#vld 6x02

[kcwcommentary]

VLD6x02 – “Razor’s Edge”

6x02 – “Razor’s Edge”

It’s a little weird that the second episode of season six is starting literally right where the fifth episode of season five ended. It’s one thing for an episode to start right where the previous one ended, but this episode is starting right where three episodes ago ended. Keith is still standing there surprised to realize that Krolia is his mother. He has tons of questions he asks her, including “How are you so sure?” And her response: “I’m sure.” That’s not an answer. We know so little about the actual blades the Blades wield, but I guess we’re supposed to interpret all this as the blade is somehow genetically coded to a person, and that’s why both Keith and Krolia can affect the same blade? That would be an easy explanation for the show to give to give Keith an answer here as to how Krolia knows he’s her son, but the dialog instead is written to be cryptic-cliché. She follows up, telling him, “We can talk about this later.”

For all how Krolia’s dialog is supposed to suggest that they don’t have time to talk right now, she is just standing there doing nothing, not working to pilot their craft anywhere, not trying to contact anyone else in the Blades, nothing. (Also, can’t they talk as they travel to their next location?) Having the two of them standing there doing nothing, if we’re to believe they don’t have time to discuss this, then makes the scene feel like they forgot to choose any action to animate.

There’s a bit of flashback to explain how Krolia has information that Kolivan and Keith don’t about the unexpected transport lines of quintessence. Krolia apparently studied the ship from which Ranveig got the quintessence he used to make his “weapon,” and she determined that the ship had passed through the “quantum abyss.” That she never bothered transmitting that information to Kolivan/the Blades is baffling.

The description of the quantum abyss is science-sounding nonsense. Neutron stars are real, they’re the core left over when a relatively large star (though not the largest) goes supernova. Despite the name, neutron stars are not exactly stars since they’re no longer undergoing fusion They’re essentially a stellar corpse. A neutron star is small, having a typical radius of just 10 kilometers (for comparison, Earth has a radius of a bit over 6000 kilometers, and Pluto has a radius of a bit over 1000 kilometers). So, Krolia then saying that in this quantum abyss, neutron stars “orbit even larger, dark stars” sounds really silly to me. If her statement is trying to refer to mass instead of volume, neutron stars aren’t particularly massive either, with average masses somewhere between 1.5 and 2 times the mass of our sun. What makes their mass-volume relation interesting is that that much mass fits in such little volume, which Krolia does accurately reference the objects’ high density. You wouldn’t want to get close to a neutron star, but Galra technology should be more than enough to let them maneuver past neutron stars unbothered.

As for “dark stars,” I’ve never heard that term before, and the best I can tell it is either effectively another name for black holes or a name for a theoretical object involving dark matter that could only have existed in the earliest days of the universe. I imagine the word was used in writing this episode because the word “dark star” sounds ominous. So basically, this “quantum abyss” is just a stellar graveyard. Krolia says that the area has “unusual effects on gravitational waves and space-time itself.” The gravity of such an environment might be complicated to calculate and map, but it’s not “unusual.” If the Galra are a technologically advanced civilization such that they can dominate the whole universe, then they should be able to understand gravity of neutron stars and black holes that, while it might not be Krolia’s area of expertise, it wouldn’t be something she would think of as “unusual.”

Finally, the term “quantum abyss” seems so inaccurate, even if the show is trying to make up a name for the area Krolia describes. Nothing about her description makes me think of quantum mechanics, nor is an area full of neutron stars and black holes appropriately described by the word abyss, which is by definition a large, empty area.

Moving on.

Lotor is still talking up Allura, connecting her increasing her abilities to the achievements of Alfor. She’s standing there doing this show’s typical hand-touch-and-glow method of not actually doing anything but pretending something is actually happening. “Our visit to Oriande has taught me more than I ever thought possible,” Allura says. Since the show’s magic system is so undefined and opaque, and she’s doing no differently than we’ve seen her do before – touching something and glow – it doesn’t really feel like she’s learned anything. She thanks Lotor, and he thanks her, saying that she’s the “key to bringing peace to the universe.” I guess all this is supposed to be him still just being manipulative and secretly villainous.

