Voltron Season Seven Plot Summary:
After their battle with Lotor, the Paladins of Voltron must travel back to Earth and replace the Castle of Lions. However, they soon discover that the universe has changed since their climactic battle and that Earth is in grave danger.
For the first time since season two, Voltron: Legendary Defender is back to a thirteen-episode season. That may look like a good idea on paper, but the reality is that the season feels backloaded as a result. My biggest fear with the increased episode count was that we’d see a rise in filler, and that issue is certainly the case in the first half of season seven. While “A Little Adventure” and “Feud!” definitely have a zany energy to them that highlight the quirkier elements of the series, they fail to justify the increased number of episodes and don’t come close to the quality of the show’s best filler episodes (most notably last season’s “Monsters & Mana” and season two’s “Space Mall”).
Thankfully, once the Paladins return to Earth midway through the season, the plot kicks into high gear and leads to perhaps the most compelling arc the show has even had. All of the Paladins get moments to shine, even Hunk (Tyler Labine) and Lance (Jeremy Shada) after years of playing second banana and comic relief to the rest of the team, and the stakes become incredibly high and personal. With Earth in the crosshairs of Sendak (Jake Eberle) and his faction of the Galra Empire, the series takes on a direr tone and becomes reminiscent of a war film. Unfortunately, that tonal shift is both this season’s greatest strength and weakness.
If you’re familiar with other movies, shows, or video games that depict alien invasions of the Earth, this season will immediately evoke memories of those stories and their imagery. The battle for the planet pulls from so many tropes of the alien invasion sub-genre: a military organization with vague ties to a national or international governing body leading the battle, a ragtag group of civilians mounting a resistance, famous cities and monuments getting disintegrated, etc. Those similarities are perhaps forgivable, though, given the nature of these stories. What is less forgivable is how bland the conflict feels and actually looks at times.
After seasons of bright alien planets and color-coded pilots, the color palette for Earth is ugly. Everything is gray. Why is it that so many stories about war, alien invasions, and quasi-governmental military factions always look so drained and washed out? The Galaxy Garrison’s gray and orange color scheme undoubtedly distinguishes the organization from the other species and locations we’ve seen on the show and establishes that this part of the war against the Galra is different, but every scene is so visually bland.
Likewise, the new Earth pilots that essentially act as pseudo-Paladins for the Galaxy Garrison are instantly forgettable and boring. While their serious demeanors and strict adherence to the chain of command makes them convincing foils to the often light-hearted Paladins, these MFE pilots never become sympathetic and never exhibit distinct personalities (other than one pilot being the leader and another being extremely analytical). Even as the stakes become higher, getting invested in the plot becomes difficult because of how uncompelling these new characters are.
The Paladins return to Earth in “Know Your Enemy” truly saves this storyline. The Paladins don’t fire off as many quips or engage in hijinks, yet their personalities and our history with them finally make the fight against Sendak more exciting. I’ve questioned in the past if Sendak had the charisma to rival the show’s previous major villains, and the answer is clearly negative in this season. However, the quality of Sendak as a character really becomes negligible; the conflict’s quality comes from how desperate the battle becomes and how devoted the Paladins are to save their loved ones. Unlike the grimness of the MFE pilots, the Paladins’ solemn states elevate the drama to new heights. Whenever Team Voltron is onscreen, getting invested (to the point of cheering or gasping) is no longer a problem for the audience.
Shifting gears, I would be remiss not to mention one of the season’s most talked about elements. As publicized during this summer’s San Diego Comic Con, season seven reveals that Shiro (Josh Keaton) is gay and was in a relationship with another male member of the Galaxy Garrison before his abduction by the Galra at the beginning of the series. When this news was announced, I (alongside others) was hopeful that this development would be a strong push towards LGBTQ inclusivity in animated series. Sadly, the actual scenes touching upon Shiro’s sexual orientation fall far short of the hype and are incredibly disappointing. Without going too far into spoilers, I found that the relationship was not given nearly enough screen time to establish its significance to Shiro’s character and that his partner was dismissed so unceremoniously as to warrant frustration. The idea of revealing Shiro as gay may have been exciting but the execution of that idea was seriously flawed. Hopefully Voltron and other shows will learn from this misstep and continue to pursue LGBTQ inclusivity in more thoughtful ways.
With Voltron: Legendary Defender entering its final season the next time the show returns, this penultimate season had a sense of finality to it. Of course, I have said the same about past seasons and have been consistently surprised and impressed by the directions the series has gone in. Despite my mixed reaction to season seven, I remain hopeful about the show’s conclusion and still believe Voltron is one of the strongest Netflix Original Series to date.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
