This episode happens to feature what was my favorite Robeast as a kid. Actually, I used to draw pictures and write stories of this guy as a super robeast. Where I combined weapons from the previous episode's Robeast with this one. Hey, they looked like they were part of the same design philosophy!
The Princess Joins Up
Planet Doom. Vultures. Castle Doom. Zarkon wants Voltron destroyed. So . . . most episodes start this way, huh? The robeast gladiatorial game sequence was another favorite of mine. And that later episode, where they use the arena to select 500 of the best robeasts? That fueled many, many afternoons of playing.
The Doom soldiers and and the slaves are all discussing Voltron. Obviously, this doesn't go so well with the slavemasters. When I saw this episode as an adult, I always thought that maybe the four slaves getting whipped in a group end up as the four Robeasts in the next couple of scenes. Golion, unfortunately, doesn't bear this out. Seriously, though, that alien slave with the weird gray head and lavender tracksuit could totally have been today's main Robeast!
I like how the Doomite(? Doomian?) spectators are apparently 16th century Englishmen. (Um, Elizabethan collars. READ A BOOK!)
So, the main gray robeast fights three: one who looks like the unsupersized robeast from yesterday with additional pincers on his head, one who looks like the one we will be seeing tomorrow, and Patrick the Starfish. I guess growing up in Spongebob's shadow does bad things to a guy.
So, the gray robeast wins. (Seriously, that could totally have been the grey-headed alien!) He gets super powered, which means he gets a good tan and a bunch of extra . . . pointy . . . things. (Honestly, I think his design is still pretty badass).
Meanwhile, the Voltron force are crawling around Arus, trying to convince the Arusians to join the fight. Y'know, by insulting them. And, oddly, Pidge brings up food instead of Hunk. They go back to Allura and Sven, who are doing . . . something on the roof. Whatever are they doing? Whenever will I find out? Umm, in about 20 minutes.
They're giving Zarkon the desire for Allura here. Later, that's Lotor's job. I mean, what does Zarkon want with her? To sign a treaty to make his blockade of Arus legal?
The space mice serve as the kind of early warning system that tells you an attack is coming at precisely the same moment enemy gunfire reaches your position.
They launch the lions. They also go through a weird countdown sequence they don't do ever again. Almost every sound effect has been re-edited for Lion Voltron from Golion--they leave a few, but I think some of the changes were simply to accomodate the fact that Voltron was in stereo. A new thing for 1984. Unlike most episodes, this one has a lot of sound effects they seem to have sampled from Dairugger. It's particularly noticeable in this fight.
Yurak launches the Robeast. The lions each launch exactly one missile, then decide that biting the robeast is the best option. Fortunately they only try that long enough for Hunk to get thrown dizzy, then they form the big guy.
The Robeast pulls two beefy-looking scimitar weapons RIGHT OUT OF HIS BACK. Not scabbards. Slots in his back. Bad. Ass. And Voltron takes a beatin'. Fortunately, his fall down a cliff is broken by a Zentraedi-sized tree sticking out of the cliff.
He forms blazing sword and . . .
. . . This is probably the best fight against a Robeast in the series because it actually just gets GOING with the forming of the blazing sword. The scimitars are explosive, as we see when the Robeast throws them to destroy rocky outcroppings Voltron hides behind.
Yurak bombards the castle with the weapons on his Rooster Frigate. Naturally, the mice warn the princess AGAIN just as the first blasts hit the castle. And Coran, weirdly begs Allura to surrender to save the castle. 'Cuz it's all that's left. Allura decides to go to the tomb. Meanwhile, Yurak's barrage destroys the same two towers several times.
The robeast suddenly develops his own voice, rather than relying on that horrible old haunted house soundtrack roar. I wonder why they didn't do this with all of them? Time constraints, I'd wager.
At the tomb, King Deus ex Machina-er, Alfor, has Allura push the on switch on the crown in the center of his sarcophagus. and a new, high tech castle emerges from the ruins of the old one. (Honestly, I wanted to live there when I was a kid).
