Voltron Force or Thundercats? Yes, Please.

I did just say I was going to take some time away.  So here I am the next day with a new post.  Actually, I'm not watching anything while I post, I just wanted to share some thoughts on Voltron Force.  If you don't know, it's Nickolodeon's (and WEP's) new Voltron series.

First things first--I like it.  I enjoy watching it.  It's fun.

I don't know what the target audience (y'know, the kids it's actually marketed towards), but the majority of Voltron fans who are my age seem to revile it.  Hate it.  Despise it.  Everyone's entitled to their own opinions.  Despite what many prolific forum posters may believe, fandom doesn't need to come to a consensus.  I prefer Vehicle Voltron and Dairugger to Lion Voltron and Golion.  But I'll still watch both.  I like Southern Cross the most out of all three Robotech segments.  It doesn't really bother me much that my favorite happens to be most fans favorite target for derision.  Whatever.

Most of the Voltron Force-hate seems to come from 3 basic opinions.

1) It contradicts the original series.
2) It doesn't match how *they* would have done a Voltron sequel.
3) It's not the new Thundercats.

One of my friends, an English teacher, and one of the guys with whom I would play Voltron at recess in third grade, admitted that he still has a hankerin' for Voltron.  He says it's often the earliest stories to which we are exposed that stay with us the longest.  So, yeah, I can understand how someone whose first impression of Voltron is so strong that suddenly seeing Allura's neice, and seeing the planet Balto without an explanation of how it's not destroyed ('cuz it done blowed up in the original series) or if this is Balto 2, and why do all of the Drule soldiers now look like Yurak, and whatever--I can see how that might rankle you.

My post-Voltron anime maturation was fostered by the likes of Leiji Matsumoto, so I don't tend to get terribly hung up on continuity.  Try to make all of the Captain Harlock series and OVA's make sense together.  No, wait, don't.  I don't want to get sued for manslaughter by the family of the guy who tries and spontaneously combusts.  It's not possible.  Does that make Yamato and Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 not worth watching?  Well, it might for some.  Probably the same guys who can't stand Voltron Force because, well, it pretty much takes the general continuity of Voltron and runs with it.

So it's not your idea of what a new Voltron should be.  I've got my own ideas (I might post them here some day.  We'll see).  I tend not to take that kind of thing personally.  I happen to think this light, breezy, action-adventure take on it is pretty entertaining.

And so we come to the third form of Voltron Force rejection.  Maybe that's it's biggest flaw, coming out the same year as the new Thundercats.  Personally, I love both (much like I love both Macross and Robotech, Macekre ranting trolls aside).  Thundercats is a much more . . . invested take on the series.  They're very carefully weaving their own continuity, and man, the designs are gorgeous.  Voltron Force just isn't the same kind of series.  There are similarities--mainly because the production staffs are probably the same age and have a lot of the same influences--but Voltron Force plays fast and loose with the genre, while Thundercats practically bathes in it.  Voltron Force is balancing on the line between episodic and following an overall arc.  Thundercats is thoroughly arc-oriented.  Oh, and--samoflange, anyone?  Thundercats is a lot more generous with its easter eggs for longtime fans.  Though Voltron Force tosses out a few--a commander named Cossack, and, for us Gatchaman fans, a planet of Science Ninjas!

Y'know, let's look at Balto for a second, as a contrast between Voltron Force and Thundercats.  Balto is Pidge's home planet, full of Science Ninjas.  How does a society where everyone is a ninja work?  How did it get to be that way?  What kind of government do they have?

None of that is important to Voltron Force.  A planet full of Science Ninjas--who've all turned into ZOMBIES--is just awesome.  Just go with it.

I can see how that would grate on some fans.  Ugh.  Stupid, dumbed-down kids' stuff.  Some of us will just chuckle--heh, zombie science ninjas--and play along.  Again, whatever.

Thundercats is far more concerned with world-building, and tying that into storytelling.  We've got hints of the great past between the animal races of Third Earth and Mumm-ra, how the Thundercats may have gotten to the top of the food chain, and how they believe they got there.  And inter-species racism is a pretty major theme.  So, yeah, they get into much heavier, more thought-provoking stuff.

Why do the two takes have to be mutually exclusive?  Or, again, you may like the more serious one, and you're just not that entertained by the one that just tries to be awesome.   For the final time, whatever.

Some time away

You may have noticed I haven't been updating for a while.  I haven't permanently abandoned my anime-critique-marathon, but I've got some professional certifications I'm cramming for, one I'll be done with before the end of December, and one I plan on taking the test for in February or so.  So, at least for most of December, I'm not going to count on having a half-hour where I can glue myself to the screen and type'n'watch.  But I will be back, and pick up Star Blazers where I left off.

A couple thoughts I've had while I've been away, though.  First, I may also do the original Mobile Suit Gundam, comparing the series and the three movies, before I move on to Robotech.  I want to do this for much the same reason I'm watching Star Blazers now.  Macross and Southern Cross have very strong debts to Gundam (hell, members of the Macross production staff were behind a Gundam fanzine called "Gunsite 1" which lent its name to the Macross air controller callsign, and compare the Gundam color scheme with the Spartas hovertanks--and the Zakus and Gelgoogs with the Bioroids, just for some surface elements that were borrowed).

I also may watch Captain Harlock.  For one thing, I looove Leiji Matsumoto.  I love how he'll give somewhat well-reasoned scientific concepts that explain why a pious race is able to transmit the ringing of their church bells through space, and then immediately have a character stick his head out the window to get a better listen.  I love that sort of zaniness, especially when it's so low-key.  However, I also have reasons other than that I just love the show.  Look at the uniforms of the Earth military--and even the Arcadia's crew.  Double-breasted, high-collared jackets with a contrasting stripe on one lapel over zippered turtlenecks. The UN Spacy must have commissioned the same tailors.  Look at the non-galley parts of the Arcadia.  Tochiro must have lent some of his shipbuilding genius out to the Galveston Empire.  Look at the character designs and general cloniness of the Mazones--I see an echo of them in the Zor lords.  So, I might watch it for the same reasons I'm watching Star Blazers and probably Gundam.  I don't just want to celebrate the stuff I loved as a child, I want to look at their development (even if superficially) and see how it works in the greater context of 70s and 80s animation, both Western and Japanese.

The Asteroid Ring

The Asteroid Ring

The disgraced Colonel Gantz gathers him remaining fleet for one final attack on the Argo, in hopes of redeeming himself.  His ships form up on his flagship as he leads the attack himself.

Avatar is concerned with completing the repairs to the Argo.  Sandor arranges the for the repairs--and a cunning plan that cannot fail.  The repair crews go EVA.  (Repair and maintenance is far more important to anime than in contemporary Western animation).

Nova picks up a Gamilon ship on radar.  Avatar puts everyone on battle stations.  Sandor protests their fitness for battle.  Nova finds an asteroid belt.  Avatar says that it's the remains of the planet Minerva, the first planet the Gamilons destroyed.  (Somebody read Inherit the Stars . . .) Avatar takes the ship into the asteroid belt.

Gantz sees the Argo evade his fleet and redeploys them.  Hm.  Long, green, vegetative looking ships.  Zentraedi much?

Avatar sees the massed Gamilon fleet and orders Venture to take them into the midst of the asteroid belt.  They disappear from the Gamilon radar.  He does some stuff to fix the radar picture, but they're foiled by the Minervan asteroids. 

IQ 9 brings Sandor lunch.  Awww.  He even grew the tomatoes himself.  Sandor brings Avatar plans to camouflage the ship with asteroids.

The Gamilon fleet is still looking for the Argo.  Desslok's adjutant calls them up to see what they're up too, and goes all eye-bulging crazy.  Then Desslock appears and taunts Gantz.  Gantz pretty much loses his mind at this point. 

Avatar briefs the crew on Sandor's asteroid screen plan.  Sandor directs Wildstar to fire the polarity beam cannon . . . thingies.  They create fireworks and plant, um, anchor things in the asteroids.

And Gantz is still looking for the Argo.  He decides to send the fleet to check out individual asteroids. 

Sandor's plan is in effect, and he activates the polarity reactor, which draws asteroids toward the Argo.  The asteroids collect on the hull of the Argo, disguising it.  Couldn't he have just come up with a pinpoint barrier system with the energy left over after the fold engines disappear?  . . . Oh.  Oh.

