Hunk

Hunk is a protagonist from the Netflix TV series, Voltron: Legendary Defender serving as the Yellow Paladin who pilots the Yellow Lion of Voltron. He a man of immense size, both physically and emotionally.

History

Early Life

Hunk joined Galaxy Garrison at some point in his life for unknown reasons, and would end up part of the same class as-and later teammates with-Lance and Pidge. His decision to do so seemed particularly contrary, as he suffered from motion sickness and would have preferred to fulfill his engineer function "from the ground."

Voltron Paladin

Things would change for Hunk and his classmates when Lance tried to drag him out for an unauthorized excursion after a failed simulation, only for them to discover Pidge on the Galaxy Garrison roof monitoring transmissions with custom made equipment. Pidge's revelations about alien transmissions regarding the mysterious Voltron would be followed by the crash of an alien ship that proved to be carrying Shiro, a Galaxy Garrison pilot who had gone missing a year previously on a mission to Kerberos. Much to Hunk's dismay, his two teammates would insist on going to Shiro's aid after he was taken into Galaxy Garrison custody, and they wound up being joined by Lance's "rival" Keith, with whom Hunk was also familiar. After hearing Shiro and Keith's information about the threat of the Galra Empire and mysteries of the surrounding region, Hunk admitted to going through Pidge's belongings-including a photo that he believed depicted Pidge with a girlfriend-and discovering that the aliens were searching for an element that didn't naturally occur on Earth. He then rigged up a "Voltron geiger counter" that enabled the five to locate the Blue Lion hidden nearby, from which they received a vision of the other four Lions and the combined Voltron robot.

The five soon boarded the Blue Lion and-with Lance as pilot-left Earth and traveled to the planet Arus, where they found the Castle of Lions and met Princess Allura and Coran of the destroyed planet Altea. Allura soon decided that they were to become the new Paladins of Voltron, and to Hunk's astonishment he was chosen to pilot the Yellow Lion. Hunk eventually found and bonded with his Lion after Lance flew him to its hiding place, and he was relieved to find that it was well equipped to deal with the Galra forces they found waiting for them. However, upon returning to Arus and learning that Commander Sendak was in orbit about to attack, Hunk was in favor of fleeing with the Lions they had managed to acquire, despite the fact that it would leave the castle and the Red Lion in the clutches of the Galra. Instead, the Paladins-after donning armor which fit Hunk despite his doubts and receiving their Bayards-used the Blue and Yellow Lions to distract and attack Sendak's ship while the Green Lion got Shiro, Pidge, and Keith aboard, where they ended up recovering the Red Lion and several prisoners.

In the ensuing battle, Hunk and his comrades managed to form Voltron for the first time, but had yet to master the skill as they would need to if they were to battle the Galra Empire. To that end, they began undergoing intense training in an effort to learn how to do so, trying various tactics such as stacking their lions on top of each other (which Hunk disrupted somewhat by trying to get into the head position). Additional training also proved difficult with Hunk struggling with the system by which he entered the Yellow Lion, being hurt at Pidge's unwillingness to share a mental connection, and being terrified and nauseated by combat simulations and piloting exercises. However, when Allura chained the Paladins together and hit them with "food goo", Hunk was quick to join his fellow Paladins in uniting against her tyrannical approach to training. The experience ultimately proved to be just what the five needed to come together in order to form Voltron at will.

Hunk would later join his teammates-minus Shiro and Pidge-and Allura in paying a visit to the Arusians, the native people of Arus, whom they quickly befriended. Unfortunately, the planet was then attacked by the Robeast Myzax, and Hunk was prevented from taking cover with the Arusians by Keith, who dragged him back to the castle to enter his lion. After a hard battle the Paladins achieved victory, and soon enjoyed a party at the castle with the Arusians as they prepared to depart the planet. However, when Pidge announced plans to leave the team in search for father Samuel Holt and brother Matthew Holt, Hunk admitted to his own feelings of homesickness and fear of taking on the threat of the Galra. When Sendak attacked the castle, however, he was called upon by Coran to travel to a nearby Balmera in search of a replacement power source, only to find the massive space creature under Galra occupation.

Becoming a Hero

After crashing their pod in the depths of the Balmera, Coran and Hunk encountered the Balmerans, an alien race who lived within the creature and were forced by the Galra to mine the crystals produced by the Balmera. Hunk in particular would form a bond with Shay, who unlike her brother Rax welcomed the strangers and wished to help them. After learning of how her people suffered and that Shay had never even seen the sky before, Hunk came to see what it was that he would be fighting for as a Paladin of Voltron. This gave him the courage to work with Coran to recover a crystal, though they were briefly held captive by the Galra before being freed by Shay. They were later betrayed by Rax and Shay was captured, but her efforts enabled Hunk and Coran to escape with Hunk vowing to return for her.

After defeating and capturing Sendak, Hunk and his comrades launched the Castle of Lions and set course for the Balmera, during which time Pidge was revealed to be a girl, which Hunk found quite unsurprising. The group soon made their way to the Balmera to rescue Shay, whom Pidge teasingly referred to as Hunk's "girlfriend." They eventually found her at the core of the Balmera, only to discover that they had been lured there as part of a Galra trap, which also saw Galra forces arrive to seize Voltron. However, the Balmerans were able to use their connection to the creature to free the Paladins, who then defeated the Galra ships only to face a new Robeast. Fortunately, Hunk was able to unlock a new weapon using his Bayard, which gave Voltron the firepower to triumph over the creature, which was then encased in crystal by the healed Balmera.

