Viewer Log: Voltron ep 23

Okay, so the Mega-Teladuv is finished, their allies are gathered together, and now all the Voltron Paladins need to do is take their stuff into space and prepare the trap. Allura gives a little speech about how their fight has nearly reached the end, and that, once the Gulra are defeated, she hopes that they can rebuild the Voltron Alliance from 10,000 years-ago. The team prepares the Mega-Teladuv and takes off with the Blade of Marmora members in tow. They’re so hopeful, if only they knew what comes next.

Their plan already has the major glitch that Commander Thace has been discovered, and is currently being tortured by Haggar and her Druids.  They’re using their magic to electrocute him, he’s in just about constant pain. Thankfully, Thace has remained tight lipped, somehow. Either spies go through some intensive training, or Thace has a Will of Luxite. Oo, I love the sound of that.

Going to hazard a guess and say Thace has had better days
at work.

Their plan is rather simple. They’ll position the Mega-Teladuv in deep space and then hide it within Slav’s supersized pocket dimension. Then, Shiro will fly the Black Lion around, and allow Zarkon to detect him. They either know or hope that Zarkon’s obsession with Black Lion will keep his attention focused on them. Then, once Zarkon’s warship is in position, Thace would activate the virus to disable the ship, and then the team would suck the warship through the Mega-Teladuv. Too bad about Thace’s capture.

Haggar goes to her master and tells Zarkon about the captured Thace. Unfortunately, her boss is too obsessed with searching for Black Lion to notice her concerns. It’s at that moment that Zarkon senses Shiro and Black Lion. Now, let’s quickly analyze this situation. The thing that Zarkon want’s most is the Black Lion. For the first time in a long while, Zarkon has sensed Black Lion. The Black Lion is now flying alone in deep space, vulnerable to attack. So, the thing Zarkon wants is exactly where he wants it. This feel like one of Wile E. Coyote’s “free birdseed” traps to anyone else? My three-year-old niece would call “trap” on this one, but thankfully, Zarkon is too enthralled to notice the obvious. Zarkon orders the chase, and Shiro leads them around.

On the Castle of Lions, Commander Kolivan of the Blade of Marmora is getting cold feet. His lieutenant has noted that they haven’t heard from Thace in days, which is a clear sign he’s been compromised. Well, a clearer sign then Zarkon’s ship not being disabled once it flew into position. He and Allura argue over tactics. He wants to pull back, and re-strategize. He claims it’s this level of caution that has allowed the BoM to survive for 10,000 years. Allura, obviously furious by this attuited, argues the opposite. That it’s this very unwillingness to take risks that has allowed Zarkon to reign virtually unopposed for so long. To stop the fighting, Keith offers to infiltrate the warship himself. His Gulra blood will allow him to access Gulra tech, so he can get to the control hub and disable the ship. Side note, do the Gulra seriously not have security measures to stop non-personnel from accessing stuff? The answer is yes, they seriously do not. And now I wonder how these idiots have run an intergalactic empire for ten centuries. Back on task, it’s not a great plan, but better than no plan at all. Everyone agrees, and Keith goes to get prepped.

It's been a heck of a ride, Thace.

Pidge helps outfit Keith with the equipment he’ll need to infiltrate the ship. Allura comes in a moment later, and asks for a private word with Keith. Once Pidge flies the coop, you knew a bird pun was coming, Allura apologizes. She explains the obvious, that she hates the Gulra for destroying her world and rendering her species functionally extinct. FYI a functionally extinct species is one that still has living members, but there is little to no chance for them to make a viable population. I’m getting off task. So yeah, Allura explains her anger, and then her confusion. It goes like this, Allura hates Gulra, Keith is Gulra, Keith is Paladin, Allura loves her Paladins. This logical paradox kept the princess feeling pretty confused for the last few days/weeks. It’s only after his latest bit of gallantry that Allura is reminded that Keith is a good man, regardless of his ancestry. She wishes him good luck, and hopes for a speedy return.

Back in space, the bulk of the Gulra fleet has arrived. While the sheer size of the enemy’s forces is staggering, Black Lion is flying circles around them. Black’s Jaw Blade chops alien warships and fighters into ribbons. And, once Keith is launched, Shiro’s able to easily cut a path for Keith’s entry. Once inside, he makes for the engine’s hub.

In the torture chamber, Thace is still hanging on. He has a body like stone, and a mind… like meatloaf. I’m probably dating myself with that particular South Park reference. The Druids are clearly frustrated by all this, and try to break him with a show of force. They fling his BoM dagger at Thace, which just barely misses his arm, and promise to break him soon. Once alone, Thace seizes the opportunity. He is able to morph is BoM dagger into its sword form, cutting his bonds and allowing him to escape. How convenient.

In space, Shiro is kind of hitting his limit. Even with one of the top five most powerful machines in his hands, taking on an entire armada of ships is kind of a tall order. Thankfully, since they now have Zarkon’s nearly undivided attention, the others don’t need to hide anymore. Lance, Hunk and Pidge fly in and start giving him covering fire. Haggar continues to warn her master that the obvious trap is an obvious trap, but Zarkon is so totally obsessed with getting Black Lion that I imagine he’s just hearing “Blah blah blah” when she speaks.

In the bowls of the ship, Keith has reached the command hub. He tries to log in using Thace’s ID information, but Haggar must have been in charge of purging traitor’s access codes. Why? Because it actually got done. Keith hears someone coming closer, and ducks behind some machinery. Thace hobbles in a moment later, and tries to log in as well. 0.5 seconds later two Druids and their escort come in. They must have known about the Luxite blade’s powers, as they claim that this was part of their plan. Makes sense, give the captive a means of escape then follow them to find out where they go. Thankfully, Keith and Thace are able to disable the drones with their Luxite blades, and ax off the two Druids. At least, I think that’s what happened. They vanished in a puff of smoke, involuntarily, and don’t reappear, so I take that as dead.  After they introduce themselves, they start trying to figure out a plan. Thace decides to go with his plan B. They’re going to turn the Hub into a giant bomb. Yeah, that should disable the ship nicely.

And it all comes down to this, a giant Lion Robot
vs. a Reaper-looking warship.

Things rapidly start spinning out of control. Hiding something as big as the Mega-Teladuv overtaxes Slav’s generator, forcing him to power it down. Zarkon plans to personally join the battle, as well. Keith smashes a few columns, barricading him and Thace in. It’s at that moment that Thace reveals he’s going to stay behind to make sure the bomb goes off. He insists that Keith use a special emergency exit from the chamber, so he can join the other Paladins. Keith objects, but Thace makes the excellent point that, of the two, he’s the expendable one. Keith bids farewell to Thace, and escapes.

Realizing that their time was running short, but having faith in Keith, Allura orders that they start charging up the Mega-Teladuv. Thace has just enough time to finish prepping the bomb when the guards smash in. He sets it off, and dies with a smile. Keith just barely escapes the blast, and is picked up by Red Lion a few seconds later, such a loyal cat.

Now that the warship’s internal defenses are down, the team is able to completely disable the vessel, and force it through the Mega-Teladuv. The Voltron Lions, and the Castle of Lions quickly follow suit. On the other side, the Paladins form Voltron, and prepare for battle. And then it stops. These darn teases!