The repair crews recommence repairs on the disguised Argo.

Bane, Gantz's adjutant thinks he sees the Argo.  Then loses it.  Then finds it again.  Finally, Gantz sees it himself.  He musters the Gamilon fleet.  Soldiers rush to battle stations and cannons are loaded with ammunition.

The repair crews are still working, and Venture and Wildstar discuss the silence.  Nova brings tomato juice to the bridge, from IQ 9.  Venture glances up--and sees the Gamilon fleet.  Wildstar goes to Avatar's quarters, but Avatar reacts calmly and apparently has something up his sleeve. 

Gantz is disdainful of the astroid-barrier trick.  He orders a bombardment.  The Argo is surrounded and battered by the barrage.  Avatar orders the repair crew in, and Sandor and Avatar play their trump card.  Wildstar reverses the polarity on Sandor's command, and the asteroids form a ring around the Argo.

Gantz sees this and orders the attack redoubled.  But their beam weapons are deflected by the asteroid ring.  Wildstar chafes under "just sitting there."

Gantz "steps up the attack" and goes on a rant about the wave motion gun.  The ships surrounding the Argo begin to close in, and Avatar orders the asteroid ring released/  The rock fragments break loose and hit the Gamilon ships, devastating Gantz's fleet.  Gantz's flagship and the Argo are on a collision course.  Avatar orders the rocket anchors fired at the hull.  The flagship swings past the Argo, hits a large asteroid, and explodes. 

So.  Wave motion engine = fold drive
Wave motion gun = reflex gun
Asteroid barrier = pinpoint barrier
Rocket anchors = Daedelus attack
Iscandar technology = Protoculture overtechnology.
Desslock = Kamjin (however, Kamjin is more the dragon to Breetai and then Badolzer as the big bads, much like, if we look at the Gundam influence, Amuro and Char become Max and Milia, who are also demoted to secondary characters, while Sleggar Laws = Roy Focker, who's arguably promoted.

Now, I'm totally not saying Macross is just a Yamato/Gundam rip-off.  Far from it.  I'm just pointing out ideas I have a feeling the Macross creators took from Yamato as inspiration, and reinvented them for their own series.

I think Yamato inspired a fair share of later series.  Beyond Macross, I can make a similar equation between Yamato and Dairugger.

Dying Earth = Dying Galveston
Array of Gamilon generals = Array of Galveston generals
Yamato repairing after battles = Rugger Guard/Galaxy Garrison fleets repairing after battles.
Pink and blue-skinned Gamilons = Purple skinned Galvestons


338 days left.

The Reflex Gun, Part 2

The Reflex Gun, Part 2

The Argo is submerged 300 meters below the surface of Pluto's equatorial sea.  Avatar orders Venture to discharge ballast and play dead at 400 meters.  The Argo comes to rest on an undersea mountain.  Gantz gloats and deploys submarines to finish them off.

The bridge crew meets Avatar on bridge three.  Nova picks up the submarines, and Wildstar assembles a crew to take out the recon boat to meet the Gamilons.  Sandor needs 8 hours for repairs.  Avatar orders missiles ready, and restores the ship to operational status, ready for the coming battle.  The ship rights itself.

The submarines make a torpedo run.  Several subs fall to the Argos missiles.  Watching on his monitor, Gantz is dismayed to find that they're still fighting back.

Avatar orders Wildstar to destroy the Gamilon base within three hours.  The recon boat breaks trough the ice.  Sandor is narrowing in on the reflex gun's position.  He tells them to look for the reflex gun's ventilation tower.  Oh, hey, the recon boat has wheels.

Receiving Sandor's message, Avatar decides to surface and use the Argo as a decoy--he plans to submerge as soon as they detect the reflection satellites moving.

Gantz sees the Argo surface and orders the gun to fire.  Nova sees the reflection plates opening and Avatar orders them to submerge.  The reflex beam bursts through the ice, bounces across its satellites--and is dispersed when it hits the water surface just where the Argo was.  Nova pinpoints the gun's position.  Avatar launches missiles at that position.  Wildstar's party sees the explosions and moves in on them.  Gantz realizes what they're doing and deploys fighters.

Wildstar, IQ 9, and his men get out of the wheeled boat and prepare to find the base.  Meanwhile, fighters are depth-charging the Argo.  Avatar surfaces and makes the Argo a target again to help them pinpoint the gun's position.  Gantz takes the beat.

Sandor sees the reflex beam fire from under the ice, and they zero in on its location.

Gantz starts to figure out what the Argo is up to--he realizes they're deliberately making themselves a target, but why?

Wildstar's team comes upon the base.  Wildstar is all set to start shooting, but they come upon Pluot's protozoans.  They, um, put them to sleep with gas.  The team makes its way through the massive ventilation shafts.  IQ 9 cuts a portal in the shaft wall and they come out in the generator room.  They enter a big empy chamber.  Sandor pulls Wildstar back from charging ahead and reveals that its boobytrapped.

The oxygen is starting to run out on the Argo.  Doctor Zane goes crazy.  Avatar tells everyone to calm down.

Wildstar's team traverses the boobytrapped floor climbing over it via rope.  IQ 9 trigers another electrical trap, but he grounds it out and the team finds the reflex gun, set their charges, and take off.

The Argo surfaces.  Gantz prepares to fire again, but has different satellites reflect the beam so it comes at them from a different direction.  All the while, the charges planted by Wildstar's team are ticking.  The gun fires and hits the aft section.  Avatar orders them to deploy the wings--ascend and tae the battle to them!

Nova detects an explosion ahead.  The reflex gun is destroyed.

Gantz realizes the gun has exploded.  Water rushes over and through the Gamilon base.  Gamilon ships evacuate.  Avatar watches the ships evacuate and is pleased that there will be no more planet bombs coming from Pluto.

Desslock is admiring his reflection when he receives news of the Pluto base's destruction.  He orders Gantz continue the fight and never return to Gamilon.

Avatar commends the Star Force and tells them that the most important phase of the mission is starting.  Venture and Nova take a shuttle to pick up Wildstar.  Wildstar and his team are hanging out the with Pluto protozoans as the shuttle lands.

Only 354 days left.

The Reflex Gun Part 1

The Reflex Gun Part 1

The Argo is approaching Pluto, where Colonel Gantz gets impatient.  He muses on the power of the wave motion gun.  They, however, have a reflex gun, which is more powerful that the wave motion gun, but with shorter range.

The Argo is being tracked by a stealthy Gamilon spy satellite.  On the bridge, Venture has the class to bring up the death of Derek's brother near Pluto.

The Gamilon squads lift off.  Gantz launches a missile barrage to provide additional incentive.  They've also fired 20 planet bombs at Earth today.  Nova detects the planet bombs on the radar, and they surmise that there's a base on Pluto.  Avatar reminds them that the mission to to get the Cosmo DNA, but the Pluto base is likewise important.  They launch fighters.

Gantz sees the Star Force deploy and gloats.  The superior numbers of Gamilon fighters swarms out into space. 

Avatar has his department heads looking at the map of Pluto, and Venture eggs Wildstar on.  Avatar refuses to use the wave motion gun for fear of destroying all life on . . . Pluto.  Nova detects teh Gamilon fighters on radar.  Avatar orders Wildstar to range in with the shock cannon.  The two groups of fighters engage each other.  We see a long-distance shot of the flashes of battle through the Argo's radar array (hee hee, a little Macross foreshadowing).  The Star Force fighters clear the area and Wildstar fires the shock cannon. The fighters retreat and the Star Force pilots pursue.

On Pluto, Gantz orders the missiles launched.  The Argo evades the missiles and fires its own missiles to intercept them.  Some of the missiles get through, and Wildstar fires the pulse lasers.  Huh.  The animators thought of everything.  A missile gets through and blasts a hole in the engine room.

Gantz orders the reflex gun readied.  They fire. 

The reflex beam boils out of a lake on Pluto and plunges toward the Argo.  Nova picks it up--just before it strikes the hull.  The engine output starts to run out of control.  The Argo dives toward Pluto.  Avatar orders Wildstar to fire the rocket anchor at Pluto's moon.  It pulls them out of their dive, and Avatar fires the braking jets.  Sandor starts the repairs.  Huh.  The repair montage looks awfully similar to Dairugger . . .

