History WesternAnimation / VoltronLegendaryDefender

-->'''Haggar:''' Summon Prince Lotor!

* DoubleMeaningTitle: The title of the first season finale is "The Black Paladin". It can refer to Shiro, who learns a bit more about what happened to him while he was captured and how he got his arm. It can also refer to Zarkon, revealed to be the former Black Paladin of Voltron, who is able to use the Druid's Magic and his connection to the Black Lion to force Voltron apart, eject Shiro from the Black Lion, and nearly steal it before he's stopped.

* GrayingMorality: A major theme from Season 2 onwards is that not all Galra are bad and not all Alteans are good, from the heroic Blade of Marmora and Keith being part-Galra, to Haggar being revealed to be Altean and the alternate dimmension Altean Empire. This does a number on Allura, who held a strict BlackAndWhiteMorality.

* TeensAreShort: Keith and Pidge, though Lance is also shorter than Shiro and Coran.
** Played with in that Allura can change height; at the end of Season 2 she grows about two feet, enough to tower over everyone else.

->'''Allura:''' You five were brought here for a reason. Together, you will form Voltron, the greatest weapon ever known, protector of the innocent, and our only hope to save the universe.\\
'''Hunk:''' Geez, no pressure.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** A bit of Foreshadowing of Keith's Galra heritage that went largely unnoticed by the fandom, but Keith's casual outfit has [[http://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/post/157823749850/so-i-may-have-just-uncovered-something-that the exact same]] color patterns as a Galra Commander's uniform.

* WhatAnIdiot: [[spoiler: Admiral Sanada, the commander of the Galaxy Garrison, is full of this. While she isn’t incompetent, she does make amazingly foolish decisions that almost lead to Earth being destroyed. This includes: hiding information on a hostile alien race from the world out of fear of causing a panic rather than revealing it so that the world can prepare for an inevitable invasion, using standard defense tactics when the Galra begin their invasion of Earth instead of listening to the more experienced Commander Holt, and revealing the plan to destroy the Zaiforge Cannons to Sendak and letting him capture the Lions instead of actually letting the plan play out. She simply does not understand the Galra as a species and her ignorance in spite of overwhelming evidence nearly led to the end of Earth and everyone in it.]]

* ShipSinking:
** Any ship involving Shiro and female characters is impossible, on account of the fact that he's [[IncompatibleOrientation gay]] [[spoiler:and ships involving other men apart from Curtis are also impossible since Shiro eventually married Curtis]].
** [[spoiler:After season 8, any ship involving Allura can't happen since she is dead.]]

* {{Fanservice}}: Keith and Lance both get this in "Eye of The Storm", featuring the boys being {{shirtless|Scene}} when trying to get to the castle's pool, [[ShesGotLegs and also focusing a lot on their legs and feet]].

* AdaptationalBadass:
** In the original show, Voltron was the be-all-end-all solution. Now all the Lions have their individual moments to shine, and the pilots get their moments out of the cockpit.

** Robeasts actually get these. In the original, they were something for Voltron to fight, but not always threatening. In this, each Robeast gets an entire episode to itself, SOLELY for the fight. And while individual lions can take out Galra cruisers with no problem, a Robeast is always a significant threat even to Voltron itself, and several have only been defeated via virtual DeusExMachina (and one of ''those'' came back for seconds!)
** The Castle gets this, changing from simply being the base where the Lions launch to a powerful warship in its own right.
** The girls of Lotor's harem appear as a badass AmazonBrigade[=/=]QuirkyMinibossSquad and appeared to be the Voltron equivalents of [[Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender Ozai's Angels]] -- until one of them was KilledOffForReal and the rest were DemotedToExtra.
* AdaptationalWimp: On the opposite end of the pilots and Lions, Voltron itself is hit pretty hard by this. For all the claims of it being the most powerful weapon in the universe, the individual Lions end up doing far more damage to the Galra forces. Even as the Paladins gain experience and form bonds with their Lions even stronger than what the original team was implied to have (as despite Coran's knowledge in ''The Legend Begins'', even he seems unaware of the ability for a Lion to activate on its own), it spends nearly every fight getting thrown around like a ragdoll until a DeusExMachina triggers.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Princess Allura and many of the Alteans are various shades of brown rather than just being (or [[{{Mukokuseki}} looking]]) white.