This might sound weird, but I’m going to miss Thace. Sure, he was a minor character, just introduced at the end of last season and axed off by the end of this one, but I’ve grown attached to the Gulra Spy. He was a fella that was willing to sacrifice everything for the greater good, which he did with gusto. If there’s a Gulra Valhalla, he earned himself a place. It’s also good to see Keith and Allura have had a chance to talk. I hate when characters I like are fighting, particularly over something as stupid as this. What? You shouldn’t hate someone because of who their ancestors are. That’s just silly. I will note that in the original source material, Voltron: Defender of the Universe or Beast King GoLion depending on where you saw it, Keith and Allura do get romantically entangled. Perhaps the two “making up” is the start of that? Lance is going to be crushed. Just saying. This is the penultimate episode of season two, and by goodness does it feel like it. Tension runs high, the sacrifices are noble and bitter sweet, and now they have Zarkon right where they need him. Wonder how this wounded beast is going to bite back? In a word, hard. He’s going to bite back hard. 

Viewer Log: Voltron ep 22

Let’s review, Keith and Hunk got the Scaultrite to focus the Mega-Teladuv, Shiro, Pidge and Lance got the bizarre scientist Slav to build the cloak for it, and Coran is building the Mega-Teladuv itself. So now we’ve reach the final item on this intergalactic scavenger hunt. And that’s for Allura to get the crystal to power the Mega-Teladuv. To get the Crystal, Allura travels alone to the colossal space whale/living planet, the Balmera. Upon reaching the creature, she’s greeted by the Balmerans. She pretty much has to ask for the biggest crystals that the Balmerans have ever heard of. Their Leader has an idea where they can find one, thankfully.

With the Gulra, time has just about run out for Commander Thace. The Druids found his special chip, which allowed him to secretly encode messages and send them to the Blade of Marmora HQ. Haggar, being a sly old fox, tells her Druids to put the chip back. Why? To see who comes back for it. Uh-ho.

Guess who's back.

The Balmeran’s take Allura deep into the Balmera. Shay, one of the Balmerans they befriended last time, explains that, since ousting the Gulra, the Balmera has begun opening long sealed passages. One of these passages revealed an enormous crystal, just perfect for the Mega-Teladuv. Allura and the assembled Balmerans use their special energizing ritual to pry the crystal loose. There’s a major quake as the crystal comes lose, making Shay uncomfortable, but the crystal still pops free. The group transports the Crystal to the surface. Once the Crystal is loaded, the source of the earlier quake is revealed. What caused it? Death-Gaze waking up. Over the, I’m assuming, in universe months he’s spent encased in a giant Balmeran Crystal, Death-Gaze’s Gulra energy infected the crystal around it, corrupting it into the usual Gulra Purple. Death-Gaze traded in his head for a pair of giant crystal wings, and his additional eyes for a super charged blaster. The new and improved Crystal Death-Gaze is looking for payback. Not good. Allura fires several shots, but it’s crystal wings block the blast. It’s improved central laser nearly wipes out the Castle of Lions shields in one shot.

Allura sends a distress call to the Voltron Paladins. They rush across the galaxy via the wormholes Allura summons. While the group is battle ready, they have the major issue that only two of the five Paladins are currently piloting their respective Lion. Hunk is forced to hold the Robeast off while Lance flies Shiro and Pidge back to the Castle. Once they’ve gotten Green and Black in the air, they and Lance will take up the distraction for Keith to get Red. A pretty terrible plan, but still better than no plan at all.

Meanwhile, Thace makes the biggest mistake of his life and goes back for the chip. I’d have sent an incompetent subordinate as a decoy, or something. Just saying. The second he grabs the chip, the Druids march in and captures him. Not good.

And stay dead!

The Paladins have difficulty battling Crystal Death-Gaze, as the upgraded Robeast’s new Wings and enhanced laser make him several times more powerful. Unlike last time, Crystal Death-Gaze is too fast and unrelenting for the Paladins to get the distance necessary to do their big transformation sequence. But, they are able to figure out a work around to Crystal Death-Gaze’s speed. Using their superior numbers, they’re able to divide Crystal Death-Gaze’s attention enough for Pidge to hit him with her and Green Lion’s plant cannon. Once he’s sufficiently tangled in vines, the team forms Voltron, and use the Leo Saber to destroy Crystal Death-Gaze, for reals this time. Unless Robeast’s can somehow regenerate from bits of scrap metal.

The team reconvenes, and prepare to rendezvous with Coran on Olcarion. Allura congratulates everyone for a job well done, except Keith. Why? Because it is now very, very clear that Allura is indeed… not okay with Keith now that it’s known he’s partially Gulra. Boo racism. Specism? To be safe, I’ll just say boo to all discriminatory -isms. On Olcarion, we get to see two different scenes. Coran and Allura discuss the major dangers in the mission, as Allura is the only one who can use the Mega-Teladuv, and the super wormhole generator might just burn the princess out. She’s confident though, in her ability to keep the portal running long enough to get Zarkon. That’s the important part. And, with the Paladins, we get the “how far we’ve come” moment. They realize that, should the mission be successful, they’ll defeat Zarkon and stop the threat of the Gulra. An optimistic, if bitter sweet ending. Too bad it won’t be that easy.

Oh... this does not bode well...

Haggar has Thace literally chained to a wall, and is prepping to torture him to get the information that she needs. She’s got two druids, some gnarly looking torture devices, and a whole lot of time to kill. Evil space witch, vs. the willpower/pain tolerance of an Alien soldier/spy, which will prove stronger?

It kind of a shame that, while Keith and Hunk, and Shiro, Pidge, and Lance got their own episode entirely devoted to their personal adventure, Allura got only about ten minutes to herself in this one. It’s a shame because the best word to describe this princess is awesome. She’s strong, confident, and not above getting her hands dirty. Heck, she’s the one character in this season that wore her battle gear in nearly, if not every, scene she’s in. She’s awesome, and would have done fine in an episode all to herself. Just saying. I wasn’t expecting Death-Gaze to make a comeback or that he’d get Crystal upgrades. The Robeast is causing even more damage this time around, as his new super laser is able to blows up a nearby moon/asteroid. Which is good. Have to up the ante with each Robeast, even if this is an upgraded older model. I will say, that removing its head was an odd choice. On the one hand, fighting a headless monster that is ever stronger than before is intense. But, I can’t help wondering how the heck this evil semi-robot can operate without it. Like is the crystal in his chest acting as a head, or at this point are all organic components to the Robeast gone and his internal machinery taking over for it? I know, fiction and overanalyzing a cartoon, but I am pretty much compelled to overanalyze things. The ending scenes with Coran and Allura, and the Paladins are a little cliché but still well done. They’re so close to the end, and need to risk a lot, but they have real chance to beat the baddies. Fingers crossed for our valiant heroes, especially with Thace already being captured. It’s a pretty severe complication, there.

