Later in that same season, Adam dies in battle along with the rest of his squadron while defending Earth from the invading Galra.
Congoers saw the first episode of the season which featured a flashback breakup scene between Shiro and his then-boyfriend Adam, long before the events of the show began. In July at San Diego Comic Con 2018, shortly before the release of Voltron’s penultimate seventh season, the character of Shiro was confirmed to be gay. In order to understand factors that are believed to have influenced the final season, there’s two major events in Voltron’s recent fandom history I’d like to touch on. A Short Recent History of the Voltron Fandom Voltron Season 8 seems bent on changing that. This is an incredible, diverse, relatable group of characters who until now have been shining examples of good writing for both kids and adults. Allura, a super powerful woman of color who deals with the weight of a ten thousand year old war in spite of the grief of losing her father, her home planet, and the rest of her species, who overcomes her own prejudices, becomes one with her team, and truly becomes one of the most powerful characters in the show while maintaining kindness and good sense of leadership.Truly, the man could bring together the universe with his kindness and soft heart that makes you fall in love with him immediately. Hunk, whose character could have easily boiled down to “the big guy that’s always making food jokes”, you find out is so much more than that.
Pidge, the resident tech genius, portrayed as female for the first time in Voltron’s history (while also being heavily non-binary coded, which I could write an entire separate 12k word analysis about, but for the purposes of this will use they/them pronouns), who pretends to be someone else in order to join the Garrison and find out the truth behind the disappearance of their brother and is constantly lauded as the voice of logic and reason on the team.He keeps his humor without being over the top, loyally willing to put himself in between any of the other paladins and danger, the first to offer up comfort in hard times.
Lance, a child of a large family, whom we meet as a immature jokester more likely to spout a pick up line than a plan, wholeheartedly dedicated to a lifetime rivalry with Keith, has a really great journey of self-realization and becomes a huge part of the team’s heart.Keith: an orphan looking for somewhere to belong, who struggles on a path of self acceptance while dealing with species-based racism after finding out half of his heritage is the same aliens who have been committing mass genocide across the universe for over ten thousand years, and goes from being a sharp-edged juvenile delinquent to a caring and brave leader over the course of 7 seasons.He was complimented with a diverse cast that was each amazing in their own right. A gay Japanese amputee whose struggle with PTSD was portrayed as realistically as his doubts about leadership- that kind of well written and nuanced character in fiction is few and far between. Shiro in particular was such an incredible, stand out character to me. I (like many fans) fell in love with these characters so quickly that I surprised myself. Truly, this show did some remarkable and groundbreaking things with characterization and representation. Mech shows have never been my thing, but I gave it a chance. I will admit I was wary of Voltron when I first heard of it. But the more I watched, the more it felt like things really weren’t adding up. I watched it again, thinking there was something I must have missed. I felt an emptiness in my heart at seeing it conclude so unsatisfactorily. Voltron Season 8 didn’t feel like the show that I fell in love with.
Rather than the epic final season I had hoped to see, I watched a season full of odd pacing and characterization culminating in a finale that left me in a state of shock – and not the good kind. Also, like many in the fandom, I came away from Voltron Season 8 stunned & sad, rather than enjoying a satisfactory conclusion to what had so far been a truly wonderful series. Like many other fans, I stayed up with friends to binge the whole season at midnight as soon as it came out. The eighth and final season of Voltron: Legendary Defender was released on December 14, 2018. Fair warning- there are spoilers for Voltron: Legendary Defender ahead. What happened to Voltron Season 8? How did the final release become something barely recognizable to longtime fans? What was the deal with those leaks? Read on for a warts-and-all review of the whole situation from our Special Guest Contributor, Taylor Hardman.