This next episode opens on the
planet Puiga, the planet that had just liberate itself from the Gulra last
time. They seem to be in the process of rebuilding their planet after all of
the smashing that just took place… just in time for the Gulra Fleet to warp in.
Shoot. The commander of said fleet is Lotor himself. Double shoot. Rather than
dispatch a full invasion force, Lotor instead elects to send his generals, whom
are under orders to take their enemies alive whenever possible. Each of these four
alien hybrids have a specialized skill set that makes them a force to be
reckoned with. We have Ezor, the primarily orange one that can camouflage
herself and specializes in ambush tactics; Zethrid, a beefy blue half-Gulra
that is the muscle for the group; Narti, she looks like a lizard, doesn’t have
eyes, but uses some kind of telepathy to see the world around her; and Acxa,
probably the most Gulra looking of the group who seems to prefer long ranged
weaponry. You may remember Acxa from Belly of the Weblum, where Keith saved a
helmeted Gulra soldier from within the bowels of a massive space eel. She
pulled a gun on him and fled with a bag of Scaultrite, a crystal material that
the Weblum produces in its stomach. The
four generals plow through the Puigan defenses, and capture their chieftain.
Lotor lands and speaks with the chieftain. He mocks the Puigan’s faith in Voltron,
and offers him a job.
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| Narti, the one without eyes, freaks me out the most. Then there's her space-cat. |
Back at the Castle of Lions, the
group is trying to figure out the best way to replace the Black Paladin. The
Paladins ask Allura if she can’t just use whatever psychic powers she used to
match the original five with their respective Lion. She says that, while she
had been able to do it then, it was because doable because the five were in
front of her. It’d be a lot harder to mentally scan the known universe for someone
who has what it takes to pilot Black Lion. Keith offhandedly mentions that
Shiro had wanted him to take the top spot in his stead, but he doesn’t want it,
and it just leads to everybody arguing over why they think they should be Black’s
pilot. Coran calms them down, and Allura tells them the plan. Basically, they’re
all going to sit in the pilot’s seat and see who Black reacts to. Sound plan.
Allura goes first. Then Pidge,
Hunk, and Lance in turn, but Black doesn’t even twitch. Then Keith steps up. He
basically prays from the moment he sat down for the machine to not react. His
prayers are, unfortunately for him, not answered. Black starts reacting, and
the group needs to focus on the new pilot problem. Namely, that if Keith is
piloting Black, he really can’t be expected to pilot Red too. Keith tries to
turn down the position, but Lance, of all people, puts his confidence in Keith
and tells him to do it. Keith, knowing Lance is his biggest critic bar-none,
nods and takes the responsibility. With that taken care of, Allura gets into
Red and tries to get him to react. She starts tearing up at this, but Red is
unmoved. Mild spoiler, but her father, King Alfor, was the original Red
Paladin, so not getting to pilot his machine, again, probably stung pretty bad.
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| Not sure if I'm okay with seeing a member of the Gulra royal family smile so much. It's unnatural. |
Lotor and his people are in the
process of reclaiming Puiga. While going over data that the empire has gathered
over the last few weeks, he notices that Black Lion hasn’t been seen in a fight
since the battle with Zarkon. He order Narti to act. She uses her psychic mind
control powers to force the chieftain to activate his special Voltron Alliance
distress beacon. The Paladins pick up the signal and make for Puiga. Before taking
off, Allura lets Keith know that she’s behind him 100% as the new leader. This
seems to give him an emotional pick-me-up on par with Lance’s comment, and he
announces that “This one’s for you, Shiro.” Three of the lions take off. Why
only three? Because Lance can’t get Blue to drop his shield.
Once in range, Lotor hails the
Paladins and announces himself. He gives them the whole “surrender or die”
speech before firing on them. Lotor wants to see the full capabilities of the
Paladins and so launches his armada’s full strength at the paladins.
 |
| Now here's a face that says, "Ow, my pride." |
Lance tries desperately to get Blue
to react, but the big lion isn’t moving. Allura joins him to find out what the
heck is going on. Just when things start looking grim for the others, Red
roars, drawing Lance and Allura’s attention. Allura gives Lance a little speech
about her dad. Despite being the guy that designed the lions, Alfor realized
that Zarkon was the overall better leader in combat. He bowed to him, but
served as Zarkon, and Voltron’s, right hand. And Lance, by metaphorically
bowing to Keith, showed a similar quality. As Alfor was Zarkon’s right hand,
and Keith was Shiro’s, it looks like Lance has to be Keith’s. He takes Red and
flies out. Once alone, Blue bows his head and deactivates his shield for Allura.
Looks like the princess is getting a chance to get her hands dirty.
Lotor orders his troops to focus on
Black, but only enough to keep the pressure on. He wants to draw out all the
Paladins if he can. Lance flies in at high speed with Red, running over any
ship that get’s in the way. The Castle follows and unleashes a powerful blast
on the opposing force. Lotor turns his attention to the Castle, and scores
several hits on it. Allura flies in a moment later. The team preps to form
Voltron, but Lotor suddenly orders a full retreat. He’d “seen enough.”
After the fight, Lance takes a
moment to say goodbye to Blue. He tells the might machine that he’d have
piloted Blue to the end, if it were up to him. Allura comes in, showing off her
Voltron Paladin armor. It’s pink. She gives a rather silly sounding explanation
that Pink is the Altean color of honoring fallen warrions, but come on, she’s
in pink because Allura wore pink in the old Voltron. Lance smiles and admits that,
if he had to give Blue to anyone, he’s glad it’s her. They gather with the
others. Keith, rather smugly, reveals he was able to plant a tracer on Lotor’s
ship. They’re going after it.
This was a good introduction into
the difference between Zarkon and Lotor. The younger despot is perfectly willing
to bid a tactical retreat, to ensure that he can use any information gleamed
from an encounter to its fullest. Whereas Zarkon would have just kept hitting
them until they broke, or he did. His minions are also of a higher class then
his Father seems to work with. Each has a unique skillset that they use to
great effect. Zarkon would probably rely on one skilled commander and a
thousand robotic drones. It’s your classic quality vs. quantity debate. As for
the paladins, the changing of roles was very well done also. Keith is extremely
hesitant about taking up the responsibility that is being Voltron’s leader, and
it’s really through Lance stepping up and encouraging him that allows Keith to
move forward. And, in doing that, Lance effectively severed that bond he had
with his original partner, in order to forge a new one. Bet you weren’t
expecting this kind of metaphysical stuff from a cartoon, were you? It’ll be interesting
how the paladins adapt as they chase after Lotor. The prince is not an opponent
to be taken lightly, and yet, the Paladins should never be underestimated
either. Here’s hoping for a good fight.
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