Viewer Log: Voltron ep 21

After Keith and Hunk’s adventure inside the space eel, the Weblum, we shift our focus onto the prison break adventure of Shiro, Lance and Pidge. We hit the ground running with Shiro and Pidge being launched from Blue Lion at the high security Gulra Prison, Beta Traz. Side note, with such an obvious name, I’m surprised that none of the three point out the obvious homage to Alcatraz. I really was expecting a Doctor Who moment. You know, “You look human.” “You look Time Lord, we came first.” But no, we have a prison to break into.

After sneaking onto the bridge of the Prison, Pidge and Lance use their hacking skills and sonic cannon respectively to get a 3D map of the facility and sneak Blue Lion into the space prison’s hanger. They’re breaking into Beta Traz to free Slav. Slav is the scientist behind the Blade of Marmora’s special cloaking technology, the special pockets of space time that allow them to hide entire space stations. They need him to build an even bigger one for their Mega-Teladuv.

I think ol' Zarkon is starting to lose it
              Those are not the eyes of someone who's all there upstairs.

Meanwhile, Zarkon is continuing his search for the Black Lion. Unfortunately, for him anyway, his fight with Shiro has weakened his connection to Black nearly to the point of completely severing it. Even with the usual four Gulra Druid power boost, he’s basically just staring across the endless void of space. When the Druids attempt to stop the ritual, for fear of overtaxing their master, Zarkon smacks them around and forces them to continue. For anyone who is ever planning on being in a position of authority, LISTEN to your ADVISORS. Otherwise, what’s the point of hiring them?

After checking their new map, the team learns that security in this place is boarding on insane, and that for some reason there are two cells inside instead of just one. Lance calls dibs on the closer of the two cells, because, you know, goofball. We get a brief glimpse at the Warden, torturing Slav. We don’t get a clear image of Slav, because reasons. The Gulra are using some sort of brain scanning tech to get information out of Slav. Weapon schematics, ship designs, solutions to complex equations, that sort of thing. The heroes separate. Shiro and Lance going for the two cells, while Pidge remains in the control room. She multitasks helping Shiro and Lance avoid the security measures, while also sifting through the Gulra database to find information about her brother or father. When they get to their respective high security door, they find a major stumbling block. Namely, Pidge can’t hack the locks, and the only thing that can unlock the door is a facial recognition scan of the Warden. Lance is able to get a scan of the Warden’s face as he leaves the cell. How convenient. Once the Warden is far enough away, Lance and Shiro open their respective door.

Looks like a dog, sounds like a dog, probably smells like a dog
but still, Lance does not get it.

Shiro finds Slav, a disturbing looking furry centipede like alien. I honestly can’t tell if his mouth is supposed to be like a beak or something. He’s incredibly pessimistic, and more than a little insane. He’s constantly spouting off about multiple universes and how in alternate universes he’s dying in bizarre ways. Shiro is in for a headache. Lance, on the other hand, frees what he thinks is Slav, a colossal purple monster creature that only answers with Yep. Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind who has the real Slav? Good, moving on.

The Warden arrives at the control center. Pidge is just barely able to escape notice. This is of course the major down side of staving these places with only one living individual. They tend to miss things. He’s quite upset to hear the alert that Slav has escaped his cell, but even more angry to hear that Lika escaped the other.

Shiro has his hands full with Slav. As stated above, he’s a little nutty. He refuses to leave his room until his bed is made, wants to avoid cracks in the floor tiles because physical cracks can create cracks in space-time creating more parallel worlds, and puddles, because in some parallel worlds, he’s drowning in the puddles. Even though there’s only like an inch of water on the ground. Somehow, I think he’s less drowning, and more being drowned, by an infuriated Shiro in these parallel worlds. Shiro, who’s mere moments away from an aneurism of sheer fury, is forced to carry the bizarre creature through the halls. Lance has an easier time with his Slav, obviously the escaped Lika, who rips through anything that tries to stop them.

Bizarre brain, bizarre look, yep, Alien Scientist.

Pidge is able to help Lance and Shiro make their way back to the hanger. She is also able to get a few second video of her brother, Matt, being broken out of another prison facility. The group is able to reconvene in the hanger, but the Warden arrives a moment later. He takes a shot of Venom, or some similar fictional super steroid, growing several times his regular size. He also has some robotic arms to help him fight. The group is able to outmaneuver the hulking Warden, get to Blue Lion, and fly off. The Warden is surprisingly cool with losing his only prisoner, since he still has his precious Lika. Hooray? Pidge is able to learn from the vids she stole that another rebel group freed Matt some time ago, and he’s most likely still in hiding with them. Actual hooray.

Meanwhile, Haggar is clearly frustrated by her master’s fixation on getting Black Lion. His obsession is clearly blinding him, and, while Haggar tells him this at every opportunity, he’s pretty much tuning her out. Despite this, she is a loyal old gal, and is preparing Zarkon’s “Armor.” How vague, how dangerous, how awesome!

I will say again, I’ve yet to see a truly bad Voltron: Legendary Defender, but this is an episode on the weaker side. Not to say that this prison break isn’t good, it’s just hard to top the other prison break/stealth mission stories that they’ve done. Like freeing Allura in episode 11, or breaking into the Gulra’s Quintessence refinery in episode 10, or diving into the trap within the Balmera in episode 7. Huh, for a show based on a team fighting/semi-superhero/mecha anime, they’re doing a lot of stealth missions. But, given the side of their enemy’s empire, that’s not 100% surprising. It also doesn’t really help that this one has a couple of pointless subplots, like the two Slavs, and this weird bit about Lance wondering what his place in the group is. For the former, it’s pretty flipping obvious upon meeting the two potential Slav’s who is the ‘real’ one. The only reason Lance doesn’t figure it out is because he’s not all that bright. If someone only answers with a “Yep” that sounds suspiciously like a bark, odds are they’re not a super genius. And, as to Lance’s little arc, it’s kind of rushed. At the start of the episode, Lance claims to be the “sharpshooter” of the group, Pidge points out no one calls him that, he starts wondering what his ‘job’ is, questioning what he does best, performs a near impossible shot to save Slav, and then gets called the Sharpshooter by Shiro. All in 20 minutes. That’s a lot of stuff to cover. Granted, I do love Lance, and his voice actor Jeremy Shada. He’s Finn the Human in Adventure Time. But to just kind of make up an issue for him to have and tie it up all in the span of one episode just isn’t my favorite way of giving a character an arc. Just saying. But, a point in the episode’s favor, I did laugh pretty hard when the Warden more or less said, “shoot, they got away. Well at least I still have you, Lika.” He had literally one job to do, but is okay with failing since he still has his purple dog-bear. Wonder if he’ll feel the same when Zarkon finds out. IF he notices, he’ll probably order Lika turned into a handsome throw rug. I’m not saying, I’m just saying. So, not a great episode, but still good.

