#voltron 8x04

[purpleplaid17]

Pidge 8x04 [2/ 6] They were our allies, our friends.

[kcwcommentary]

VLD8x04 – “Battle Scars”

8x04 – “Battle Scars”

This episode contributes to the season’s unbalanced storytelling. This is a whole episode spent on what really amounts to like five or ten minutes of story. That wouldn’t be a problem if the season didn’t also have so many episodes later on in which too much happens in a single episode, causing everything in those episodes to be really confusing with really difficult to follow logistics.

Given this episode’s focus on Pidge and her Olkarion/plant thing and the threat of a weblum, this episode feels like it was written after someone finished rewatching season two, though this episode revisits two of the least interesting stories from season two.

The big reveal of why the mecha was attacking Olkarion does not provide an answer to at least one of the mysteries the episode sets up: Why is Olkarion now a dead planet? Also, we’re shown several Olkarion ships evacuating Olkari, so why did they not immediately contact the Voltron Coalition once they got clear of Olkarion to tell them they had been attacked?

The episode starts with the mecha sent by Honerva at the end of last episode arriving at Olkarion. Cut to somewhere in space, the Lions travelling wherever they’re going. I like the first shot of this big shot of the nebula with the Lions so small since it helps make space feel appropriately large. They’ve checked, according to Pidge, 11 star systems in three days, and haven’t found any sign of the mecha. They talk about the “quadrant,” and if you’ve read some of my past commentaries, you know that I’m really not a fan of the use of that word since when it gets used, it almost always is not referring to one-fourth of an area like the word quadrant means. Here, Pidge says that this quadrant is “230,000 light-years in diameter,” Hunk says that he “can’t even process what that means.” Well then, let me help. The diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy is approximately 150,000 light-years. The Milky Way is not particularly a large galaxy. It is possible that the Paladins are in a really large galaxy, and that 230,000 light-years could amount to a quarter of that galaxy, so maybe, just maybe “quadrant” could be an applicable word, but I doubt it. It’s more likely that the show just yet again threw around that word without thinking. I imagine most of the writers on this show being just like Hunk in this moment, not able to process what astronomical distances mean. Of course, Hunk, having been a student at the Galaxy Garrison and having spent considerable time travelling throughout the universe, should be able to have an idea how big 230,000 light-years is.

Allura says, “Perhaps we should set our heading to the Altean Colony.” Keith counters, “We talked about this [….]” Anyone remember when Allura was a leader? When she was viewed by the Paladins as the Princess of Altea? When what she wanted to do had weight with the Paladins, and they didn’t condescend to her the way Keith just did? Moments like this is why Allura becoming the Blue Paladin was a demotion. The executive producers’ desire to have Keith as Black Paladin, and thus the leader, didn’t just take a leadership position away from Shiro, it took a leadership position away from Allura too.

Allura wants to go to the Colony to look for clues. Keith doesn’t want to go because of how difficult it was for him when he and Krolia went there in the past. What Keith doesn’t include is that his progression through the quantum abyss was through use of his jetpack and a space whale; if the Paladins went now they’d be using their Lions. I think their Lions can handle things far, far better. We’ve had Lions navigate a precise path between two black holes and a giant blue star before (2x08 “The Blade of Marmora��), so clearly the Lions can handle navigating through complex gravity.

Allura becomes very understandably annoyed, “I’m tired of hearing what we can’t do and what we don’t know.” She specifically locates her annoyance in the fact that what Honerva is doing is being done to Alteans, her people, so this feels personal for her. I think she’d be totally right to feel annoyed just because everyone else seems casual about what’s been happening. Allura says to the group, “You don’t understand.” Lance jumps in with, “I understand what it feels like to see someone I care about hurt so much.” Honestly, I’m kind of over people acting like this. If someone tells you that you don’t understand what they’re going through, then just countering by saying that you do understand is not demonstrating that understanding. (I get that Lance was technically saying that he feels sorry to see Allura so upset, but I’m focused on how he was written to use the specific words he did.) The person wouldn’t have said that you don’t understand if you were demonstrating that you do. The fact that they told you that you don’t understand indicates you need to reevaluate your behavior toward that person. Too often, it feels like when someone says that others don’t understand what they’re going through, people who counter by just saying that they do understand are just trying to avoid self-examination, they’re trying to take the cheap way out of the social situation. Applying that to this situation, I don’t think anyone has demonstrated that they recognize what effect this situation is having on Allura. It’s been well over a season of this show since anyone’s really paid attention to Allura, and Lance wanting to date and kiss her does not count as anyone paying attention to her thoughts and feelings about what’s going on in her life.

They then write Allura to apologize to Lance as if Allura was in the wrong here. Grr!

Hunk says, “Maybe we should head to Olkarion. They’re just a few galaxies away.” I know this show has been the loosest possible when it comes to depicting accurate scale/distance of space and travel through space, but it sounds ludicrous to say something like it’s “just a few galaxies away.” If the distance to Olkarion is so casual the way Hunk talks here, why haven’t they already called up someone on Olkarion and asked them if they’ve heard anything?

“And it’ll be awesome to see everyone again,” Pidge says. “I wonder what kind of technological advances they’ve made in the last few years.” Why didn’t she ask them when a bunch of Olkari came to Earth at the end of last season to help Earth after the occupation?

Allura remains mentally isolated from the group. Not that any of the others can currently see Allura’s face, but she clearly looks sad. This is more of what Allura goes through this season that made me feel during my first time watching this season that Allura was seriously depressed (and no one really cared). With Allura seeming depressed, as I said in my commentary for 8x01 “Launch Date,” having her story end with her death really feels like the show is saying that the only outcome available for someone who’s depressed is for them to die.

Lance asks, “Allura, what do you think?” Why is he asking this? She’s told everyone what she thinks their next action should be: look for clues at the Colony. They rejected that idea. Allura is essentially pressured into dismissing her own judgement and accedes to everyone else’s desire to go to Olkarion.

Pidge tries to contact Olkarion to tell them they’re coming, and no communication can be established. One, Olkarion is probably the Voltron Coalition’s biggest member, at least until now when Earth’s added the Atlas to the Coalition’s resources. Team Voltron spent nearly a whole season parked on Olkarion earlier in the show. Since the Coalition has learned that Honerva has these new mechas in play, why wouldn’t the Coalition/Paladins have contacted their biggest ally a long time ago to spread the alert to the Coalition members?

I’m also left wondering what the parameters were of the Olkari coming to Earth to help post-occupation. Are there still Olkari on Earth? Are there Olkari on the Atlas?

I genuinely laughed at Lance’s, “They’re probably too busy untangling calculations. Am I using that right?”

Pidge says, “I’m guessing there’s a delay due to our distance.” This show has never had distance cause a delay in communications be a thing before, so why would Pidge think it was a possibility? (I’m remembering Pidge expecting an instant communication with her father on Earth back at the beginning of season seven, for example. She was super far away from Earth at the time but didn’t think a distance-based delay was a thing.)

Keith orders Voltron formed, and the animation really feels like it’s just there to take up time. Keith has Voltron use its once-special but now-common wing engines to go faster. They very quickly jet from where they were to “Olkarion’s galactic neighborhood,” as Lance says. He also then asks, “Did we ever hear from them?” You mean within the literal just a few seconds that have passed since you previously tried contacting them? Lance’s line is written like a notable amount of time has passed, but the animation hasn’t had time pass, the animation has had them quickly form Voltron and we saw the literal few seconds they spent in transit, start to finish, from where they were to where they are now. Maybe this is just the director not building the shots of the episode in a way to convey more time passing, but as it is, it’s only been like a couple of minutes, max, for the Paladins since Pidge tried contacting Olkarion.

Pidge tries contacting Olkarion again, and she detects something coming toward them. It’s a weblum. For a bit, Voltron weirdly just floats in the weblum’s way before finally moving so that it doesn’t blast them.