Lotor and Allura nearly kiss before Pidge, Hunk, and Lance interrupt them. Pidge and Hunk are upset that they’ve been left out since they both like technology. Lance, meanwhile, of course is jealous, but his typical aggressive manifestation of his jealousy is interrupted by him accidentally knocking over some tools, which was funny. Allura tells them there’s nothing really for them to do, and Lotor points out that what Allura’s doing is infusing the ship, not building it. Pidge and Hunk are okay not being involved when they realize it’s all just “magic.” Lance, however, still wants to help. As much as I find Lance’s angry, entitled jealousy infuriating, how he ends this scene feeling sad, dejected, and lonely is something I can totally understand and makes me feels sympathetic.

Krolia and Keith arrive at the quantum abyss. The music in this episode is fantastic. It’s some of my favorite in the entire series, and I listen to it often.

Krolia says that Ranveig sent a lot of probes into the quantum abyss trying to track where the quintessence came from. (So, Krolia has known for a long time about this quantum abyss as being the origin point for the quintessence in the unexpected shipments the Blades of Marmora had been tracking. If Ranveig had time to send multiple probes into the area, then Krolia had time to relay information about all this to Kolivan.) “The probes picked up a path that was relatively unaffected by space-time,” Krolia says. This statement is more bad science. Space-time is not some external force that affects you. This situation would be more the opposite of what Krolia says; instead, all the objects in the quantum abyss would affect space-time significantly, and difficulty navigating would be the result of that effect on space-time. In other words, space-time would not affect things, things affect space-time.

She says that they never found out where the path these probes mapped went because the probes were all destroyed by something, and they never identified what. It’s a little noticeable that the dialog was written to try to create tension at the idea of something threatening and destroying the probes, whereas the most likely answer would just be that the path the probes mapped was simply a dead-end. So, this dialog is kind of written to jump to a conclusion.

They are attacked by weird, spiky creatures as they begin their journey into the quantum abyss. After they start being attacked, Keith says, “Krolia, we’ve got trouble.” What a useless line of dialog; she already knows since she’s in the same small ship Keith’s in and could feel the impacts and has all the warning alarms sounding off. The creatures can phase through the matter of the ship and come inside, though Krolia can blow them up with her gun. Krolia asks Keith for ship’s status, and he initially replies, “The ship’s damaged.” You think? The thrusters are offline, and they’re starting to drift because of gravitational pull. Keith and Krolia jettison from the fighter and are left floating in space.

Keith points out that the ship had the necessary coordinates to navigate through the quantum abyss, and Krolia responds, “We’ll have to make do.” Sigh. The idea of making do regarding something this complex is absurd. She continues, “As long as we stay inside the borders of the space-time drop-offs, we should be safe.” This sentence sounds silly to me since space-time is literally everywhere. I guess “space-time drop-offs” are supposed to be areas of space-time where gravity of the nearby objects strongly warps space-time? I think it’s just the wording “drop-off” that’s odd, which has a connotation of something ceasing to be. The writing didn’t need to name it, they could have just described the gravitational affect they were moving to avoid.

Some large object in the quantum abyss explodes or something, sending out a giant blast of light. This made me realize until this point I didn’t notice that the visual depiction of this area that’s supposedly made up of neutron stars and black holes doesn’t look like it. Neutron stars, though they cease fusion, are still bright. A black hole would only be visible as a dark relief against the light of other objects. Given the closeness of these objects and the gravity in the quantum abyss tearing objects apart, there would be a lot of objects with accretion discs, which are also bright. This area is animated as incorrectly dark. Most everything here looks like just shadowy chunks of rock.

Krolia jumps between Keith and the energy radiating out from whatever exploded. I honestly have no idea what’s happening, what these explosions are supposed to be.

