And we return to the planet of the undeadly flowers. Let's see if WEP get's the name right . . .
Voltron Frees the Slaves
The team sits at the conference room table, using the same footage as in the episode with the early warning satellite. And we then go to planet Doom and see some more reused footage. Zarkon says they've discovered a new planet. Except, it's a planet Lotor's already been there, y'know? He killed the king, and there were some weird doomite mercenaries.
Lotor's flagship arrives at the planet and we see the same plants floating in the same pond. The flowers get blowed up by a robeast that totally looks like it's been designed by the arch duchy of Zeon--it's red, too, so Char is probably flying it. The robeast strafes a village. One village boy calls out to a girl, there's an explosion, and everyone's teary-eyed. Lotor addresses his "new" subjects and tells them he's renamed the planet "Zarkonia." One village says something defiant, and we cut to an energy weapon firing.
Later, Haggar and Lotor apprise Zarkon of the situation in THE SAME WEIRD ANT-HIVE HQ AS BEFORE! Haggar has a plan to change the gravity of the planet to mess with Voltron. Lotor and Haggar are outside, watching slaves make an artifical waterfall. One of the slaves resists, and the blue cat pushes him over the falls. A man with a moustach talks to his father, Brill, until a guard threatens to throw them over the cliff as well.
That night, Brill, and other kids (one of them named Ack) meet and plan to overthrow Lotor. Ack's brother is Olvy or something. Brill's sister Tria wants to get in on it--there's some "you're just a girl" crap, and then they let her join. The blue cat spies on them, and Haggar sees them plotting in her crystal ball. She warns Lotor. He gloats.
The kids sneak through tall grass to what's apparently the ant-hive castle's back door. They take a weapon from the guard snoring by the door and realize it's unlocked. As they sneak in, the guard stops snoring, opens his eyes, and smirks. The kids sneak down the hall until they hear guards talking. They find places to hide and let the guards pass. They come to the room in which Lotor is sleeping and peer in at him through a keyhole. They break into the room and try to stab Lotor with a spear. Lotor grabs and breaks the spear. The kids back away and level the rifle at him. It doesn't work. Haggar enters the room with four guards. Brill tries to bargain for the lives of his companions, but Tria throws a rock at him. Lotor begins to draw his sword, but Haggar convinces him to use the kids as a lure to draw Voltron in.
In castle control, Coran shows the team a "challenge" from Lotor claiming to have the children as hostages. The lions make their way to the planet, and, um, go to a neighboring red planet.
Lotor has the kids tied to stakes in a valley. He explains to them that Haggar will change the gravity and mess with Voltron. The lions enter the atmosphere of the red planet and the kids have their doubts. Oh, and Tria calls the kid formerly known as "Ack" by the name "Trill."
Lotor watches the lions land and holds up a remote control. The kids try to warn them off, but they charge forward and Lotor pulls the trigger. Stuff starts exploding. Haggar and Lotor watch a big ball of light emerge from . . . a volcano? And then the light has the colors of the lions in it and the kids are cheering. The individual lions peel out of the light ball, and black lion has the four children in its paw. Keith asks Allura what happened, but she, Hunk and Lance are flummoxed. Pidge babbles on about gravity controls and computers and power crystals and stuff. Then we see the lions fly away from the red planet.
Lotor throws the remote on the ground. Haggar says the gravity will affect Voltron. WEP, were all your writers smoking crack? Or just not paying attention?
Anti-aircraft weapons thet were rejected by Cobra fire on the lions, but are destroyed. The slaves rush forward and surround the lions. The same moustached slave calls Brill "Trill" and they decide to storm Lotor's forces with bows and arrows.
Lotor unleashes the Mobile Suit robeast, which poses by the castle before firing its bazooka weapon. The team forms Voltron. The robeast throws a wrecking ball at them. Voltron fires the laser magnum, the machine pods, and the foot missiles, but they all miss. Keith says it's from the computers being messed up by the gravity.