Viewer Log: Voltron ep 20

We open to Hunk waking up. He took a three-hour siesta while the Blade of Marmora (BoM), Allura and Shiro formulate a plan of attack. Their plan, while insane, falls under the “so crazy it might just work,” category. They’re going to need to build a colossal Teladuv (wormhole generator). Using Thace’s position in the fleet, they plan to upload a virus into Zarkon’s command ship to disable it. Then, using the Mega-Teladuv, they'll transport Zarkon’s ship into the depths of space. While separated from the main fleet, they’ll use the Castle of Lions, and Voltron to put an end to Zarkon’s 10,000-year reign. The team needs to break into groups to get the necessary parts for this plan. Keith and Hunk will take Yellow Lion to gather the necessary amount of Scaultrite for the Lens their Mega-Teladuv will need. Shiro, Pidge, and Lance will take Blue Lion to a Gulra prison to collect Slav. Slav is an ‘eccentric’ alien genius, and the mad scientist behind the BoM’s cloaking technology. They need him to build a gravity generator to hide the Mega-Teladuv before they use it on Zarkon. Allura will take the Castle of Lions alone to the Balmera, to collect a crystal to power the Mega-Teladuv. They’re going to need an even bigger crystal then the one that powers the Castle of Lions. And finally, Coran is going to use one of the pods to go to Olkarion to help the Olkari construct the Mega-Teladuv. Ready? Break!

Laurel and Hardy... In SPACE!

Meanwhile, Zarkon is growing more frustrated as his connection to Black weakens by the day. Nevertheless, he keeps forcing the Gulra druids to pump him with mystical quintessence to supplement his weakening connection. It’s not helping nearly as much as it used to.

First, we follow along with Keith and Hunk. Huh, don’t think we’ve had this combination yet. On the flight in, Hunk continually pokes fun at Keith’s newly discovered Mixed Species heritage. It’s mostly good natured “I’m going to make jokes until it stops making me uncomfortable,” type stuff. Keith does make it clear that he’s a little upset that Allura is giving him the cold shoulder upon learning about his Gulra ancestry. And, again, considering the fact the Gulra destroyed her home world, killed her father, and caused the functional extinction of her race, I can’t necessarily blame her. Just saying. They reach their destination, the colossal Weblum. This giant space eel gobbles up the rubble of dead planets, and makes Scaultrite in one of its stomachs. The two play an instructional video, hosted by a younger Coran. Unfortunately, after 10,000 years the video has corroded. One of those, “It’s important to- <static>,” “Whatever you do, avoid- <static>,” “<static>, remember this, or you will die,” type gags. With nothing else really to go on, Hunk flies them towards the Weblum’s face, while Keith does his best to get something useful from the video.

It’s at this moment that the video clears up slightly, revealing that rule #1 in Scaultrite gathering is stay away from the Weblum’s face. Why? It fires a giant death beam if it feels threatened. They have to fly Yellow around several death beams before reaching the Weblum’s blind spot, behind it’s gills. I don’t know why a space eel needs gills. The video clears up enough for them to learn the next few steps in the process. They need to enter the beast through its gills, and travel through its body to its third stomach, where the Scaultrite is formed. Once there, they need to agitate the beast enough to make it fire death lasers, so they can collect the Scaultrite that forms.

Stay away from the face!
Repeat, AVOID THE FACE!

With the Gulra, the Druids are working harder to find the mole. They’ve started examining the Drones that were destroyed during the Voltron assault on the base. One of the druids discovered that the drone had been destroyed by a Luxite blade. Thace does his best to cover his nerves, and orders the druids search for Luxite. He’s obviously further agitated when he learns Haggar ordered that Thace needs to have a Druid escort until further notice. Have to keep him safe from the traitors, of course.

Inside the Weblum, Keith and Hunk are almost instantly attacked by the Weblum’s body. It’s anti-bodies, er digestive enzymes, er something, starts attacking the two Paladins in mass. Hunk and Keith are separated in the first stomach. Keith goes down the creature’s digestive tract, while Hunk is sucked into its bloodstream. In the second stomach, Keith found a crashed ship, and a living Gulra pilot. The pilot, who is either mute or just not talkative, helps Keith fight off the enzymes. He and his new companion meet up with Hunk in the third stomach. They try to figure out how to collect the Scaultrite when they’re hit with another massive enzyme attack. Thankfully, the Weblum has to pass gas. The creatures gas release clears out most of the enzymes. For the moment And its only after seeing the Weblum’s biology in action that they figure out how to get the Scaultrite. Hunk has to get outside, and get the Weblum’s attention. When it feels threatened, the Weblum will fire an energy blast. This will cause Scaultrite to build in the third stomach, because it uses the Scaultrite to make said energy blast. He flies out of the Weblum’s digestive tract as it releases the excess gas from its multiple stomachs. Yes, you read that right, saved via a space eel fart.

Meanwhile, Thace tries to get a message out to the BoM. Thace wants to warn them that he’s getting dangerously close to being exposed, so they might have to accelerate or abandon the current plan. He has enough time to plug in his secret drive to encrypt a message, but his Druid escort joins him a moment later. He’s forced to leave the drive and continue searching for the traitor. Hope that doesn’t come back to bite him in the backside.

What secrets lay behind this black mask?
Also, Awesome Armor.

Hunk and Yellow get the Weblum to shoot at them.The second it starts charging the attack, the enzymes clear out for good. Once the creature fires a few times, they have plenty of Scaultrite. Keith and the Gulra pilot collect as much Scaultrite as they can carry. Unfortunately, once the pilot has enough Scaultrite, the pilot pulls a gun on Keith and makes a break for it. Wonder if that’ll be a new loose end to tie up? On the flight home, Hunk goes back to making fun of Keith for his mixed-race biology. All’s well that ends well.

It is kind of interesting that we’ve gotten twenty episodes in, and have just now done a Keith/Hunk team up. The two do seem to work well together. Hunk making fun of Keith’s newly discovered heritage to ease the tension was kind of nice. It shows that, while we haven’t seen them together on screen very much, the two have a reasonably good friendship. You don’t make fun of someone’s ancestry, to their face, unless you know them pretty well. We also see some examples of Keith’s potential leadership skills. Like when he tries to keep Hunk calm when he’s freaking out about being in the Weblum. Those will come in handy when the team is eventually separated again. What? Teams getting scattered happens a LOT in this type of show. Just ask the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. The Weblum was an odd but cool setting. A colossal space eel that gobbles space debris, fires giant laser beams, and makes Scaultrite in its stomach. These things and the Balmera make space even more terrifying then it already is. Sure, it’s internal defenses, digestive enzymes that melt everything they touch, was suspiciously like the innards of Dragon Ball Z’s Majin Buu. But, hey, if you’re going to copy something, copy one of the most successful Manga/Anime/fiction series of all time. The mysterious Gulra pilot was an interesting part of the story. Silent, basically faceless, and confusing. On the one hand, he saves Keith from the Weblum’s innards, and follows his orders without question. But, on the other, the pilot does steal some Scaultrite when the opportunity presents itself. So, is the pilot good, bad, or somewhere in the middle? Hard to tell given the limited screen time the pilot got. Heck, we don’t even know if the pilot is a man or woman. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see if the pilot pops again. So yeah, this is a weirdie, but a goodie. 

