Voltron Season 7 Episode 10 Review: Heart of a Lion

This Voltron Legendary Defender review contains spoilers.

Voltron Season 7 Episode 10

Bonds.

It’s a word that’s come to define this season. At first it was the bonds between the Paladins. They had to solidfy those before they could get to Earth. With that taken care of they can deepen the bonds with their lions.

The human/Lion bond has been something the series has been fairly nebulous about. Besides Shiro fighting to bond with the Black Lion against Zarkon it’s all been pretty vague. “Just believe in yourself and your lion” kind of things.

Now though the bonds with the lions come roaring (heh) into focus as the biggest conflict the team has ever faced approaches. I’m glad the series isn’t forgetting Shiro’s close bond with the Black Lion and is using it as an important plot point. He knows about the bonds of the lions and how they can be used.

This means Shiro wasn’t just a temporary holder of the Black Lion. His bond mattered and I’m sure it’s still there in some way. As we’ve seen, the Lions can have more than one pilot. I’m wondering if this is sowing the seeds for later in the series when perhaps Hunk gives up being a Paladin? His bond with Yellow will still be there but someone can make a new bond as well, just like Keith after Shiro.

There’s still so much we don’t know about the Lions but, much like the bonds between the Paladins themselves, the bonds between the Lions and the Paladins make them strong. And you know, save them from dying. That helps to! Much like with Shiro’s bond with Matt, even if Shiro doesn’t pilot Black Lion anymore? It still meant something and he carries that with him.

We could read deeply into Lance needing some extra time for Red Lion to show up but I’m going to chalk that up to dramatic effect. Come on, it really had you on the edge of your seat didn’t it? I’m loving seeing all the paladins this season just go nuts when they think someone they love is dead or in mortal danger. We saw it with Hunk when he unleashed fury in episode six and now we see it with Lance.

The cute scenes between him and Veronica earlier in this episode were nice but Lance’s screams here said everything about their bond. He loves her and nothing will stand in the way of protecting her. Smartly he didn’t make a big fuss about letting her go on the mission but I’m sure, in that moment he thought she was dead, he had wished he fought harder against it. 

This series has built up so much with these characters that a simple scream can say so much. 

I suspect we’ll be hearing way more screaming as the season heads towards its conclusion. Looks like we’re in full on serialized story here and we’re getting one long ass amazing battle.

LET’S. DO. IT.

Shamus Kelley is a pop culture/television writer and official Power Rangers expert. Follow him on Twitter!