Allura asks where the weblum is going, and Pidge calculates and says Olkarion. Voltron was headed toward Olkarion. The weblum is headed toward Olkarion. Voltron and the Weblum were headed in opposite directions initially. So, Voltron was headed away from Olkarion then. If the director couldn’t keep something this simple straight in setting up the shots and logistics of the episode, I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised that the show’s direction becomes maddeningly confusing when the season’s story gets more complicated.

Voltron had disassembled the wings to make its shield, but then cut to Voltron using its wings, as if it had been in wing-mode the entire time, to beat the weblum to Olkarion. Voltron separates into Lions when they get to Olkarion.

There, they see Olkarion’s city destroyed. I say city, singular, because this show only ever seems to depict populated planets, Olkarion included, as having a single location of habitation. Pidge is sad, saying, “They were our allies, our friends.” Yeah? Then why hadn’t you guys contacted them before now to let them know about Honerva’s mechas?

Keith acknowledges that they’re under a time pressure to act since the weblum is coming there. He orders the Paladins to engage in search and rescue if possible and to try to find out what happened to Olkarion. For not having much time, everyone seems to be acting slowly, taking time to look around. Only Hunk and Keith are using their Lions. There are some really powerful sensors on the Lions, so I would think using them would be the first thing they would do. Instead, Pidge takes time to look at single, crumbly leaf. Allura, being who she is would be the one most able to know, says that the land has been drained of quintessence. Hunk says he and Lance have found traces of the metal that the mecha is made of.

I imagine Pidge being sad over Olkarion’s destruction is meaningful to people who are fans of Pidge’s character. I don’t have any immediate objection to how her sadness is being portrayed, I think it’s logical that her character would be sad, but because this show’s past plots with Pidge have annoyed me so greatly, I can’t help but to just not care that she’s sad.

She falls to her knees, crying, and then there’s a white light and she can see Olkari kids playing before her vision returns to normal. Allura says that because the Olkari and Pidge both have a “profound connection to the land” – despite the show nominally having added this yay-nature dimension to Pidge’s character, I’ve never seen her act in any way that demonstrated she developed a connection “to the land,” but whatever – that maybe the planet is showing Pidge something. How? If the planet hadn’t been drained of its quintessence, I would think that could explain how, but as is, it’s just happening because that’s what’s been written, not because there is any explanation for why. And the show never explains why. Allura says, “Concentrate. See if you can tap into its energy.” It has no energy! Allura literally said the planet’s quintessence is gone just a short bit ago.

Pidge closes her eyes until she starts having visions again. She sees the mecha plunging through the atmosphere. She and Allura move to the city, where Pidge has a vision of the mecha hitting the ground. Ryner was here when it happened. Pidge sees the mecha attack the city. She jetpacks to a location closer to the initial attack. She sees Ryner order evacuations and counter attacks.

Hunk and Lance report that they only have ten minutes to get out before the weblum hits Olkarion due to the weblum tripping some “low orbit trackers.” I guess the weblum’s arrival is supposed to be unexpected? Like its there earlier than its distance and known possible speed would have it able to arrive? But also, they used “low orbit trackers?” A low Earth orbit has an approximate maximum altitude of 2000 km. Most of Earth’s satellites and the International Space Station have a low Earth orbit. Since they knew the weblum was coming, they should have been monitoring to know it was there long before it was knocking on the front door. So, this new time pressure is just the show having a contrived situation again.

Allura asks Keith, Hunk, and Lance to try to buy Pidge time to learn more about what happened to Olkarion. Pidge reenters her vision, sees the donut cannon try to blast the mecha, which reflects the blast and destroys the cannon. Ryner orders Olkari soldiers to hold the mecha off as much as possible while other Olkari “preserve the information from the communications tower.” So, Pidge, knows where to head to next.

Keith, Hunk, and Lance make their way to the weblum, which is visually not even remotely close enough to have tripped any low orbit sensors. Hunk tries to slam into the weblum to knock it off-course. They try various Lion weapons, but it doesn’t slow down.

Pidge reenters her vision on the communication tower. She observes two Olkari discuss why they were unable to detect the mecha until it hit their atmosphere. They look at a few records of some space-time anomalies and realize that the mehca arrived via wormhole. Ryner communicates orders to them to transfer all data from the tower to a safe off-planet location and then evacuate. They finish their data transmission just as the mecha blows up the tower. Pidge relays the information to Allura but asks for more time. Allura leaves to join the others against the weblum, which continues to be nowhere near a low orbit of Olkarion.

Hunk contacts Coran, who instantly returns communication (so no time delay to long-distance communication in this show), to ask how to stop a weblum from destroying a planet. Coran’s communication conveniently, but at least it’s purposefully done for humor, fades at the important parts of Coran’s instructions. It mirrors the video and audio errors in the instructional video that Keith and Hunk watched about weblums in 2x09 “The Belly of the Weblum.” Ultimately, the inclusion of Coran here is solely for this one joke, and nothing he says has any impact on the story. Allura arrives in time to use Blue’s “sonic” cannon, which causes the weblum to stop an imminent mouth-blast.

Back in Pidge’s vision, she sees Ryner ordering more evacuation, the mecha destroying more city, and (finally something important that the audience didn’t already know) the mecha taking several Olkari cubes. Pidge tries to ask vision-Ryner why the mecha wanted the cubes. The episode thinks it’s giving some big poignant, emotional moment by having Ryner talk to some crying kid who’s “scared [and doesn’t] want to leave.” Ryner spends an unrealistic moment, the city falling around them, telling the kid, “You mustn’t cling too tightly to the past. The Olkari have always been able to adapt and move forward. It is our greatest strength, and it will live on in you. The old must give way to the new, it is the way of the universe,” and she sends this random kid onto the evacuation ship. Pidge leaves the vision, the Green Lion picks up Pidge, and they leave Olkarion.

I just don’t feel what the episode is trying to make me feel with Ryner and the Olkari. It’s not that I dislike either Ryner or the Olkari (though I do dislike how the point-connection for them both to the story has been through Pidge because this supposed yay-nature aspect of Pidge has never felt true to me). But the sadness that should come with seeing Olkarion destroyed just doesn’t happen for me. I think part of it is that the destruction of Olkarion doesn’t get to be about the Olkari. It’s all about Pidge.

Hunk says, “If you think about it, this isn’t really the end of Olkarion. Weblums eating dead planets is just the first step in the process that leads to the growth of new stars, planets, and galaxies.” This is more of the non-poignancy from Ryner’s speech. I know the show has established that weblums eat dead planets, though I guess “dead planet” is specifically a planet that once had abundant life, but something has happened to kill off all the life on the planet? Because the vast majority of planets in the universe are going to not have life on them, thus most planets are dead planets unless “dead planets” is only defined as planets that once had life. Also, the creation of the weblum for this show to function as some kind of space recycling system is kind of obnoxious since we actually know a fair amount about the actual, real destruction and creation processes for stars and planets. It’s pretty much all about stars exploding. The weblum has always seemed like the show trying to apply the circle-of-life concept to inanimate astronomical objects. It’s like the show has misapplied one area of science to a different area of science.

Pidge apparently knows some way to now track Honerva’s mechas, I guess through the cubes the mecha took? The episode ends.

So, can anyone tell me how the entire planet’s quintessence was drained? The mecha attacked one city, destroyed some buildings, grabbed the cubes, and left the planet. The mecha is never shown to drain the entire planet of its quintessence. Maybe a small area within the city, but not the whole planet. So, when did the planet-draining happen? And who did it?

Technically, this episode isn’t totally pointless: it does advance the find-Honerva story by the reveal that the mecha took the cubes at the very end. But I can’t help but to still feel like this episode mostly just takes up time that the season could have better used to keep the second half of the season from being so confusing and so chaotically directed.

[iimpossible-things]

I have not been so betrayed by canon since Voltron.

[voltronbookshelf]

I’m officially crying.

Also, The Adoption Therapy AU and Olkari worldbuilding @fandomanddenial and I have done just became that much more important to me.