Keith opens his eyes to find himself in some endlessly white area that dims enough to show Krolia and his father naming him in front of Keith’s house back on Earth. He then sees a premonition of his upcoming fight with the Shiro-clone. Back to relative normal in the quantum abyss, Krolia tells Keith, “Time collapses this close to dark stars. Going through the light triggers glimpses of the past and the future.” Absolutely not. If the show wants to have Keith have visions of the past and future, that’s fine, but don’t try to give it a science-violating, half-assed explanation. The episode could have just had Keith knocked unconscious, and while unconscious, his metaphysical bond to people could have magically given him visions. But for the show to have spent so much of this episode going space-time this and space-time that to now severe time from space-time and pretend that it functions differently, when the whole point of the concept of space-time is that space and time are actually different dimensions of the same thing, this just does not work whatsoever. I don’t mind the fiction part of science fiction, but I do expect anything science-like included in science fiction to at least somewhat match up with what we know scientifically.

Meanwhile, Lance is still sad. Pidge and Hunk see him upset, and instead of being friends who care about a sad friend, they mock and bully him. I don’t think I could ever be friends with the EPs and writers of this show since this sort of behavior is what they apparently think friendship is. They want us to think that these characters care about each other, but scenes like this show that they don’t.

Things continue to happen with Keith and Krolia, and it’s staring to be uninteresting. Keith is almost spaghettified (that’s a real term for the effect of super high gravity, by the way), but he throws his blade, attached to a rope, into a rock, and Krolia pulls him out of the area where gravity was starting to spaghettify him. Absolutely not. Their muscle strength is no where even slightly close to the amount of force needed to escape that kind of gravity.

There’s another light blast, so we get to see Krolia’s past of her as part of a two-man team looking for the Lions. Her partner orders her to “call it in,” and I can’t help thinking why doesn’t he just call it in then? It’s cheap (supposed) drama. She turns on him and starts trying to blast him. She destroys his fighter, but not before hers gets hit. She crashes on Earth, conveniently right at Keith’s dad’s house. He pulls her out of the wreckage. And we’re then back in the quantum abyss, Keith now having seen that vision.

Keith has another vision of Krolia and his father having found the Blue Lion. His dad suggests the Galaxy Garrison might help them, but Krolia says no. Krolia says that she wouldn’t go back to the Galra even if she could. That she wants to stay and protect Blue.

Lance is alone in the lounge. He’s still sad and upset. The mice come in, and he reacts by saying, “Great. Are you here to make fun of me too?” So, Pidge and Hunk’s behavior earlier most definitely had the effect of bullying on Lance. He has a monologue about his past making fun of people whose hearts have been broken, seemingly taking pride in his having a past of breaking the hearts of others, but then trying to contextualize that behavior as the result of him not knowing what it felt like to truly like someone. His insecurities make a return, as he says, “I don’t have anything to offer [Allura]. I’m just a boy from Cuba, not a space prince like Lotor.” Bringing Lance’s insecurities up again just reminds me how the show does not actually resolve this element of his character. His supposed character growth sort of happens off-screen (if it happens at all). It’s more of the EPs and writers not knowing how to write character growth, so they don’t ever show it. And that’s fundamental to the story this episode is telling about Keith too.

Back to Keith and Krolia in the quantum abyss. Keith points out, “At the rate we’re going, it’s going to take us a lifetime to reach the end.” Yeah, the plot feels aimless, like miscellaneous stuff is happening just to fill time. Keith says they need a new plan, and conveniently giant space whales the two of them should have been able to see from a distance suddenly pop up next to them. Sigh.

There’s another blast of light, and Keith sees Krolia feeding him when he was an infant. Krolia’s blade glows, which alerts her to the very nearby presence of Galra scouts. This is an ability of the blade that comes out of nowhere, so more writing that has things happen just because it’s convenient for the moment. Krolia plans on using some explosives that can’t destroy the fighters, but they can damage their engines (yet said explosions do later destroy a fighter, contradicting the writing here). Keith’s dad goes to do that. Krolia goes to interrogate the scouts, though she doesn’t actually ever interrogate them. A Galra sniper has sight on Keith’s dad from a nearby ridge. He pulls the trigger of his rifle and holds it way too long before the rifle finally fires; it’s unintentionally funny. Keith’s dad is shot, and he falls to the ground.

