Attack of the Fierce Frogs/Terror of the Space Frogs

You might guess because the premise of this episode--evil frogs attack!--I feel the same as I do about the demon mice episode.  Nope.  I like this one.  I think it's because, well, creepy three-eyed frogs that can melt through walls are a lot creepier than big purple mice with laser-beam eyes.

Attack of the Fierce Frogs.

Zarkon's sitting on his throne, sipping . . . juice.  Then he throws the goblet at Lotor, and tells him that if he wants to succeed against Voltron, he must find a weakness in his armor rather than matching strength for strength.

At the Occult Science Plant, Haggar shows Lotor a new mecha robeast--a deep sea robeast.  In addition, she shows him some evil tadpole robeasts.  Lotor takes both in his flagship and lands in the Arusian sea, releasing the tadpoles.

Pidge is on patrol in green lion.  He flies out over the coast, makes his report, and sees to kids flagging him down.  He lands and meets the kids, who show him tadpoles in a pool.  Pidge suggest they take some home and watch them turn into frogs.  He even scoops up tadpoles in his helmets and gives them a ride in green lion.

Maybe this is why I like this episode.  The idea of just hanging out and hitching a ride home with a Voltron lion appealed to me, y'know, when I was 8.

The kids get home just as their father, captain of the Coast Guard ship Altea (see what they did there?) is leaving.  Pidge takes a sample of the tadpoles back to the castle.  Lotor does some ominous voiceover gloating. 

Overnight, the tadpoles glow red, then turn into three-eyed demon frogs.  At least they look better than the demon mice.  The good ship Altea encounters a swarm of the frogs who melt their way into the ship and attack the crew.  They manage to get an SOS off to castle control. " Altea" appears on the castle screen, I bet WEP chose "Altea" as the ships name for that reason.  Pidge listens to the report on an attack by frogs, and rushes to the rec room.  The bucket of tadpoles is empty.  The monster frogs lunge at Pidge from holes they've melted in the wall.  The team shoots the frogs with their sidearms.  Pidge surmises that the kids might be in trouble.  The team launches--Pidge to rescue the kids, the rest to save the Altea.

The frogs have the children and their mother cornered.  They back out of the bedroom as the frogs make scary noises at them and set the beds on fire.  More frogs burn a whole in from the roof, but they see green lion through the hole.  Pidge rushes in and shoots most of the frogs.  A couple of them jump on the mother (well, she is kinda hot, in an 80s anime way).  OUtside of the house, they're surrounded by the frogs.

One of the kids knocks over a barrel of gasoline.  Pidge kicks over the barrel, dowsing the frogs.  Then he sets them alight.  With the kids (and their hot mom) now safe, Pidge takes off to rendezvous with the rest of the team).

The Altea is headed for sharp rocks ahead.  The captain is struggling to reach the helm, but the wheel breaks off and more frogs jump on him.  The lions approach just as the ship is about to run aground.  Black and yellow lions destroy the rocks, then blue lion washes the deck clear of the frogs.  Red lion destroys them when they're in the water.  The ship is saved, and Lance is contemptuous of this plan.

Lotor watches these events, and then deploys the deep-sea beast from a hatch in his flagship.  The robeast launches out of the ocean, flies through the air, and rams green lion.  Green and yellow lion launch missiles at it.  It reels back, but then grabs green lion and submerges.  The rest of the team follows.  Pidge frees himself by firing "ion darts" from the red launcher on green lion's back.  Free, he joins the rest of the team in forming Voltron.

The robeast chases Voltron into deep water.  Coran warns the team that Voltron is not at his best underwater.  They exchange fire with the robeast, and then Pidge reports that there's a hole in the armor somewhere.  Green lion's inner compartments are ruptured.  Lotor orders the robeast to concentrate on green lion.  It grabs Voltron's left arm, but Lance (with Hunk's voice) rips the arm off.  The robeast continues firing at Voltron, forcing him deeper.

