Voltron/Headscratchers

Voltron

• (I'm sure there's a logical answer, but I never found it when watching...) If the only thing that kills a Ro-Beast on a regular basis is the Blazing Sword, why don't they just use it right away?? Not like there's collateral damage.
  • They have to wear the Ro-Beast down first so they can get a clean shot in. There are a LOT of examples in Power Rangers and Super Sentai where the Rangers go for the Finisher straight away and get their ass kicked, because the monster was fresh enough to repel the attack.
    • This was illustrated in the fifth episode of the lion series, where the robeast knocked the blazing sword out of Voltron's hand.
    • Hikounen Sentai AkibaRanger specifically lampshades this, where at one point the Akibarangers get desperate against a powered-up villain and do their ultra-powerful combination attack while they're getting their butts kicked instead of when they've already almost won. The monster calls them on it, saying that when the heroes use their final attack early, it's a sign the bad guy will win the fight. The usually much more Genre Savvy AkibaRed says "We'll see about that!", uses the final attack... and the bad guy wins the fight. So basically, it's just a law of the universe in this sort of series that you can only use your finisher attack when you've pretty much already won anyway.
  • Indeed, there's a whole Voltron-specific example of this in Forgotten Superweapon.
  • There is a very logical answer; if they used the Blazing Sword right off there'd be no episode.
    • Most of the time, anyway.
  • To quote Mystery Science Theater 3000: "Why doesn't Godzilla go for the flame breath right away? Because the man is a professional."
  • It has a Will requirement.
  • Ever play Street Fighter or similar games? You have to use a few moves and get hit a bit to build your gauge before you can execute your super.
  • There is one fanfic out there that offers an interesting, if completely non-canon, explanation...Voltron had been hidden and unused for so long, that by the time the pilots find the lions, their internal power source has been severely degraded; exposure to the sun slowly recharges it, but that process takes a lot longer than it should thanks to the decay. (Even longer if they take any real damage...the lions in this AU have a really good auto-repair function, but it tends to drain the batteries.) So every single fight, they need to stall for time just to build up enough power just to form Voltron, and then stall some more after that to build up enough power to use the Blazing Sword. To keep the baddies from figuring out what's really going on, they are more or less forced to act like they COULD use their better attacks at any time, but don't because they are just that macho. ( In story, the pilots groan about having to do this, because not only are they extremely vulnerable during these periods, but also because they are just professional enough to know how bad it makes them look.)
  • The guy who writes (wrote?) "Random Thought Table" @ SJ Games Pyramid once did a whole article on this-- about how in real life the first thing you'd ALWAYS do is form voltron, grab blazing sword, kill bad guy, go home. But they ALWAYS first run into the creature without lions, get beat down, grab their lions... get beat down. Form voltron... get beat down. Form blazing sword-- save the day. It's entirely for dramatic effect because most episodes of the show follow that formula (children like repetition!)

Again, not exactly compliant with canon, but it makes for an intriguing alternative explanation.

• Is there some type of general Japanese heroic archetype going on? I mean, Go Lion, Combattler V, and Cyborg 009 seem to have the same basic cast... (Using Go Lion teams's Voltron names for clarity.)
  • Keith = Hyouma = Joe/009
  • Princess Allura = Chiziru = Francoise/003
  • Lance = Juzo ~ Jet/002
  • Hunk = Daisaku = Chang/006
  • Pidge = Kosuke (Younger) = Ivan (Youngest)
    • Five-Man Band.
    • To be fair, this sort of thing is MUCH older than 70s Mech anime. Combiner mecha and Sentai just took it to its logical extreme.
• So it was Haggar who disguised herself as the Space Goddess and broke Voltron into five lions, I can buy that. However, the same Space Goddess saved Voltron from the Omega Comet about halfway through the series. Did Haggar betray Zarkon or something?
  • Perhaps it was the REAL Space Goddess that Haggar disguised herself as.
  • In the original GoLion, GoLion was an ancient, sentient robot whose origin was lost to time. He fought for the love of it and to prove his power in combat. His duels cut a path of destruction through out the universe, terrorizing it's inhabitants. As a result, the Space Goddess punished him by splitting him apart.
  • Hagar could have always been a double-agent. It would explain how she has the power to split Voltron up, but keeps making inferior robeasts and schemes that never pan out.

• The "armor" in The Third Dimension. How the hell do they take it off? I mean it looks like they've all been roboticized. In other words, don't forget that there's a body under the costume!
  • It was a very cheap series with relatively early CG. ReBoot doesn't really look its best as far as conforming to anatomy these days, either. Their reply would probably have been something like "If you think it's so easy on a meager budget and no time, you come and show us how it's done, buddy." I mean, yeah, it's bad animation, but scolding as if they just needed a reminder that "Ohhhh, there's a body under the costume!" is silly.
• What the hell is a dynatherm? I mean, I can parse the rest of the Techno Babble: interlocks = what holds the thing together, infracells = I'm imagining some sort of technobabble power system, megathrusters = propulsion. So what exactly were dynatherms supposed to be and why does it matter if they're connected?
  • Well Dyan means Power, Therm means heat. So heat power? Maybe the lions and by extension Voltron run on a Thermal Engine?
    • Powered by the HotBloodedness of the pilots!
  • Perhaps that big power turbine that has to connect with itself to spin, in the power source shots?