Viewer Log: Voltron ep 19

The team arrives at the Blade of Marmora (BoM) HQ. It’s situated in orbit around a giant Blue Star, which is itself situated between a pair of blackholes. I’m no physicist, but I somehow doubt something like that could actually happen in nature. Although, I suppose you could argue that these Gulra rebels might be manipulating the blackholes and star somehow. I’m thinking too hard about anomalies in space and physics in a cartoon show, aren’t I? So yeah, the Paladins try to figure out how to best reach the Blade’s HQ. Keith, who is getting kind of desperate to know about his Gulra dagger, insists that whatever the plan, he be the one to go inside. Shiro agrees, partially because he seems to sense Keith’s need for answers, and partially because Red Lion has the best chance of surviving the heat of the Blue Star. He’s going too, since he’s the field commander, obviously. Lance is agitated by this, shocking, but his complaints are interrupted by a message from the BoM base. They demand to know who is in their airspace… er space-space. After identifying themselves as the Paladins of Voltron, and name dropping Ulaz, the BoM allow two of them to enter. They also stipulate that the Paladins don’t bring any weapons, or funny business. The BoM open a to their base, which will remain open for several minutes but then remain closed for two full days. After a bumpy flight, the two enter the base, and meet the BoM.

Yeah, all kinds of Nope.

With the bad guys, Haggar is increasing her efforts to find the BoM spy in Zarkon’s fleet. Thace has escaped notice thus far, but the metaphorical noose is tightening. He’s up for interrogation soon. Not good.

Back with the good guys, they meet the BoM. The group are all dressed in some pretty awesome looking black armor. Their leader, Kolivan, introduces himself. He’s open to the idea of working with the Voltron Paladins, but all thoughts of diplomacy quickly fly out the window. Why? Because one of the other BoM members notices that Keith has a BoM dagger. They immediately assume that Keith stole it, and want him to hand it over. Keith refuses, as the dagger is very important to him. Kolivan suggests that, since Keith won’t part with the dagger and since the BoM won’t let him leave with it, that he undergo the “Trial of Marmora.” The ritual, he claims, will either give Keith his (and the BoM) answers, or he’ll die. Not great options, but Keith agrees.

Keith is given a special battle suit and sent into an area armed with only the dagger. The first match is a one-on-one fight. The combatant begins by asking Keith to “Surrender the Blade.” He refuses, and the two fight for several minutes. Eventually, the BoM Gulra disengages, and simply states, “You’re not meant to go through that Door,” as said door opens. Keith marches forward. In the next room, he is met by two more BoM Gulra. They too ask for him to “Surrender the Blade,” fight, and then say “You’re not meant to go through that Door.” Rinse and repeat several times, adding another BoM Gulra each time. Keith gets pretty battered, until he hits room number seven. Before the fight begins, he notices the trap doors the BoM Gulra use to enter are closing very slowly. He chucks his dagger, trapping it open, slides past the BoM Gulra and down the door. He passes out when he enters the next room.

Nothing sinister about all this.

Keith is awoken by Shiro. Which is weird, because Shiro is still watching from the control room. Kolivan explains that the suit Keith is wearing is designed to make him hallucinate in the right situation. In this part of the trial, the suit is making Keith see what he desires most in that moment. And in that moment, he desperately wants advice from Shiro. Not-Shiro advices Keith to give up the dagger, so they can all leave and continue their mission. Keith refuses, causing Not-Shiro to vanish. Keith awakens, again, this time in his childhood home. His father is there. Keith’s father tells him that Keith’s mother will be arriving shortly, the dagger was hers, and she’ll have all the answers he needs. Keith is distracted by this hallucination by what’s going on outside. The Gulra are launching a full-scale attack on the Earth. Red Lion is also out there, roaring for Keith to join him. Keith’s father tells him that if he goes outside, he’ll never get the answers he wants. Keith, while obviously torn, takes the nobler path and walks out.

Meanwhile, Thace is taken in for questioning by Haggar. The old witch uses her powers to detect if Thace is lying. When she asks him the obvious question, “did you have anything to do with the Paladin’s escape?” he lies through his teeth. Somehow, Haggar is tricked, and allows him to leave. How fortuitous.

Since the Lions all got upgrades, only fair the
paladins get them too.

It has been nearly 48 hours, in universe, and obviously, everyone is getting antsy. The Paladins outside are just waiting for the entrance to open again to they can help. Red Lion, being already inside, starts bombing the BoM base. Protective robo-cat, isn’t he? Keith awakens, for reals this time, and Kolivan again asks for the dagger. And asks that he get Red Lion to stop destroying their base. Shiro tries to get everyone to calm down. Keith ultimately decides that his past doesn’t define him, and as much as he wants answers, his duty is more important. He hands the blade over. Or tries to. The moment he offers it to Kolivan, it morphs, growing into a full Blade of Marmora…Blade. Kolivan tells Keith two things, that the sacrifice the dagger was all that he need to do, and that only a Gulra could fully awaken the Blade. So… that would make Keith… a… Gulra… huh, guess they’re going way off mold with Keith this time around. The other Paladins are allowed into the BoM base, and the two groups start hatching a plan. High fives all around!

So yeah, Keith is mixed species in this iteration. Obviously, the amount of Gulra DNA in him must be really watered down, or else he’d probably be purple and hairy. Just saying. Being a major SciFi nerd, I do wonder how this was possible. Like is the Gulra genome so close to baseline human that cross breeding is possible? Or did they have to do some crazy gene tinkering to make the Gulra-human hybrids. I’m thinking too much about genetics in a cartoon, aren’t it? From the flashback, it would seem that the Gulra ancestry is from his mother’s side. Interesting. I especially liked the trials that Keith went through to unlock the Blade’s potential. The ever-increasing number of opponents, with their creepy masks and repetition of the lines, was rather unnerving the whole way through. I know the “win by surrender” idea has been done almost to death, but it was still done well here. Keith has wanted two things thus far this season, 1. Answers, and 2. His dagger. To turn the dagger over, and also not get the answers he’s craving, would be a defeat that I’m not sure his ego could have survived. Where was this kind of characterization last season? Another thing that’s been done to death is the “hero has connection to the villains,” thing. Examples, I’ve darkened the text to hide the spoilers, just highlight it if you want to read the full example, Star Wars series (Luke Skywalker is son of Vader), Dragon Ball Z (Hero Son Goku is a member of the villainous, planet harvesting Saiyan Race), Super Man 2 (Superman’s fellow surviving Kryptonians come to enslave Earth), The Sword of Truth (Hero Richard Cypher is son of evil king Rahl), Eragon (Titular Eragon is son of dead Dragon Rider traitor Morzan, and brother to living traitor Murtagh), Wanted (nobody turned bullet bending assassin Wesley Gibson is son of initial villain Cross), and Tranformers: Prime (in this version evil Megatron was once Optimus Prime’s mentor). And those are just the few off the top of my head. Thankfully, given the assumption his mom was the partial Gulra, odds of Keith turning out to be like the son of Zarkon is relatively small. What a boring twist that’d be. In summation, an interesting episode, a unique new twist, and I can’t wait to see the sort of plan this new team-up hatches.

Viewer Log: Voltron ep 18

Before we get started, I just want to take a moment and say, Woohoo, 300 of these posts. That you to everyone that has read my work and enjoyed it. I hope to have plenty more of these weird, at time rambling, bits of geeking out for you in the years to come. I can safely say that it has been time well spent. Let’s get to it, shall we?