No no no no no no no no no no no no

[spiftynifty]

Voltron Season 8 summaries

As promised, here are the summaries for season 8. They are as unbiased as possible. I know I said I would bold the Sheith parts in this season for easy access. The truth is.... there was nothing for me to bold. :/

8x01 Launch Date Lance asks Allura on a date. She goes with the girls (Pidge/Rivazi/Lief) to buy date clothes while Lance gets grilled by Coran and supported in separate moments by Hunk and Keith. Allura meets Lance's family. Outside Allura brings a park back to life and Lance confesses his feelings. They kiss and Beezer pops out to take a photo. Meanwhile the Altean pilot, Luca, is confronted by Romelle. Luca lashes out and namedrops Honerva before Honerva kills her remotely. The Paladins and Atlas take off for space.

Rest of the episodes under the cut because 13 summaries, though brief, get long. 

8x02 Shadows A history of Haggar/Honerva and Lotor. We see her learn of Lotor's demise, use her powers to massacre a bunch of Galra at the Kral Zera, dismiss her druids, and go to the Altean colony to tell them Voltron killed Lotor. The colony relocates and sets up shop in Oriande, creating an army of Altean robeasts. In the more distant past, Honerva and Zarkon discuss names for Lotor and settle on one that represents both of their cultures. Honerva doesn't remember who she or Zarkon are when she wakes up after Daibazal is destroyed. When Lotor is born neither she nor Zarkon care. We also see the incident Lotor alluded to with Allura, where he tried to work with a planet rather than overtake it and as punishment, Zarkon destroyed the entire planet.

8x03 The Prisoner's Dilemma The 2nd-in-command from 6x01, Lon gets his base taken over by Voltron/Atlas. They try to convince him to join the coalition and suddenly get a distress call from one of his fleets. Voltron & Lon investigate together and discover the beast from 5x05 has destroyed the entire fleet and has been trained to hunt Galra and only Galra. They trap the beast inside the remaining ship and set it to self-destruct. Lon joins the coalition. Voltron and Atlas part ways.

8x04 Battle Scars Voltron goes to Olkarion and discover it has been completely destroyed. Pidge uses the power within the plants of the planet to see visions of what happened while the other paladins try to hold off a weblum that's heading to destroy the planet. Olkarion was destroyed by an Altean Robeast, but most of the Olkarions escaped and left behind valuable information for defeating the Robeast. The Weblum destroys Olkarion.

8x05 The Grudge On Atlas, Veronica makes a concerted effort to befriend Acxa. Atlas and Voltron plan a rendezvous point but Voltron is tricked to landing on a volcanic planet. There they are tracked by a group of pirates led by a "mysterious" captain (it's Zethrid). The paladins split up and Zethrid corners Keith over the volcano. She wants revenge because Ezor left her. Acxa and Shiro come to save Keith. They capture Zethrid. Ezor reappears and Acxa tries to convince them both to join the coalition.

8x06 Genesis Voltlas heads to Oriande, with Voltron actually making it fully inside. Honerva kills the Guardian and uses its life force to cast a massive spell. With it she folds reality and brings Lotor-Mech back, though he seems fully under her control. Lotormech pulverizes Voltron, causing the lions to separate. Allura tries to take out Honerva, but Honerva tries to convince her to team up and if she doesn't, Lotor will kill Lance. Allura doesn't take the kill. The Paladins escape with Atlas as Oriande's white hole closes.

8x07 Day Forty Seven Kikaide and Rizavi team up to get video footage around the Atlas so it's all shot handy-cam. Things we see/learn: The team fights a giant tentacle monster. Atlas has 6 Atleans captured but they refuse to speak to Allura or Romelle. Lance and Allura share a private moment and a kiss. Hunk bakes stuff and comes up with an Altean recipe that resonates with the Alteans and they begin to open up to Coran and Allura.

8x08 Clear Day It's clear day for that one planet from the Voltron Show and they're holding a carnival. Shiro and the Paladins, minus Allura, head down to participate. Lance and Pidge both try to win Allura a prize, Coran enters a Yalmore shouting contest, Shiro enters an arm wrestling contest, and Keith and Shiro get stuck on a boring ride. Meanwhile on the ship Allura managed to withdraw and quarantine a dark void entity from one of the Alteans. She then has visions of Lance, Lotor, and her mother encouraging her to bond with the entity to link her to Honerva and thus be strong enough to defeat her. She fights the visions but ultimately succumbs to their persuasions and bonds with the entity.

8x09 Knights of Light pt I The Paladins enter the void of Voltron in an effort to utilize Allura's new power and track down Honerva. They arrive at a place just outside Honerva's mind and all Paladins except Keith are sucked into their Lion's astral plane. They each fight a faceless figure who turns out to be a Paladin of Old whose souls were entrapped and corrupted by Honerva. Allura is able to lift their curse and both sets of Paladins, including Allura and Alfor, are reunited. Allura struggles with the darkness of the entity.

8x10 Knights of Light pt II The Paladins go deeper into Honerva's mind. Together with the old Paladins they fight a robeast. They travel through different places and see different memories, including one that reveals Honerva killed the original paladins. Finally the paladins end up in Honerva's vision of Altea, which looks a little different. Zarkon's mech is there and faces them, but they form Voltron and with the help of the other Paladins, defeat him. Zarkon's mech turns into the astral black lion and OG Zarkon as he was before the rift. He's thrilled to see the other Paladins of Old but Allura shows him visions of all the horror he did as Zarkon and he cries. They ask him to help and he agrees, and tells them to blow up the moon in the sky. When they do they see Honerva's visions of her dreams: she and zarkon and lotor, a happy family. Pidge reveals she could achieve this dream... if she warps realities into that one, destroying all other realities in the process.

8x11 Uncharted Regions Honerva now has a mech of her own with a kind of teladuv device that allows her to travel through realities. Team Voltron prepares a plan of attack but Allura is down for the count because of the entity. Keith supports Lance when he worries about Allura, and Allura awakens to Lance when he tells her he can't imagine a world without her. The rebel forces go to investigate the Honerva mech but are wiped out. Honerva appears before Atlas and controls the Alteans to siphon the power of Atlas' crystal to power her runes so she can have more power. One of the Altean robeasts tries to fight Honerva but is killed. Honerva finishes powering up the runes and then her mech and Lotor's merge to become a supermech. The teladuv spins.

8x12 The Zenith Honerva travels through the portal and Voltron follows. Balmeras surround Voltron and Atlas and merge them into a supermech, Voltlas. They follow after Honerva and fight her as realities crumble while Coran and the Blades struggle to power the portal to keep open. When Voltlas is seemingly trapped in one reality and Honerva finally makes it to her perfect reality where Zarkon welcomes her with open arms. However a young Lotor rejects her as his mother, and Voltlas appears. Honerva declares she will end all universes and teleports to her mech to prepare to fight Voltron.

8x13 The End is the Beginning Honervamech fights Voltlas and they fly into a portal together that leads to a mess of flowing paths that represent all the different realities. In her grief Honerva destroys all but one of them and as Voltlas fights to protect it it gets... wings like 10x its size? It pushes Honerva mech into another portal which is the... feelings of all the universe? Or something? Here all the Paladins and Honerva are not in their mechs. Allura shows Honerva all of her happy memories and together they decide they will sacrifice themselves to use magic to "reboot the realities". She says goodbye to each of the Paladins, and Shiro, and kisses Lance goodbye, leaving altean marks on his cheeks. She and Honerva reboot the timelines, and in this reality, Altea exists. One year later, the Paladins reunite in front of Allura's statue on Altea. They catch up on what each other has been doing; it's clear they haven't really seen each other in a while. At night they wake up and all the lions fly away. In the epilogue, Lance has a farm, Keith helps out with Blade of Marmora Humanitarian stuff with Lotor's generals, and Shiro marries a not-quite random dude (one of his crewmembers, not Roy from Macross).

