I can see Lance as Space Sokka, but I like Sokka so this isn't a problem for me, and Hunk isn't that annoying.
I like Sokka too but Sokka was a fifteen year old boy who, for years, was the eldest male in his secluded village and didn't know a whole lot about the world he was in other than the effects of the war on his own people. Lance shouldn't be acting like the same character imo. Secondly, Sokka benefited greatly with Jack De Sena's on-point comedic timing and ad-libbing. De Sena did NOT perform Sokka exactly the way he was written on paper. Part of Sokka was made strictly through how the actor interpreted the character. If they really wanted Space!Sokka that badly, they should've casted Jack De Sena as Lance and done it right. Instead, Lance is lingering dangerously close to Bolin territory with stupid lines, inappropriately-timed humor, and over-manic reactions. He's not at that point, thank god. Because I hated Bolin. (Specifically, Bolin right after his date with Korra onward. Early Bolin was a much better dude and I wish he had stuck around instead of becoming progressively pathetic.)
And I'm glad Hunk doesn't annoy you. At least that way only one of us has to suffer. I hate that he's a bunch of fat jokes. I want to punch a baby.
Keith is easy on why I don't like him. No personality. At all. It's like they striped him to give it to Shiro, but forgot to replace it with anything.
Thank you for wording that better than I could. That pisses me off. Someone at another board described Keith as a less angry Zuko. I would say he's more of a post-Team Avatar Zuko: except Team Avatar Zuko had gone through two and a half seasons of personal growth before he joined the team while Keith hasn't earned shit. I feel like no one understands Keith. Hey, I didn't care for him either as a kid so I get that. But thinking about it now, it reminds me of people who hate Leonardo. (Who I also didn't care for as a kid.) The only way to grow that type of guy is to make him struggle in his leadership role. That could've been easy. Kill off Shiro four or five episodes in, forcing Keith to bond with Black Lion and take over the team because no one else will or can step up. But this show strips that from Keith!
Wait. Where is Princess? I thought Princess was pink? Is this available to watch now?
She's there and has a pink suit but... Spoilery Space...
....never pilots a fucking lion from what I saw. What was the point in that? That's worse than making her a space elf.
Incoming rant...
It's like, you know, the 80's Voltron was no masterpiece by a mile. I recognize that. But it had sort of these special things that made it memorable: Cool lions that formed a bad-ass robot with a blazing sword set to awesome music and narration that helped make it epic; Cackling, ugly villains that were enjoyable to watch; And personal growth for a young, naive princess who steps up to the plate to become a brave pilot. And the whole "taking out one of the main guys and replacing him with the chick" was a shocking thing back then (even if Sven did technically go to the Hospital Planet, heh) and would've been equally so to kids today if the makers of new Voltron had the balls to take out Shiro. But none of that makes the cut here. This series is all "ho ho, see we stuck in some dark people. Shiro's Nihonjin desu! We have the Walking Dead Asian and a black woman in our voice cast. Pidge is Mulan. We are so progressive and diverse! Nee-ner nee-ner nee-ner. Ho ho ho. Where's our medal now?"
What good did it do to make Pidge a woman so we could have more estrogen and then reduce the role of the main woman pilot whilst kicking out every other woman in the damn series except Haggar and not adding any more women? And I mean women with dialogue, not background bitches. Not chicks who only exist to be hit on like the alien bitch in episode 6 or whatever. There's no Nanny, no Romelle, none of the village women. They could've added women to the bad guys roster. Like an original woman minion. That would've been cool. They could've stuck Queen Merla in this. They could've made women the leaders of the Galaxy Garrison training program or whatever. That's how you add more women. It's like they thought making one of the dudes a woman was curing the sausage fest.
It was not "diverse" to make the little guy a woman and to make the big guy a punchline of fat jokes (the vomiting, the weight humor with him AND his lion, his open-mouth gaping stupid expression). The big guy and the kid were there to bring variety to the series. "Hey, you can be a little guy or a husky guy and still be a needed member of this team." So many people are in love with fem!Pidge I don't think anyone's even considering how insulting that is: why didn't they make one of the other pilots a secret woman? Because they were masculine enough to "earn their keep as men" while Pidge with his hairband and weird voice has always been a joke. "Let's *completely* emasculate him. Ho ho."
I'm also annoyed that with all of their trumping of diversity, they coded Pidge as being as white as possible instead of even trying to be racially ambiguous with her. "Katie" is such a fucking white name. At least use something that flies in other cultures. Like Mia or Aya or something. "Katie?" If they made Sven into Shiro why didn't they make Pidge in Suzu? Well, actually, I know why. Because more than one Japanese person would be too many. Just like only one woman pilot on the team when we could've had two. Only one Asian person and one black person in the voice cast when we could've had more. We need a diverse team, let's make ONE person Japanese.
I'm actually not as a mad as I probably sound about Pidge. Pidge is definitively one of the better written characters here unlike, say, Keith. But seeing the press for this show and reading through various talkbacks and discussions about it, I feel like a bunch of people are patting new Voltron on the back for being soooo progressive and diverse when it's really not. Google the voice actors of Steven Universe. That's what a diverse cast looks like.