Some time later, Hunk would briefly join his fellow Paladins in attempting to use the Castle's scanners to probe Sendak's memories, but eventually left to find food. However, the food dispenser went haywire, and it was only by teaming up with Pidge that Hunk was able to disable it; he would later describe this as his most terrifying experience since joining Voltron. He and Pidge would later be trapped in the lab with the gravity shut off, and after a failed effort to reactivate it were found by Keith, Lance, and Coran. They soon found that the castle systems had been corrupted by a Galra crystal used by Sendak to power the ship, and were forced to try and save the castle from a supernova. Allura was forced to destroy the A.I. recreation of her father King Alfor to enable their survival.

The group later infiltrated a Galra transport hub, and Hunk remained at the control station with Pidge and Lance while Shiro, Allura, and Keith went out on separate missions. As Pidge attempted to hack a Galra Sentry using a program she and Hunk had designed, Lance questioned whether Allura ever talked about him to his friends. Hunk assured him that she did, but his joking and Lance's wishful thinking were disrupted by Pidge; the group were soon forced to flee after Allura was abducted by the Galra. The Paladins were thus forced to attack Galra Central Command to rescue her, with Hunk taking on that mission after Voltron was forced apart. He later helped Allura save Shiro from Haggar; the group later escaped only to be scattered when Haggar disrupted their wormhole.

Intensifying Conflict

After being reunited, the Defenders of the Universe learned that Shiro's initial escape from the Galra had been enabled by a Galra named Ulaz, who had also uploaded coordinates where they could meet him into Shiro's arm. The group's reactions were mixed, with Hunk liking the idea of a Galra ally while also unwittingly pointing out all the ways in which it was possible they were being led into a trap. However, at Shiro's insistence they went to investigate, only for the castle to be boarded; the Paladins' efforts to stop the intruder failed, and Hunk nearly blasted Pidge in the process. It was soon discovered that the newcomer was in fact Ulaz, who revealed himself to be a member of the Blade of Marmora, a group of Galra opposed to Zarkon, and showed them to his base. The installation was concealed using gravity to fold time and space, a process that Hunk likened to a taco; sadly, Ulaz was later forced to use the technology to sacrifice himself and destroy a brand new Robeast.

Hunk and his comrades would soon travel to the planet Olkarion, which they helped to liberate from the Galra only to be attacked by Galra Central Command, forcing them to flee. After being forced to flee from the attacking force, the group attempted to relax, with Hunk attempting to make cookies only to find them hard and inedible. These would later prove to be made partially of scaultrite, a material needed to repair the Teludav that enabled the castle to travel via wormhole. As a result, Hunk's mixup-together with Coran's suffering from the Altean Slipperies-would enable the heroes to escape after the Central Command found them yet again. Subsequently the heroes would come to the aid of the people of Taujeer as their planet was breaking apart, with Hunk unlocking a new feature of his Lion that provided additional armor, gripping claws, and boosters.

In need of additional supplies to repair the castle, Hunk and the other Paladins-minus Shiro-joined Coran in traveling to an Unalu mall, where Hunk soon made his way to the food court. Unfortunately, while sampling various items he ran across Vrepit Sal, who demanded payment for food Hunk had eaten and chained him in his kitchen as a dish washer when Hunk proved unable to do so. However, when Sal's chef robot became inoperative, Hunk volunteered to took over and quickly turned the restaurant around, preparing dishes that the customers were actually eager to sample. However, Hunk was forced to flee along with his friends as they were pursued by Varkon, unaware that Sal was determined that he would get Hunk back at his restaurant one day. The Paladins would then travel to the Blade of Marmora's headquarters, where they formed an alliance with the group and learned that Keith had Galra heritage.

As the new alliance began preparations to take on Zarkon, Hunk and Keith were assigned to find a Weblum so that they could collect enough Scaultrite for a giant Teludav. Hunk proved something of a nuisance to his teammate by constantly bringing up the recent revelation of his Galra ancestry, though Keith proved more open than he had previously, much to Hunk's surprise. Working together, they managed to infiltrate the Weblum and make their way to its third stomach, with Keith picking up a Galra "ally" along the way, and were then able to acquire the Scaultrite after Hunk provoked the creature using the Yellow Lion. The Galra soon left after taking a bag of Scaultrite, but Hunk and Keith were left with other worries as Allura summoned them and the other Paladins back to help her against the Robeast from the Balmera, which had escaped. Afterwards, Allura thanked Hunk for his role in getting the Scaultrite, but remained silent after Hunk reminded her of Keith's involvement in the mission as well.

Zarkon and Beyond

Dealing with Lotor

Building The Coalition

Personality

Abilities

Skilled Mechanic: Hunk acts as the residant mechanic of the Voltron Paladins, and he's quite good at it. He was able to build a Geiger counter to detect the Voltron Lions with ease, hotwire alien technology, and quickly determine the cause of a machine's malfunction.
Bond with the Yellow Lion: Hunk has a very strong bond with the Yellow Lion, allowing Hunk to communicate with it and get advice from it during combat.

Equipment

Paladin Armor: The standard armor worn by Paladins of Voltron. The armor protects Hunk from harm, allows communication with the other Paladins, and is equipped with a jetpack for sustained flight, along with an energy shield to block attacks. The helmet produces oxygen when worn, allowing Hunk to function normally underwater or in a vacuum, and the bracers can fire small lasers or project holograms of Hunk.

Bayard: The Bayards are the Paladins' main weapons when on foot. Each one takes the form most well-suited for its Paladin. Hunk's Bayard takes the shape of a large, hand-held cannon, which can fire incredibly powerful barrages of energy shots, much like a gatling gun.

Gallery

Trivia

Hunk and Pidge are two equally tech-savvy characters described as being "two sides of the same coin": while Pidge is the more creating, engineering, "figuring out" side, Hunk is the "build it and make it work" side.
Hunk's voice actor, Tyler Labine, has stated that Hunk is Samoan.