Gantz gloats--even though they're on the far side of Pluto from the base, the reflex gun can fire around corners.  It plots the firing solution.  Hmm.  There are beam-reflector satellites all around the Pluto orbit.  The gun fires again, the beam bouncing from satellite to satellite.  Nova picks it up again--just before it hits them again and blasts them free of the moon to which they're anchored.  Avatar orders them to dive toward the sea on Pluto.  Gantz orders the gun to fire again. 

Partitions close over the corridors and the Argo makes splashdown.  Gantz fires again.  The satellites redirect the beam . . .  And it hits the bridge.  The Argo lists and Venture can't take control.  Avatar is strangely calm as the ship sinks.  Gantz gloats.  The purple dude informs Desslock, who is still caucasian.  And so is his bike-helmet wearing harem.

The Argo continues sinking into Pluto's equatorial sea.  The are only 356 days left.

Paladin

Paladin

Gantz reports to General Krypt about the power of the wave motion gun.  And Krypt is purple.  So there are different races of Gamilons.  Huh.  (Gantz has caucasian skin tones like the Star Force characters).

On the Argo, the bridge crew is dismayed to find their gravity shut down.  They need some unobtainium macguffin from the Saturnian moon Titan.  Apparently the wave motion gun burnt out part of the engine.  Avatar orders Venture to orbit Titan so they can get Titanite.  Fortunately, Titan is similar to Earth, just cold.

Gantz analyzes the Argo on his video scope and sees they are low on power.  Or is it a trick?!

Nova, Firestar, and IQ 9 are sent to look for Titanite.  Sandor is sent to . . . do something else.  He and Wildstar make bets on who'll be back.  They take shuttles.  Except Wildstar takes Nova in his fighter.  Why not?

The Titan environment looks pretty cool.  Gantz sees the survey ships and deploys a patrol ship that's in the area to see what they're up to.

Wildstar, Nova, and IQ 9 are following IQ 9's readings to Titanite.  Venture and Homer (?) have the bridge watch.  Big yellow survey vehicles pick up blocks of ice as Sandor supervises.  He and WIldstar's crew see a shooting star.  The bridge crew identifies it as a ship, and they recall the surface details.

Wildstar is still looking for Titanite.  They go to the other side of Titan and find Titanite deposit.  He calls the ship and tells them, then ignores the recall orders.  He lands in a canyon of some sort and IQ 9 points out the Titanite.  They harvest the Titanite.

The Gamilon ship lands and two solders emerge to scout.  They see Wildstar's fighter as they process the Titanite.

The patrol unit tells Gantz that they're mining Titanite.  Gantz orders them to capture them.  They launch, um, drone tanks.  The tanks chase Nova, Wildstar, and IQ 9.  Wildstar goes off on his own shooting at them with a handgun.  The Gamilon soldier mocks him.  The tanks split up, one after Wildstar, one after Nova and IQ 9.  Wildstar jumps on the tank, opens the hatch and um, totally kills the remote control.  Yeah.  There was no crew.

The remaining tank is closing in on Nova and IQ 9.  The girl trips and IQ 9 stops the tank and lifts it up.  Huh.  Then he throws the tank.  Then IQ 9 says he'll do anything to protect Nova.

Aww. Narm Charm at its finest.

The Gamilon soldier gets out and captures them, while IQ 9 sends an SOS signal to the Argo.  Venture calculates their coordinates.

Wildstar sees a gun, he tells IQ 9 to protect Nova as he . . . triggers an avalanche and buries the Gamilon soldier.  He looks at the gun . . .  And sees his brother's name.  He realizes the ice berg they are next to is the Pa;adin, his brother's missile ship covered in ice.  This results in a flashback of Alex Wildstar's death. 

IQ 9 and Nova comfort the grieving Derek Wildstar.  Then the Argo appears through the clouds of Titan in an awesome shot.  Nova, IQ, and Wildstar board the fighter and return to the Argo. 

The repairs are completed, and the Argo launches.  Back on the bridge, Avatar orders Wildstar to report to his quarters, then he floats away.  Nova and Wildstar arrive, and Venture tells him he bets Avatar is angry that he disobeyed orders.  To Wildstar's surprise, Avatar asks him to tell him about the wreck of the Paladin.  Wildstar says there were no survivors.  Avatar says his brother lives on in Derek.  And the Star Force.

There are 359 days left.

Jupiter's Floating Continent

Jupiter's Floating Continent

Ganz watches the Argo leaving Mars.  His XO speculates that they're getting help . . . from . .  somewhere.

Venture is piloting the Argo when it starts . . . doing things.  Sandor detects vibrates and tells Venture to slow down.  Orion sees something going on in the engine room.  Venture loses control of the ship.  Nova detects an extra-strong gravity force.  Avatar realizes that it's Jupiter's gravity well.  Huh.  The approach Jupiter.  Sandor doesn't know if the ship can fly in the Jovian atmosphere, but Orion says the engines aren't strong enough to fight the gravity.  Venture struggles to keep the ship out of a gas cloud.  Nova picks up something huge and flying.

On infrared video they see . . .  nothing.  Gas clouds are too dense.  Wildstar wants to shoot it, but Avatar hold him back--and they see a massive floating continent.  They set down on it, giving Orion a chance to see what's wrong with the engine.  They land in a jungle.

Gantz on the Pluto base suspects that they've detected his fighter base on the floating continent.  He orders the base commander to find the exact landing site of the Argo.

IQ9 is floating around amidst the liquified gas and subtropical plants, but sees no other signs of life.  Orion, meanwhile is optimistic about their repair chances.

The fighter base on Jupiter gets orders to search for the Argo.  They launch a fighter.  Nova picks it up on radar.  Wildstar launches his fighter to "check it out."  He and the Gamilon pilot get into a dogfight.  Wildstar takes a hit on the wing and plunges into the jungle.  He pulls out of his dive behind the Gamilon fighter and, well, misses, but the Gamilon fighter peels away.  Gantz decides they have to use missiles to destroy the Argo.  Venture is confident they can escape the gravity of Jupiter, while the Gamilon base launches a missile barrage at them.

Orion completes repairs and Avatar orders a test firing.  The test is successful--and Nova picks up the incoming missiles.  They launch just in time to escape the missiles.  Wildstar wants to go after the Gamilon base, but Avatar wants to simply get out of the way. Avatar orders all of the department heads to assemble.  He and and Wildstar want to try to hit the Gamilon base with the wave motion gun, despite objections from Sandor.  Avatar shows us a diagram of the wave motion gun, explaining how the entire ship becomes the weapon.  And it takes a while for the WHOLE SHIP to recharge.

The Gamilon troops on the floating continent evacuate their base.

Avatar powers up the wave motion gun.  Wildstar fires.  (It requires them all to put goggles on before the gun fires).  The wave motion gun obliterates the continent, and the Gamilons evacuating report that they've gotten clear just in time . . .  or have they?

The ship starts to sink into Jupiter's atmosphere, but then Venture pulls them out.

They escape, and Sandor is puzzled that the wave motion gun was so powerful.  Avatar gives us our moral for today (great power to be used with care), and Gantz freaks out about the power of the Star Force's weapons.

There are only 361 days left.

Test Warp to Mars

Test Warp to Mars

You'd expect an alien bit of technology shoehorned into an earth vessel would require some testing, right?

Desslok is reclining in the Gamilon capital with his harem.  He decides to let the guys stuck on Pluto deal with the Star Force.

Meanwhile, the Argo is traveling outside of Earth's gravity well.  They retract the wings and ignite the reaction engines.  The bridge crew takes a moment to gaze at the radiation-ravaged Earth.  Avatar orders the staff officers to assemble.  They're planning a test of the wave motion engine.  Sander explains to us how the wave motion engine works.  And it actually sorta makes sense.  I mean, if time has particles that travel in waves like light.  I'm no astrophysicist or nothing, I'm just a simple man.  But their explanation doesn't make me want to throw things.

The Pluto base plans to destroy the Argo.  They launch another carrier. 

Nova is in the engine room watching, uhhh, numbers on a screen.  She advises Avatar that the best place for the warp is between Earth and Mars--erm, isn't that, like, most of the solar system's entire area?!  Venture is nervous about the procedure.