Krolia attacks two Galra in the Blue Lion cave. The sniper comes in and aims at her, telling her to drop her weapon. She feigns surrendering before attacking them. One Galra escapes her, gets to his fighter, takes off, but then explodes as Keith’s dad finally detonates the bombs.

Back at home, Keith’s dad tucks him in. Krolia says that she has to leave. She now thinks that she can best keep the Galra from getting their hands on the Blue Lion and protect Keith and his dad by returning to the Blades of Marmora and working from the inside to stop the Galra. She gives her blade to Keith’s dad to give to Keith eventually.

Back in the quantum abyss, Keith says that he finally understands why Krolia left, that she “put the mission above all else.” She counters, “That’s not true. I left to protect the person I most love: You.” Another space whale comes by, and they maneuver to get on its back.

The space whale creates its own atmosphere because of course it does. So, Keith and Krolia can breathe on it. We then begin the montage. Out of nowhere a shining object plunges into the back of the whale that turns out to be a sleeping space wolf. There are also giant insect-like creatures on the whale, that they fight off. Keith and Krolia camp. Keith feeds the space wolf. They sleep. More light flashes, letting Krolia see Keith grieving at his father’s grave when he was young. Keith plays fetch with the space wolf. It rains (seriously, the whale has a water cycle?). The space wolf teleports.

Then the montage ends with Keith announcing that it’s been two years.

It’s really all pretty ridiculous. Yes, relativity would have an affect on time that differentiates time passing for Keith and Krolia from the time experienced by people outside of the quantum abyss (the show has never cared about temporal relativity before). The show is using this time-lapse montage to again have character growth occur off-screen. The idea that this experience causes Keith to become a better leader, as the EPs have suggested, is absolutely ridiculous. As I’ve said before, leadership is a set of skills. Like all skills, you have to practice them to get better at them. Keith living with his mom and a space wolf and having no other contact with anyone for two years is not going to improve his leadership skills. Also, the space wolf is pointless. His introduction does not have any narrative weight. It’s just part of the cliché that so many stories have that the ideal life is a boy growing up with his parents and a dog. Don’t get me wrong, I like dogs, but the space wolf’s introduction and effect on the story is so nebulous. It just feels thrown in, not like it’s something necessary for the story.

Allura collapses after having exhausted herself from touching the ship and glowing. Lotor continues to speak supportively to Allura. She then goes to her room, where she finds the mice, who’ve been given a bath by Lance. They tell Allura that Lance loves her, and Allura’s face drops. She’s clearly bothered, in a sad way, not elated by the idea. It makes her eventually ending up in a relationship with Lance seem not like the inevitable outcome of their respective character arcs because she’s not shown being interested in him. It makes that relationship when it happens feel like forced narrative.

The space whale finally makes its way to a red planet. Krolia can detect the type of quintessence Ranveig found from relatively far distant from the planet with just the computer in her arm. Technological capability really is based on whatever the writers want to happen at any given moment. It leaves me feeling unable to anticipate how the world-building of the story can be applied to the development of the plot.

Completely off-screen, Krolia, Keith, and the space wolf somehow make it off the space whale and down onto the planet’s surface. There’s a building there that looks like Galra tech and architecture. Inside, they find a door that opens to what looks like a bright, colorful planet, and in that room, they come across a blond Altean at a stream of water. Romelle.

This time at least, watching this episode doesn’t feel balanced. A lot of the time spent progressing through the quantum abyss ended up feeling like the story was idling, stuck in neutral, just waiting to finally go somewhere. I am not a fan of the time-vision, not just because it has a science-illiterate veneer, but also because it doesn’t do character work as strongly as it could have. It makes the revelations Keith has be a passive thing. He just stands there and has visions. The same content of events – Krolia coming to Earth, her relationship with Keith’s dad, why she left Earth – could have been revealed through having Keith and Krolia talking to one another, having her do the uncomfortable thing of having to tell Keith the story of her past.

