Season 7 of Voltron: Legendary Defender was a wild, emotional ride. After coming back to a war-struck Earth, Team Voltron manages to save their planet from the Galra and know peace for all of twenty seconds before something else comes along to kill them. This time, they must face a giant Robeast-like mecha that has the ability to sap Voltron of its quintessence, among other terrifying powers. The team defeats it in an epic battle, but it’s what’s inside it — its power source — that leaves them on a cliffhanger: an Altean. This Altean and the mecha will no doubt be a focal point of Season 8, so there’s no time to waste in theorizing about the different aspects of this mystery.
Breaking Down the Komar Robeast
The first thing to look at is the mecha itself. It’s more powerful than Voltron. The team can only stop it with a sword attack through its one weak point — the cavity in its chest that opens up when it powers up for a beam attack. We still don’t know the mecha’s origins, but there are a couple of clues in its design to point us in the right direction. While the armor is white, its sickles, chest cavity, and attacks emit that distinctive Galra purple. It also behaves like the Galra’s previous Robeasts — you know, crashing into a planet, zeroing in on Voltron. The team doesn’t specifically guess it’s from the Galra or that it’s a Robeast, but the telltale signs are all there.
The biggest clue about the mecha is its unique ability to absorb an enemy’s energy with its sickles and then use that energy for its chest beam. Pidge and Allura both note that the absorption attack feels like the Komar. The Komar was a magical machine Haggar created early on that could absorb an entire planet’s quintessence. She used it against the Paladins in “Blackout” to absorb Voltron’s quintessence, but Allura destroyed it. Now, it seems that the technology has been recreated and placed in this mecha to create a Komar Robeast. And that leaves a certain witch as our most likely suspect for who created it.
Who Is the Mysterious Altean?
The other major part about this mystery is the Altean that was identified as the Komar Robeast’s power source at the end of the season. While their existence ties together some earlier clues, they raise so many questions. First, did someone else send this Altean, or did they go after Voltron themselves, as an act of vengeance? It’s safe to assume that someone else sent them, as they appear to be “built” into the Robeast. They’re most likely a pawn, being used for their quintessence as the power source.
The most looming question about the Altean is where they came from. Aside from Coran, Allura, and now Romelle, the only other existing Alteans we know of are from the Altean colony Lotor set up beyond the quantum abyss. However, in “The Ruins,” Kolivan explains that he sent a team of Blade of Marmora members to investigate the colony, only to find their facility empty. So, whoever sent the Altean in the Komar Robeast most likely found the secret colony and took those Alteans for their own plans.
(As a side note, we have to wonder: does Romelle know this Altean, seeing as how she came from the colony as well?)
The Witch’s Plans
This all leads to who exactly is behind all this, and, most likely, the answer is Haggar. We only get one serious mention of her in “The Ruins,” when Macidus says that no one knows what happened to her after Voltron disappeared in the fight against Lotor. But we do know that when Keith and Romelle describe their journey to the Altean colony in Season 6, Haggar watches through Shiro’s eyes. She knows about this colony. She knows that Lotor harvested Alteans for their quintessence there. Between her knowledge of the colony and her previous Komar experiment, it’s safe to assume that Haggar sent the Altean in the Komar Robeast.
But why? That’s the question Season 8 needs to answer. Our theory is that she wants to rescue her son, Lotor, from the quintessence field that Voltron left him in. Her maternal feelings for him have been building ever since she started to regain her memories. With the Galra Empire in shambles, there’s not much else for her to pursue. Getting Lotor back though is no small feat.
One would think the Komar Robeast would be powerful enough to create a rift into the field, but no. As we’ve seen, only ships made from a trans-reality comet can pass through the rift. Lotor’s Sincline ships, made out of such a comet, are stuck in the field with him. That leaves Voltron as the only other possible comet ship. And that’s why Haggar sent the Komar Robeast — to get Voltron so she can rescue Lotor.
Only Season 8 will tell us the full story behind the Komar Robeast. No matter where it ends up, it’ll start right where we left off: with the Altean. Last we saw, they were struggling to wake up, meaning that they’re still alive. Allura was in the room watching them, so hopefully, we’ll get answers right away should she question them. We just have to wait for the final season to find out.
