The Voltron version of this episode is better than filler, but not among my favorites. The Golion version, however, has some pretty interesting psychological developments for Sincline.
The Sleeping Princess
Lotor is having a nightmare. And, apparently, he sleeps in his uniform. In the dream, in the Voltron version of the dream, anyway, he's dreaming specifically about Allura. That's a little different from Golion, as we'll see. He rushes through a forest to Allura, dodging spears, until, um, ogre guards who are totally not Zarkon appear and take her awy.
Princess Corell of Deimos arrives on Doom in a Rooster frigate. She is to be married to Lotor to unite the two planets. And her language sounds suspiciously like . . . Michael Bell doing baby talk into a pitch-shifter. Lotor begs for one more chance to capture Allura. Whoah, wha?! At the end of last episode, Zarkon was all set to send Lotor to the glue factory. Well, I guess marrying him off to Corell is the same thing. Apparently, Corell wants Lotor to wed the one he loves. Then he kisses her.
In Haggar's workship, Lotor claims that the only reason Allura won't just marry him is because she's afraid of Zarkon. We then see . . . a dream of Allura's? In which Zarkon squishes her head. After trying to get him to leave Arus alone. Huh. Then Haggar bewitches a dagger. WEP was very careful to explain that the dagger wouldn't kill anyone. Just make them go to sleep.
Everyone's picking flowers on Arus. Allura is riding in a royal boat rowed by the Voltron force and coran. One of the mice is hanging out on Allura's shoulder. The rest of the team (and mouse) jump into the lake to gather flowers to present ot the princess. Then the mouse sees the blue cat with a dagger, in time to, um, get Pidge to turn around in time to see it stab Allura. A few seconds after the cat basically scratches her, she passes out. Nanny proves she's already in the denial stage of grieving by claiming it was too much sun.
At night on Arus (and that's a pretty cool shot of the castle lit up at night) Allura stops breathing in her hospital bed. And Keith demonstrates how secure he is in his masculinity by doing a Luke Skywalker-style howl. And. The team sits outside the castle and immediately figures out that this is all a scheme by Lotor and Haggar. And they're all going to pretend to be sad.
Yeah, this isn't to keep little american kids from being upset by potential death.
The fake funeral is held in the same cathedral that figured in the episode with Allura's Aunt. Her aunt appears, too. Then the team has flashbacks about Allura, how she invited them to become the Voltron force, and then joined the team herself. And some weird stuff that doesn't quite correspond to what's actually going on onscreen. And the Keith's voice breaks while Pidge hyperventilates.
And the priest/minister/vicar is downright scary looking. So . . . Arus is a weird mix of Catholic and Russian Orthodox?
Lotor and Haggar plot to snatch the princess. She's loaded into her casket, and the team carries her to the carriage. Coran admits that he suspects a plot as well. So don't cry kids. She's not dead!
Haggar uses her wand to blast a tree down in front of the carriage. The driver is thrown, but Pidge tears off after the carriage and Indiana Joneses his way onto it. The rest of the team is coming along behind, and then Lotor does a 6 Million Dollar Man jump into the driver's seat. Haggar diverts the rest of the team, who run back to the castle and launch in their lions.
Pidge is going all WWE on Lotor until Lotor knocks him off with the riding crop. Pidge hangs on to the carriage, but Lotor is weirdly concerned for his safety and warns him to let go before he's crushed by the wheels. Lotor finally pulls over and draws his sword, but Haggar warns him that the lions are coming. Pidge gets back up and stalls for the lions. Haggar hits him with some sort of beam from her staff, but it just stuns him. She picks him up and he freaks out. The others have gotten out of their lions and hold their sidearms on Lotor--until Haggar uses Pidge as a hostage. But Pidge pulls the pin on a grenade and threatens Lotor and Haggar. Lance picks up his gun, and Haggar tells Lotor to put her down--in hopes for a darker tomorrow. Then Pidge makes a suicide rush with the grenade. Lotor jumps, knocking the grenade into the carriage, and awakening the princess. Lotor is all set to fight, but the team holds him off. Keith shoots the blade right out of his sword. Haggar conjurs a lot of wind, hoding them all back while the two villains retreat to space coffins and escape.