To Yurak's dismay, this new castle also had AAA batteries. And the princess is gunnin' for him. Yurak says "Fire all lasers," and in the next shot his ship is retreating. Allura then turns the guns on the Robeast, and gives Voltron the opportunity to put an end to Robeast Bad Ass.
At sunset, we return to the newly-restored Castle of Lions. And then the episode is padded out with shots of the pilots and the lions, the ones from the closing cred---hey, what's Allura doing on Sven's lion?!
Fortress for the New Struggle
We open on Galra to slightly different footage. Daibazaal, incidentally, is voiced by Kosei Tomita--I recognize his voice as also being the same as that behind Dr. Hell, from Mazinger Z. I wish I could do the same back to back commentary for Tranzor Z and Mazinger that I'm doing here, but, well, episodes of both are hard to find (I love Mazinger Z. It's so charmingly 70s. And I love Go Nagai.)
Okay, back to Daibazaal. He's ruthless and has a sense of humor compared to Zarkon, who's bumbling and yulls all the time. We get to the half-beastman gladiator match. I guess they're half-beastmen before they get supersized. The unedited footage is easier to follow, and several of the beastman designs will appear in later episodes--one is the Medusan (he's the spotty one with purple hair), and one with the crazy salamandar-headed one with eyes on his chin that never actually fights Golion, but gets used for other purposes in some episodes. These are in addition to the other ones I noted with the Voltron episode. I don't think that weird, yellow-headed guy who is one of the initial beastmen, ever shows up again.
I like Honervas "These flames are the life of Hell, withstand them!" invocation.
So, if I thought the Voltron force were sort of being jerks with the Arusians, they're even worse here. Oh well.
Hey! Shirogane and Fala are putting up a communications tower! So that's what they were doing. To send a space message. Seido is kind of a prick about the Alteans' willingness to fight. And, again, the space mice and their impeccable timing. So much for the communications tower.
We just see Kogane go down chute 1 when they launch the lions.
In this battle, we also get to see a couple more of the lions' standard weaponry. Black lion's shoulder mounted harpoon gun (that was always a favorite of mine), red, green and yellow lions have their mouth blades, and blue lion has a missile launcher on its back.
The beastman is christened DeathHell, and the creepy Kaiju sound effects were never better used than here. Even Raible is impressed at Deathhell's awesomeness. Just look at his majesty. Again, the biting. Seido thinks he'll bite right through. And then he, Kurogane, and Suzuishi get thrown. Then they form Golion. We are treated to an instrumental, elevator-ready rendition of the Golion theme (you better believe Monica danced to this one).
I like how the lion components of Golion spontaneously roar. Like they've got minds of their own and the pilots are barely in control.
DeathHell can grow massive toenails and use his thigh-blades to beat up Golion, even cutting into yellow lion's cockpit. Fortunately, Seido is saved by forgetful animators who then draw his cockpit repaired/undamaged. DeathHell has a Gatling belt buckle that knocks Golion back.
Shirogane rebuffs Fala attempt at cheerleading with some outright chauvenism. Oh, cut the guy some slack. He don't have much longer to live.
Raible and Fala argue not over surrendering, but over getting Fala to safety. She chooses not to abandon her people. And to pray. Which then leads her to her father's tomb--while the same two castle towers are destroyed repeatedly.
DeathHell nipple attachments, while similar to last episode's beastman, are energy weapons that he actually uses. Golion also debuts his space cutter/spinning laser blade and missiles from blue lion. No big deal is made of it--and they don't do him much good. DeathHell gets Golion into a full nelson, and Golion again proves he's at least gokyu in Judo.
When the princess appears at the gun battery, there's a weird disconnect between the subtitles and the action. My Japanese isn't good enough to tell what she's actually saying, so I have to trust the translaters (I understand the grammar, but I have the vocabulary of a five-year-old). She starts strafing DeathHell, but accidently swings the gun over and grazes Golion. She yells "Chikuso!" which is translated to "son of a bitch!" but can also mean "Oh shit!" She apologizes in the subtitles for her language, but seems, in the animation to be reacted to the fact that she just took a couple of shots at Golion. Huh.
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