Where to even begin with Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 7? It brought on a whole new dynamic as the story shifted from space to Earth. Team Voltron met a bunch of new characters, defeated Sendak and the Galra, and reached incredible heights with their team bond. With so many new stories to tell, there were plenty of moments that made us gasp out loud. Here are five shocking moments from Season 7 of Voltron.
Time Is of the Quintessence
As Team Voltron finds out the hard way, time might as well be an illusion. Early on during their space road trip in “The Way Forward,” they rescue Acxa and then talk with her. At first, the Paladins think that it’s just been a couple weeks since their fight with Lotor. But as Acxa explains, it’s been three years. When Team Voltron sealed the rift to the quintessence field with the Castle of Lions, the resulting explosion caused a time discrepancy between them and the universe.
Imagine missing three years, just like that. All of the sudden, everything is different for the Paladins, and not for the better. Everyone thinks they’re dead. They don’t know if any of their allies in the Voltron Coalition are okay or if their families on Earth are safe. They have no idea that Sendak has taken over Earth. The universe is quite literally the unknown for them now, and it’s a terrifying revelation.
That’s Not How Bad Guys Should Act
The episode “The Feud!” proves that not all shocking moments need to be angst-ridden. Without reason, the Paladins find themselves on the game show “Garfle Warfle Snick.” They have to win the game lest they end up trapped there for eternity. The first round of the game goes surprisingly well as the team guesses Keith’s drawings in a round of Pictation. But when they run out of time, an opposing team shows up to steal the round.
The other team consists of Zarkon, Haggar, Lotor, and Morvok — the Galra royal family plus one. Needless to say, the Paladins were not expecting this team. Their reactions are hilarious, ranging from defensive to disbelieving. The way the Galra act doesn’t make things any easier. They’re jovial and act like a goofy but dysfunctional family. Even though it turns out to be a collective dream, it’s still one of the most disarming yet funniest moments of the season.
The Vicious Reality of War
Season 7 introduces Adam, Shiro’s ex-boyfriend and flight partner at the Galaxy Garrison. While fans were thrilled to meet Adam, they were understandably disappointed by how his storyline wound up. But whether you’re looking at it from a social or in-universe perspective, his fate is definitely shocking.
When the Galra first show up in “The Last Stand, Part 2,” Admiral Sanda refuses to send out the “untested” MFE fighters in favor of more experienced pilots, one of them being Adam. Sam tells her she doesn’t know what they’re up against, but she gives the command to send out the first wave anyway. One by one, the Galra completely wipe out the pilots, including Adam. Their sudden, ruthless deaths leave Sanda and the Garrison speechless. It shows them that this is no joke. The Galra have arrived and they are not your normal enemy. The deaths of Adam and the others make this war real.
A Traitor to Earth
Even after the first wave of fighters, Sanda still doesn’t grasp what they’re up against. After the Paladins return to Earth, they go on an intel-gathering mission and find out that the Galra are building six Zaiforge cannons. They then plan to destroy these cannons in a surprise attack where they’ll rendezvous with their lions right before. It would’ve been a foolproof plan, but Sanda strikes again.
The Paladins are attacked by the Galra and can’t destroy the cannons, implying that the Galra knew about their plan beforehand. As they later find out, Sanda sold them out to Sendak. She thought that if she told him the plan and Sendak got the Voltron lions, he would leave Earth alone. But that’s not how the Galra work. Sendak instead imprisons her and the team, and after realizing that she made a mistake, Sanda dies while trying to fight off a Galra officer. Although she does learn her lesson, her betrayal of the entire planet sends shockwaves on a global level.
The Mighty Atlas
Sometimes you’ll see cool, epic moments, and then you’ll see straight-up badass moments. Seeing what the IGF-Atlas, the battleship created to replace the Castle of Lions, can do is one of the latter. In “Lions’ Pride, Part 2,” Shiro sees the Komar Robeast sapping the quintessence out of Voltron. The Atlas crew is in disarray, and hope is fading fast. But then Shiro “hears” the crystal powering the Atlas, much like how the Paladins can hear their lions. And what happens after is incredible.
Using his connection to the crystal, Shiro transforms the Atlas into a massive mecha. It dwarfs Voltron and the Komar Robeast, and, frankly, exists on another level of size that’s hard to wrap the mind around. And that punch it delivers to the Robeast from space is one of the most impacting (pun intended) scenes of animation we’ve ever seen. The Atlas’s sheer size and ability to transform in the first place are definitely a pleasant surprise in Season 7.