The two-year time jump exists for no other reason than to allow them to have Keith’s character development happen off-screen. By scripting it to take two years, the EPs and writers know that character development takes time, but they were unwilling to give it the time it needs. The time jump is a total storytelling cheat used because they didn’t want to do the hard work of writing character development.

It is nice to have the story thread introduced seasons ago of the Blades’ tracking the unexpected shipping lines of quintessence paid off now by having Keith find where that quintessence is coming from. Unfortunately, it means the story is introducing Lotor’s Altean colony, introducing Romelle, and prepping the show to have the “surprise” revelation that Lotor’s a villain all along. I am not a fan of this plotline because it makes me feel the EPs and writers did not fully think through the implications of their writing choices. They were so narrowly focused on wanting to pull off a “surprise” twist of Lotor-is-a-villain-all-along that they didn’t care about that twist nullifying the past storytelling and character work they’ve done. Ultimately, the whole colony story and Lotor-is-a-villain is the result of the EPs and writers wanting to manipulate the audience. The problem is, most of us don’t like being manipulated.

[alluradaily]

I may be able to guide us in, but I’ll need you all to focus your energy.

[shiroallura]

2x05, shiro telling allura she has to go and that he wants to help her // 6x02, krolia saying that she wants to stay, and keith’s father saying he wants to help her

[cryosuits-archive]

“Like father, like son”

‘Texas’ + Keith father/son parallels

↳ Explosions | Getting spotted | Hover bike | Seeing the Blue Lion for the 1st time

[okaybutvoltron]

Update: Newest contender for cutest shit ive seen this season

[cryingovermylife]

all my thoughts on vld s6

what the fuck

[epermochi]

lance is fukcing sad about lotura my heart can't handle it 😢

[mustlovelance]

hey there! i was just wondering what you thought were the quintessential alllurance eps of vld (minus s8 bc I'm too distressed over that).

if you want an exhaustive list, i recommend skimming through my allurance ship manifesto and picking the episodes that have at least one scene of screencaps.

just from skimming that myself:

1x01 (meet cute)

2x02 (”mrs. blue lion”)

2x03 (lance staying behind with allura)

2x06 (lance saying he’d cross the universe for allura and being jealous of her running off with keith)

2x07 (allura wants something sparkly!)

lance’s vlog (like half of it is devoted to allura lol)

3x02 (allura telling lance to accept red)

3x03 (allura trying to flirt with the blue lion, lance supporting her)

3x06 (lance being in awe of allura’s whip, allura picking him up by the collar)

4x06 (lance being the first to reach allura when she’s zapped, lance inspiring allura with his speech, allura thanking him)

5x01 (lance being the one to grab allura for the meeting, lance standing closest to lot/or before he even mentions marrying allura)

5x03 (allura walking in on lance training with his sword and reassuring him, lance reassuring her in turn) 

5x06 (lance freaking the fuck out because he’s worried about allura on oriande..........hah...................) 

6x01 (DO I EVEN NEED TO EXPLAIN WHY?) 

6x02 (lance being sad about lot/ura, allura being conflict about lance’s indirect confession) 

6x03 (dnd episode! lance saying they have fun together and allura agreeing)

6x06 (lance consoling allura about loto/r’s betrayal, the huuuuug)

6x07 (for the ending scene when lance is crying and allura feels it’s necessary to smile at lance before reviving shiro)

7x10 (veronica teasing lance about allura being pretty, allura blushing at lance and telling him to come back safe! lance blushing back and denying the significance of this when veronica teases him! glorious!) 

7x13 (lance looking over at allura after they’ve won, allura looking back at him and smiling softly, allura having that card that lance likely made for her in her hospital room)

i bolded the episodes that i’d consider quintessential. 

[shiroallura]

2x05; What are you doing here? You should be resting. I cannot sleep. Zarkon is looking for us. I know how you feel, but you have to step away for awhile. It’s what’s best for everyone. // 

shiro turns, sees an already weakened allura coming to continue her work, and walks towards her. he takes her hand and urges her to rest, and the scene finishes with a closeup of their faces before they’re interrupted by the galra.