[girls-are-weird]

livetweeting voltron: legendary defender episode 8x04, “battle scars”

"okay, picture five fleas searching for another flea on a dog that's the size of earth" HAHAHAHAHAHA omg pidge, i do so love you *ROTFLMAO*

aw, lance. *tears* <3

really, guys, i know you want to pad the episode for time, but you don't HAVE to show the entire transformation sequence.... *sigh* #PetPeeve

...and then the transformation sequence was useless, since they went back to separate lions like two minutes later. *sigh sigh* #PetPeeve

oh SHIT, THEY DESTROYED OLKARION?! \O.O/

yaaaassssss give me more of these pidge/allura bonding moments! i've been waiting for this for too long 

[purpleplaid17]

Pidge 8x04 [3/ 6] I know this place.

[kcwcommentary]

Voltron Legendary Defender Commentaries

Because I like having things organized, I’ve compiled a list of links to all of my commentaries for Voltron Legendary Defender.

Season One

1x01 – The New Alliance

1x02 – From Days of Long Ago

1x03 – Defenders of the Universe

1x04 – Some Assembly Required

1x05 – Return of the Gladiator

1x06 – The Fall of the Castle of Lions

1x07 – Tears of the Balmera

1x08 – Taking Flight

1x09 – Return to the Balmera

1x10 – Rebirth

1x11 – Crystal Venom

1x12 – Collection and Extraction

1x13 – The Black Paladin

  Season Two 

2x01 – Across the Universe

2x02 – The Depths

2x03 – Shiro’s Escape

2x04 – Greening the Cube

2x05 – Eye of the Storm

2x06 – The Ark of Taujeer

2x07 – Space Mall

2x08 – The Blade of Marmora

2x09 – The Belly of the Weblum

2x10 – Escape from Beta Traz

2x11 – Stayin’ Alive

2x12 – Best Laid Plans

2x13 – Blackout

  Season Three 

3x01 – Changing of the Guard

3x02 – Red Paladin

3x03 – The Hunted

3x04 – Hole in the Sky

3x05 – The Journey

3x06 – Tailing a Comet

3x07 – The Legend Begins

  Season Four

4x01 – Code of Honor

4x02 – Reunion

4x03 – Black Site

4x04 – The Voltron Show!

4x05 – Begin the Blitz

4x06 – A New Defender

  Season Five

5x01 – The Prisoner

5x02 – Blood Duel

5x03 – Postmortem

5x04 – Kral Zera

5x05 – Bloodlines

5x06 – White Lion

  Season Six 

6x01 – Omega Shield

6x02 – Razor’s Edge

6x03 – Monsters & Mana

6x04 – The Colony

6x05 – The Black Paladins

6x06 – All Good Things

6x07 – Defender of All Universes

  Season Seven 

7x01 – A Little Adventure

7x02 – The Road Home

7x03 – The Way Forward

7x04 – The Feud!

7x05 – The Ruins

7x06 – The Journey Within

7x07 – The Last Stand Part 1

7x08 – The Last Stand Part 2

7x09 – Know Your Enemy

7x10 – Heart of the Lion

7x11 – Trial By Fire

7x12 – Lions’ Pride Part 1

7x13 – Lions’ Pride Part 2

  Season Eight 

8x01 – Launch Date

8x02 – Shadows

8x03 – The Prisoner’s Dilemma

8x04 – Battle Scars

8x05 – The Grudge

8x06 – Genesis

8x07 – Day Forty Seven

8x08 – Clear Day

8x09 – Knights of Light Part 1

8x10 – Knights of Light Part 2

8x11 – Uncharted Regions

8x12 – The Zenith (part 1)

8x12 – The Zenith (part 2)

8x13 – The End is the Beginning (part 1)

8x13 – The End is the Beginning (part 2) 

[kcwcommentary]

VLD8x06 – “Genesis”

8x06 – “Genesis”

I’ve watched this whole series, so I know I’ve seen this episode before, but going into this rewatch, I totally didn’t remember what this episode is about. Like, at all. The title “Genesis” makes no sense. I guess it’s being used to mean a beginning, but nothing is beginning in this episode. Honerva has been well into her plan for a while now. Nothing that Honerva accomplishes in this episode marks a beginning of anything. We are in the middle of things, not at the beginning of anything. The title just does not work.

This is an absolute mess of an episode. Once the story got well into the events at Oriande, I finally remembered that this is when Honerva gets Sincline. But what’s so confusing is that Sincline acts as if it is still being controlled by Lotor. Sincline refuses to shoot Allura, as if it’s still piloted by Lotor. Merla (or some miscellaneous female Colony Altean; I couldn’t tell for sure if it was Merla) interprets Sincline as being Lotor. Sincline stabs the mecha piloted by the male Colony Altean, like its being piloted by Lotor. Honerva speaks as if Sincline is being piloted by Lotor. Everything in this episode suggests Lotor is alive inside the Sincline. But this show eventually shows Lotor’s melted corpse inside. So, he can’t be alive and acting in this episode. This is a fundamental inconsistency in the writing.

No wonder many members of the audience feel this season was re-edited super late in the production of the season. I think I still would need to have someone who worked on the show provide an explanation for why such a change would have happened in order to think it did happen. I think the easiest explanation is that the executive producers, the story editor, and the writers just completely lost control of their storytelling and they didn’t care to regain control. I think because the series was ending. and they stopped caring about working on this show, they just totally half-assed everything. They didn’t care if the story made sense. They were just filling out time and completing their contractual obligation.

If they did make this season and episodes like this one and think that they were being coherent in their storytelling, then they have severe preceptive and interpretive problems. This episode is a storytelling disaster.

Staff meeting: We know now Honerva has been to certain places. Pidge says, “The wormhole signatures we discovered on Olkarion: they were a map to where the Robeasts were headed. They must’ve been waiting this entire time!” I don’t understand this conclusion Pidge is making. What is it that she thinks indicates Honerva’s forces actively waiting for something? And what is that supposed something Pidge thinks they were waiting for? Veronica reports that Honerva’s mechas are on planets, but not yet attacking them, instead just sitting there surrounded by a particle barrier. Now, with that report, a report given after Pidge’s comment, it would make sense to subsequently comment about them waiting for something. It’s like Pidge’s reaction is out of order with the knowledge that would prompt her reaction.

Meanwhile, on Oriande in front of the pyramid, Honerva gives a speech. I still think that Honerva’s voice sounds strange. She’s so emotionless, like she’s totally bored with what all is going on. “For eons our people have suffered, cast out from our home,” she says, but it has the same emotional energy as someone talking about needing to go to the store to buy toilet paper. “We have sacrificed much; you have sacrificed much,” she says. I guess the Colony Alteans don’t know that Honerva/Haggar was a participant in committing genocide, right? Who’s this “we” she’s talking about: She hasn’t sacrificed a damned thing. She’s been the one violently taking things from others. This series expects me to sympathize with her, but she’s a total hypocrite.

“Lotor gave more than any of us, and today, his ultimate wish will be fulfilled,” Honerva says. What wish is she referencing? Because his wish, expressed multiple times by him throughout the show, was to find a death-less source of quintessence so that he could try to change Galra culture to be less violent, so that he could show them a different way of achievement. I haven’t heard Honerva say anything that sounds like anything Lotor revealed about his motivations and goals. Honerva says, “The Galra will pay for what they have done to the Alteans. The end for anyone that dares oppose us is near.” Lotor had serious problems with the Galra, but it wasn’t until right before he died that he became totally anti-Galra, so that’s hardly his long-pursued goal. Even this season in 8x02 “Shadows” showed how much Lotor was invested in trying to show the Galra that there was a better way for the Galra to do things. It’s like Honerva, like the show’s executive producers and writers, is ignoring what Lotor himself explained again and again what his goals were.

