Voltron the Legendary Defender Season 3

Pros

•  I'm sort of on the fence now about the lion swap. On one hand, I've always wanted to see Allura become a paladin. I feel that female character representation matters just as much as anything and one of the joys of film and tv I get to witness these days is the increasing number of successful female action heroines. In a show as progressive as VLD, I was surprised that there was only one female paladin (Pidge) in a team of five. And I'm not even sure how to interpret Pidge in terms of gender because the show itself alluded to having to view her in more ambiguous terms. Originally, when she revealed that she was 'a girl' I took it to mean that she identified as female and just didn't fit the traditional feminine mold- kind of like Arya Stark from GoT. But after Space Mall aired (episode 7, season 2) I got the impression the show runners didn't want her linked to any gender. In any case, whether one sees her as a female or not- it's always better to have an additional female pilot. So having Allura as part of the team was a great thing.
  
  The problem is that I can't help but worry about Shiro and what the writers have in store for him. He's one of the most sympathetic characters in VLD, a great leader, etc. I feel that it would be great to have him back as part of Voltron leading the team, so now it feels as if the show creators may have written themselves into a corner here.
• The all female Galra team Lotor has going on is definitely a step up from the harem of the 80s. It also balances the mostly male dynamic of the Voltron team.
• Interesting clone plot involving Shiro. I still can't figure out what happened to him at the end of the season two finale. Is it possible that Shiro and Zarkon swapped bodies? O_o Fishy looking Shiro appears in episode 5 of season three. When we find him trapped in the ice planet, I never had any doubts it was him...but once Keith found him and he had his hair cut, something started to seem off.
• They finally gave a good explanation for the lion swap.
• Allura holding her own against Lotor. In a civilization as modern and advanced as Altea, wouldn't they have modern, egalitarian views as well? So, why shouldn't an Altean princess learn to fight, defend herself, pilot a ship, etc? This isn't a medieval based society like GoT is- it's a show set in the future featuring advanced people. There's no reason for the traditional princess type of character (the 'yamato nadeshiko') to get stuck in a box and leave the fighting to the rest of the paladins. So when she told the paladins off in season one - the part where they were having trouble with the training bots and she scornfully said that the bots were meant to train Altean children, I took it to mean that she could hold her own in a fight.
• Lance being selfless enough to give up his position for the sake of the team. He had a lot of good moments this season. It's nice to see that there was more to him than being just a goofball/ladies man...although he is pretty entertaining in general.
• Haggar and Zarkon actually had personalities before they became quintessence junkies. I kept wondering why Zarkon was so boring and lifeless throughout seasons 1-2, and why Haggar was so devoted to him.The show finally gave an explanation for it.
  
  

Cons

• They got their asses handed to them by Lotor's fighting squad. When I say 'they', I mean Lance, Allura, Hunk and Pidge. I think a fighting skill upgrade might be needed. Allura has her moments (when she gets to use quintessance against Haggar etc) but when it comes to hand to hand combat, I think the only excellent fighters in the team are Shiro and Keith. That won't cut it if a rematch happens later.
•  Someone in Tumblr mentioned that Shiro's subplots tend to overtake the story. My first instinct was to disagree, but now that I think about it, it's true that both Shiro and Keith (the 'alpha guys') tend to get more development than the rest of the other characters. I'm still pretty much invested in the whole clone subplot but there were also other things that needed more dwelling on such as
  
  
  • The alternate reality, which was both great and horrifying since it focused on themes like race and prejudice. It would have been great to see more of the evil Altean empire that was only hinted at in episode 4. The episode did a great job of opening Allura's eyes as to how just anyone could be evil...even her own people. It would have been heartbreaking (not to mention an interesting watch) for us to see her meet an evil version of herself, doing things she would never do. Speaking of alternate realities. We only saw Sven and Shlav...what about the rest of the other characters? Maybe by October we'll see more? Maybe not. And here I was,  looking forward to Gremlin Pidge :P
  • More scenes of the team learning to work together. Because they need to grow and become competent without Shiro. They can't depend on always having Shiro to get them out of trouble- sometimes they have to learn to help themselves.
• I thought it was great to see Allura's mother...but maybe she looks a little too much like her? It was almost as if Alfor loved his wife so much he decided to make another clone of her. Never mind.