When Voltron rebooted for audiences in 2016, it was in the form of Voltron: Legendary Defender for Netflix. Over the course of eight seasons, fans watched a group of teens (and their leader) from Earth travel to space to save the universe from the threat of the Galra empire. Robotic, but magical, lions and a pair from a long-forgotten civilization aided them in their quest.
Since the IMDb allows fans and critics to rate movies and television shows on a scale of one (the worst) to ten (the best), curious minds can get a comprehensive idea of what people like about certain projects. With Voltron: Legendary Defender’s best episodes, it’s all about the character development and the cliffhangers. Season six was the clear favorite. Interestingly, a few seasons of the series didn’t have episodes make it into the top 10. Seasons five, seven, and eight didn’t have individual episodes land in the top at all!
10 Razor’s Edge S6E02 (8.7)
As the show developed, Keith became more separated from his team, alternating in the leadership role with Shiro. Despite not getting as much screen time with his Voltron family, episodes like “Razor’s Edge” allowed the series to still spotlight Keith.
Keith and Krolia, his recently revealed mother, spent a lot of time together courtesy of a black hole. The two spent two years getting to know one another (and adopting a teleporting space dog) while only a few weeks passed for everyone else. It was a creative way to allow Keith and his mother to bond in a short amount of time for the audience, and give Krolia some great character development.
9 Red Paladin S3E02 (8.7)
This episode provided a changing of the guard in more ways than one. Season three was all about changing the team dynamics, and this episode was where that began.
Keith became the pilot of the black lion, with Lance moving to the red lion. The blue lion then needed a pilot, and it chose Allura. Fans were excited to see her take on a more active role in the series with her abilities. In addition to the changing paladins, there was also a hint at who Lotor really was as he forced the paladins into a tight space simply to study how they worked together. It was a great way to foreshadow just how manipulative he was.
8 The Blade Of Marmora S2E08 (8.7)
Though the Blade Of Marmora was mentioned earlier, this episode began its real involvement. The secret group of Galra trying to stop their people’s conquering ways would become vital to Keith - and the rest of the paladins - as the show went on.
This particular episode saw Keith’s usual stubborn attitude give way to compromise as his own blade became the subject of debate during a meeting between Shiro, Keith, and Marmora members. Though Keith exhausted himself in trials, he eventually realized he had to stop fighting, and discovered he was part Galra. That reveal early in the series was paid off in tiny bits over the next few seasons.
7 Reunion S4E02 (8.8)
Like many of the best episodes, this one spotlighted one paladin in particular. Pidge went out on a mission alone to find their brother Matt. The character had a habit of attempting to track down family members when they were needed for Voltron, but this time, they learned from their previous mistakes to set out when they knew Voltron wouldn’t need them right away.
It was one of the most emotional episodes for fans as Pidge found a graveyard, believing her brother to be dead, until they deciphered a coded message to give them Matt’s location. Following their reunion, Matt became an integral member of the rebel forces against Galra.
6 The Black Paladin S1E13 (8.9)
A lot of the show’s first season was slow-moving as a result of introducing fans to all of the key players. The season finale, however, was anything but. It began a tradition of ending each arc of episodes with a twist and a massive cliffhanger.
In this case, the twist was the reveal that Zarkon was the very first black paladin. The reveal gave fans a front-row seat to how power corrupts. Of course, the cliffhanger came in the form of Voltron being separated into its lions with all of the key players separated from one another to lead into season two. It was the perfect setup to get the fans to return for the first time.
5 All Good Things S6E06 (8.9)
Following the reveal of Lotor’s betrayal, the paladins ended up on the opposite end of a fight with him at one of the worst possible times. Keith was separated from the team in the black lion.
Allura and the rest of the paladins were in the middle of a standoff with Lotor, unwilling to give him anything he asked for after he betrayed them. When Allura compared Lotor to his father, his rage grew. He lost his own allies after his admission that he wanted to destroy the Galra empire and start his own new version of Altea. Keith, however, was busy connecting with Shiro’s spirit on the astral plane, giving fans an emotional balance to the conflict.
4 Defender Of All Universes S6E07 (9.0)
Slightly edging out the previous episode is its follow up. The episode involved a massive fight between Voltron and Lotor’s new mech, but it also featured a big sacrifice on the part of the paladins.
Throughout the battle, fans got to watch as the Quintessence field rapidly drive Lotor mad - a path he was already on with his craving for more power. In order to defeat him, Allura made the decision to overload him with the Quintessence he wanted so badly, but the paladins were forced to leave him to die in order to escape themselves. They also had to sacrifice the castleship to seal the rift in realities that had been created, leaving them all with only their lions as a way to travel heading into season seven and their journey home to Earth.
3 Blackout S2E13 (9.1)
The season two finale had fans reeling when it initially streamed, and it leads off the top three rated episodes of the entire series. All three actually stand with the same 9.1 rating.
“Blackout” hinted at Allura’s huge power as she was able to hold off Zarkon on her own while the paladins regrouped. The massive fight sequence with Voltron against Zarkon and Allura against Haggar was one of the best in the series. Likewise, Shiro’s sudden disappearance at the end of the battle left fans wondering just what the show was going to do with him.
2 The Legend Begins S3E07 (9.1)
Some flashback episodes of other series can get bogged down in the details, but Voltron didn’t have that problem. “The Legend Begins” gave fans a history lesson in how the lions came to exist.
While some fans might not have loved the journey into the past, the episode was beautifully done, and allowed the audience to draw parallels between the original paladins and the new ones. There were clear connections between the types of personalities that each lion was drawn to. The history lesson also gave fans a hint at just what Zarkon’s plan for the Galra empire ultimately was, ending the season, as usual, with a nice cliffhanger.
1 The Black Paladins S6E05 (9.1)
Considering that Keith’s and Shiro’s journey’s in the series are serious fan favorites, it should be no surprise that the episode exploring their connection landed at the top of the pack.
Over the course of three seasons, it had become a little awkward that so many lions technically had two paladins, but the black lion was the only one being switched out on a regular basis. With Keith learning that Shiro was actually a clone controlled by Haggar/Honerva, his heart broke, and he remembered just how he and Shiro met during their time at the Garrison.
The only disappointment is that the connection between the two wasn’t explored earlier in the series.
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