A leak has sprung in green lion's cockpit.  Pidge equalizes the pressure (putting, um, a face mask on).  With the pressure equalized, red lion (again with Hunk's voice) punctures the robeast and fills it with air.  Voltron flies out of the ocean and forms the blazing sword.  The robeast emerges from the water to meet him . . . and gets sworded for its troubles.

As the sun rises, Voltron flies over the Altea while the crew cheers.  Deep below them, Lotor's flagship flees, and Lotor curses Haggar's schemes.  Voltron lands in a scene from another episode to the crowd's adulation.

Terror of the Space Frogs

This episode is a continuation of Galra's new strategy to defeat Golion.  Before, they tried to divide them up and prevent them from defeating Golion.  Now, they're trying to exploit weaknesses; in this episode, they try to make him fight in a high-pressure, deep-sea environment.

Daibazaal throws the blood wine at Sincline because his failures make the blood wine taste bad.  The beastman is Omega Subgar, able to withstand pressures of 20,000 tons.  Honerva calls the Galra tadpoles another "goody."  No, really, that's how it's translated.  She urges Sincline to use the frogs to paralyze Altea's waters and draw out Golion.  This operation is designated: Galra Frog!!

The kids call Suzuishi "green lion guy."  Kawaii.  The boy's name is Tommy, and the girl's Riehle.  Well, it's a better name than "Frau Bow."  And the dogs name is translated as "Poochy."  Their father is a freighter captain. 

Everyone marvels and the weird three-eyed tadpoles.

I think one reason why this episode is less annoying to me than the demon mouse one is, well, I can relate to discovering tadpoles and trying to raise them to be frogs.  I'm pretty sure my sister managed to put a dent in the midwestern frog population in the mid-80s just by collecting so many in the summers.

Man, this is a total Disney episode.  The damn frogs kill Poochy!  I hate you, Disney!  Always killing the dogs.

There's a lot more blood when the frogs attack the freighter crew.  The SOS includes the information that they're being attack by three-eyed frogs. 

As the frogs melt through the stairs, Seidou actually says "Check it out, they can dissolve stuff."

Kurogane recognizes the frogs as the same kind he saw while imprisoned on Galra.

Scale goes a little bit out of wack when green lion lands outside Tommy's house--the lion is too small relative to the house.

Rather than the fast-moving blue bolts that it usually fires, the Golion sidearms fire a weird, sustained green lightning bolt effect.

As the flames destroy the frogs, and they shrivel, we hear the space mice/Suzuishi theme in the backgroud.  Total Disney:  TAKE THAT, WILDLIFE!!!

So, what's this ship shipping?  And to where?  I know Altea is supposed to be revitalizing, so I kind of like these hints that, yes, this is not Star Trek and, no, the castle and the surrounding villages and towns are not the only inhabitated areas.  Y'know, Star Trek, where the Vulcans are of the species Vulcan, who live on the planet Vulcan, speak the language Vulcan, and all live in the city of Vulcan?

When Omega subgar launches out of the sea, Kogane very clearly says "mechaburakku ju-jin," and it *sounds* like he says "mechaburak-kaiju-jin," further evidence for my idea that the deathblack beastman/mechblack beastman word in Japanese is a pun on Kaiju.  Y'know, Kaiju?  Like Gamera?

You probably wouldn't be surprised to know that they form Golion to the green lion theme, since it's sort of Green Lion Guy's episode.

Raible tells Kogane that Golion should be able to withstand 4000 meters and 400 atmospheres.

Golion fires underwater rockets from red lion's mouth, and a needle shower from his horns.

We get some more cool shots of the interior workings of Golion as green lion floods.

Kurogane suggests they use the four lion attack, but they can't because the flooding in green lion is interrupting the energy delivery system.  Kurogane is then inspired to fill the beastman with air when Suzuishi stops the cockpit leak with high pressure air.