He's a Space-Rent-A-Cop
               It's exactly like you think.

After saving the Taujeers, learning for sure that Zarkon is following them via his old connection to the Black Lion, and watching Coran dress like an imbecile, the team sets their sights on fixing a major personal problem. After their many frantic jumps across time and space to elude Zarkon and his armada, the Castle of Lion’s wormhole generator is damaged. The machine, the Teladov, uses special crystal lenses to refract energy to generate a wormhole. The special lenses, made of Scaultrite, were rare 10,000 years ago, and would have only gotten rarer since. But, Coran does know of a special Swap-Moon, a space Black Market run by the Unilu, where they might be able to find the lenses. The place Coran describes sounds pretty much like Mos Eisley, the most retched hive of scum a villainy. It’s soo bad that Coran forbids Allura from coming along. Considering that he usually follows her lead, that should say how dangerous Coran thinks this Swap-Moon could be.

Shiro also elects to stay behind, to work on his connection with Black. When the other’s leave, he gets into Black and asks the mighty machine what he has to do to strengthen their bond. On cue, the Lion activates, and takes off despite Shiro’s protests.

Coran and Co arrive at the Unilu Swap-Moon. So… in 10,000 years the Unilu Swap-Moon has evolved. Into a modern Mall. A mall in space. How bizarre. So, Coran’s Unilu pirate disguises probably won’t be much help. The team splits up to find the lenses, with the Paladins ditching the pirate garb the second Coran leaves. This, unfortunately, draws the attention of the terrible Varkon. I don’t mean to make him sound intimidating, I mean that he is Varkon, and he is terrible at his job. He’s the Space Mall’s rent-a-cop. He sees them throwing out the costumes, assumes they’re pirates disguising themselves as normal patrons, and vows to keep an eye on them.

Meanwhile, Black Lion takes Shiro deep into space, to the wreckage of a shattered world. Once there, Shiro ‘sees’ through Black Eyes and sees Black’s past. Specifically, the shattered world Altea in its heyday, and Zarkon and King Alfor standing alongside the mighty Black Lion. Which we then cut away from almost immediately. Damn teases.

Back at the Space-Mall, Hunk finds the food court. Well, it was nice knowing him. Hunk goes overboard on sampling, and accidentally picks some food off a plate he shouldn’t have. Vrepit Sal, owner of Vrepit Sal’s, doesn’t believe in free samples, and puts Hunk to work in his kitchen to pay off the debt. He’s ankle-cuffed to the radiator to do dishes. Since Hunk’s only other co-worker is an incredibly old woman with a foot-long beard, odds are he’s going to be there a while.

Not sure if the wings do anything, or just add awesomeness.
                They add a whole lot of awesomeness.

Keith finds a Unilu knife salesmen. He asks the salesmen to appraise his Gulra dagger. The Unilu notes that it is incredibly well crafted, and made of Luxite. Luxite is a rare metal, and the planet that it was mined from has been space dust for decades. When the Unilu asks were Keith got it from, he gives a vague answer about how it was a gift. The Unilu immediately tries to buy it, but Keith’s not interested. When the legal way doesn’t work, the Unilu claims Keith is trying to steal the dagger. Jerk. The Unilu summons Varkon. He’s off, on his space segway. Just when I thought that mode of transport couldn’t get any more demeaning.

Jump back to Shiro, we learn the full story of how the Black Lion came to be. 10,000 and some change years ago, a comet struck Altea. King Alfor, sensing something special from it, uses it as the main metal for the Black Lion. After Black was completed, he was given to a younger but still scary looking Zarkon. As if sensing his name was being uttered, Zarkon at that moment taps into his connection to Black. And he looks POed. This can’t be good.

While only halfheartedly looking for the lenses, Lance, and a few moments later Pidge, discover an alien shop where they’re selling 80s Earth goods. Considering in the Voltron timeline, the human race is at the point of colonizing the solar system, I seriously doubt the alien’s claim that this stuff is the “latest fashion” from Earth. Pidge is about ten words into scolding Lance for shopping in the one store in the Mall that will 100% not have the lenses, when she notices something awesome. They call them different names, but she basically geeks out over her universe equivalent of a Nintendo NES and original Legend of Zelda. She forces Lance to help her get together the 1200 GAC (space credits) to pay for it. Girl has her priorities. Side note, I assume GAC is an acronym for Gulra Authorized Credits, or something similar. That’s too weird a name for currency otherwise. Back on task.

Coran tries to get a Unilu teenage worker to help him find the Unilu Black Market, but has little results. At least someone is remaining focused on the task at hand. Albeit ineptly. Back with Hunk, Vrepit Sal’s cooking robot breaks down. Hunk is able to convince Sal to let him do the cooking. Using his disturbingly amazing cooking skills, Hunk is able to improvise a dish that seems to impress the Food Court shoppers. Hunk has turned Vrepit Sal’s into the Mall’s hot spot in… oh, fifteen minutes. But, his time as a chef is cut short when Varkon segways in.

Zarkon, it's time to take a hint.
              And by hint, I mean plasma blast.

In space, Shiro delves deeper into Black’s memories. He sees the mighty Lion in battle, his wings fully open and obliterating the enemy. But the reminiscing is interrupted by Zarkon. The alien despot attack’s Shiro on the astral plane. Let’s have a battle of the mind… er souls… er astral projections. FYI, Matrix rules, if the Astral body is destroyed, the body dies. So the stakes are rather high. The two duke it out, but Zarkon is clearly stronger. He scolds Shiro for even dreaming of replacing him as Black’s Paladin. Despite being thoroughly out classed, Shiro keeps fighting, for his team and Black’s sake. As the fighting continues, Zarkon gets Shiro by the throat. Shiro claims that the bond of trust between the Paladin and the Lion is the most important thing, while Zarkon continues to preach the doctrine of might makes right. Zarkon claims he owns Black now and forever, which makes Black decides to let his opinion be known. By firing a beam laser point blank at spectral Zarkon. Nice metaphor for severing the bond between them. Upon waking, Shiro learns that this entire trip was in his mind. Trippy. At the same time on Zarkon’s ship, the enraged despot angrily shouts at his now rapidly weakening connection to the Black Lion. Hooray for the good guys.

Lance and Pidge raid a wishing fountain for the GAC they need. They’re able to get the alt-NES and game, and a free cow, before being reunited with Hunk and Keith, who are running from Varkon. Not sure why, Varkon isn’t even intimidating by Gulra or Mall-Cop standards. Coran, meanwhile, finds an old school Unilu swap shop. Said shop, has the Scaultrite lenses. After a bizarre bit of haggling, Coran gets the lenses, and then barely escapes with the crew. Shockingly, Varkon has to end the pursuit at the Mall’s entrance. The team reconvenes, Shiro tells the team that they’re headed for the Blade of Marmora HQ, since they won’t have Zarkon tailing them anymore. Hooray. Pidge and Lance plan to spend the travel time playing their Alt-NES, only to realize that 80s’ era human tech isn’t compatible with the Castle of Lions. Like at all. The episode ends with Pidge screaming “NO!” in defeat. Sad but hilarious.