Dr. Zane is drunk.  IQ 9 wakes him up.  IQ 9 says the space warp is more exciting than any dreams.

Nova detects the Gamilon carrier.  Wildstar volunteers to take the Black Tiger squadron out.  Avatar agrees, but they have to be back before the jump.  The fighters launch, and the Gamilon carrier sees them and launches fighters of their own.  An epic WWII-style dogfight ensues.  The carrier plans to use missiles and torpeddoes. 

That shot of five black tigers in formation looks an awful like the Galaxy Garrison fighter formation shot they used a lot in Dairugger . . .

Wildstar goes to intercept missiles heading for the Argo, which is defenseless before a jump.  He succeeds in intercepting one missile, but almost crashes into the Argo.  Meanwhile, Conroy is hit while engaging a Gamilon fighter.  And the battle rages on.  Avatar orders the fighters recalled.  Avatar plans to have the space warp engaged before the Gamilon carrier is with gun range.  One Black Tiger plane is missing.

Wildstar urges Avatar to wait for Conroy.  His damaged plane is limping towards the Argo.  With 8-0 seconds to the space warp, Conroy is losing power.  Wildstar puts his helmet on and rushes to the bay, guiding Conroy in verbally.  He crashes his ship in.  Wildstar pulls him out of his smouldering fighter and he tells Avatar they're ready.

Venture angsts over the warp jump.  The Gamilon carrier comes within range and opens missile ports.  The missiles are launched . . . and Avatar orders the warp . . .  They watch the missiles close in, and the warp effects somewhat resemble the Macross space fold effects.  Let's hope they warp to the right place, though.

Apparently, the wave motion engine cuts through all kinds of crazy shortcuts in the past.  Oh, those trippy 70s.  They emerge from the warp.  The crew is unconscious.  They come to and see Mars.  Whew.  Not Pluto or something (I was a little worrried).  At least they didn't take a city with them.  Venture is the last to awaken.  And he totally overestimates the distance to Mars.  Avatar sees damage incurred to the ship, and orders them to land on Mars.

Desslok receives a report from Ganz on the Pluto base.  He's still so smug.

The Argo descends to Mars through a snowstorm.  The crew marvels at the weather, which the ravaged Earth no longer gets.  Sandor is in charge of repairs.  The rest of the crew plays in the snow and IQ 9 is having some fun.  Avatar looks back at the Argo's bridge tower, near a rent in the hull.

362 days are left.

The Ultra-Menace Missile

The Ultra-Menace Missile

Don't go for the easy joke here.  DON'T DO IT.

Ganz (?) is watching footage of Yamato destroying their carrier.  Desslok tells him not to worry--an old wreck like that will never be a threat.  Nevertheless, Ganz convinces Desslok to allow the use of the Ultra-Menace Missile.  The silo opens.

On Earth, Avatar is briefing the Star Force volunteers on the mission to Iskandar.  He christens the Yamato the "Argo." 

The Ultra-Menace Missile countdown comes to an end and the massive weapon of mass destruction takes off from Pluto.

The Star Force parades through the underground cities.  Mark Venture gets a garland from his brother.  Then some people heckle them.  Nova's parents are worry-stricken.  I don't think Nova quite gets the gravity of the situation.

The Ultra-Menace Missile approaches the Earth.  Earth controllers track it and estimate it's striking position.  The Star Force, meanwhile, boards the Argo.  On the bridge, Venture worries about his family.  Wildstar is a bright ray of sunshine.  He really hasn't forgiven Avatar for Alex' death.  Conroy, Dash, Homer, and Eager suddenly arrive on the bridge to introduce themselves.  Amusingly, the subtitles with their names are massive text blocks to blot out the Japanese titles.

Avatar takes Wildstar and Venture on his inspection tour of the ship.  He shows them the massive firing gate of the wave motion gun.  It's a particle weapon that uses tachyons.  Huh.  The three stand in the bow, looking out at the scorched Earth.  No radiation suits?

The Ultra-Menace Missile grows closer, and the operators are still tracking it.

Avatar leads his subordinates into the radar and holography rooms, where they're led on tour by Nova.  And see IQ9 hula dancing.  That pain will linger . . .  Then they meet Sander (Crick's normal--complexioned analogue), the head mechanic, who shows them how they can fabricate stuff.  Finally, they see the hangar and the engine room.  Each new location is accompanied by a view of the ship on the map.  Huh.  This is kinda interesting.  Then Orion, the chief engineer, explains how the wave motion engine works.  Avatar leaves.  Then Wildstar grills Orion about Avatar, though Venture tries to drag him off before Alex Wildstar comes up again.  Orion basically says "war is Hell." 

The Ultra-Menace Missile grows closer.  This time, the Argo bridge crew are tracking it.  Wildstar goes to tell Avatar.  Avatar reacts calmly, and then he starts to say something, then leaves.  Wildstar sees a picture of Avatar with a young man and woman.

Venture is ready to start the engine, when Avatar arrives on the bridge and slows them down to start correctly.

The missile gets closer.  The Earth controllers are tracking it.

Avatar has each system started up in turn.  Venture goes to start the wave motion engine, and it fails--because Venture missed a switch.  They try again.  Um.  I can't tell if what happened is good or bad.  Oh.  Wildstar gets emo because it still doesn't start.  Avatar starts to loose his temper.  Then an engine noise starts and things light up.  I guess it just took a second.  The ship is moving.  Avatar calls for engine power.  The missile is three minutes away.  He orders the main gun to stand by, and the ship to launch.

The complete vessel pulls free of the Earth's surface.  I like the background score.  Very 70s, if by 70s I mean AWESOME.

The missile plummets toward the Earth.  The Argo evades, and the turrets range in.  They fire and . . . Yeah, the good guys win.  The explosion is huge, and obscures the Argo from the Earth controllers momentarily.  Ooh, the suspense!  (These kinds of ploys so early on seem cheap to me.  Maybe they weren't 40 years ago). 

The Argo emerges triumphantly from the obscuring smoke, and extends wings as it takes flight.  Wildstar relaxes his grip on the firing controls, as Venture and Orion relax.  Avatar thinks to himself that Wildstar has proven himself.  The mission begins.  There are only 363 days left.

Carrier Attacks the Sleeping Yamato

Carrier Attacks the Sleeping Yamato

Avatar walks through the Japanese control room amid reports of various locations losing transmission power or succumbing to radiation.  He is told the Yamato repairs are on schedule, but he's also told that he needs time to heal.  He insists that they need to travel to Iscandar before it's too late.

Wildstar and Venturer (and IQ 9) are in sickbay, Wildstar getting bandaged for his injuries sustained in his crash in laast episode.  They get summoned over the PA and take an air car--along with IQ 9 and Dr. Zane, who happens to be testing an "air sickness drug."  Right.

They reach the base and see the keel of the Yamato.  They realize this is where they crashed, and the Yamato looks brand new from this angle.  The four take an elevator up to the Yamato control room and are met by Avatar.  The Yamato is now a Space Battleship--and it's tilted a bit.  Nova is also on the bridge.  IQ 9 requests permission to join the mission, which is granted.  Avatar explains the mission to Venture and Wildstar, and that he's sent a "casting call" to all survivors worldwide to join the Star Force.  He tells them about Iskandar.

The ground rumbles, and they report Gamilon bombing near the Yamato.

A Gamilon carrier approaches the Yamato site and deploys flying-wing style ships.  The ships launch missiles at the Yamato.  The people in the bridge are shaken by the attack.  Wildstar wants to fight back.  Avatar slowly moves to a command seat and tells them to be patient.  The bombers reform for another run. 

The Gamilon leader Desslok calls the carrier commander and accuses him of a lack of aggression.  the carrier begins to descend.  Aboard the Yamato, they activate monitors and see the carrier coming straight at them.  Avatar orders them to battle stations and the auxiliary engines to be started.  Wildstar is orders to take the gunnery controls and Venture the controls.  The ship breaks free from the surface and the rusted facade of the ancient Yamato falls away.

The now-mobilized ship ranges in on the enemy carrier.  Wildstar struggles to keep up with the orders as the automated guns align.  Avatar gives the order to fire.  The Gamilon carrier is struck by the cannons.  The captains reports that the target suddenly became a space battleship.  Desslok orders him to destroy it.  Then the carrier explodes.

