Spoilers ahead if you aren't caught up with the final season of Voltron Legendary Defender.

DreamWorks Animation's excellent run of Voltron Legendary Defender may be over after eight seasons, but fans out there might still have some lingering questions about just what happened over these final 13 episodes. And while you can read my overall review of the final season to see how it fared and compared to previous seasons, there are some specific details from Season 8 that require a bit more focused attention. Most of this discussion will center on the season's (and really the series') big bad, revealed to be none other than the Altean scientist Honerva-turned-quintessence-addicted witch Haggar, one of the most tragic villains in history.

While I went into some detail and philosophical wanderings about Honerva's corruption and redemption in my overall review, some of her machinations went by so fast in Season 8 that you might have missed out on exactly what she did, why she did it, and how it helped pave the path to her ultimate goal. That's why we're here. But first, before we get to how she did what she did, let's talk about what Honerva's goal really was all along.

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Image via Netflix

Back when she was an Altean researcher, Honerva fell for the powerful and charismatic Galra leader, Zarkon. This courtship of sorts occurred more or less simultaneously to the discovery of quintessence and its power-granting abilities, traits that would ultimately corrupt the duo and form an addiction of sorts. That addiction decayed their relationship and also negatively and tragically influenced their bonds with their son, Lotor. Because of the addiction to quintessence, Honverva/Haggar lost both her husband and her son, but rather than blame herself or the drug that she desperately needed, she turned her rage against the Voltron Paladins and their allies.

At first, Honerva's plan was to fulfill her ultimate dream of piercing the veil of reality in order to find an alternate universe where she could live happily with her restored husband and son once more; the destruction of Voltron and its allies was a mere cherry on top. But after this dream turned into a nightmare, Honerva turned her rage upon the Galactic Coalition, comprised of the Voltron Paladins, Alteans Allura and Coran, the Earth's Galaxy Garrison and its MFE fighters and powerful transforming ship IGF-Atlas, remnants of the Galra Empire and its fleet, and many alien races. In fact, she became determined to wipe out all of reality, borne out of frustration at her inability to find a life free of pain and loss. That's a pretty extreme outcome, but how did she (almost) pull it off?

First, Honerva stepped out of the shadows as the witch Haggar and fully embraced her Altean heritage as Honerva. After getting a lead on the location of the vanished Prince Lotor, Honerva called another Kral Zera, a ritualistic ceremony in which the Galra who hope to become emperor fight to the death for the throne. The last time we saw the Kral Zera, it was Lotor and his generals who were victorious after a facing down numerous challengers; this time, it's over in a blink, and so is the Galra leadership. Honerva summons a fraction of her impressive power to destroy the gathered Galra in mere moments, blaming their bloodline for her failings and the loss of her family.

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Image via Netflix

With the Galra broken and abandoned, Honerva returned to her people, or at least the offshoot of the Altean refugees who had been sequestered on one of Lotor's planetary sanctuaries. These descendants, who saw Lotor as their savior while remaining blissfully unaware of his quintessence experiments that used them as subjects, are more than happy to follow Honerva into battle against those who killed their lord: the Voltron Force. Honerva's manipulation skills are on par with Lotor's own here, though her alchemical abilities far surpass his. She's able to melt down the remnants of ancient Altean statues in order to construct six mechs of her own, each piloted by an Altean acolyte. But this is just a start for Honerva's plan.

One of her acolytes, Luca, travels to Earth to battle Voltron before ultimately being defeated by the transformed Atlas; this occurs in Season 7, though we see flashbacks to Honerva's machinations in Season 8. Meanwhile, other Acolytes traveled to quintessence-rich worlds in order to harvest their resources. But there's another part of Honerva's plan that's even more diabolical here. One Acolyte traveled to the planet of Olkarion, a very advanced technological planet that the Paladins visited earlier in the series; the planet became a sort of refugee hub for those fleeing persecution by the Galra. In addition to sapping the planet of its quintessence, essentially killing it (and making it easy prey for the dead planet-devouring Weblum), the Acolyte and their mech also stole a number of massive black cubes, the same super-weapons seen in a Season 2 episode.

This all leads up to one of the craziest episodes of the season and the series overall. In "Genesis", Honerva positions the cubes around a pyramid-like structure on Oriande, the legendary source of Altean alchemy. Though this realm, which exists within a white hole, is guarded by the powerful White Lion who is only supposed to grant access to those with "the mark of the chosen" (which Honerva apparently has), Honerva's plan accounts for it. Her acolytes funnel quintessence from their source planets back through the cubes and into the pyramid, super-charging the Altean witch. She also manages to drain the quintessence from the White Lion guardian itself, killing it. All of this is in service to two ends: Resurrecting Lotor (though in a corrupted form as a husk of a soul melded to his Sincline mech) and ultimately to pierce reality's veil and find an alternate reality of her choosing, though this happens later.