* ActionGirl: Allura. Not only is she capable and fearless while piloting the Castle of Lions, using it for fire support, she's also surprisingly strong and badass physically, as we see in "Collection and Extraction".
** Pidge as well, though she tends to lean more toward ActionSurvivor, but when given no other choice she manages to hold her own in a one-on-one. Where technology is concerned, there's no one better.

* AdaptationNameChange: In a sense. In the original ''Voltron'' series, Blue Lion's original pilot was named Sven. ''However,'' his ''[=GoLion=]'' counterpart is named Takashi Shirogane. The Black Lion's pilot in ''Legendary Defender'', who goes by the nickname Shiro in this continuity, shares his full name with the character from the ''[=GoLion=]'' anime.
** But in Season 3, the Paladins encounter an AlternateUniverse Shiro who goes by the name Sven. Complete with Scandanavian accent.
** In a similar full-circle version of this trope, the villains in this series are named the Galra Empire, after the name of the villains from ''[=GoLion=]'' (their leader is still named Zarkon, however).
** Sendak, the first Galra commander the team deals with, and later BigBad of season 7 is visually based off the original series character Yurak, (Sadak in ''[=GoLion=]'') as they both have an artificial eye and arm.
** Pidge's real name was given as Darrel "Pidge" Stoker in the comics, while here it's mentioned to be Pidge Gunderson. Pidge's real name is actually Katie Holt.
* AdaptationPersonalityChange:
** All over the place. While each team member's visual design has been adapted closely from their 80's incarnations, their personalities have largely been redefined. Examples include:
*** In the original series, Keith was the calm, collected leader, with Lance, [[TheLancer fittingly enough]], as the hotshot loner. In this version, ''Keith'' is the hotshot loner while Lance is more a comic relief character who sometimes butts heads with him. Keith mellows a little in Season 3, and several seasons later becomes TheLeader like his original counterpart.
*** Shiro is ''vastly'' different from his original counterparts from both Voltron and [=GoLion=] -- and ends up being a much more popular character then either version. So much so, in fact, that he ends up [[spoiler:''coming back from the dead'' as a permanent member of the cast.]]
*** Hunk is a teddy bear, not a gruff man of action.
*** Counter to that, Pidge is now reserved and slow to open up to others, as opposed to the happy and overtly friendly kid from the original.
*** Coran is eccentric comic relief and still, occasionally, a stoic source of wisdom.
*** While she was never completely helpless, Allura is much more of a badass than her older counterparts.
** Lampshaded and parodied when the team makes it back to Earth and their exploits are adapted as a television show... that is implied to be the original ''Voltron'' cartoon. Hunk laughs at how different they really are from their TV counterparts.
--->'''Hunk''': They got it ''so'' wrong.
* AdaptationalBadass: Allura has most definitely [[TakeALevelInBadass racked up the badass points]] compared to other adaptations. She is highly skilled in combat, particularly with a staff, but can also hold her own in a straight fight, thanks to Altean super-strength. In Season 3, her bayard takes the form of a whip, which she uses very effectively.

** Most notable is Coran who despite being a comical character has several badass moments.
** Zarkon was already badass, but now he can take on a Voltron Lion head-on, with no ship, just a sword. That his sword is the Black Bayard probably gives him an extra advantage.

* AdaptationalSexuality: San Diego Comic Con 2018 reveals that Shiro was dating a man named Adam prior to his trip to Kerberos, who we don't see until season 7, [[spoiler:where he's [[BuryYourGays promptly killed off]]. Shiro ends up marrying another man in the distant finale.]] Previous versions of Shiro usually ended up with Romelle.

* AlienLunch:
** It seems the only food on the ship is an odd, green goo. Hunk [[{{BigEater}} doesn't seem to mind.]]
** Once settled in on Arus, our heroes [[RunningGag get subjected to one of these after another.]]
** We get a humorous view from the other side on an Earth favorite. After acquiring Kaltenecker and being introduced to milkshakes, Allura and Coran immediately take a liking to them. However, they have no idea how to extract the milk to make more. They try politely asking the cow to make some for them, with predictable results. Lance, wanting to be helpful, decided to show them how to extract the milk so they can make it themselves. We never see them eat another milkshake again.

* DarkSkinnedBlonde: Allura and both of her parents have dark skin and MysticalWhiteHair.
** Also Haggar, to a slightly lesser degree.