On the castle balcony, Allura actually kisses Pidge, and then Nanny intervenes. On Doom, Lotor refuses Corell, Corall, whatever her name is. He throws down a glass of wine and sees Allura's shifting reflection in the puddle.
The Prince Imperial's Dark Love
So here the dream sequence makes more sense. Maybe villains with a clear psychological disturbance were too much for WEP?
Sincline is dreaming of his mother. Who looks a lot like Fala. But clearly is NOT Fala. Same thing with spears trying to hold him off, and then Daibazaal appears and grabs her by the throat. Then Sincline's mother becomes Fala. And Sincline doesn't KNOW why she became Fala.
See? Far more interesting than the random dream in Voltron.
The princess of Galleria (a mall?!) appears. Her name is Sahlia. She's an imperial blood relative. And she can talk. Sincline comes right out and says that Fala reminds him of his mother. Daibazaal is clearly distressed, and says his mother died in childbirth. He urge Honerva to do something. She arranges to tell Sincline about his mother in exchange for marrying Sahlia. Then he kisses her.
Honerva admits that Fala looked just like his mother. Sincline says he has nightmars of a demon taking his mother away.
In a flashback, Sincline's mother is begging for leniency for some Altean slaves. In response, he apparently kills her with his bare hands.
Of course, Honerva doesn't tell him any of this. Sincline declares he is going to get Fala before he marries Sahlia. Honerva agrees to help him. She conjures an enchanted blade. Walt Disney whirls in his grave.
Honerva gives Jaga the blade. Apparently, anyone who gives the princess a bouquet of flowers gets a kiss, according to an old custom. That's why the guys -- and Platt -- fall all over themselves collecting flowers. Then Jaga slashes Fala. Kogane tries valiantly to fend him off. With a bunch of flowers. And Fala passes out.
Cue Hys-trionics.
Sunset actually turns to night, and we get that cool shot of the illuminated castle. Helena appears in the scene where Fala stops breathing. Then Kogane gets all grief-stricken. And that whole night sequence where the team figures out it's a Lotorian plot? Edited in from scenes taken from "A Pretty Spy." We go right to the cathedral and the mourners. And there's some generic organ music throughout the funeral service.
Y'know, for it's time, Golion actually has very few clip shows. This episode has a sequence that lasts a couple of minutes. That's pretty tame, considering how crunched most animation schedules were. I mean, they basically had to create one episode a week for a year. Sometimes they'd fall behind and "catch-up" episodes were used to give them a little breathing room. There is no beastman in this episode, and really only one new character model (Sahlia), so maybe this episode was faster to produce.
Apparently, there is an unseen 21 gun salute going on somewhere as they load the casket into the hearse carriage. You can hear it in the soundtrack. There's just no indication of it in the animation.
The team gradually begins to think Fala might not be dead only after Sincline and Honerva appear.
When Sincline knocks Suzuishi off the carriage, he taunts him. Far more fitting than telling him to be careful of the wheels! Suzuishi must figure out that Fala's not dead when Honerva says the time of her revival is soon -- right in front of him. And -- it's funny that Honerva decides to use Suzuishi as a hostage when Sincline's already got Fala. Hm. Maybe she's a less satisfactory hostage because they have no intention of giving her up.
Hm. I guess Suzuishi doesn't know Fala is alive. He's all set to die and see the princess again in heaven. Then the explosion awakens her.
Honerva and Sincline arrived in space coffins. Are those the Galra covert insertion platform? Every time they go to Altea in space coffins, no one knows they're there. It's only when Sincline brings his flagship or the batplane that they pick him up on radar. Or dradis. Or whatever.
When Fala salutes her people from the balcony, the organ is playing its funeral music again.
When watching this episode with me, my girlfriend said "Sahlia's outfit would make a nice bellydance costume. I like the snake tiara thing, too!" It's nice when you're significant other is just as nerdy as you are.
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