And Allura says "It twirls that iron ball around like a dildo." Seriously. I replayed it about a dozen times. It's at 20:06. Go listen.
The dildo-weapon nails Voltron in the back and throws him into a cliff. Keith tells Allura to shut down all the automatic controls. They fire the foot missiles and sever the dildo's chain. The robeast fires missiles out of its bazooka. Lance tells Keith to use the crusher ball. That takes care of the bazooka. The robeast then draws a beam saber. They form blazing sword and charge. The two robots pose back to back. One of Voltron's wings falls off. Then the robeast explodes. Voltron actually sheaths the blazing sword. They join the slaves fighting at the castle. As the slaves proclaim victory, Haggar and Lotor flee in the batplane.
The team and the moustached man and the kids talk. Brill or Trill or whatever tells them that the planet's name is Barvura, an ancient word meaning "brave ones."
Angry Youth Suicide Corps
So this all takes place on Amazonia, which we last saw in episode 22, the Phantom Space Flowers. There's no weird prologue of the team hanging out on Altea as in Voltron. Instead, we open up with Daibazaal haranging Sincline because he has allowed Altea and Heracles to form an alliance against them. Sincline vows to reconquer the planet Amazon and use it as a trap--it's magnetism should still affect Golion.
We then go to the planet Amazon and are reaquainted with the amazonias--until Mecha Beastman Ypsilon blows them up. The beastman bombards an amazonian village. Duran, who will become our brave leader of the suicide youth corps, sees his mother smushed by the beastman. Sincline announces to the amazonians that he is reconquering them. One Amazonian defies him, and is burnt all crispy by a cannon on the flagship.
Sincline contacts Daibazaal and apprises him of the situation. Honerva promises to show him something amazing the next day. They visit the waterfall, which Honerva explains is powered entirely by Amazonians hauling buckets of water by hand. A grandfather dies of exhaustion. Another guy refuses to work any more, but Jaga pushes him off the cliff. Duran wants them all to organize a defense, but his father protests.
Under the light of the red moon, Duran meets with three other children in a cave. They vow revenge for Duran's mother, the girl's and some other dude's brother. We get the standard "You're just a girl" bullshit, but we also find out her name is Szell.
The creeping into the recaptured anthill palace goes about the same as in Voltron.
Sincline announces the pending execution of the youth suicide corps on the moon of Remy via a Universal Bulletin. In other words, they're reading the news in castle control. Sincline has planted a solium nuclear mine under the ravine where he's staked the kids. As the lions approach the kids, there's a neat cutting-back-and-forth effect as the kids basically prepare to cry and the Golion team vows to rescue them.
Honerva and Sincline are awfully confident of this plan. The kids try to warn them of the bomb. Kogane tells them not to worry. The rush in toward the kids . . .
. . . Sincline pushes the button . . .
. . . and the solium nuclear mine detonates. It's a pretty impressive kaboom. Then we see the crazy five-colored orb. So basically, Sincline was right to be confident this time--by all rights, the bomb should have taken care of them. But the narrater explains that a self-defense system activated the elemental powers of Golion, combined them, and formed a barrier.
The team takes the kids aboard and flies back to Amazon. Sincline is not pleased. Of course, the Golion team themselves didn't even know about the force field.
The Amazonians stage their uprising. Beastman Ypsilon poses, then starts blowin up and smushing stuff.
I didn't have time to mention this while watching Voltron, but the animation style, especially in the fight scenes and shots of the team in their cockpits are a different style than usual. I wonder if it has anything to do with the whole "they're fighting a mecha from Gundam" thing. The movements of the mecha seem much more dynamic.
And the combining music for today is black lion's theme.
The magnetic field of amazon messes with their targeting systems. Kogane orders them to deactivate their radar and rely on optical sights. It works. They also form the crusher ball for the first and only time. And then comes Juyohken. I guess it's not the actual movements that are more dynamic, but the poses between action sequences are more stylized.
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