The bridge crew celebrate, and Avatar reiterates his offer to join the Star Force.  They accept. 

On Gamilon, Desslok demands his three greatest generals just what happened to their carrier.  They tell him Earth has a new battleship to continue the fight.

Avatar gives us a history lesson, and then tells Venture and Wildstar about the Cosmo DNA and the 1-year mission.  Avatar looks out over the upper decks of the ship in grim determination.  And we get some closeups of the ship (damn, that thing is heavily armed).  The narrator tells us we have 364 days left/

The Battle at Pluto

So, here goes Star Blazers.  I'm kind of excited about watching this for the first time.

The Battle at Pluto

Damn, that's a catchy theme song.  There's something about the 70's . . .  I will admit to having a preference for the 70's/early 80's art style over, oh, say 1990 to now.  Blame Tranzor Z (which I definitely drew imitations of far more than Voltron--probably 'cuz it was easier to imitate that Volts or Robotech.  Anyway.

Captain Avatar (I'm gonna primarily use the SB names over SBSY.  'Cuz I'm a lazy American) laments the decay of Earth, and the narrator takes it from there, explaning that the Gamilons are bombarding Earth with radiation bombs, and the Earth population has sought refuge underground.  Now, Captain Avatar is commanding the lone defense force remaining at the orbit of Pluto.

The radar operator picks up the approaching Gamilon fleet: battleships, destroyers, and escorts.  Avatar watches out the bridge windows as the Gamilons close in.  He orders battle stations, and artillery to standby.  The Gamilons transmit an order to surrender.  Avatar responds that they're idiots.  Artillery ranges in . . .

The Gamilon fire a beam barrage the just misses.  Avatar orders his men to fire--it's a direct hit, but damage is negligible.  The return attack from the Gamilons cuts Avatar's fleet to little molten bits. 

An unidentified craft at very high speed zooms in from beyond the solar system and closes on Mars.

On Mars, two soldiers are sent to investigate the craft, which ejects a capsule before crashing.  Derek Wildstar and his companion receive the order to investigate.  They take a kinda neat-looking shuttle or fighter (oh, his companion's name is Venture) and find the wreckage of the unknown ship.  Wildstar's piloting bothers Venture/  They explore the wreck, then Wildstar sees a woman collapsed on the Martian surface.  Wildstar picks up her body, and she drops a red device. 

Back at Pluto's orbit, Avatar's fleet is quickly being reduced to nothing.  A missile ship closes on a Gamilon ship fires and . . . scores a kill.  Alex Wildstar, the CO of missile ship 17 sees the damaged flagship.  Aboard it, Avatar asks after the status of the rest of the fleet.  Just their ship, and the missile ship.  Avatar orders the retreat--better to live to fight another day.  His ship peels off, and he orders Wildstar to follow him.  Wildstar takes his missile ship to hold off the Gamilons against Avatar's orders.

Missile ship 17 is surrounded by Gamilon ships and pounded by beam weapons, launching missiles all the while.  Then it explodes dramatically.

On Mars, Venture and Wildstar are ordered to board Avatar's returning ship and take it back to Mars.  They dock with Venture's ship, bringing the red device with them.  Derek is dismayed that there are no other ships, not even his brothers.

Avatar broods on the Gamilon threat.  His ship returns to an underground landing bay.  Wildstar and Venture debark and take an elevator, discussing the progressive radiation poisoning of Earth.  Venture gives Wildstar his sympathy over his brother's death.  Leaving the elevator, they find Avatar, and Wildstar introduces himself, and then accuses Avatar of leaving Alex behind.  Avatar apologizes, then leaves.

The two take a flying car through a tube and are still discussing Avatar and Alex.  Then they take an escalator to headquarters, and a scientist identifies the device as a message capsule.  Leaving the lab, they walk past a woman who apparently resembles the woman they found on Mars.  They ogle her unabashedly.  Then the doctor runs down the hall trying to wrangle a pig.  The doctor identifies her as Nova, a nurse.  Then a robot appears, tells them that the weirdo is Dr. Zane.

Captain Avatar is recovering in his hospital bed when he gets a call that the message found on Mars has been analyzed.  The robot eavesdrops.

Nova sees Wildstar moping in the rec room.  Venture tells her about his brother, then the robot appears, chases Nova out of the room, and tells them the message has been analyzed.

The message is from Starsha, from the planet Iscandar.  She has sent plans for the wave motion engine, that will enable them to jump to Iscandar, and she can give them the Cosmo DNA that will restore Earth to its pre-radiation self.

Avatar is planning to take a ship using the engine when a Gamilon force approaches the wreckage of the battleship Yamato.  Wildstar and Venture commandeer a fighter to confront the Gamilons/  They also speculate on the importance of the Yamato . . .  They attempt to engage the Gamilon scoutship, but their engines overheat and they crashland.  They see the ruins of the Yamato and wonder why such a rusting hulk is so important.  So does the narrator . . .

Did anyone else think certain aspects of the underground civilization of Earth think it resembled Galveston's underground cities?  Particularly the yellow aircar and the tube highway?

Voltron vs. Golion and Dairugger

OK, so here is my analysis.  At least the initial one.  I mean, I can't just watch both American and Japanese versions back to back and then not do some sort of an overview of how I feel they compare, can I?

I start with what I watched most recently, the U.S. only "second season" of lion Voltron.  If you read more than a couple sentences of my episode synopses, well, you can tell I didn't like them very much.  It's not (at least, I don't think it is) merely an otaku attitude of "the Japanese version is better."  The animation was subpar and confusing, the episode stories were full of 80's animation stock plots, and the pervading attitude was different, like they had to shoehorn some "moral of the story" into the plots.  Of course, that's more or less a function of western animation in the 80's (that's why G.I. Joe had the "and knowing is half the battle" stuff at the end of every episode).

But the seasons of Voltron adapted from the anime were different, partly because, well, anime didn't have the same constraints.  But there were other differences, too.  You can see a sharp contrast between the way American animation was approached and the way Japanese studios operated.  Both Dairugger and Golion had long-term story arcs to which most episodes contributed.  Plot points established in one episode appeared consistently in subsequent episodes.  I think the planning and preproduction stages for anime series were much longer.

In American animation, (and in live action weekly television, as well), the production was much more rushed.  Each episode was pretty much self-contained simply because the showrunners didn't have a lot of control over the order in which episodes got aired (just look at the airdates of Vehicle Voltron in the DVD collections.  Hoo, boy, was that random),  Now, to its credit, the second season of Lion Voltron did have a story arc from beginning to end--the Voltron force on Arus was now a part of Galaxy Garrison as a whole, and Zarkon was gradually escalating his efforts against Arus, recruiting Merla and the pirates of the Rogue Galaxy.  Tensions between Lotor and Zarkon drove Lotor to rebel, "turn good," and then the whole thing got copped out when it was just a ruse.

Well, at least they tried.  Unfortunately, a lot of plot points couldn't just be carried over from episode to episode.  Lotor's turn, for example, had to be re-established a couple of different times, and there were some episodes where they sort of even forgot he had turned good the day before.

As for the rest of the series--well, I've mentioned it before, I'm partial to Vehicle Voltron.  I can tell you exactly why.  When I was 8, my father watched Star Trek II with me on VHS and took me to see Star Trek III in the theaters (this was 1984).  The same station that would end up airing Voltron started syndicating Star Trek again.  I was totally hooked.  That summer, we also got cable, and the one premium channel we had was the Disney channel.  There was a lot of witches and princesses going on there, and my sister and I, believe it or not, fought over stuff like Cinderella vs. "City on the Edge of Forever."

Then one day after school, I happened to turn on the television and see these robot lions fighting a weird bat monster (this was the fourth episode, where they form Voltron for the first time).  That.  Was.  Awesome.  I watched in religiously, for probably another two weeks.  Then, suddenly, Voltron was different.  Instead of the lions, it was . . . cars?  In space?  Car FLYING in space?  But I hung on, waiting for the lions to reappear.  But, these guys were exploring.  In space.  This was like Star Trek.  But it was like Voltron, too.  Hell, it WAS Voltron.

So, you see, I got into vehicle Voltron over the Lions because, at 8, I was much more into hard(ish) Sci-Fi than fantasy with witches and princesses who lived in castles and talked to mice.  I still liked Lion Voltron.  I just have always preferred Vehicle Voltron.