Oh, and if you were wondering what Allera was doing this whole time, she was hanging out with her pet mice. Yeah, it’s as silly as it sounds.

This episode was kind of weird, tonally speaking. We have six of the seven main characters performing hijinks in the location they’re in. Allura and her acrobatic mice, Lance and Pidge trying to buy a video game, Hunk held hostage over a restaurant tab, Keith sword fighting with a knife salesmen, and Coran treating a modern mall like a hostile bazar. Funny situations. Meanwhile, Shiro is learning the tragic history of the birth of Black Lion and Voltron and fighting for his life against his insane predecessor, Zarkon. On the astral plane. The two stories don’t exactly mesh well together. That being said, while the transition between the two is jarring, both stories are still really well done. It was kind of awesome to see Shiro and Zarkon battle, both trying to assert their right to pilot the Black Lion. They fight literally at the feet of Black to show who is the worthiest. And, in the end, it’s not the strongest one to prevail but the one whom respects the bond between Paladin and Lion. The one thing about the history lesson that I’m really questioning is young Zarkon. He looks exactly like current Zarkon, minus the scar across his face. Why the flying cuss word did King Alfor ever trust this guy? I know we aren’t supposed to judge a book by his cover, but seriously, he looked like an insane monster BEFORE whatever thing happened that turned him against Alfor. That’s like Obi-Wan Kenobi choosing to train Anakin Skywalker in the ways of the force, when he was already wearing his Darth Vader armor. Don’t need inconsistent Clairvoyance to know that is going to end badly. And, with the others, it was really kind of fun to give them a day off, of sorts, and run around a space mall. Varkon is a hilarious in just how inept he is, and how deluded he is in his own importance to the Gulra Empire. He considers himself to be Emperor Zarkon’s #2. That’s like Max Dillon/Electro in Amazing Spider-Man 2 kind of hero worship right there. So yeah, one half light-hearted fun, other half kind of intense fate of the Galaxy stuff. An odd, but interesting mix. 

Viewer Log: Voltron ep 17

We take a few minutes away from our heroes to see some new alien’s in peril. These aliens, the Taujeer, have had their planet strip mined by the Gulra. And, to make matters worse, the Gulra steal their ship’s engines, leaving them stranded on their dying world. Well… that’s going to ruin their weekend plans.

So... you think you can play "I, spy" in space?
I spy with my little eye,
someone who's about to be chewed out.

Back with the Paladins, they’re all pretty shaken by the last couple of encounters with the Gulra. Being hounded across the known Universe has that effect on folks. They’re trying hard to figure out how Zarkon has been tracking them. They have three ideas, 1. Allura thinks that Zarkon is somehow tracking her unique Altean energy, 2. Keith thinks Zarkon is tracking him specifically because… reasons, 3. And Shiro thinks Zarkon is tracking Black Lion via their old connection.  Three is obviously the right answer, but Allura and Keith are hung up on their ideas. While the group tries to figure stuff out, Pidge has an idea. Using the information that they’ve gathered from various sources, she’s able to create an algorithm to locate the planet’s that the Gulra are most likely to hit next. Why is this important? Because being on the offensive is more productive then being defensive. Duh. Care to guess what the next most likely target in their area is? Taujeer. They're off to save the day.

Later that night, Keith has nightmares about Zarkon somehow tracking the team through him. FYI, while they haven’t stated it out loud yet, they’ve made it pretty clear that Keith is at least worried that he has some connection to the Gulra. Due in no small part to his heirloom dagger with the Blade of Marmora symbol on it. He’s so freaked out by the thought of endangering his comrades that, upon waking, he tries to make a run for it. In the hanger, he meets Allura, who planned to jump ship too. They agree to fly out together, using Pidge’s modified pod, to make sure that Zarkon isn’t tracking the ship through them. Two members of the team jumping ship, what could possibly go wrong?

When did he have time to make this?

The rest of the team are somewhat distracted by Taujeer falling apart to notice that they left right away. The planet is literally losing huge chunks of its crust. Shiro and the rest of the team land and meet the Taujeers. The alien’s leader explains about the whole resource stealing that the local Gulra Commander, Morvok, did. He also explains that the Taujeers knew their planet was basically molting. It sheds its outer crust, revealing an ocean of acid, before re-growing said crust later. The Gulra intervention just accelerated the process. The Taujeer’s had set up a shelter on their planet’s moon to wait out the acid period. But, obviously, losing their engines caused a kink in their plans.

Meanwhile, Keith and Allura bide their time waiting to see if the Gulra show up in deep space. Just them and the never-ending void of space. How riveting. While they wait, Keith does his best to convince Allura that maybe not all the Gulra are bad. This line of thought is probably as much for his benefit as hers. But, the whole 10,000 years of war, death of her planet, the functional extinction of her species, and the death of her father has Allura pretty firmly in the “Hate Gulra” camp. Talk about a losing battle. But, I think that Keith should get points for trying to change Allura’s mind.

With the bad guys, Zarkon has tracked them down again and has sent Morvok to handle them. Why doesn’t he warp in himself? No idea, though I imagine keeping up with several Castle of Lions’ wormhole jumps probably drained Zarkon’s main fleet of resources. For the moment.

Back with the others, they form a plan to save the Taujeer. Pidge uses Green’s Plant Cannon to stitch the remaining chunks of crust together. Lance then used Blue’s Ice Beam to cover the vines in a layer of ice, to make them last a little longer against the acid. Meanwhile, Hunk and Shiro use their Lions to keep the Taujeer’s ship level while Hunk and Coran make the ship space-worthy. They’re able to make the repairs necessary to get the Taujeer off planet, just in time for the Gulra to arrive and muck things up. Wonderful…

Its right at this moment that Keith and Allura realize the major flaw in their separation plan. Without Keith, the Paladins can’t form Voltron, as all five Paladins are necessary for the combination. Without Allura, the team can’t make wormholes, as she is the only one who can manipulate the quasi-mystic energy to create them. So, traveling between star systems in any less than 100 years is impossible without her. So, yeah, team is kind of screwed without them. Thankfully, at the moment they figure this out, they get Coran’s distress call that the Gulra are attacking. Relieved that they aren’t the ones being tracked, the two try to reunite with the others, but using Pidge’s modified fuel booster causes the engines to blow. The pod is destroyed, but Keitha and Allura are able to eject before it goes kaboom. So, Keith and Allura are left floating in the void of space. Wow, that is amazingly bad. Wonder if they’ll find the Sendak-cicle Shiro launched last season…

Everybody get's an upgrade!

The team is getting pummeled by the Gulra fighters, but are saved from total annihilation by Coran and the Castle’s laser fire. Realizing that they’re rapidly running out of options, Coran goes down and tries to pilot Red Lion. He even does a little dance to try and appeal to the picky Robo-Lion. Red, probably freaked out by Coran’s outfit, flies off.  Well, shoot. Oh wait, it’s going after Keith and Allura. Shoot retracted.

