To date, this may be one of the most polarizing seasons yet in terms how how fans will react to it.

Ever since season 3 had begun the trend of dividing the seasons up into 6-7 episode chunks to reduce the time in between seasons, fans have been asking for full-length seasons.

Now that it’s here, the advantages and disadvantages of breaking a season up in such a manner become clear.

By giving us a full 13-episode season like the first, second, and seventh seasons have, the creators and writers are able to flesh out the situations and drag out tension longer. We get more character interactions and less glossing over backstory like how they used the flashbacks to give Keith backstory in season 6.

However, Voltron may have hit its stride with season 6. That season was arguable one of the strongest by far, and while season 7 was good in its own right, I don’t think it outshined the previous one.

There were several places in the story that dragged and felt like they were expanded on a little too much.

Episode 1 felt like it was trying to recapture the spirit of season 1 episode 1 by mixing a serious tone from the lens of Shiro and Keith’s backstory and the wacky adventure the rest of the gang went on. While I think season 1 accomplished this feeling much better, it would have been a very heavy start to the season if the focus has been exclusively on Shiro and Keith—especially since in real time, Shiro was unconscious and Keith was watching over him.

Keith watching over Shiro. Photo credit to Netflix. Shrooms. So many shrooms. Photo credit to Netflix.

Personally, I’m glad the writers took this angle. Flashbacks should never encompass an entire episode. The constant jumping back and forth can break the viewer’s immersion too much and makes the story feel like it isn’t going anywhere. Voltron, luckily, avoided falling into this hole and instead was able to give the viewer breaks from something very serious to something more lighthearted.

Episode 1 may also have been the episode some fans were waiting the most for. At this point, while I try to avoid any mention of shipping and my stance on it, there’s no denying our first good look at Adam, Shiro’s ex-boyfriend.

Many fans praised the writers for the early reveal at San Diego Comic-con that the person in the season 7 trailer was Shiro’s boyfriend. Ever since Legend of Korra’s momentous announcement that Korra and Asami ended the series as a couple, many people have been desperately waiting for more LGBT representation but a little sooner than five minutes before the end of the series.

Korrasami five minutes before the series end. Photo credit to Syfy.com Established relationship two seasons before series end. Photo credit to Netflix

While some fans may dislike Adam and the way he and Shiro parted, I like the approach the writers took. Romantic relationships have never been a focus of Voltron—nor do I feel that they should be. This show is about giant lions turning into even more giant robots to punch other giant robots in the face.

The way Shiro and Adam interacted, while brief, did seem realistic and how two people who had been in a long-distance relationship before may discuss a serious matter like the one partner with a debilitating disease leaving to go into space (again) for a number of years.

Even though we got maybe two minutes of Shiro and Adam interaction, none of it felt forced, and it was a good way for the writers to subtlety flesh out Shiro more as a character. Shiro having a significant other at the moment does not detract from the fact that the LGBT community has finally received confirmed representation that was not insulting nor was it a character’s only defining trait.

While more LGBT representation in the future would be great, I am glad the writers are sticking to their guns and what they know will drive the story forward.

Speaking of which, progression of the plot did seem like it followed a relatively simple path. Following the destruction of the Castle of Lions, Team Voltron knew they had to return to Earth to rebuild it.

Episodes 2, 5, and 8 felt like they dragged the most. These episodes were the ones in which Team Voltron spent the whole episode in their lions or absent from the story in general.

Interacting through the comm links is fine, but the characters of Voltron shine the most when they’re on screen together. Prior to this season, there was the ability to keep the Paladins all in the same location but allow them their own spaces to interact. Being crammed into the lions made everything, literally and figuratively, feel cramped.

The episodes in which the Paladins were on screen with one another or were definitely the stronger episodes.

Lotor’s defeat at the end of season 6, like Zarkon’s felt ambiguous, and I still have doubts he is really dead. To introduce a super cool robot like his then completely destroy it and leave it in some magical Quintessence Field seems a bit like lazy writing. Especially for as major and nuanced a villain as Lotor turned out to be, it seems almost disrespectful to write him out like that.

Because of this, I spent a good portion of episode 3 wondering if Lotor was going to show up at any point. His generals were a nice inclusion since the last we saw of them, they had been marooned in space and left to die.

It’s thanks to this episode that the viewers learn from Acxa, now Team Voltron’s ally, that 30 deca-phoebes (3 years) have passed since their fight with Lotor. Guess that’s what happens when you jump between dimensions.

The tone in the next episodes takes a massive shift from episode 3 right from the get-go. As was the case with episode 1, this was likely done to break up the heavy tones of the first three episodes, and game shows are formats almost everyone is familiar with.

While the bulk of the episode didn’t serve any purpose aside from giving us a break from the monotony of not being tortured by former enemies and traveling through the emptiness of space, it didn’t serve much purpose. It was, however, more entertaining to watch than in season 4 with the “The Voltron Show!”

This episode gave the audience a mental break in preparation for the next few episodes.

As I mentioned before, while the pacing of episode 5 felt a little slower in comparison to some of the others, it had useful information and did move the plot along. Through this, we learn more about the turmoil the Galra empire went through after Lotor’s (supposed) death and the multiple factions that broke off as a result.

