Season 7 is the Rest Season™️ And Here’s Why
I’m studying Audiovisual Arts at uni (just barely starting the career) and one of the basic stuff we had to learn was scripts, how storytelling works in audiovisual media. This meta is me applying all this basic (BASIC BASIC VERY ROOKIE STUFF) into VLD, how s6 developed in the bigger picture and predictions I have for s7 based off that. Bear with me for a while, yeah?
1- Season 6 was Voltron’s Action Peak
For starters, season six of Voltron was massive. Either you loved it or hated it, you can agree that this season was extremely… extreme! Everything, every plot point, every single little prediction we have been hanging on since season one blew up in our faces, all at once. It was a lot, a hella lot, in barely 7 episodes.
To mention a few examples:
Clone Shiro was acknowledged, such as Project Kuron, the death of The Original Shiro, and the permanence of the latter in the Black Lion.
Krolia being Keith’s mom was discussed. We were fully shown his origins, his parent’s story, Keith’s story.
Keith’s return to the team
Lotor’s true intentions were revealed, such as the existence of surviving alteans.
Allura’s powers reached a peak. I’m not joking. We’ve know Allura to be powerful since season 1 but after her trip to Oriande and the time spent with Lotor researching, she’s developed into such a powerful alchemist with quintessence than she managed to revive not one, but two characters.
Lance’s insecurities weren’t acknowledged, per se, but we saw him reach a new low on sadness and insecurity, we saw him being lonely and ‘’third wheeling”.
Almost all of these are plot points that fandom has been agonizing over. We’ve taken every little hint of them, turned them over and over, wondering why they weren’t being solved yet. Wondering why it wasn’t explicitly acknowledged by the characters because it was obvious for us!!! It was so obvious!!!
Keith came back, revealed Lotor’s true intentions and Clone Shiro stole Lotor, revealing their identity as a spy. I, for one, was baffled because I never expected the Lotor thing, Keith’s return and Clone Shiro’s reveal to happen at the same exact time. NEVER.
This season was the time where shit hit the fan. Everything bottled up exploded, every single little plot point, every tiny question we’ve been having since. I realize, this was the big climax after five seasons of build up. We had smaller climaxes, turning points of the story (Zarkon’s death, Shiro’s disappearance, etc) but this season was a strong, complex, filled point of the story in which everything bottled up exploded.
Storytelling-wise, you can have one or two big climaxes in a story, climaxes built from the start, hinted at. Everything was worked towards that point. The better the build-up, the more impact the execution has on the viewer. I thoroughly think this one is the biggest one we’ve had yet, the peak of the story, the most intense. It’s basically the Fall Of Ba Sing Se, where everything goes to shit, when world as the characters knew it disappeared. I do think there’s going to be another one, maybe smaller, towards the end of the story. We do have 26 episodes left.
And this idea of ‘’peak” of the bigger picture, we see it reflected in many other individual journeys:
Allura’s powers hit a peak, as I said, she’s more powerful than ever! She fucking went full voltron mode herself!
Hunk (although in a smaller picture) became a figure more assertive and decided than ever! This is not the same Hunk who got anxious over many things, scared (while excited) of the unknown. His journey to be a more decided and sure version of himself started with the Balmera Arc, where he ran over all of his fears to save Shay and her people. In this season, we see him stepping up and - true to his nature - doing what he has to do to save the Galran and make them overcome their anxiety and fear.
Lance’s peak is a very different one. It’s not about being the best version of himself… it’s about how low he can feel. In my opinion, this is not his climax or his peak, but it is a point in which he’s hitting rock bottom insecurity wise. It’s not only about his feelings for Allura, it’s not even about being a third wheel everywhere within the team (visually shown over and over and over), it’s about his place as a person and his place in the team! Look at how out of place, out of himself he is when Shiro revives at the very end of e7. He’s upset, he’s the only one who is upset out of all of them and the reason of it? He feels useless. This is not a peak. It’s rock bottom. I’ll address this further later.
Lance is not only heartbroken. His current emotional state is the result of all his insecurities bottling up and manifesting. Being not corresponded is (for him) the proof his insecurities are true: He’s just a boy from Cuba, he doesn’t have anything to offer, he’s not special.
Keith’s identity reached its peak, the biggest of them. Even though you could argue his big climax was s2 and his galra genes reveal, getting to meet his mother, getting to know his origins, his past IS EVEN MORE INTENSE and extremely game changing. The effect of it is somehow diluted, we don’t see how this whole thing impacts him right afterward because he got two years to work on it, probably reflecting, working on himself, meeting his mother more personally. We get to see the result of it. A bigger, mature, sure of himself Keith. And that’s because he got closure on the subject and he had two years to process all of this, to rest after a peak.
And it’s about this last aspect what i’m going to talk about now.
2- Season 7 will be Voltron’s Rest Season™️
First of all. What do I mean with ‘’Rest Season”?
Imagine this. We’ve had a build up of five seasons, during which we could appreciate hints of the character’s emotionality, complexity. During which we could infer something what’s going on and became attached, tense because we sensed it coming anytime. And when it happened, it happened all at once. Boom. Kaboom. Action action action action, everything happened. The peak.
After a high, a down comes.
I truly believe downs should be used to acknowledge the emotional impact all that actions had on the characters during downs. You just have to. It makes everything heavier. Now that there’s not major, life-changing action, there has to be a space to breathe. Interesting characters in stories aren’t action machines, they have to be fleshed out and they have to bear with the consequences of what happened. Shit happened and now it has to be addressed.