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This is all insane to watch unfold, including a fantastic scene of the transformed Atlas cutting between Voltron and an attacking Acolyte like a protective big brother, Lotor's Robeast betraying an Acolyte pilot by brutally destroying it while others watch on in horror, and Honerva getting her own version of the Castle of Lions when the pyramid structure floats up and out into space.

That's a big win for Honerva, but the next big battle that takes place in the second half of the final season actually happens within her own mind. This is a fantastically directed and orchestrated sequence that sees a mysterious entity (itself born of quintessence before time existed) inhabiting and directing Allura, though it's unclear how much control Honerva has over these events from a distance; the witch does manage to take hold of the other Alteans aboard the IGF-Atlas when the moment calls for it, so perhaps Allura is simply made of stronger stuff.

Battle of Wills

 

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This mental connection, like that between Harry Potter and Voldemort (yeah, I went there), leads to a confrontation in the arena of the witch's mind. It's a trippy sequence that extends over two episodes: "The Knights of Light" Parts I and II. Beautifully told, it serves to reintroduce the first Paladins (Gyrgen, Alfor, Blaytz, and Trigel, with Zarkon playing a pivotal role later on), retell of the dissolution of the team and the rise of the Galra Empire, and revisit some of the series' earliest moments, like a rematch between Voltron and the first-ever Robeast they battled. It's a sequence that not only allows both Voltron teams to work together for the first time ever (and for King Alfor to grant Lance his blessing when it comes to his courtship of Allura), but also to show the corruption and madness within Honerva's mind.

It's here that the new Voltron Paladins discover that Zarkon ordered Honerva to drain the quintessence from his teammates, imprisoning their consciousnesses inside her own mind. Allura and the others quite literally sever Honerva's memories in order to cut their way free from her mental prison. It's a trippy but cool series of events, especially with Zarkon, restored to his pre-quintessence prime, getting to lead the Voltron team one last time.

Piercing the Veil

After the gathered Paladins manage to escape the horrors of Honerva's mind intact, the final battle looms. it's worth mentioning here that Honerva has been ahead of the combined forces battling against her at every step, whether it's in her expert planning or her near-limitless power dominating the battlefield. In the last few episodes of the season, Honerva plays one of her final cards: She takes control of the possessed Alteans on the Atlas in order to send the ship's quintessence energy to her so that she can gather the power needed to rend reality. One of Honerva's acolytes, Merla, betrays her and destroys one of the pyramid structure's channeling crystals, but it's all for naught. Even when the Balmerans arrive with a new powerful crystal source (in the form of a Balmera), Honerva prevents the good guys from getting the upper hand by draining that source of quintessence as well. And now that Honerva has merged her own mech with the Sincline suit, she can also go toe-to-toe with Atlas.

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In fact, pretty much the entire Galactic Coalition has failed to prevent Honerva from tearing reality apart. Only Voltron, now cloaked in its awesome Atlas armor thanks to the convergence of Balmera, has any hope of defeating her. Unfortunately, the Atlas-armored Voltron is still no match for Honerva, and despite the combined efforts of their allies on the other side of the reality tear, they're unable to keep the portal between realities open and stable. It's looking pretty bleak for our heroes at this point, but it's actually Honerva's own rejection at the hands of her alt-reality husband and son that does the most damage. It's this final failure in achieving her heart's desire that causes her to completely lose it and opt to destroy all reality instead of suffering any longer. In her rage, Honerva severs the threads of alternate timelines in the nexus of all realities until there's only one left.

In the end, Honerva isn't defeated through strength of arms, a battle of wills, or even a final duel of alchemical magic. She's convinced by the gathered Voltron Paladins, led by Allura in the "connected consciousness of all existence", that it's the "flawed and weak" messiness of reality that makes it worth living and that it's our differences that makes us stronger together. With Allura's offer to help Honerva to transform the nature of her quintessence into something creative rather than destructive, the two Alteans are able to restore the broken chains of reality (and then some, also bringing the planets of Altea and Daibazaal back ... here's hoping Olkarion is restored as well). Unfortunately it comes at a high price: The sacrifice of both Allura and Honerva.

The Altean princess and Voltron Paladin says goodbye to her friends and teammates in turn, saying, “Voltron isn’t needed anymore. The rest of the work is up to the people.” Allura kisses Lance goodbye last and, curiously, Altean markings appear on his face; whether this was some final gift from Allura to Lance, or a reveal/nod to the fandom that Lance had some Altean blood all along, well your guess is as good as mine. What we do know is that the story doesn't end there; it picks up a year later...

One Year Later ...