Kolivan had been captured and used as a means of luring in any Blade of Marmora stragglers who were looking to regroup with their comrades. In this episode, the druid mentions something that is not touched on at all later in the season:

It’s unclear if the druid was referring to Keith’s Galra blood or to Team Voltron in general for defying the Galra Empire.

Because of this line, we are reminded that Haggar is still a factor to consider. She did not make an appearance at all in season 7 (and the fake game show does not count) and was only referenced this one time. She or those strange dark creatures from the rift may yet be the endgame baddie. Keith also parts with his mother for the second time in this episode in order for her to help Kolivan find any surviving Blades of Marmora members.

Keith and Krolia had been allowed the time to bond as a mother and son, and their separation here felt natural to the progression of the story. To bring Krolia to Earth with Keith would have meant the writers needed to address the last time she left Earth and the fact that Keith’s father had died in the interim.

Even with a longer season, to add too many elements to the story would have muddied it.

Episodes 7 and 8 were the first of two two-part episodes in this season. These are where I felt the show may have benefited from a shorter run time in this season, or episodes 7/8 may have been better suited as just one episode.

Fans have been wondering what’s been happening on Earth and how many years have passed since Team Voltron left. Even still, Sam Holt was not enough of a character to carry the plot for two episodes, hence the need for side characters—namely in the forms of Commander Iverson, Admiral Sanda, Veronica, and the four fighter pilots.

These episodes just felt like they dragged on and on and on. The only characters we cared about enough at this point were Sam and Colleen Holt. All the other characters at certain points felt superfluous. It took several episodes for the fighter pilot cadets to grow on me, and even then, I wouldn’t have been too broken up had any of them died.

Their characterizations were weak and felt like we were supposed to like them immediately.

A few important facts took place during these episodes—Veronica is Lance’s sister, which may have been why he joined Galaxy Garrison in the first place, a significant amount of time must have passed since World War III took place in this story, which provides an explanation for how Earth had advanced enough technology to travel all the way to Kerberos, and that Adam was killed as part of the first wave against the Galra invasion.

Since season 1 episode 1, I had been wondering when the Galra would go back to Earth, knowing that the Paladins would return to defend it.

The episode where Team Voltron sneaks their way to Earth is also used as a mental breather for fans. Because Voltron does not operate like a weekly, episodic show, having these breaks in between critical arcs is necessary to hold attention so the viewer doesn’t get exhausted watching.

Pidge and Lance are able to reunite with their families, and, with Keith’s help, Hunk is able to have some character-building moments he had been missing out on the whole series. Allura is also able to engineer a replacement for Shiro’s arm since the clone’s had been destroyed during his battle with Keith in season 6.

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Despite this new arm, Shiro then begins to take more of a supporting role to Team Voltron who are beginning to come into their own as the true Paladins of Voltron.

The incredible bond between a lion and paladin was hinted at before in season 2 with Keith and the Red Lion when the Red Lion rescued Keith and Allura from space and Keith from the Blade of Marmora.

This bond is expanded upon in this season with each of the paladins being able to call their lion from a great distance and also pilot them remotely. The bonds the paladins have with their lions may yet become another factor when the series is wrapping up. This bond has already saved Team Voltron before such as in their final battle with Zarkon in season 2 and in the battle with Lotor in the Quintessence Field.

The last couple episodes of the season needed a lot of things to happen in order for it to tie off any loose ends. A lot of these events just seemed very predictable and cliché.

Admiral Sanda, to no one’s surprise, gives Team Voltron’s secrets to the bad guy because she thinks it will help protect more people, Shiro has a final confrontation with Sendak, another bigger bad guy shows up at the end, and there is the ambiguous “did the heroes survive?” moment at the season’s climax.

Now I’m not saying that all these things weren’t awesome because they definitely were… they were just cliché. Sanda ended up redeeming herself, we got to watch Keith save Shiro for the umpteenth time, the writers threw us another curve ball with this final robot (piloted by another surviving Altean), and Shiro gives a moving speech to the people of Earth while the injured paladins reunite with their loved ones.

Pidge reunited. Photo credit to Netflix. Lance reunited. Photo credit to Netflix. Hunk reunited. Photo credit to Netflix. Allura reunited. Photo credit to Netflix. Keith reunited. Photo credit to Netflix.

It will likely take another few weeks for the premiere date for season 8 to be released. Considering how long this season was, we can probably expect there to be a bit of a gap between seasons instead of the one-month gap between seasons 6 and 7.

I am still holding out hope that Lotor is not truly dead and that Haggar and the dark beasts will make a reappearance. With Team Voltron having returned to Earth, the next season will likely see them return to space in the Atlas in order to find out where this new Altean enemy pilot came from.

This season felt like a shift from previous ones. The stakes were far higher during this final battle since instead of the abstract “fate of the universe” being at stake, we were given faces and a setting we, the viewers, are familiar with and would also (hopefully) protect, if given the choice.

Where the series will go from here is anyone’s guess, however. Still, Joaquim dos Santos and Laura Montgomery have not led us astray yet, and I have faith that they won’t let the show drift astray.