I guess it’s time to put Voltron: Legendary Defender to bed.
Barring a couple of problematic elements, s7 was still a solid season of television heading into the 8th and final season. With most of the other antagonists defeated, it’s down to Honerva aka Haggar to finish the job. And she may just have found her greatest weapon, as when we left off, Voltron was attacked by a giant robotic monster piloted by an Altean. Season 8 has its own share of controversies but I’ll cover them at the end, for now let’s dive into…
Launch Date
It’s really amazing that they don’t update the opening titles, when it has Paladins in the wrong lions, shows off antagonists and threats that have long since been dealt with and just feels old.
Anyway, with them defeating Sendak in the last season, the Paladins have gained a sorta celebrity status and have a TV show made about them, must be incredibly low budget and use stock footage, yeah it’s the original Voltron show. Pidge isn’t really a fan. The Altean they found in the robot we find out from Romel is called Luka, someone Romel respected in spite of their differences, she’s still unconscious.
Hunk’s parents have gifted Hunk with a load of food supplies, and their family favourite, banana cake, this gets only funnier considering it was a lockdown staple food. They’re about to launch into space again and Lance is feeling a bit down. Hunk tries to calm him down by talking about the show, but may have put his foot his foot in his mouth mentioning that it was Keith who likes/liked Allura in that show.
Hunk asks about him asking Allura out and he reveals he’s backed out, given Allura has been distracted in the med-bay. Hunk gives him stern words to force his hand. Shiro gives his final briefing to the team before they take off. In the time since the last episode, Earth’s defences have been bolstered, the ALTAS has been repaired and they’re ready to liberate more Galra occupied worlds. Shiro orders everyone to spend their last night on Earth having fun.
Lance takes this hint and awkwardly asks Allura out and she accepts, with a little push from Romel. Allura turns to Pidge for help with ‘human attire’ but Pidge has been grounded because of comic relief, it’s decently funny, moving on. Luka appears to have stabilised but is pretty silent. Pidge discovers something in the Mall they want, but it’s become akin to a swap shop, with people wanting things of value in exchange for the goods. Pidge soon realises her celebrity status can buy her a lot if she just gives out her autograph.
Lance pays Coran a visit and it’s essentially more comic relief. With getting his blessing being akin to a job interview. Pidge trades a game she bought earlier for the clothing for Allura. Lance shows up in goofy Altean garb, on top of Voltron, where Keith is spending his evening of fun brooding with his wolf. Oh Keith…
He gives some pretty solid advice to Lance, and soon it’s date time. Allura gets introduced to Lance’s extended family, who all take turns embarrassing him because that’s what a family does. They toast to family but it only makes Allura a little sad. And it may just be getting worse as Luka and Romel talk, Luka calling Romel a traitor for siding with Voltron and killing Lotor, they still don’t know and I suppose they never will, what Lotor was actually doing with them. Honerva kills her from a distance, making me wonder why she didn’t just do that in the first place. It’s clearly been some time since the mech’s defeat so she must’ve known.
Lance and Allura walk home through a dead a dead park and Allura uses some of her quintessence to restore some life back to the park. She relents that she felt like they were a part of family as the Paladins of Voltron but now she sees all of them have families to go back to, so she feels alone, Lance confesses his love and the two kiss.
With a large crew at their beckon call, the ATLAS departs for it’s mission, a launch witnessed by a massive crowd.
You know when I said that s8 needed a breather episode, this is exactly the kind of episode I was talking about. It’s a solid season opener, establishing a few threads but mostly just allowing everyone a moment of peace before things begin to ramp up again.
Rating 7.5/10
Shadows
We flash back to what happens immediately after Lotor’s generals turn on Haggar back in season 6. She teleports to another ship and informers a commander named Marr that Voltron has taken Lotor captive and that he wants him found and brought to her. Some time later, Haggar’s appearance has become more Altean-like, she returns to the ruins of Daibazaal where the cat that belonged to Narti appears to be waiting.
Honerva flashes back to Zarkon’s immediate happy response to the news of her pregnancy, him wanting him to be the best of both their people. She vows to find Lotor in the present. Honerva cuts herself away from leading the druids, telling them she’s not the leader they’re looking for right now. In another flashback we realise the name Lotor was a combination of two names relevant to the foundation of both Galran and Altean societies.
Honerva gets word of Marr’s return, he’s comatose but she uses her magics to find out what he knows. He was ambushed by Lotor’s generals and they told him that Lotor had perished, something she doesn’t accept. We see Honerva and Zarkon awaken, shortly after the destruction of Daibazaal. Honerva remembers nothing, and Zarkon has a pretty shaky memory as well. He sees that she’s in pain, in labour to be more accurate and sends for a doctor, Honerva takes the quintessence of the Doctor, killing her and we find out her name was Haggar, and that’s why Honerva chose that name.