The mechas on the various planets start acting, draining the planets of quintessence. Keith suggests splitting everyone up, one Lion per mecha to try to slow them down, which given their combined difficulty taking on one mecha at the end of season seven, I don’t know how Keith thinks that would work. Shiro suggests they use their whole force, Voltron and Atlas combined, and go from mecha to mecha. Allura stands up and says, “No, we must attack Oriande directly.” She goes on to describe what she thinks Honerva is doing. Honerva can create wormholes. She says that the Olkari cubes can “mimic and intensify energy at a distance.” Has that really been established about the cubes? Because I just remember them basically parrying any attack the Lions/Voltron tried until Pidge zapped the cubes with her plant cannon. (Why does she not try her plant cannon on the cubes when they get to the white hole?) Allura points out that the mechas effectively do the same work as the komar did. “Honerva is going to concentrate energy from across the universe to Oriande. She’s making a komar magnitudes larger than anything we’ve ever seen. Something that can drain the quintessence from an entire galaxy.” Everyone has big shocked looks on their faces, Coran quietly says, “That monster,” and I’m left just not feeling any emotion in this threat. It’s too generic, too cliché, too I’m-going-to-destroy-the-world-bwa-ha-ha! The threat just feels flat, and a huge part of why is because this story is not connected to the personal stories of any of the main characters. The only character who’s connected to this story is Honerva herself, and I do not care about her.

Keith says that Voltron will go to Oriande. Shiro says the Atlas will go too. Do any of them remember how they couldn’t actually get to Oriande and only Allura and Lotor were able to go? Is their plan to just get to the white hole and sit there, wait, and hope Honerva and her forces come out? Keith says to tell Matt that he and the Rebels have to handle evacuating planets. Why just the Rebels instead of the entire Voltron Coalition? I get why Shiro says that their immediate Voltron/Atlas strike force cannot wait for reinforcements from the Coalition before going to Oriande, but wouldn’t this still be an all-hands-on-deck moment? Shouldn’t the entire Coalition be responding, and thus helping with evacuations, not just the Rebels? I’ve never really felt this show depicted the Coalition acting as a large force well at all.

The Atlas wormholes the Rebels to wherever they’re going. Allura gives a voice over about how bad Honerva is. As speech like this should energize me, get me excited for the coming battle scenes, but the show has failed to set up what’s coming, so I’m not emotionally connected to what’s happening. The closest Allura’s speech got to having this conflict be relevant to the main characters is Allura feeling like Honerva’s manipulation of the Colony Alteans is an attack on Allura’s people. Aside from them being Alteans though, I don’t know how Allura is emotionally attached to them. Romelle and Luca are the only two she’s ever encountered, and as far as I can remember, Romelle is the only one Allura has ever talked to, and she’s never really talked to her about the Colony beyond listening to Romelle’s exposition about it in 6x04 “The Colony.” Allura has never gone to the Colony, Keith having told her it was too difficult to get to when she suggested going in 8x04 “Battle Scars.” We know the Colony is empty because Kolivan said a team he sent reported it so in 7x05 “The Ruins” (so it wasn’t too difficult to get to, despite Keith saying no to Allura’s wanting to go there). This show really hasn’t had Allura actively trying to find out what happened at the Colony and find the Colony Alteans, so, aside from them being the same species, I don’t know where Allura’s feeling connected to the Colony Alteans comes from.

The episode does a bit of reestablishing the idea of Honerva as a foil for Allura, juxtaposing them both using the two-handed pedestal device used to make wormholes, Allura on the Atlas, Honerva at the pyramid. The mechas start blasting their gathered quintessence from their planets through space to Honerva (so these quintessence blasts have to be moving really, really faster than light).

The Atlas arrives at the white hole. There’s some kind of interference that is causing some miscellaneous problem. Slav freaks out over socks. I liked Slav when he was introduced in 2x10 “Escape from Beta Traz,” but the timing/tonality of having him right now really feels distracting from what’s supposed to be a big, dramatic plotline.

The Atlas gets as close as it can to the white hole and can’t go any further. They see the Olkari cubes hanging out closer to the white hole. Veronica says she’s “picking something up. It’s coming from the white hole,” and Allura instantly thinks that it’s the guardian, the White Lion. So, (the clone of) Shiro never told Allura that he saw Honerva come to Oriande and kill the White Lion in 6x01 “Omega Shield” then?

The Atlas transforms to “clear a path” for Voltron. Voltron goes to launch from the Atlas, and Keith says, “I’m deferring command to Allura.” Rereading this commentary to edit and revise after finishing the episode, I don’t remember Allura giving any commands whatsoever, so I have no idea why Keith’s line even exists. Honerva’s mechas shoot the Atlas, which doesn’t seem to even feel being hit, and tries to counter by punching the mechas. Serious, punching?

Voltron forms and heads toward the white hole. Is it that they’re able to go in now because the White Lion isn’t there? They really could use a line where they put that fully together because otherwise they should think that they wouldn’t be able to get Voltron in the white hole since Voltron wasn’t allowed in when they tried back in 5x06 “White Lion.”

Beams of purple energy from the mechas destroying those planets come in, hit the Olkari cubes, and a purple ring forms from cube to cube around the white pillar (for lack of a better word) that comes off the white hole. The cubes and the ring bend the energy so that it travels down through the white pillar into the white hole. Voltron nearly gets hit by that energy.

“We got to move!” Keith says, and the show has Voltron once again use it’s formerly-special but now common solution: Voltron forms its large wings and blasts off.

The purple energy hits the pyramid, Honerva screams and her eyes turn yellow, the pyramid starts to glow. And suddenly, the White Lion is in a purple-red ball of energy. What? Seriously, what is going on? So, Honerva did not kill the White Lion in “Omega Shield?” She went to Oriande, she entered the white hole, she walked into the pyramid, she fought and seemed to destroy the stone statues, Shiro saw the White Lion jump toward him mouth first, so that had to have been from Honerva fighting the White Lion, then Honerva walked out of the pyramid surrounded by floating bits of energy, clearly successful at what she had done.

So, is it that the EPs, the story editor, and the writer for this episode didn’t remember the show already had Honerva fight the White Lion in “Omega Shield,” or is it that what Honerva did in “Omega Shield” was so badly written and depicted that they just didn’t properly show us what it was she was doing in that episode? We know from Allura’s time facing the White Lion that it only gave her knowledge of Altean alchemy because she was going to let it kill her. We know that Honerva is not the type of person who would do what Allura did in that moment. At the end of “Omega Shield” we are shown Honerva coming out of the pyramid successful. The bits of floating light around her in that moment was a visual signifier that she had acquired power, so she had to have killed the White Lion then in order to take that knowledge from him. So why is the White Lion now still alive? Are we really supposed to believe that Honerva has been merely imprisoning the White Lion in a bubble for over three years (and for 25 episodes)?

My guess, the show’s creative team totally forgot they already had Honerva face the White Lion. There’s been so many big events in the show, the character assassination of Lotor, the reveal of the clone, the mostly meaningless first half of season seven, the invasion and occupation of Earth, and the new season wasting time, and finally getting around to what Honerva is trying to do, that I can so easily imagine they forgot “Omega Shield.” They certainly never explained why the clone could actually see what Honerva was doing at Oriande. That’s one of my biggest frustrations with this show: that so many things happen, like the clone’s visions of Honerva at Oriande, like the whole reason Honerva had a ton of Shiro clones created in the first place, that things happen, they’re not explained, and then they’re forgotten by the show’s writers.

Actually, let me qualify this for the particular issue of the demise of the White Lion: the show’s writer, singular. “Omega Shield” was written by Mitch Iverson. This episode “Genesis” was written by Mitch Iverson. So, it’s not like one writer wrote one episode and another writer, writing this one, just didn’t pay attention to what someone else wrote for the show. Both episodes were written by the same person. So, he should have been able to remember what he had written previously.

