucked with her baby. I also found the series bogged down with the religious elements, and the author's pulpit regarding nuclear war. My favorite character also got killed off early on. The origin story for GoLion also bothered me in regards to suspending my disbelief. Voltron on the other hand I admit was a little watered down.

Despite the fact GoLion is darker than Voltron, I don't dislike the series. That is reserved for Voltron Force, which had me hating the new paladin/pilot of the black lion as soon as he showed up, with the painful animation that did neither GoLion or Voltron justice. The new series though takes what's good about both GoLion and Voltron, combines it, and removes the things which didn't work. The series also manages quite a bit of build up both with the characters and the plot.

Here's where the spoilers kick in.

Do I think Shiro will die?

In the GoLion series Shiro dies, so a lot of people think he will eventually die in this series. However, GoLion and Voltron are two different series plotwise, and already Legendary Defenders has verged away plotwise from both series. The whole goddess element and evil lion robot being punished element is gone, and we know how Voltron was created, something that isn't known in the previous series. This may be hoping that my favorite character doesn't get killed off, although this time around I've come to like the others in the same manner.

I think, though, with this being a children's series rated for those seven and up that we won't see character death, but we may see Keith switching places with Shiro should the current leaders PSTD get out of hand. 

Is Pidge transgender?

No. I think people are looking too much into things at this point in time, but also think the people making the claim don't understand what it means to be transgendered. She would be able to sneak past physical examinations, but also admits to being born female and identifies as female. The fact she's a tomboy type female doesn't change this fact. A metaphor maybe, but nothing more than that.

How old are the characters?

We actually don't know how old the characters are, and context clues are limited. One assumption though I do see people making is that Pidge is a preteen child genius, and this has led some people cringing whenever they see Pidge paired up with one of the other paladins in fanfiction. However, Pidge being a preteen is an assumption based on the original ages given for the GoLion series, where Pidge is actually twelve, and the other pilots are in their twenties. 

In this series though the paladins seem to be in their teens, so it stands to reason Pidge's age is changes as well. This is backed up by the way they act; even Shiro falls into teenage antics at times, although he is as his bio says he is "calm, thoughtful and wise beyond his years", indicating he's likely in his teens. I would guess he's somewhere between seventeen and eighteen. As for Hank, Keith and Lance, I would place them somewhere between fifteen to seventeen.

If Pidge were male, I'd find myself actually agreeing with the assumption Pidge is a preteen, however, we learn through the course of the series that Pidge is female, so she's going to be smaller than the boys. One of the reasons this assumption is made is because she's labeled as the youngest character on the wiki, as well as a caucasian child genius, but she doesn't need to be a preteen to be a child genius - she simply needs to not be an adult. I'm not sure where people got the information for this from, as her bio on the official site says nothing of the sort.

This said, we also know her father is shorter than Shiro, so there is a chance she and her brother will be shorter than others their age. Add to this she's female, so she's likely in the low percentile as well. I guess her age range to be between thirteen and fifteen, with a slim possibility of her being twelve like her original incarnation. As I noted, the older pilots had their ages reduced to teens, so it is possible that her age has been increased as well. This would mean she's a petite female, though, which isn't a bad thing as we typically see the girls who kick butt in shows not be petite females. That's a change up.

It's kind of like how people assume Pidge knew Shiro before he worked with her father and brother, when in reality it's the other way around.

OTP

Keith/Princess Allura - I've been fond of this pairing since the original Voltron series and was my only OTP for the series. I still like the pairing, but find myself favoring a different pairing as my favorite.

Shiro/Pidge - This is my number one OTP for the series, and I'm not seeing this changing anytime soon. This said I do know there are people out there who've got major squick issues regarding the pairing. This comes from the perceived age gap between the characters. First, I don't think it's quite fair to diss the pairing for this issue as we don't know what the age gap between the two characters happens to be. As I've noted, Pidge may not be a preteen like everyone thinks. 

However, this brings me to one of the reasons I like the pairing. I see Shiro not acting on any feelings he has for Pidge if there is indeed an age gap until Pidge is older unless there are unforeseen circumstances outside of their control. Add to this a minor can legally date someone whose an older minor, or an adult if they have permission from a parent, not to mention age of consent.