You know who I’ve been missing?
Shiro. The Paladins just aren’t the same without their leader/dad. While his
disappearance was really important during the two episodes of this season, it
kind of seems like the team has put finding it’s field commander on the back
burner. Which, when you consider the stuff that they’ve been dealing with, is
understandable. That all being said, you know who’s about to make a comeback?
Shiro wakes up suddenly in some
sort of Gulra medical bay. He’s about as shaggy as I am, which is saying
something. Shiro is able to get off the table with some difficulty, and starts
stumbling down the halls of the ship. His trip causes, you guessed it, a minor
flashback. He remembered the last time he was stuck on a Gulra ship, where
they, you know, replaced his arm with a robotic prosthetic. Note that they
never expressly state WHY he needed the mechanical replacement. Too subtle?
Fine, I think the Gulra chopped off his arm. For science. Maybe. Or torture and
entertainment, which seems just as likely. They reference something called Operation
Corrone. I think I spelt that right…
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| There's a face that says "I'm so DONE with crashing." |
As he moves, Shiro’s strength seems
to return to him. In a matter of minutes, he’s got the strength and stamina he
needs to over power several robotic guards and makes a break for it via an
escape pod. Wonder if this is giving any of the Gulra soldiers déjà vu. What,
it’s a big galaxy, but it seems entirely possible that at least one soldier
served on this ship, and the one Shiro escaped from last time. His pod is shot down, though, and he crashes
onto the nearest planet. The captain/admiral/commanding officer rather
cryptically mentions that Operation Corrone has hit Stage 3. Oh, that can’t possibly
be good.
Shiro must have passed out during
the crash, since he wakes up just barely hanging over a ravine. He’s able to
escape his pod before it drops, mostly thanks to his robot arm and his hitherto
unexplained parkour skills. So now he’s stranded on a planet that’s eerily
similar to Hoth, and he doesn’t have Jedi powers like Luke. Oh, this blows
chunks.
You know who else I haven’t seen
for a while? Haggar. Not too surprising, since she’s probably pretty busy
looking after her comatose liege. I guess she’s been paying attention to Prince
Lotor’s actions, and she hasn’t been impressed with her temporary Emperor.
Which seems odd, since, you know, putting him in charge was her idea in the
first place. It almost seems like she didn’t think about what would happen when
she put an exiled prince on the throne, even temporarily. She has another of
her Generals, a hulking cyborg named Rott, to discretely follow Lotor and report
back on his activities.
Shiro is able to survive on
Not-Hoth for several days. He even copies Han and Luke and hides out in an
animal carcass for warmth. He uses his robot hand’s energy mode to cauterize a wound
on his leg, and muses on what could have possibly killed such a large beast. He
finds water the next day, and, like an idiot, plunges face first into it.
Shiro, what if that’d been salt water? Thankfully, it’s fresh, and relatively clean.
I say relatively, because it is infested with a giant crab monster. He’s able
to hold his own, but, a lone dude against a predatory animal, that just doesn’t
work. Unless you’re Tarzan, which Shiro is not. Thankfully, a group of local
hunters come in and save him. But then take him prisoner. Shoot.
While unconscious, again, Shiro
remembers being examined for Operation Corrone. Considering he was the one
soldier with a pair of scientists, it really isn’t too surprising that he was
taken for super soldier tests. Just saying. He wakes up, and discovers that the
hunters have slapped a clamp onto his arm, disabling his robot arm’s attack
functions. The hunters are some kind of rebel fighters, the Star Wars parallels
are everywhere today, but don’t believe that Shiro is a Voltron Paladin, or if
Voltron is even really a thing. He basically begs them to try to contact the
Paladins, or the Blade of Marmora, but they’re not listening.
 |
| Oh, what a surprise, the old witch has trust issues. |
Back with the bad guys, Lotor’s
team notices an anomaly in space following them. It’s not a huge leap of logic
for them to figure out that they’re being followed. Lotor orders the ship shot
down, and the pilot captured. Things aren’t looking good for Rott.
The hunters monitor communications
from nearby rebel groups and Gulra. Shiro escapes his prison, and starts making
a break for it. But then he hears the deep space radio mention Voltron. He changes
his mind about leaving, and instead focuses on getting to that radio. He separates
the Hunters from each other and takes them down. He proves that he’s not all
bad, by not shooting them. The Hunters tell Shiro all about what they heard
about Voltron. The last they heard was that the super machine was last seen
around Thayserics. You know, the gas planet where they played Wolf and Bobcat
with Lotor. So, here’s the rub, the Hunters do have a ship, but it doesn’t have
engines capable of interstellar flight. But, there is a Gulra warship nearby
that’s scheduled to jump into deep space. Shiro’s plan, use the freighter to get close,
and then stow away on the ship. It’s insane, but it just might work.
His freighter gets shot down, but
Shiro is able to sneak aboard the Gulra ship. The Gulra ship warps, arriving
during the battle with Voltron. Shiro is able to sneak aboard a Fighter jet,
but has to smash is way free when the launch is aborted. He flies after
Voltron, dodging the other Gulra fighters, but shockingly, a single fighter can’t
keep pace with Voltron, or the Castle of Lions. He keeps flying after them, despite
the fact he has like 0% chance of catching them.
Lotor, meanwhile, presents Rott’s
cybernetic arm to Haggar. He’s rather annoyed by being stalked by his mystic’s
goons. He claims that he’s the leader, now, but he refuses to be like his
father. Keep this interaction in mind, I’ll be getting back to it later.
 |
| Hope isn't really hope until it is all you have. |
Shiro spends a week flying around
aimlessly in space. He’s running out of air, supplies, and time. He’s pretty
much doomed to die in deep space. Rather then focus on his hopeless situation,
Shiro spends his last few minutes of consciousness remembering his friends. It’s
this mindset, assumedly, that calls out to Black Lion. The mechanical cat leaps
into action, taking Keith and the others to save Shiro.
Shame that Shiro’s time away from
the team wasn’t at least a little relaxing. Instead, he spends nearly the entire
time almost dying, so it’s like his normal routine but lonelier. These kind of
back to basics survival episodes are always kind of nice. Especially in tech
heavy scifi. Force the hero to fight for basic survival, it always makes for
great entertainment. The moment where he’s passing out, and choosing to think
of his friends rather than moping about his hopeless situation was really
sweet. Lotor and Haggar’s little story is also rather interesting. It’s clear
that there’s a lot of disharmony between the two. It seems like Haggar was
somehow under the impression that Lotor would be willing to ‘play ball’ when
she brought him back in. But given the guy’s personality, it kind of should
have been obvious that wouldn’t happen. Again, remember their interactions here
for a later episode. Let’s just say, Lotor should have had a much, much snider
comment for the old witch.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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