6x02; You’ve done much today, Princess. You need your rest. We’ll continue tomorrow. There’s still a long ways to go, but I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together. None of this would be possible… without you. // 

lotor turns, and sees an already weakened allura trying to continue her work, and walks towards her. he takes her hand and urges her to rest, and the scene finishes with a closeup of their faces, before, due to relative peacetime, she gets to do just that.

[shiroallura]

god i love being endgame: 2/? → krolia/keith’s father + shiro/allura hand touch comparison (part one)

BONUS:

[shiroallura]

2x13 // 6x02

[shiroallura]

When the Hand Touch happened in season two, there were very scarce romantic couples in VLD. Us, and many other more casual shippers before the age discourse, claimed it was clearly romantic. At this point the only real ship that had anything close to canon confirmation was Hunk/Shay. And then season three came along, and we got our first outright canon couple in Haggar and Zarkon, who’s relationship had been largely characterized by trust, a strong and supportive working relationship, and as s2 revealed, between a (former) Black Paladin and Altean alchemist. Season three showed what a romantic relationship looked like, namely, through handholding. Another few seasons later, both Allura/Lotor and Krolia and Keith’s father showed the same. Kisses and blushing are secondary to VLD romances. Trust, intimacy, a common goal, similar work ethic, and hand holding is what defines any and all canon romances the show has had. (Gee, who also fits that description, I wonder?)

And while I’ve already shown, even if I haven’t written much, on the similarities between Krolia and her partner’s first hand touch, and Shallura’s, here, I wanted to talk more in depth about the secondary shots. While the closeups on Krolia’s face in the first parallel post do parallel Allura’s very well, and add to the similar framing, these shots of Krolia above were actually what made me sit up and take notice that, “Oh, these look familiar.” 

Krolia shows surprise, first, looking down at how Keith’s father has now taken her hand. Allura shows clear surprise too, at Shiro’s concern and intimacy with her, but she doesn’t have to look at how he took her hand because it was in clear sight. Then, Allura’s face melts into something of sad acceptance that she shows Shiro’s right, that she knows how he feels, and that she should go rest and he’ll take care of things for her. And while Krolia smiles upon hearing her partner’s admission -- “I want to help” -- her initial reaction is quite similar. The slight furrow of her brows, the downward turn of her mouth. As much as she wants him with her, wants to be with him, and his help, she knows she puts him in danger. She knows it puts a weight on him that he’s now going to be helping her shoulder, as one of the only two people on Earth who know about the existence of the Blue Lion... similar to how Allura knows that by accepting Shiro has her co-leader, especially in 2x05 as he spends just about the whole episode doing his best to ease the burden of leadership off of her (meta here) that it also means he’s sharing her burden on his shoulders as well.

AKA these two alien ladies love their beefy earthling boys and that’s the tea

[shiroallura]

allura hearing that lance likes her

[shiroallura]

god i love being endgame: 4/? → krolia/keith’s father + shiro/allura “the mission,” apologies, and leaving

Splitting up the group makes us far more vulnerable, come back to the Castle immediately. I’m sorry Shiro, I cannot do that. [...] You understand, I could never live with myself if Zarkon was finding us because of me. I must know. We face such a dire threat from the Galra. [...] I'm so sorry for leaving. Me too. We thought we were doing the right thing. But clearly you were correct, Shiro. We are always stronger together. 

//

 I must go. I thought you’d seen enough war. If they found the Blue Lion once they’ll find it again. I need to report back to the Blades and stop the Galra from the inside. I’m sorry. But this is the best way for me to keep you both safe.

[shiroallura]

god i love being endgame: 3/? → krolia/keith’s father + shiro/allura hand touch comparison (part two)

What are you doing here? You should be resting. I cannot sleep. Zarkon is looking for us. I know how you feel, but you have to step away for awhile. It’s what’s best for everyone. // Does this mean you’re gonna contact your people and continue your mission? My ship being destroyed was the best thing that ever happened to me. I wouldn’t go back even if I could. I have a new mission now. I’m going to stay here and protect the Blue Lion. I want to help. 

[okaybutvoltron]

NO ONE PREPARED ME FOR THIS SHIT