I just finished Voltron: Legendary Defender season 7 (I call it five) and I am in a whirlwind of emotion! What a season!

I am going to write a full review on it in a bit, but first I want to touch base on Shiro and the new elements to his character that were introduced. Yes, I’m talking about the reveal that he is in fact gay.

This news was released last month at comic-con, and after finishing the season and looking through instagram, I found some upset fans! The representation frustration continues and I just wanted to give my two cents.

When it comes to gay characters, especially gay heroes, I have always felt it’s a bit of a “Goldie Locks Syndrome”. By that I mean we either get a character that is gay from the get-go and their entire identity revolves around that OR we get a gay character that we don’t find out is gay until after the series is over! Example of the latter would be the famous case of Albus Dumbledore and even in the newly revived Young Justice animated series. I do think it’s funny that both those stories have returned, thus holding those creative teams to task, but we’ll see.

For now, my focus is on Shiro-the original paladin of the black lion, and LEADER of team Voltron.

Looking at it through the “Goldie Locks Syndrome frame”, the creators of the show were able to avoid both traps. They announced Shiro’s sexual identity in the premiere episode of the penultimate season (without making a big deal of it! Thank you). This means we found out about Shiro’s past love life while there were still 25 more episodes to go of the series. That’s huge for me.

I think it’s wonderful that we got this information not just at the very beginning of the season, but it allowed us to know this about the character, take it with us, and watch him do some BAD. ASS. SHIT. He becomes captain of the Atlas, he channels energy for that thing to become a giant robot, and he goes one-on-one with Sendak on the Galra ship as it’s crashing towards Earth…AMEN!

Would I have liked to have known this sooner? Sure! Yet, when and why would it have come up before? I look at it through the lense of all the characters. They’re fighting an intergalactic war. NO ONE really has love interests! Allura and Lotor last season we’re probably the first piece we’ve gotten throughout the existence of the show. Also, Allura and Lance have only JUST started to show some deeper connection to each other.

I’m content with how it was handled and I can’t wait to go back and rewatch the series to iconify Shiro more than I did before.

What I saw fans complaining about on social media were a couple of things. One, fans were upset that Shiro wasn’t immediately given a new love interest and two, he wasn’t reunited and connected with Adam. Speaking of, fans seemed also horribly angry with Adam’s death.

I am bummed by the death of Adam, for sure. He is one of the only real deaths we saw this time around. It primarily sucks because he’s the love of Shiro, thus eliminating the chance to see that explored later on in the season as the team reaches Earth.

Is this a classic cop-out? Announce a character is gay and then eliminate any chances for that to be explored? It could be! I remember when DC’s Earth-2 comic released with a gay Alan Scott yet his fiance died in the first couple pages and he ultimately became a god rendering him sexless. Cool.

There are however thirteen episodes left of the series. I think there’s still time! Allura and Lance aren’t there yet and I refuse to believe we aren’t going to see them come together before the series finale. Also, I see some hints that Romelle and Hunk could ultimately have something (I was yelling at the television for Romelle to ride with Hunk on the voyage).

There could still be some happiness in store for our hero, Shiro.

With this new information about him, I do WONDER what the connection between he and Keith ultimately is. In the premiere we have that flashback that highlights the age difference between the two (which yes, has been shortened since Keith and his Mom were in that weird time zone thing) and makes me believe it’s strictly mentor/youth, big brother/little brother. Could it be romantic? I think so! I think there’s a-lot of emotional tension between the two! They have it more-so with each other than any other character on the show! We’ll see though, we’ll see.

I will hold my judgement for the final season coming out later this year, but for now, I rejoice in another giant step forward in great representation.