“The Guardian: She’s draining its quintessence,” Allura says. Yeah, she already did that years ago though. Honerva screams some more. Allura cries out, “No!” as it happens. It’s supposed to be a moment that has significant emotion to it, it’s supposed to feel like a loss, but it doesn’t, and a lot of the reason why is because this has already happened 25 episodes ago. When Honerva walked out of the pyramid in “Omega Shield” she was surrounded by those little lights floating upward, which is the same imagery used here in this episode for Honerva’s mechas taking the quintessence from their respective planets. So, in “Omega Shield,” Honerva came out of her confrontation with the White Lion having gained quintessence, so if she hadn’t absorbed the White Lion’s quintessence then, what quintessence was it that she had floating around her when she came out of the pyramid?

Also, what is the logic behind what’s happening right now. Mechas have taken quintessence from four planets, beamed it to the cubes around Oriande, Honerva is using that quintessence to attack the White Lion. Allura says that Honerva is taking the White Lion’s quintessence. So, Honerva is using quintessence to take quintessence? Also, what happened to the conclusion that what Honerva was doing was creating a structure that she could use to drain an entire galaxy of its quintessence? What she’s doing has nothing to do with draining galaxies of quintessence.

Just seven minutes ago, Allura said this: “Honerva is going to concentrate energy from across the universe to Oriande. She’s making a komar magnitudes larger than anything we’ve ever seen. Something that can drain the quintessence from an entire galaxy.” But now, it’s not about draining galaxies but about draining the White Lion. I don’t even know how a professional writer could ever write this inconsistently. And where is the show’s quality control? Where were the story editor and the executive producers?

More mechas at the pyramid attack Voltron, Merla (I think) yelling, “Defend our goddess!” I really don’t like these Alteans. If this show was going to have villainous Alteans, why couldn’t have been the Altean Empire from the alternate reality in 3x04 “Hole in the Sky” because they actually seemed like they could be interesting. Merla and the Colony Alteans seem unintentionally funny rather than threatening because of how ludicrously over-the-top and undeveloped they are as characters.

The Atlas keeps trying to punch these much smaller, thus quicker, mechas, and I don’t know why. Did I miss something that said the Atlas loses use of its cannons when in mecha-mode? One mecha does the semi-holographic size increase projection of itself that we saw these mechas able to do in 7x13 “Lions’ Pride Part 2” and stabs the Atlas in the back.

Shiro orders, “Scramble the MFEs. We need their precise striking ability.” These people have access to science fiction weaponry, so that means their weapons should be better than what weapons we have in the real world today. That means, that the Atlas’s own targeting systems should be more than enough for precision attacks. Just because the MFEs are on fighter craft that are smaller and more maneuverable than the Atlas has nothing to do with a weapons system’s precision. The targeting system of the weapons system alone would be responsible for the weapon’s precision. The Atlas has not been shown using literally any weapons in this fight. All the Atlas has done is swing its fists and hit nothing. This is just an absolutely contrived way to get the MFEs into the story and to have Shiro and/or the Atlas look incompetent. This is really just to have the episode spinning its wheels, to look like the story is progressing while it’s actually not advancing whatsoever.

Also, in the hangar, why are there people floating as if there’s no gravity yet the MFE fighter craft are sitting on the floor like there is gravity?

Shiro tells the MFEs to attack the opening in the mechas’ chest, but these mechas haven’t drained any quintessence to be able to power their chest hole cannon, what makes Shiro think they’re going to do so that he can order the MFEs to target that spot? Shiro says, “Give them heavy covering fire so they can get in close.” But the Atlas then fires no weapons. The MFEs fly a significant distance to one of the mechas who’s just wildly firing its blaster all over the place at no targets whatsoever. Seriously, it’s shooting at chunks of rock in a completely different direction from where the Atlas is. So, if Shiro’s right in this statement (though not in the current animation) that the Atlas has weapons it can fire right now, why hasn’t it been firing any weapons?

Cut to Zethrid, Ezor, and the Olkari sitting in the brig. Did anyone really want to see them again? I didn’t even want to see them again last episode, and now we get to have even more with these side characters. The Olkari says, “I think we’re in the middle of a battle.” I think the writer thought this line made the Olkari sound fun and clever, when it makes him seem slow since the battle has been going on for a long time already, now is not when he’d be noticing it. Zethrid says, “We need to get out of here!” Why? Ezor says, “No,” and sounds really weird doing it.

So, they break out of prison. Veronica reports, “Zethrid and the Olkari have escaped their cells. It looks like they’re on their way to the bridge.” How do they know where the bridge is and how to get to it? This is the first time they’ve been on the Atlas, and I’m pretty sure that it’s not standard procedure to give prisoners a tour of key, secure locations like the bridge of the ship.

“We don’t have time for this!” Shiro shouts. Shiro’s comment sums up a lot of my opinion about scenes and episodes this season.

Apparently, there are no security personnel outside the bridge. Everyone pulls a gun and points it at the door after Shiro does so and says to “prepare for a breech.” Shiro holds his gun in his left hand. Last episode, Shiro held his gun in his right, prosthetic hand. Are you telling me that Shiro is equally skilled with a gun in both hands? More likely is that the animators just never got on the same page about how Shiro, with his overly large new hand, would use a gun. Also, because of the ludicrous design of his new prosthetic, in the shot of him pointing his gun at the door, it looks like he doesn’t have a right arm.

Zethrid opens the door and says, “We’re here to help.” If she knew the Atlas’s layout well enough to get from the brig to the bridge and knew its systems well enough to break out of the cell and into the bridge, then she could have used the Atlas’s internal communication system to contact the bridge and offer this help long before she got here. This is absolutely contrived writing in order to fake the audience into thinking Zethrid’s here to attack. But surprise! everyone – you are surprised by this plot twist, aren’t you? – she’s not here to be a villain now.

So, Zethrid came all the way here because she thinks her Olkari technology pirate can help with the Atlas. I know the show last episode had Pidge refer to this Olkari as “a genius,” but seriously? Zethrid this whole time was just totally assuming the Olkari could help.

This is such a freaking waste of time.

Shiro, who realistically would not have agreed to this, lets the Olkari mess with the Atlas’s systems. The Olkari says, “Excellent job fusing Earth technology with Altean magic.” How does this Olkari know anything about either Earth technology or Altean magic. He has never been to Earth nor has he been in position to study Altean magic. There is absolutely zero reason for his character to have said that line. He touches Shiro’s console and the greenish white circuit board lines throughout the ship start glowing. How? I know that the Olkari did the hand-touch-glow thing with their own technology, but that was their technology. This is technology that this guy has never seen before. Is the show trying to say that this Olkari is capable of producing Altean magic himself?

The MFEs are flying around being shot at. I thought they were supposed to be in play because they were capable of more precise weapons fire than the Atlas, but they’re not using any weapons whatsoever. If the MFEs don’t have access to the target they were sent to shoot, and they’re not shooting anything else, then why are they even in combat right now? What narrative purpose are they serving other than wasting screen-time? Maybe sacrifice this meaningless part of the episode to explain the clone’s visions in “Omega Shield” instead? Do something that actually has a purpose.

Rizavi gets hit. It’s supposed to be a big, dramatic moment: One of Honerva’s mechas comes swooping in at Rizavi, the animation goes into slow-motion, the music gets dramatic, her fighter is on fire, we’re supposed to think that she’s going to die. No one in the audience is attached to her character, so of course the show’s not going to kill her. This show pretty much only kills named characters that people actually like. The Atlas swings its fist and doesn’t hit the mecha. Why does the Atlas keep trying to punch the mechas? It hasn’t yet worked even once. Shiro had ordered the Atlas to fire weapons in support of the MFEs against the mechas earlier, and no weapons fire has happened.

I often have found myself wondering while watching this show and writing these commentaries if the writing team and the animation team communicated whatsoever. Did the writers just leave the action up to the animators to figure out, like did they just write in their scripts something like, [Put some ship fighting stuff here,] and that’s it? Did the animators not bother to read the scripts before storyboarding it all out? Too many episodes have left me feeling that there were two very separated teams working on this show.