She gives birth but with everything that’s happened, he doesn’t really want to be with Lotor. With neither of them able to survive without quintessence, they begin their expansion of the Galra Empire. In the present, with Honerva more certain that Lotor is dead, they begin another Kral Zera, but Honerva shows up, now believing that Lotor’s Galra blood is what ultimately defeated him, and she annihilates everyone there. Wow, that is, that’s definitely a statement
In flashback, a child Lotor asks about his mother, Zarkon refuses to answer and has Lotor punished whilst Haggar watches, unaware that it’s her child. In the present Honerva uses an enchantment to peer into the quintessence field, and sees once and for all that her son is dead. In flashback, Lotor asks to accompany Zarkon on a mission, he refuses.
In the present, Honerva arrives in new Altea, announcing to them the death of Lotor at the hands of Voltron and also claims the so-called Sister Colony fell to Voltron also. She announces her intent to punish Voltron and the Galra and continue the work Lotor started. The Alteans pledge their loyalty to her on the spot. They get to work, crafting the powerful armoured suit Voltron fought in the last season finale.
Back in flashback we get a bit of backstory alluded to when Lotor was telling of his origins. He has his own planet in the empire and he was using his strategies, working with the occupants and the results are some of the highest yields in the Empire. Zarkon doesn’t care but Lotor has his own axe to grind, he’s worked out the secrets of his lineage and of the destruction of Altea. But Haggar knocks him out and Zarkon destroys the planet, he banishes Lotor, whilst Haggar looks on and watches.
In the almost present, Commander Sendak informs her of the Voltron lions arriving on Earth. She tipped him off about this and it was likely because of this Sendak began his occupation of Earth. Haggar tells him to destroy the Lions but it was likely just to soften the Paladins up, whilst she sent in her own robot mech, which we see she has several of. Luka enters the mech and sets course for Earth.
This is an important episode as it helps us fill in a few gaps about what Honerva’s been up to, why the Galra Empire isn’t coming back this time and what her ultimate agendas are. Relating it to Lotor is smart, although I’m not entirely convinced she understands what Lotor really wanted at all, we’ll get back to that at a later stage.
Rating 8.5/10
The Prisoner’s Dilemma
Voltron’s now coalition begin a raid on a Galra base. The Lions make the initial assault and draw out their defences, the ATLAS using its heavier weaponry and more fortified shielding to cover them from above. The MFE’s are launched to deal with fighters as a small strike team is launched to cripple the base, unfortunately a couple of orbital satellites were cloaked and begin raining down upon them. Allura uses the Blue Lion’s sonic cannon to detect them and they form Voltron to take them down.
With the satellites down. The Voltron coalition take control of the base relatively easily. They find out that the guy running the station is the guy from the Omega shield station from season 6, but after everything that happened, he’s been disillusioned of the idea of working with Voltron again. Talk of that is put on hold when they receive a distress signal from a sentry in a different area. Unfortunately, with everything going on on this world, the ATLAS can’t so it’s up to Voltron, taking the commander with them to prove their intent.
This particular Galra fleet was on the hunt for weapons from an abandoned ship, doing whatever they can to survive the Empire being at war with itself. The fleet has been annihilated with only 3 ships left in-tact, and no sign of life on 2 of them, just where the signal initiated. They try to make contact but only receive the distress signal.
Keith, the commander and the wolf teleport aboard and open the airlock so the others can get in. Pidge’s scans seem inconsistent, so she, Allura and the commander are sent to access security logs with Keith, Hunk and Lance search the ship for survivors. Pidge manages to restore security camera but the footage seems corrupted. Allura and the Commander share a moment, with Allura maybe starting to convince him.
Hunk and Lance are confused, finding only claw marks everywhere and no sign of any sPidge has urvivors, made even stranger by the fact no escape pods were launched nor can they find any bodies. Keith finds an in-tact sentry, most likely the one that was sending the distress call. manages to find a shadow and through some science and stuff, as found the look of the creature.
Hank and Lance find it absorbing the crystals from the ship, it can move exceptionally fast. It’s also pretty smart, tricking Keith into giving away the location of the Galra on the planet. So, you might want to flash back a few seasons. Back to when Keith first met his mother, they unleashed a Galra-killing monster to defeat Galra forces whilst they escaped the base and this is that monster. This fleet was sent to plunder that exact base and now the monster has managed to get off-world.
Pidge activates the ship’s self-destruct but the monster attacks, Keith and the commander are trapped with the monster briefly and Keith unlocks a new bayard weapon that helps keep the monster at bay and allow them to make their escape before the ship explodes, taking the monster with it. With this in mind, the commander tells anyone who will listen that he’s accepted the logic of a more united from with the Voltron coalition and advises everyone else to do the same.
It’s a victory but muted somewhat by the realisation that some of the data Pidge hacked from the ship reveals there are more of Haggar’s ro-beasts out there that need to be tracked down and dealt with. But of-course there’s still the matter of stabilising the universe that cannot be further delayed. Keith says they’re going to split up, with Voltron dealing with the ro-beasts and the ATLAS dealing the with the coalition. One problem though, they needed the help of the ATLAS to defeat the ro-beast last time. Now they’ve got no backup.
We see Honerva launching another ro-beast through a teleduv portal.
It’s a good way to tie up a few loose ends and continue moving toward the seasons overall goals. There’s some suspense and compelling action.
Rating 8.5/10
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