Of course, I understand why the Lions are more popular.  For one thing, watching Vehicle Voltron as an adult, the scripting and dialogue seems . . . vexed.  Too many characters, too many subplots, too few voice actors, and too many obvious deaths.  The poor show got butchered.  Plus, 5 main heroes vs. the 15 of vehicle Voltron--hell, it was easier to get into.  Keith, Lance, Hunk, the Princess--they all got some focus episodes, we all got to know them and their archetypes pretty well.  We know Wolo got scared in the woods once when he was a kid, we know Chip misses Pidge, we know Cliff grew up on a farm and that Crick and Cinda are from a water planet.  We know that Crick's psychic, Cliff is the reasonable one (except for when he isn't) and Jeff is the hothead (except for when he isn't).  Beyond that, hell, I still can't connect every character to their ship.  We all know who belongs to what lion.  It was harder to get the kind of connection to the Vehicle teams that we kids developed with the Lion force.

Same thing with the villains.  Zarkon was the big bad, Haggar was the witch who came up with most of the plans--and the robeasts--Yurak was the dragon at first, then Lotor was a much more serious threat, all the way to the end.  Then, we have the Drules.  Hazar's the big bad--until he turns sympathetic.  Then . . . Hell, even the World Events writers didn't keep all the names straight.  Malvor/Mongo, Dirka/whatever his name was the second time he appeared . . .  It was confusion.  Add to that the fact the episodes were aired all out of order and the dialogue was rewritten to break up the very strict continuity that was in the Japanese version.  Man, what a mess.

On the other hand, I really think Dairugger was superior to Golion.  Golion was much more formulaic (and I think that was the intent, actually), and the animation was uneven in many episodes, as though they were pressed for time.  The sound editing was . . . weird.  Like the people choosing the sound effects couldn't get a lot of their tapes to work,. so they were stuck with forcing weird sounds in and hoping we'd just pretend they were right.  Dairugger had much, much better sound design and far more sophisticated direction--check out some of the scene transitions in just nay random episode.  As the big fleet engagements got, well, bigger and happened more often, they did resort to a lot of stock footage.  However, the mechanical designs were pretty solid, and they used all the different ship designs for both sides pretty consistently.

Golion, I think, was kind of an experiment.  "Hey, let's make a giant robot--who's mystical instead of technological.  And let's use a lot of European imagery instead of Japanese."  I mean, Altea was basically Jolly ol' England, Heracles was Greek, Jarre was straight out of Sinbad (a European view of the medieval middle east), and so on.  It also had this strange quality of a Chinese folk tale, with the ruthless emperor, having conquered all he could see, being bored in the first episode, only to fall when his own ruthlessness turns against him.  So I think Golion took many more risks.

Dairugger, on the other hand, fell back on some good old well-established anime tropes.  The Rugger Guard is no Space Battleship Yamato, but the overall story arc borrows quite liberally from Yamato: an Earth fleet fighting against a succession of alien commanders (who are all basically humans with funny skin pigment).  And where the Gamilon commanders of Yamato all had names reminiscent of Nazi German generals, the Galveston captains were all named after pirates.  (This might be a common thing in anime of the time, but I just haven't seen enough other examples to make the connection).

My main plan was to compare Voltron and its Japanese source series, and do the same with Voltron's closest contemporary, Robotech.  While I fully intend to do that, I've discovered that Star Blazers is available on Hulu.  I don't have access to SBY in the orignal Japanese, whether the full series or the movie (I watched the movie on Netflix a year ago, but I no longer subscribe to that giant money whore), so I'm only going to watch and analyze Star Blazers.  I think it's a good idea, though, especially since both Dairugger and Macross borrow/pay homage to it so strongly.  So that's my next project here.

Breaking up is Hard to Doom

Breaking up is Hard to Doom

Here it is.  The last episode of Voltron's original run.  It's been quite a ride, watching these since June.

We open for the first (and last time) on Merla's castle.  Merls is brooding over her desire to turn good. Then Lotor arrives and claims he wants to turn good, too.  And rent a modest castle on a quiet suburban castle.  This is so absurd that it's actually funny.  Lotor swears to help Voltron on her behalf.  Then Cossack shows up.  Apparently he's Lotor's chauffeur. 

The Voltron force is already running to the launch chute on Arus. Apparently they just needed the space between episodes to rest before heading back to Doom.  As they're en route, Lotor's command ship catches blue lion in a tractor beam thing using stock footage from Pidge's Home Planet.  More energy blasts hit the rest of the team, and the attackers are apparently invisible.

Zarkon threatens them on the ultrawave.  Coran tells him to release the slaves and he'll recall the lions.  Zarkon treats it all as a joke.  Allura says they must stop his slaving ways once and for all.  Then another attack begins.  They form Voltron.

As Voltron, they fly to the source of the laser bombardment.  They find Lotor in his ship.  Lotor acts all weird.  The team defies him.  And . . . he says he wants them to attack Zarkon.  They don't listen to him.  He tries to warn them about a trap, and then we see the Omega Comet footage.  Lotor tells them to use their positron.  Keith does so, by using the lion head attack stock footage.  They get loose.

Lotor explains that he wants to thank them for freeing him from the pit of skulls.  Then Merla appears, and apparently they find her easier to believe than just Lotor.  Voltron, Lotor's lavender ship, and the star cutter close in on Doom.  Haggar zips by them in her space coffin, taunting them, and then a cougar/lion/some big cat robeast appears.  This is pretty cool looking as far as the 2nd season mechanical designs go.  They trade blows, and then Lotor and Merla gang up on the robeast while it's got Voltron in its flame thrower.  The robeast tumbles out of orbit and crashes on Doom.  Voltron lands to face it, and forms the blazing sword.  Dang.  That robeast didn't last very long.  Haggar's space coffin, apparently caught in the blast, crash lands.

Zarkon postures and sends skull tanks to meet Voltron.  This doesn't last long either.  As Voltron plunges forward over the flames, Doom robots hold some Arusian slaves hostage.  Zarkon appears and tells them to bring Voltron to him.  They land.  Lotor and Merla land behind them.  Lotor emerges from his ship and throws a sword at one of the slaves.  The slave turns out to be a robot and explodes.  They blow up the other masquerading srobots.  Then more robots arrive and start shooting.  Voltron steps on them.  Zarkon gets upset. 

The fire weapons at the castle.  Fortunately for Zarkon, the castle can hold out for a while using footage from the last episode of the first season.  Then Voltron overcomes all of those obstacles and blows up the castle in new, lame footage.  As the team admires their handiwork, Lotor and Merla run up and Lotor shoots some snipers.  Lotor leads them into the castle.  He puts the moves on Allura, but she rebuffs him.

They enter the throneroom, trade taunts with Zarkon, and then he traps them under glass with a tentacle bomb.  Lotor walks up to the throne and Zarkon takes a mask off--he's really Cossack.  He and Lotor reveal they were just kidding about being good and escape in a bubble ship.  Pidge breaks the glass with his belt buckle bomb.  As the team leaves, Merla confronts Lotor.  The tentacle bomb explodes and takes the entire planet with it.  Keith sees Lotor and Cossack fleeing, and he suddenly develops super powers and jumps after them.

Keith lands in front of them, steals Cossack's sword, and starts swashbuckling with Lotor.  Merla calls him a fool and, um, leaves Keith to face him.  Keith knocks Lotor down, and then lava starts shooting out of the ground.  The team panics that Keith won't make it, but then he teleports to his lion, and we see footage of the Drule homeworld collapsing. 

Back on Arus, Zarkon calls them up in Castle control and he taunts them from the real planet Doom.  Keith says they'll get him yet.  And thus, the Voltron goes out with a fizzle.

The Alliance Strikes Back

The Alliance Strikes Back

We get an interesting little opening montage this time around.  Coran proclaims the castle of lions as a symbol of hope for those fighting against Zarkon.  Hunk starts out with the uprising on Zahl, and then Stryde the Tiger fighter--and Stryde's recolored to be pretty badassed in olive drab.  Then Hunk's little buddies have driven off Doom forces as well.  Maryanne reprogrammed all the captured robots.  Then we get a montage of oddly-colored skull slave galleys being destroyed by a Galaxy Alliance fleet.

The team decides to bring the fight to Zarkon.  They launch in the lions. 