Out of nowhere, somehow, there are now eleven Atlases. This is whatever the Olkari did. This show is literally just pulling things out of nowhere without any care about this not making any sense. They don’t care how absolutely absurd this is. Shiro says for Kinkade to get Rizavi back to the Atlas safely – uh, to which Atlas? How does Kinkade know which is the real Atlas? Are these new Atlases just an illusion? Or are they physical? Can they fight? Or are they just there to distract? Does Shiro even know what they can do? He certainly hasn’t reported this information to the MFEs, and knowing what your side is capable of during a conflict is hugely important for the unit to function, so I don’t see how this helps.

Shiro tells James and Leifsdottir to “use this opportunity to hone in on the Robeast’s crystal.” I thought they were supposed to be shooting the big hole in the mecha’s chest when they fire their big chest hole cannon. That’s what Shiro told them to do earlier. Now, they’re supposed to be going for some crystal in the mechas? Has the show even demonstrated that the mechas have a crystal in them? I know that the Garrison recovered parts of the mecha that attacked Earth, but I don’t remember there being any crystal shown to be part of the system. This show has frequently had crystals be a power source for technology, but the Garrison (and thus Shiro) learned that these mechas are powered by a living Altean pilot. So what crystal is Shiro talking about here?

Now, after having not used it in this battle before, one of Honerva’s mechas uses its chest hole cannon. But, as has been established previously in this series, it’s supposed to only be able to use this cannon after it has absorbed some quintessence from somewhere. This mecha firing right now has not absorbed any quintessence, so this cannon should not be functioning. It blasts two Atlases, so I guess they are just illusions. How the Atlas can project these illusions is just Olkari magic, I guess. Because who cares about actually having technology behave like technology ever on this show, everything is magic. Now, the mechas are using their chest hole cannon as just a regular, quick firing cannon instead of the big blaster it’s been in the past.

Also, the whole point of the MFEs being brought into this is that they were supposed to be able to be more precise than the Atlas. Of course, again, the Atlas has yet to shoot a single weapon in this fight. But given that the show has been trying to set up this idea that the Atlas is just too slow, and that’s why the MFEs, being smaller and more maneuverable than the Atlas, would be able to be more precise, the show doesn’t allow the MFEs themselves to know when to fire. Their weapons systems, which would be able to target way, way, way more precisely than a human eye could target, are not allowed to know when to fire. No, knowing when to fire is given to Shiro, who’s much further away from the mechas than the MFEs are. Everything having to do with Atlas weapons targeting and firing has been given to Iverson previously in this series. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that Shiro should be giving the MFEs a countdown to fire.

Also, why have they been sitting around waiting to fire until the chest hole closes? Why didn’t they fire before then? Wasn’t the point that they had to wait until the hole was open to be able to access the true target within? They make their shots and the mecha explodes. It does not feel like a success whatsoever because all of this feels so contrived. Everyone on the Atlas starts cheering, but why? They’re not done. There’s still another mecha, the fight’s not over.

Back to Oriande. Voltron and some mechas are fighting. They seem to draw some quintessence out of Voltron.

Honerva has several large geometric circles, one on the ground, and a couple in the air above it. She’s still at her wormhole-like interface that’s part of the pyramid. There’s quintessence wind blowing all around. Honerva’s appearance shifts quickly between Honerva’s and Haggar’s, including their clothes changing back and forth. Never during her shapeshifting before has clothing ever changed. Maybe this is supposed to be quintessence shapeshifting and not Altean species shapeshifting? Is it supposed to be alternate reality versions of Honerva, and they’re all, like this Honerva, at the same time tearing through realities? The three geometric circles collapse down onto the ground, and there’s an explosion.

The mechas conveniently stop attacking Voltron so that the Paladins can look at what Honerva’s done. Lance looks down at her and suddenly Lance sees a field of purple grass and several people in it. They look Altean.

Pidge says, “According to my readings, we’re seeing into other realities.” That is some seriously sensitive, amazing sensors on the Lions that Pidge can so instantaneously determine that they’re seeing other realities. It’s so contrived. Pidge continues, “There must be some kind of rip in the fabric of time. The essence of realities is leaking out. Honerva is tearing apart timelines. She could cause irreparable damage to reality itself!” This is a whole huge pile of conclusions that the show is having Pidge jump to. The specifics of what Pidge says makes nearly no sense whatsoever. I know that during the Voltron-Lotor fight, that they kept calling it a “quintessence field” and not a rift between realities, but the process of getting into the quintessence field was explicitly through his having an Altean alchemically infused ship built out of a trans-reality comet. The first time we ever saw the trans-reality comet, it was tearing a hole from this reality through the rift between realities and into a new reality. The Paladins going through the rift in 3x04 “Hole in the Sky” never had any time-based effects on anyone. Time relativity was an effect applied to going into the rift only at the beginning of season seven.

Maybe! that’s why the post-Lotor time jump has a huge plot hole in it. Maybe the decision to have there be a time relativity issue was only written into the story at the beginning of season seven and wasn’t part of the story at the end of season six. There being no time skip written into the battle with Lotor during season six’s finale would explain why Coran, Krolia, Romelle, and the Shiro-clone being outside of the rift where they should not have been affected by the time passing that we were told happened to because the Paladins were inside the rift. Time to write season seven came along, and they only then decided to do the three years passing while the Paladins were inside the rift, and they just hoped no one would remember that Coran, Krolia, Romelle, and the Shiro-clone were outside the rift and wouldn’t have been affected. If the decision for the time skip happened after they had already produced season six, then they wouldn’t have been able to have written the specifics of the events of the end of season six to allow for Coran and crew to be affected too.

So now, somehow, Honerva is shredding timelines because she’s looking into other realities. But again, the Paladins have literally gone to another reality and came back and never had anything happen to any timelines. That’s because a timeline is not the same thing as an alternate reality. Any particular timeline would only exist within its respective reality.

I don’t know why I’m trying to make sense of absolutely senseless writing like this.

The Blue Lion alerts Allura to its bayard slot, and Allura somehow knows that Blue not only wants her to use her bayard, but that Blue wants Hunk to use his bayard too. Has there ever been an instance where a Lion communicated with their Paladin about what another Lion wanted before? This time, Allura and Hunk combine to make a bunch of missiles on the sides of Voltron’s legs, which look like they destroy the mechas that Voltron was fighting.

Voltron tries to get near Honerva but is repelled. Honerva screams. I’m really not impressed by Honerva right now. Pidge’s reality-could-end proclamation is so over-the-top that it doesn’t feel threatening.

Outside the white hole, there are still several Atlases doing nothing while the mecha shoots miscellaneously at who knows what. The white pillar coming up out of the white hole starts blasting beams of light out of it, causing the illusory Atlases to disappear. Well, those illusions did literally nothing whatsoever. The Atlas is knocked into its ship form in a glowing blast of light. Since its transforming into mecha form is shown to have significant internal structural changes that are part of the process, I hope the crew is okay as it super quickly and spontaneously reverts to ship mode. The MFEs seem to be drifting without power, as is Honerva’s mecha.

There is no gravity on the Atlas. The show ignores how near-zero gravity works and has Sam, while floating in the middle of the room, change his direction and float in the other direction without having to grab hold of anything and push to make that change. This is not how physics works. Sam sits down in a chair, which you can’t do without gravity.

Slav says they were hit by “time spillage” which is “a rip in the fabric of this reality.” That makes literally no sense whatsoever. He says something something quintessence something power crystal. I don’t know what he’s saying. The writers don’t know what he’s saying, and they wrote it. The executive producers don’t care what he’s saying. When it’s this clear that the show itself doesn’t really care what’s happening, I can’t blame the audience for not caring. And guess what, I don’t care. Slav continues to rant about socks. Slav’s eccentricities while in a tense moment have totally worked before, but it does not work in this episode. It’s just distracting.