Addressing the emotional weight during a down, I think, it’s a better way to spend that time than spitting smaller plots or trying to pick up the tension again. Picture a story as a rope held between two people… to create tension again, full force, you need to loosen it first.
How do we ‘’loose” the tension without it losing interesting? Addressing the emotional aspect of the characters. And I’m not talking romance here, I’m talking about the characters reflecting and having an emotional reaction to all the shit that happened to them lately.
Regarding Voltron, I think this is the best time to do it. Not only the Biggest Peak just happened and life as they know it is upside down…
OH YEAH! THEY HAVE A ROADTRIP TO EARTH. I truly believe Earth is going to be the scenery and the cause of our Next Big Plot Point (and i’m not the only one to think so). The garrison it’s still there. Sam came back with intel. We know what happened to Shiro when he crashed and started calling for aliens. Some major stuff is going on Earth.
Therefore, even though the trip to earth is going to take some… shenanigans in form of small plots, there’s space for breathing, for resting, for the characters. And, let’s face it, Voltron characters had a LOT going on in the past seasons to address.
Shiro died, got turned into a clone, came back to life. Emotionally… that’s a toll on everyone, not only him. Not to say, trauma. Think of Keith’s experience fighting the clone. Think of Lance’s anger on not realising it sooner. Think of Pidge’s face when she let Clone Shiro away, when she hacked the Castle’s virus…
Yup. That experience is going to left a mark on everyone.
Keith almost killed himself for the team & had a very hard experience on the Blade Of Marmora regarding self-sacrifice. I KNOW, I KNOW, this happened so many seasons ago but I do think there’s a reason this happened. It will be addressed. Keith himself had time to reflect on his own personal peak, on his identity. That’s the two-year gap. He met his mom (big peak) and had two years of basically building his identity and his family while literally resting on a magic creature’s back (down).
Allura discovered so many things of her culture, of her own capacities. She fell in love, for god’s sake, us liking it or not, with Lotor. And she got stabbed in the back. She was absolutely betrayed emotionally. Even though she could step up to the circumstances and Lance’s hug and words gave her courage, she still took a huge emotional toll. This… this has to be addressed. It already (minimally) has.
Lance. Oof. Well, I think half the fandom at least noticed Lance’s mood this season. Let’s face it: he loves Allura, knows she’s in love with Lotor and at the same time thinks he’s not worthy of her. To add, he’s shown to be out of place with his friends, with Allura & Lotor, even when Keith comes back. Us as an audience know that his insecurities are there and are getting worse and worse. This going to be addressed and Lance’s persona has always been somehow deeply connected to Earth. It’s his original lion the one found on Earth, he’s shown to miss it and miss his family… yeah. I’m telling you guys, he’s hitting rock bottom, we are getting to his own personal climax, one that is not a peak…but a low
3- How do I think the Rest Season™️ is going to play out?
Before Lauren’s comment of ‘’getting to Earth isn’t going to be as easy”, I thought the whole Rest Season was going to be Earth and that s7 was going to happen entirely on Earth. But the Castle blew up and turned into something new, the perfect metaphor of the whole season. So, yes, I do think some shenanigans will play out in their way back home.
I have two possible outcomes.
1) The entire s7 is going to be about their journey back to earth. A ‘’road trip”. This gives enough time to dwell on the character’s issues and traumas. It’s the perfect pace to build up an emotional outburst.
Think of this: the characters, the team, have serious communication issues. 6 episodes is the perfect amount to explore the universe, have smaller plots, care about the character’s emotional state and the impact of last season and start working on the new team dynamic, their relationships. Clone Shiro left a mark in the team dynamics, such as Keith’s parting. They all need to find their pace, their place.
If this dynamic plays out, last episode would probably end with cliffhanger of the team arriving to earth and finding major shit.
2) 3 or 4 episodes of s7 are going to be about the journey and the rest are going to be the first stages of their comeback to earth.
This would be good if we think towards addressing Lance’s issues when he comes to Earth (and how deeply connected earth is to his character).
It also would give us an emotional impact regarding Shiro, since the last time he got there he was a Garrison prisoner and well, he was in other body.
The comeback forces both Shiro and Lance to face their own issues and the emotional toll of what happened. Lance has his wish of coming home fulfilled in his worst emotional moment and Shiro has to face that, well, he’s changed because shit happened.
I think the first ¾ episodes (Roadtrip episodes, if you will) might be more light-hearted or more focused on Allura’s emotional baggage and Keith’s growth, such as the team trying to adjust to new people and dynamics.
However this plays out, I firmly believe that - such as plot points were addressed in s6- character plot points will be addressed in s7.
I know this is a show that privileges action and plot over character journey. Lauren and Joaquim said so when they where starting with the show, that after so many years centering with a single character they wanted to play with more characters, team dynamics and action. But even if this is the case, they have to take a few episodes to address all this stuff, that’s just common sense. Good writing is when you consciously lay out issues and then pick on them later. In animation, you don’t just pass this stuff, you can’t gloss over it unintentionally because there’s so much care in every single frame, in every single word that’s written and then acted. And I think… I really think this is the ideal time! I personally got absolutely wrecked after season 6, all that stuff going on… and seeing the characters process that, really react to everything would be a delight.
If it doesn’t… well, I’d be disappointed, there’s so much potential for it to happen!
Anyways, I trust the writers to actually make a Rest Season™️ ,a season less intense action-wise and more intense emotionally.
If this doesn’t play out… we have fanfic for something, yeah?
( If you have any comments or additions, speak up! I don’t wanna theorise alone lmao)
andulkaphoto
areudirty
stormborns