Zarkon's purple and blu flagship is approaching Doom.  As he lands, he is dismayed to see there is no welcoming party--they're all fighting and then the robot talking to him gets blown up.  The lions are making a surprise attack.  They destroy some robot ships, then they form Voltron.

Zarkon launches all the rooster frigates from the last episode of the first season.  Voltron destroys them using the same footage.  Running out of animation budget, guys?  Zarkon and Haggar discuss defeating Voltron in direct combat.  Then Lotor takes Zarkon's ship to attack Voltron.  Then we get some dialogue that's supposed to pass for humor.  Then Merla tries to dissuade Lotor from this potentially self-destructive battle.  It doesn't work.  Merla's not feelin' too evil anymore.

Lotor's ship lands on the Uranium plateau and deploys his battalions in a Mastodon formation.  Voltron arrives and the skull tanks fire on him.  Zarkon and Haggar are watching.  When it looks like Lotor is winning, Zarkon pushes a switch on his sceptr, and suddenly the skull tanks launch cables and ensare Voltron.  Lotor is surprised.  Then Zarkon sets Lotor's ship on a collision course.  Haggar pleads on Lotor's behalf.  Rather weakly.  Then Merla tries her whammy on Zarkon and it doesn't work. 

As Lotor's ship is v-e-r-y s-l-o-o-o-w-l-y closing in on Voltron, he and his robots try to retake control.  Then Merla shows up in her pegasus mecha that we've never seen before.  She melts the cables.  Voltron breaks free, destroys the tanks, and crashes, out of power.  Merla gets all philosophical.  Zarkon doesn't like this turn of events.

Lotor staggers out of his ship, and then robots arrest him.  Merla tries to rescue him, but her weird mecha is disable by an explosion from the downed flaghip.  Then the robots have Lotor chained to a tree at the Pit of Skulls.  There are some goofy-looking attempts at the Doom council from the first season.  Zarkon and Haggar arrive and sentence him.  As an example. 

Merla regains consciousness outside her mecha and her pet vulture tells her that they're going to execute Lotor.  In footage from a different epsiode, Pidge and Hunk discuss the mysterious mecha.  Then Merla appears.  Where ARE they?  It doesn't look like Doom.  Merla throws down her weapon and urges them to help Lotor.  Then Pidge suddenly remembers that the horse mecha was Merla's.  They finally decide to help Lotor. 

Lotor his hanging on the tree.  of Woe.  (Contemplate this).  The Voltron force and Merla disable the guards and get Lotor down from the tree.  Then searchlights come out of the SKY and find them.  Merla leas Lotor away and the team shoots a bunch of robots.  Merla gets Lotor on the horse mecha and Zarkon throws a tantrum.  He fires a beam weapon that melts her mecha.  It crashes and Merla flies out.  Then her Fish Speakers come out of her star cutter with jetpacks and rescue her.  Lotor crawls out of the horse and Merla tries to talk to him with her mind.  Lotor wonders what it would be like to be good.

The team is running, and Haggar opens up a fissure and releases a robeast.  A big, fishy robeast.  Gods.  A mecha-grouper.  It shoots giant quills and then opens its mouth to fire a beam weapon.  Keith runs out to Voltron and then has the team run to Voltron in his wake.  This was your plan?  Then Voltron lifts off and faces the fishbeast.

Voltron gets knocked down by the fish beam weapon, then try to hold it off with an assortment of weapons, and very awkwardly kick the robeast.  Then they form the blazing sword.  They throw the sword to destory the fish.  They throw the sword at the base.  Haggar grumbles.  Voltron leaves for repairs, and Zarkon apparently has a personal grudge against Voltron.  He didn't before?  Voltron is escorted by some Galaxy Garrison ships from nowhere.

No Muse is Good Muse

No Muse is Good Muse

Bring us in, Optimus!  We open on Doom and Merla plotting with Haggar.  They're testing a new ultra-robeast on a copy of Voltron.  Despite the somewhat bland and tepid coloring job, this faux Voltron looks kind of cool--in a Transformers: the Movie sort of way.  The robeast defeats the faux Voltron by freezing and stomping on him.

A skull ship lands on a Galaxy Garrison planet, claiming to be crewed by the muses of norn.  The Garrison officer lands his ship and is communicated to telepathically.  Apparently, telepathy changes his uniform color.  The muses hand over Merla.

The officer tells his superiors at Galaxy Garrison that they'll only turn Merla over to a high-ranking official.

Merla and Allura are reminiscing about their childhood together.  Huh?  Today is the eclipse of Alfor.  Meanwhile, GG calls Bandor launches a fleet from Pollux.  He meets the muses (and apparently his men can afford GG uniforms now instead of the togas).  Oh, look., the head muse is actually Haggar.  They capture Bandor.  Lotor's fleet destroys his via stock footage. 

Galaxy Garrison decides to interrupt the Spartans' Arusians' festival. to ask for help.  Then Lotor and Merla get into an argument.  Back on Doom, some . . . dudes are arguing about who's going to knock Zarkon off the throne with Zarkon right there.

Pidge tells the team that Bandor is in trouble.  They launch in the lions.  They arrive on the planet to find Bandor outnumbered.  Bandor himself is planning an escape, though his men are pessimistic.  Then the lions arrive and engage Lotor's fleet.  Guess who wins?  It's actually a pretty protracted affair.  With a lot of stock footage padding.  Then they form Voltron.  They charge Lotor's ship.  Lotor sets course for the Norn sun.

He leads them into the heart . . . of . . . the sun?!  And only he knows the way out.  One of the robot ships tumbles off the path, but Lotor leads the rest of his ships out a secret space warp--so secret we don't even see it animated.  And Voltron is getting cooked. 

Then a crazy bird robeast appears and makes some Filmation bird sound effects.  It damages Voltron with a halberd attack to the back.  Merla and Haggar are somehow watching all this from the planet.  They block an axe strike with the spinning laser blades, and then use the solar arrows because that's all that will work in the heat.  Volts forms a giant glowing bow and implaes the robeast.  The explosion hurls Voltron out of the sun and back to the planet.  In a cheaply animated sequence.  Voltron lands.

Merla mocks Voltron and unleashes the robeast she'd been testing earlier.  He's a lot taller than Voltron.  And he's got the good ol' standard robeast growl.  Voltron charges and the robeast fires it's freeze ray.  Boring.  Voltron is covered in ice.  The robeast launches spikes out of its hair.  I've seen other redheads do this, too.  Pincushioned, Voltron collapses and the robeast closes in as Bandor and the GG crew watch in dismay. 

Allura is sad that they'll be defeated on the day of her father's eclipse.  The moon blocks the sun (huh, apparently, it's an eclipse that happens on EVERY PLANET AT THE SAME TIME).  Haggar sees it as a bad omen.  Allura "feels the energy of the eclipse" and the ice melts.  Hello, Deus ex Machina.  Voltron forms the blazing sword and absorbs solar power.  The robeast doesn't stand a chance.  Instead of stabbing or slicing, Voltron opts for the flambe.  Lotor says it was luck.  Haggar and Merla are stuck in the space coffin together.

Back on Doom, the two . . . guys from earlier report the defeat of Lotor and Merla to Zarkon.  Zarkon laughs and gloats.  Voltron leads the GG fleet.

Lotor . . . My Hero?

Lotor  . . . My Hero

Optimus Prime brings us in to Doom with a tone poem about vultures, greed, and envy.  Merla is giving Zarkon a back rub.  And then Haggar takes over and Zarkon freaks out and talks about how he can't remember when Haggar was beautiful because his memory only goes back a thousand years.  And Lotor is waiting in the wings to take the throne.

On Arus, a woman has asked the Voltron force to help her suddenly fever-ridden mother, who was apparently cursed the day before by Haggar in the form of her red-dress wearing self from Fleet of Doom.  And the only cure for the accursed fever is a flower that only blooms once every thousand years, and there's only one.  Oh, and Alfor ex Machina is the one who tells Allura about the Cadmium flower. 

The team takes a hover-bumper-car back to the castle with Sven with the flower they've somehow found in five seconds.

Lotor sharpens his "stun-sword" and sneaks up on Zarkon, but is caught.  And then he tries to claim it was all a game.  Lotor is imprisoned with some goofy hissing centipedes.  Lotor sweats.  Zarkon tells him the millipedes (my mistake) can chew through steal.  They chase him around the cell, and then they chew a way to freedom for Lotor.

