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.