The Zenith/The End is the Beginning (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

The Zenith/The End is the Beginning is a two-part episode from the Netflix original series Voltron: Legendary Defender. They are the twelfth/penultimate and thirteenth/final episodes of season 8 and are overall the seventy-fifth/penultimate and seventy-sixth/final episodes of the show, this two-parter serves as the series finale of Voltron: Legendary Defender.

The Zenith
Despite their efforts, Honerva is victorious and opens a rift in reality. Since Voltron is made of the same material, only it and not the Atlas can follow after her, but they do not stand a chance against Honerva's fused mech. Several more Balmera arrive and imbue Voltron and the Atlas with enough energy to fuse them together, allowing them to pursue and match Honerva. The Paladins and Shiro enter the rift while Coran tries to think of a way to stabilize it...

The End is the Beginning
Voltron-Atlas engages Honerva's mecha in the alternate Altean reality. Honerva gains the upperhand and travels to the source of all realities. Enraged by her loss, Honerva coldly eliminates each and every reality from existence. After a desperate battle, they are able to stop Honerva from destroying the last reality. They work to convince her that while life is hard and rough, it is still gorgeous and vibrant, something Allura reminds her of by showing Honerva her memories. Allura convinces Honerva to help her undo what she has done and repair the damage, knowing that it will require both of them to sacrifice their lives...

Why This Finale Sucks

 * 1) To get the Elephant-Out-Of-The-Room: This two-parter includes the infamous ending were Allura sacrifices herself along with Honerva, this is perhaps the most infamous reason why fans dislike this finale and means that Allura was ultimately denied a happy ending after EVERYTHING she went through.
 * 2) Not to mention, it is incredible unnecessary for Allura to sacrifice herself along with Honerva, after all, Honerva was the one who started this mess and SHE should have been the ONLY one to have sacrifice herself, not Allura too.
 * 3) Whats even more insulting: Coran never got to say his last good byes to Allura and was never here at the time Allura sacrifices herself, which is especially worst considering that Coran was like a father figure to Allura.
 * 4) It introduces the concept of alternate realities (that were part of Honerva's plan to create a reality where her family was alive and respected her by destroying them), which sounds introduces p for interesting plots. But the thing is, nothing is done with the idea of alternate realities; as their never explored and no alternate versions of the characters are ever introduced.
 * 5) Honerva's motive isn't just generic, but also illogical and nonsensical. As she never showed any implications of her wanting to be with her family when Lotor and Zarkon were still alive previously, and how she should know much better than to try and cause the destruction of every reality. And when the Alternate Young Lotor rejects her, rather then Honerva changing her ways, she instead decides to destroy all the realities out of rage, which is going WAY too extreme.
 * 6) This finale also has some really mean-spirited and unpleasant moments, one example is in the second/final part "The End is the Beginning", were after completed her mission, Honerva becomes happy that she meets an alternate Zarkon, Zarkon excepts her as part of the family, until the scene with the Alternate Young Lotor rejects Honerva no matter what she says, Honerva losing her temper with the Alternate Young Lotor as the latter keeps rejecting her, then Honerva snapping and decide to destroy all the realities out of rage, this part in particular is very painful to watch.
 * 7) It is also predictable, as it is easy to tell that Honerva's plan is going to screw up due to the nature of alternate realities. Even its mean-spirited scene is predictable, notably when Honerva keeps asking the Alternate Young Lotor to come to her, and you can easily tell from the tone in her voice that Honerva's getting annoyed and is going to snap, and it falls flat as a result.
 * 8) This finale has many plot-holes that never got resolve:
 * 9) * It is never explained regarding what happened to Ryner or the other Olkari.
 * 10) * The ground leaves behind the atlas for no major reason and ends in a base where the beast Krolia and Keith freed episodes ago.
 * 11) ** Not helping matters is that it is never explained about what the beast is, making it not much more than what they have been fighting against in the past.
 * 12) * Honerva's whole goal is to be with Zarkon and Lotor as a family, Honerva was previously a powerful witch, so in that case, why doesn't she just use her magic to go back in time and prevent both Zarkon and herself from being evil in the first place?
 * 13) * It is never explained on how Lance gained Altean markings in the finale.
 * 14) * Biggest plot-hole is that this finale never explains the reason behind Allura's sacrifice in the first place.
 * 15) This finale has a lot of poor filler moments.
 * 16) While epic, the final battle is a bit underwhelming as its nothing more then Voltron preventing Honerva's mech from destroying alternate realities by pushing her.
 * 17) The final scene of Voltron: Legendary Defender 's epilogue reviles that Shiro is gay as he kisses a random guy, which is INCREDIBLE awkward and a very weird way to end an ACTION show like Voltron: Legendary Defender.
 * 18) While the finale wrap up a few things, a lot of the character arcs in this season all ended up incomplete, thus making it feel like Voltron: Legendary Defender was originally meant to get a ninth and even tenth season before scrapping it.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The animation is still incredible.
 * 2) While the final scene of Voltron: Legendary Defender reviles that Shiro is gay as he kisses a random guy is INCREDIBLE awkward, the ending was at the very least decent and didn't end the show on a poor note.
 * 3) There are some funny moments.
 * 4) This episode marks the first time a same-sex marriage between two men was conducted on a kids show, even though the first gay marriage on kids television was conducted in Steven Universe.

Reception And Controversial
Since their released, "The Zenith/The End is the Beginning" are known for being one of the most controversial series finales in all of cartoons/anime next to Sonic X 's series finale, and received mix-to-largely negative reviews, while fans do phrased for the action and its ending, most criticizes the writing chose of having Allura sacrificing herself, its poor pacing and many questions left unanswered, many have considered this two-parter as one of the worst Series Finales in all of Netflix, and is often considered as one of the worst Series Finales of all time.