Cut to the mecha on one of the planets off in the universe collapsing. Matt and the Rebels have somehow evacuated an entire planet. I’ve complained about this show making planetary population look like a single village or single city before. I guess that’s still what they’re going with. A population of a planet able to be evacuated by a handful of ships in a couple of hours at most. That doesn’t feel even slightly realistic. I don’t even know why the show bothers to go back to Matt and the planet.

Back at Oriande, Honerva finally collapses from her screaming. There’s a big ball of light and suddenly the Sincline is there in front of her. So, her “tearing apart timelines” – mistaking timelines and alternate realities as being the same thing when they’re not – was her looking for her proclaimed perfect alternate reality, right? And she simultaneously pulled Sincline out of the rift between realities. So, what she did here was two goals. Neither of those goals was draining an entire galaxy of quintessence like the beginning of the episode said it was. “This was Honerva’s plan all along,” Keith says. Thanks for that absolutely pointless dialog. We would have no idea that what Honerva has done had been her plan unless someone, now after the plan has been accomplished, said it.

It very much feels like Honerva is again violating her son by doing this. He hated her so much because she abused him so much for so long. I very much imagine Lotor would totally rather remain in the rift rotting than to be brought back and used by Honerva now. Like I said, this totally feels like a disgusting violation.

Keith orders Voltron to attack Sincline. I honestly got enough of Voltron v. Sincline already in this show. I don’t know why they thought bringing Sincline back would be interesting. Sincline is so fundamentally tied to Lotor, and this show did everything it could to destroy Lotor’s character all for an offensive plot twist. The EPs and writers just couldn’t let Lotor rest in peace.

Surprise, Voltron’s leg missiles did literally nothing. The Colony Alteans’ mechas are still functioning fine. Somehow these Colony Alteans know what Sincline looks like and that Lotor piloted the Sincline. They see Sincline and are instantly, “Lotor!” and “Lotor has returned!”

Merla pulls up a zoomed-in footage of Sincline beating up Voltron. She looks shocked. This is Merla, right? Or is it some miscellaneous, unidentified Colony Altean? I honestly cannot tell. Why is this surprising her? She’s been a zealot wanting to destroy Voltron for a while now, she shouldn’t be unnerved by seeing this.

Sincline knocks Voltron into separate Lions, which hit the ground, powerless.

Merla says, “Something’s not right.” What? Why is she suddenly having a totally change in her personality? She wanted to destroy Voltron. Now that Sincline is trying to destroy Voltron, suddenly she’s bothered by the idea? This makes no sense. This show is really really bad at managing and maintaining characters’ motivations and goals.

Allura can’t get the Blue Lion to do anything, she sees Honerva outside of her window, so she decides to leave Blue and attack Honerva. Sincline sees Allura outside of Blue, aims a wrist cannon at her, zooms in on her, clearly showing it’s Allura. Lance regains consciousness and Red is working again, and he moves to counter Sincline. The Colony Alteans see Red, but only the male Altean goes after Red. Merla doesn’t. The Altean intercepts Red. Sincline stops aiming at Allura. Sincline turns to look at the male Altean in the mecha, the male Altean mecha pilot says, “Lotor?” and then Sincline stabs the mecha through with Sincline’s tail.

So then, this is actually supposed to be Lotor piloting the Sincline? Lotor is never shown in this season other than as a flashback, as a hallucination, and as a melted corpse. This very clearly seems like the episode means for Lotor to be alive right now. Sincline actively resisted firing on Allura. Sincline actively attacked the Altean in the mecha. This cannot be Honerva controlling Sincline remotely. So then, what’s up with Lotor?

It makes so much sense that so many viewers think this season was mostly made and then hastily re-edited super late into the production. This is a fundamentally huge inconsistency that is never explained.

So, Sincline destroyed the mecha when the mecha protected Sincline from the Red Lion, but then Sincline creates a sword with which to attack the Red Lion. Why is this happening? What character motivation is going on with Sincline’s actions? Who is the character actually doing the acting? How could these extremely fundamental elements to storytelling be something the executive producers, story editor, and episode writer all collectively omitted in this scene and in this episode?

Honerva weakly reaches up toward Sincline and says, “Still,” so Sincline was acting on its own, not under her control. Until now. By showing her now exerting some control over Sincline, the show is very specifically saying she was not in control of it before now.

Allura comes jumping in, turning her bayard into a spear to try to stab Honerva. Honerva either goes to teleport or just turn everything black or something. Then Allura stands amid blackness everywhere. Honerva tells Allura, “This is just the beginning. Join me and our people. Together, we will go back to Altea.” Allura fully and clearly states that Honerva is to blame for Altea’s destruction. Honerva completely ignores what Allura says. Honerva says, “Think of your father. I knew Alfor well.” We’ve seen enough of Honerva’s interaction with Alfor to know she was not interested in knowing him personally. They were not friends. “This is what he would have wanted.” I guess Honerva’s just supposed to be trying (really poorly trying) to manipulate Allura?

I do really, really like Allura’s line: “You cannot keep me here forever, and the moment you release your hold, I will end you.” Yeah, that line is clearly the best thing in this episode.

Honerva then says, “Then you will end your friends as well. I am the only thing keeping my son at bay.” So, this episode was written for Lotor to be alive in it? Then what happened that he’s alive now but isn’t for the rest of the season?

Honerva and Allura return to Allura diving at Honerva with her spear. Allura gets tears in her eyes and decides to not kill Honerva. Honerva makes a hand gesture and Sincline leaves the Red Lion alone. She then makes Sincline kneel to her.

I had thought that it felt like a violation for Honerva to pull Sincline out of the rift solely because of how much Lotor hated her. He would want absolutely nothing to do with her. But now that she’s using her magic to control Sincline, to, per her own words, control Lotor, it is an even bigger violation. She continues to abuse him. And the show has the audacity to say that Lotor was fully unredeemable and evil, but that Honerva is not at fault for her gross actions and should be forgiven. She is violating her son. That is not something you forgive someone for doing. Her actions are thoroughly disgusting and immoral. And it’s disgusting that the executive producers and writers tell us by the end of series that Honerva is absolved of responsibility for her actions.

The Atlas powers back up. Shiro orders the MFEs onboard.

On Oriande, the pyramid structure begins to break free of the rock and ascend into the sky. Allura gets back into Blue and starts trying to talk the Paladins into consciousness. The Lions fly away from Oriande. Pidge says, “The white hole is closing. If we don’t get out, we’ll be trapped here forever.” Now, a white hole is only a possibility in theoretical astrophysics, but the term white hole has a very distinct definition, whether they truly exist somewhere in this universe or not. Pidge’s description of it closing and the being trapped in it is not accurate. A white hole, like a black hole, is not a hole. It cannot close. By definition, a white hole explicitly allows for light and matter to escape it. 

Veronica says, “The white hole’s energy is collapsing into a gravity surge. There’s no way we’ll hit escape velocity.” This doesn’t make any sense. A “gravity surge” sounds like an oxymoron. Gravity pulls inward, a surge connotes an outward push. The need for “escape velocity” suggest they’ll be pulled inescapably inward, but a white hole, by definition allows light and matter to escape. Coran says they need a wormhole to escape.

The Lions emerge from the white hole. Shiro orders Coran to make a wormhole. I guess the Atlas, like the Castle of Lions eventually did when the show violated its own premises and moved Allura in to the Blue Lion, can create wormholes without Allura there to provide the power to do so. The Atlas and the Lions enter the wormhole. And then exit into a quiet, peaceful area of space.

Allura says, “We failed. And every reality will pay the price.” That’s a big dramatic statement, but she has no real reason to think that right now. Yes, Honerva seems to be at least having an affect on alternate realities while doing what she was doing at Oriande, but she would seem to have accomplished her goal. That goal would seem to be getting Sincline. There is no reason for Allura to think that Honerva is going to mess with alternate realities yet.

Yeah, this episode is an absolute mess, and I’m exhausted.

[girls-are-weird]

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