Did You See That? VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER Season 8

I just very recently finished season eight of Voltron: Legendary Defender. Season eight is the final season of the fantastic show and I thought I’d share some thoughts and feelings about this season since I’m a little conflicted. Be warned, there are spoilers ahead.

So, first, how did I get into watching Voltron? I started watching Voltron because I had a lot of friends recommend it to me and I was looking for a new show. I only got through the first season because people swore it got better in season two. It did, and I enjoyed about every other season. Thankfully, the seasons are really short in this show, so I didn’t have to wait too long to get back into it. I got all caught up with season seven a couple months ago and I was excited like many for the new and final season. I watched the trailers like everyone else and I was ready to go. Then, I watched season eight over the course of a few days and here we are.

With the series finale, I just walked away feeling “meh.” The final season wasn’t great, nor terrible, just okay. I talked with a couple friends and they all felt the same way. So, what happened? Well, I’m going to give my thoughts and ideas.

The first half of the season was pretty good. It was doing the usual build up to the climax of the season. We had a couple of episodes that felt like half-fillers (episodes that feel a lot like filler but do offer some plot progression) like “Day Forty-Seven” and “Clear Day.” Some of the lead up though included episodes like “The Grudge” which brought back Zethrid and you thought that was going to maybe play a big role. That episode also had Veronica trying to befriend Acxa. These were some great moments. Then, we hit “Knights of Light.”

Now, “KoL” were two pretty good episodes. I enjoyed the fact that the team was showing some willingness to take risks with The Entity (still think Allura was really stupid for freeing it, personally) even though it had the potential to be their undoing. I also loved seeing the original Paladins make a comeback. All-in-all, these were still great episodes. But they were the last good episodes.

Once we hit “Uncharted Regions,” the season quickly took a nosedive. It’s time to finally face Honerva, the climax of the season is upon us, and the ball is dropped. The Entity is never removed from Allura, and the only effect that it has is it delays the arrival of Hunk and the Balmera to the final battle. That’s it. We’re lead to believe it will have very drastic consequences and then it delays the arrival of the Balmera which Honerva quickly steals the energy from for her own gains. The moments we saw of growth for Acxa, Zethrid, and I’ll even include Ezor, are wasted. We don’t even see them in the final episodes. When something needs to happen on a Galra cruiser, Krolia is the one to do it. What was the point of “The Grudge?” An entire episode was wasted.

My last big complaint is how they made Honerva super OP. There is no debating that. She is able to beat Voltron down no matter what. Voltron fuses with the Atlas in an attempt to become stronger, and Honerva still kicks its butt. Not only is she OP, she’s also one of those villains who has their plan super calculated and is able to then use the heroes to make their plan work simply by having the heroes do anything. She seems to know exactly how our heroes will act in every situation which then allows her plan to take effect. She’s starting to sound a lot like Aizen from Bleach if you ask me. Also, why is there one place where all realities are tied together and then those realities are extremely easy to break?

At the end of the show, we do see her sort of redeemed thanks to Allura who seemingly goes from wanting to snap Honerva’s neck like a twig to wanting to help Honerva set things right like it’s not a big deal. Honerva and Allura then sacrifice themselves to restore the multiple realities. I actually did really enjoy the fact that Allura sacrificed herself and we find out later, she stays gone. It sucked because we were finally seeing the romance between her and Lance actually happen, but it was rewarding to me. After the sacrifice we have the epilogue which was maybe cut a little short as it didn’t explain some aspects very much, but at the end of the day, I still enjoyed the epilogue.

So, there you have it. I enjoyed parts of the final season, but then was disappointed by how some things were built up and later ignored, or simply by Honerva becoming too powerful. What did you think of the final season?