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Image via Netflix

Here's where things get interesting regarding the possible future of Voltron Legendary Defender. After Honerva's Thanos-like snap that erased multiverses of reality (some of which I've captured below in a gallery of screenshots if you're curious), the restored realities make for some interesting storytelling possibilities. While we haven't heard anything official just yet, that offers some continuity flexibility should DreamWorks and Netflix want to order up more Voltron adventures in the future. Here's how Voltron Legendary Defender resolved its story but left the door open for more tales to come:

In the VLD story's closer, Keith addresses the remaining Galra on the restored Daibazaal to give them the opportunity to diverge from their cruel, imperialistic past and move toward a better and brighter future. The Galra are invited to join the Galactic Coalition and opt to hold a democratic election, a pattern often repeated in our own reality.

The series also carved out time to tell viewers what all of the Paladins were up to after their legendary adventure had come to a close: Hunk uses his culinary techniques learned from a diverse cooking staff in order to bring warring factions together under the peaceful banner of sharing a good meal together; he's come a long way since food goo. Pidge, for one reason or another, creates a robotic twin which she names CHIP; this is a nod back to the character who was actually Pidge's twin in the original Defender of the Universe series and was a pilot for the Air Team of "Vehicle Voltron." (This could be an open door to an exploration of a Vehicle Voltron reboot, especially since the IGF-Atlas is still in commission and the MFE fighters sure look like they want to transform.) Even Lotor's former generals got a chance to shine, briefly, as both pirates and reformed charity workers. Lance, meanwhile, acts as a sort of missionary, spreading Allura's message that there is good in everyone throughout the known universe and among many diverse alien races. Her sacrifice is celebrated with all the people of the coalition and the christening of a towering statue ... but it's after this moment that the Voltron Lions themselves bid farewell and fly off into space, eventually heading toward a stellar cluster that looks remarkably like Princess Allura in repose. (This, too, is a nod back to the original "Goddess of the Unvierse", who played a complicated role in Voltron's origin story.)

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But what about Shiro? And what happened after the Lions left? The show clarifies these questions, some more satisfactorily than others, in a pre-credits slideshow of sorts:

  • The Holt family established the next generation of Legendary Defenders.
  • Hunk created a culinary empire, bringing the universe together, one meal at a time.
  • Lance continued to spread Allura’s message while surrounding himself with the things he loved.
  • Kolivan and Krolia became the Galra representatives to the Galactic Coalition.
  • Keith helped transition The Blade of Marmora to a humanitarian relief organization.
  • Shiro found his happiness and finally left the battle behind.

I won't end on a sour note, but the handling of Shiro (who's a gay character on the show) needs to be mentioned. There was quite the fallout after it was revealed in the previous season that Shiro's boyfriend/almost-fiance Adam was one of the victims who perished in the Galran occupation on Earth while Voltron was lost in time. On one hand, perhaps the showrunners simply wanted to introduce the fact that Shiro was gay and didn't expect the fandom to go all-in on their relationship, especially since their last time together on-screen can be seen as a break-up scene. On the other hand, Shiro is the only character who's unable to reunite with his family or loved ones (even Allura gets to in death) so it's understandable that fans, especially those in the LGBTQA+ community would be upset at this presumed injustice.

So I'm curious to see how the fans will react to the reveal that Shiro found a new love of his life in Curtis, got married, and even shared a kiss to close out the series. Is Shiro's happiness going to be enough of a resolution to his story? Or is it going to be seen as a patch job? (And was Shiro's arm-wrestling competition a last battle for him to "save" his youth and masculinity, or was it just a fun nod to Over the Top?) For me, I'll focus on the fact that a capable leading man ended up subverting stereotypes by being gay, Japanese, someone who deals not only with a degenerative muscular disease but also the loss of a limb and attachment of an artificial one (also the mental stress of realizing he's a clone), and ended up stepping away from his former command post to take on a less flashy and famous role. The handling of Shiro's character from the beginning to end of the series may be the most inconsistent of the bunch, but it's certainly an interesting one to analyze.

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Voltron Legendary Defender will go down as one of the greatest animated series in history, if the world's fair and its memory is sufficiently long. As for the future of the franchise, I don't know that we need to explore the stories of Galaxy Garrison cadets Ryan Kinkade, Lance's sister Veronica, Nadia Rizavi, James Griffin, and Ina Leifsdottir, but it certainly offers up some interesting territory for a fresh and original story. It'd be a bit strange for the show to spend so much time with the Earth-based human soldiers of an intergalactic war that featured five mighty robot lions as its first defense unless audiences were being primed for future adventures.

I'd personally welcome more from the showrunners if they want to spend time within this reality, though Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery are going to busy in the Spider-Verse for a while. (Dos Santos will direct Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 and Montgomery, at last report, was in negotiations to direct Sony's Spider-Women spin-off featuring Spider-Gwen, Silk, and Spider-Woman.) Whatever project Dos Santos and Montgomery turn to next, if it's anything like the Avatar/Korra franchise or Voltron Legendary Defender, audiences are in for a treat.

Would you like to see more from this take on Voltron or are you happy with the story as it is? Let us know in the comments!

To get a peek at the realities that once were and might yet be again, take a look at these (unfortunately fuzzy) screenshots pulled from the series finale:

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