While all the fighting is going on, Hunk has been left beneath the Taujeer ship, holding it up. The increased frustration at being stuck like that causes Hunk and Yellow’s bond to deepen. But instead of getting a fancy blaster like Lance, Keith or Pidge, he gets about four times the armor. Nice. Keith arrives a moment later. They form Voltron and attack. Morkov plans to use his ship to ram them, but escapes via a pod. In order to stop the crashing Gulra capital ship, the Paladins insert the four out of five Bayards into their Lions. This supercharges the Leo Saber, allowing them to slice the warship like it was butter. They save the Taujeers, and there is much rejoicing. They also figure out the obvious, that since Morvok attacked the main group, Zarkon is tracking them through Black. About dang time.

I’m not going to repeat myself again after this one, but this was a good episode. If I don’t say anything to the contrary in the Voltron posts to come, just assume that I thought the episode was good. It’ll save us all some time. This episode has a nice payoff from the buildup last time. Granted, while I think that Allura and Keith’s believing themselves to be the thing that Zarkon is following was stupid, seeing the two of them legitimately freaked out at the prospect was a good character moment for them. Allura does try to explain why she thought the “Zarkon tracking Black” was impossible, claiming that no Paladin had ever been shown to call to their Lion over such a great distance. The thing is, the show hasn’t been very clear on how many generations of Voltron Paladins there have been since Zarkon went nuts. If there was another Black Paladin between Shiro and Zarkon, I get the feeling he/she didn’t have that much experience before they were killed. So, this is kind of like Allura saying “It’s never been done. Therefore, it can never be done.” Says the woman that is psychically linked to four alien mice. Nothing is impossible. There were a fair number of chuckles in this one too. Like the leader of the Taujeer’s saying “I would feel more comfortable with all five Paladins,” when he learned that one was missing. Or Morkov’s “We’ll ram them… prepare my escape pod” moment. Hunk’s armor upgrade, while somewhat underplayed, also looks awesome. And, come on, being underplayed is kind of Hunk’s thing. So yeah, good episode, with more to come. 

Viewer Log: Voltron ep 16

So, we last left our heroes staring down the barrel of a proverbial gun, the gun in this metaphor being the bulk of the Gulra fleet. Not a good way to end an otherwise successful day. Way out matched, and exhausted from saving the Olkari just a couple of hours ago, the team decides to bid a tactical retreat. He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. They have to dodge and weave the Gulra fighters, to build enough distance to safely wormhole jump away. They do this by slingshotting themselves around a nearby moon, and making the jump. Unfortunately, all the excitement seems to have done damage to their Teludav, the machine that lets them create their wormholes. As such, they fall out of the wormhole way too soon, and Allura is very near collapsing afterwards. To make matters worse, or at least less convenient, Coran has caught an Altean disease. It’s called the Slipperies, which causes him to excrete a whole lot of sweat. He’s particularly embarrassed by this because it’s an “old Altean” disease. He’s basically got his species equivalent of Gout. Joy.

Space, a never ending void of death and destruction.

Coran, despite his ailment, does his best to jerry rig their Teludav to be functional until they can get the right replacement parts. Their space engine uses energy refracted by special lenses to create the wormhole. The… excitement of the last few days caused multiple lenses to crack, which make wormhole travel much, much harder. The rest of the team takes some much-needed time off while Coran works. Hunk does some baking, or at the very least tries to. The ‘cookies’ he made only seem to break teeth. Lance and Keith separately decide to check out the pool, much to the other’s dismay, but get stuck in the elevator for a bit. They escape through a hatch, do that back to back climbing thing, and then make it to the pool. Which is on the ceiling. Alteans, does any of their architecture make sense? Pidge, feed up with not being able to understand anything on the ship, goes to learn Altean. The ship has a nifty little training program that uses a hologram generator to project the thing it’s teaching you the word for. But, unfortunately for her, Altean’s are bigger grammar snobs then I am. Mispronounce a word, and the hologram gets more and more aggressive until it attacks the ‘student.’ Pidge just barely gets the pronunciation right to call off the Altean equivalent of a bear. Which is then replaced by another Altean horror. She really should have been more concerned when the program mentioned that the safety was off. I’m starting to think the universe is better off with that planet gone. Shiro encourages Allura to rest while she can… about fifteen seconds before the Gulra arrive again. Allura seems rather shocked that the Gulra were able to find them so quickly, but seriously, the guy did it once before already. Everyone is called in to help out. Unfortunately, their effectiveness is somewhat limited when Coran starts cutting the power to non-essential systems. Why do the guns fall under “non-essential systems”? Because the Teludav needs all the power it can get. They just barely jump away again, at the cost of even more of the special lenses the Teludav uses to make the wormhole.

Grammar lesson, Level: Expert.

They arrive just outside a colossal dust storm. They fly into the storm in the hopes it’ll give them cover, just in case the Gulra track them down again. The Gulra track them down a few minutes later. Zarkon wants Voltron back bad. The Paladins form Voltron in an attempt to draw Zarkon’s attention long enough to rig up the Teludav. Which doesn’t work too well, but the Castle is able to get out of the dust storm. Zarkon uses the druids to activate his magic steroid enhanced connection to Voltron, causing the giant robot to seize up again. The Castle fires upon his flag ship, breaking Zarkon’s connection long enough for them to fly away. Coran spouts some technobabble, which sparks Pidge’s now slightly enhanced Altean vocab, who then announces that Hunk’s cookies might work as temporary Teludav lenses. The team then has to do, in Coran’s own words, “the most dangerous thing [he’s] ever seen,” and physically hold the lenses while the Teludav powers up. It doesn’t work, because the lenses aren’t shiny enough. But, thankfully, Coran uses his Slippery’s sweat to shine up the lenses. Tied up that little plot threat neatly, didn’t they? The team make another jump, escaping the Gulra once again, but Zarkon vows to continue the pursuit. I suppose when you’ve been chasing something for 10,000 years, it’s hard to let go.

This episode reminds me of an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, called “The Chase.” In both episodes, the heroes are doggedly chased by their respective antagonists across the landscape… spacescape. Patience is tested, heroes pushed to the brink, and the entire time the baddy smiles evilly. Very well done. Seeing the Paladins in how they use their very limited free time is also rather interesting. Keith and Lance try to relax with recreation but instead end up arguing, Hunk cooks, and Pidge tries to expand her mind. Yeah, pretty much sums all these guys in a few words, doesn’t it? Got to say, though I’m a little shocked that the team still hasn’t figured out how Zarkon is tracking them. The tyrant has been capable of causing the giant mech to freeze up, but somehow, it’s beyond them to believe that Zarkon is following Black across the cosmos? That’s just dumb. I haven’t touched on this much, but I have to say the scenery is amazing. I especially like the look of the dust storm, and the inner workings of the teladov. It’s rather interesting to see Zarkon shift from the calm cool plotter to actively chasing down the heroes. I imagine all the waiting around is finally starting to get to him. If I’d failed in my goal a half dozen times after 10,000 years, I suppose I’d start getting antsy too. FYI, this episode is mostly build up for the next one. Despite this, it’s still pretty good. A lot of shows I’ve seen have a tendency to screw up ‘build-up’ episodes like this one, but it works. I imagine that if this was a more standard series format, where I was waiting a week or more between episodes, I’d be more annoyed. But binge watching is a beautiful thing. Next time, episode 17.