Everyone at the Castle of Lions is waiting for the Cadmium flower to bloom.  And it does it in style.  They wait for it to open into a real flower.  Pidge finds Cheddar building a house to protect the flower.  Then the mice trip.  Silly mice.

Zarkon lands his blue flagship in a ravine right on planet Pollux.  Haggar introduces him to new robeast material.  Some Polluxian scouts are watching.  And then Haggar looks at the Cadmium flower in her crystal ball, and sends the cat to disrupt things.  The flower opens, and the blue cat charges the mice and steals the flower.  The team--and the mice--pursue.  They don't catch the cat.  There's much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Haggar takes off in her space coffin.  Keith orders the team to follow her.  They launch the lions.

Haggar leads the Voltron force away while Zarkon plans to launch an attack from Pollux.  Sven and his men stage a commando raid while Bandor goes to warn the Voltron force.  The Voltron force peels away from their pursuit of Haggar and Sven and his men disable robots and commandeer a skull tank to destroy the Doom Base.  Zarkon is pissed.  Haggar says she'll be right on her way.

Bandor blows things up with a slingshot.  A Doom fighter chases him.  Sven blows up the horribly miscolored monstrosity with his tank.  Then reinforcements arrive and disable Sven's tank.  The lions show up and perform horribly miscolored attacks on the Doom forces. 

Zarkon tosses a millipede in his robeast super-sizer.  It turns into a robeast only Floro Deiry could love.  Then Haggar arrives and starts ordering the robeast around.  It takes red lion out of the sky.  Green and yellow lions launch weapons at it, then Keith launches the lion wing attack from right over Haggar.  The robeast disables black lion with a flamethrower, then grows new claws or something in another poorly animated scene and throws green lion around.

Haggar shows Zarkon the Cadmium flower.  Then she goes on the ultrawave and taunts Coran, Allura (HOW THE CRAP ARE THEY BACK ON ARUS SO FAST) and the daughter.  Zarkon and Haggar destroy the flower.  Oh, but Keith, Pidge, Hunk and Lance are still on the planet.  I guess Allura didn't go with them?  I totally didn't notice.  The guys start fighting Doom soldiers on the ground.  Keith is about to get smooshed by the millepede robeast, but then an identical robeast starts fighting it.  The two robeasts destroy each other.

Then Lotor shows up.  A moment that could have been awesome is ruined by Zarkon quipping that he never should have given Lotor the keys to the spaceships.  Lotor declares war on his father.

Allura apologizes to Deborah (oh, that was her name) and suddenly Cadmium flowers bloom out of nowhere.  Alfor tells them they were borne from the love they all share. The mice make a potion out of it.  Deborah's mother is revived by it. 

This episode actually has sooo much potential, but it falls apart thanks to a bunch of poorly explained, rushed-seeming sequences and some of the worst animation of even this second season.

With Friends Like You

With Friends Like You

Optimus Prime tells us the Omega Comet from the first season is the Phylos Comet.  Coran explains to everyone the Phylos is a planet withe eliptical orbit of a comet (hello, Halley's comet tie-in) and it will be passing close to Arus.  While Pidge and Lance discuss how scary the life forms may be, a skull tank approaches.  The tank lands under the white flag.  Guards in Air Team uniforms hold the pilot at gunpoint, but Allura frees him.  He introduces himself as Count Zane, and explains that Lotor is building a temple and weapons on the Phylos comet.

Lotor is toasting to his temple of Allura when Zarkon arrives and arrests him.  Zarkon's flagship looks like his first season ship, but blue instead of red.  Lotor protests his arrest and demonstrates his new weapons systems--missiles with anti-lazon warheads.  Zarkon is not impressed.  Zarkon unveils his herculean generator.  Which looks like a mechasnail.  The mechasnail generates tornadoes.

On Arus, Zane explains the Herculean Snail Generator to the team.  He shows a recording of a prototype, and Pidge also says it looks like a snail.  Hunk describes it as working like a giant food processor.  The comet is only hours away.

On Phylos, Lotor is examining the Herculean generator.  But he is skeptical.  Zarkon as arranged for Merla to attack a GG fleet and send an SOS to Voltron.  The fleet commander looks like Okita from Yamato.  The four remaining ships of the fleet follow Merla to Phylos and get ambushed.  Soon, only the flagship is left and it crashes.  They send a distress signal to Castle Control.

Coran receives the distress signal, and Keith starts to run to the boarding chutes.  Zane offers to go, but Lance (as usual) is skeptical.  Zane gets all teary-eyed and appeals to Allura.  She allows him to go.  Zane leads them through a secret path as the lions follow his flying tank.  Lance is still skeptical.  Zane tells Keith to rescue the ship while he attacks the Herculean generator.  Keith sends green., yellow, and red lions with Zane while he and Allura fly to the caverns in which the GG ship is trapped, still under fire by Merla's forces. 

Merla watches the lions approach.  They destroy the robot fighters.  Merla flees, and black and blue lions (the bruise formation) escort the ship out of the bottomless pit and then go to join the others.

Zane and the lions are approaching Zarkon's missile base.  Zane breaks off to destroy the missiles and sends the lions after the Herculean Generator, to Lance's objections.  He attacks the missile base and points out the Herculean Snail's position before they lose sight of him and write him off as KIA.

Coran calls them to warn them that Phylos is getting close to Arus and threatening them with stock footage of the Omega Comet.  Then the lions fly into a minefield and black lion is knocked out of the sky.

The lions land as Keith gets black lion upright.  They wonder how Zane was so wrong. . .

Lotor, Haggar, and Zarkon thank Zane as he approaches the throne.  And, of course, Zarkon goes back on his word and won't actually give Zane rule of Phylos.  Haggar zaps him with her cane and he collapses on the floor.  Zarkon orders the Herculean generator activated as robots carry Zane out of the room.

The lions are picking their way through the minefield when the Herculean Generator tornado hits them and they fly around in the minds amidst explosions.  Then they form Voltron.

They drop below the range of the generator.  Haggar is in the control cab and she drops the tornado lower . . . but Voltron forms the blazing sword and destroys the generator.  Haggar stumblies out of the generator wreckage and summons a robeast.  It launches missiles and then it's steer horns at Voltron.  It actually has a decent roar for once.  And they hit it with the lion torches and then the blazing sword.  Too bad.  That was one of the better robeasts in the new season.

Zarkon's flagship is moving to escape.  Keith is ready to pursue, but Coran warns them of the missiles Lotor is readying.  Lotor gives the order for them to fire.  Coran launches the Flying Fortress to intercept the missiles.  Er, no, they just evade the missiles while they melt everything.  Coran knows they can rebuild and replant.  Then Keith destroys Lotor's old, first season command ship.  Huh.  Lotor flees in an escape ship. 

Doom Girls on the Prowl

Doom Girls on the Prowl

Arus is having a parade.  Led by guys in blue Robin, the boy wonder costumes.  With no pants.  Everyone marvels at their own likenesses.  Except Lance, Pidge and Hunk feel left out that they didn't get their own statues.  Coran boosts Allura to the top of a pedestal with Keith and things get awkward.  Then some girls throw flowers to Allura.

Merla is watching this stuff from Zarkon's throne.  Haggar sends a pink baby woodtick robeast after Merla, but her pet vulture throws the woodtick on Haggar.  Merla threatens to feed it to her vulture.  Haggar offers to help her defeat Voltron, but Merla calls her magic obsolete. 

Pink Doom robots with horrible processed voices pilot Doom fighters to Arus alongside Merla and Haggar in the star cutter.  The fighters destroy the Arusiann parade statues and some flags, and stampede the people into a panic.  Allura and Keith lead them back to the castle.

Pidge, Hunk and Lance are sprinting to the castle while Keith, Coran, and Allura lead thousands of villagers to the coverless bridge.  Then, the Doom fighters start strafing the road.  The yellow, green, and red lions launch and engage the fighters.  Keith and Allura resume leading the villagers while the other guys land to help.

Haggar and Merla bandy words back and forth.  Haggar finally releases her woodtick and supersizes it.  Oh, it's more like a flea than a tick now.  It launches and knocks the lions off a cliff and buries them.  Then it freezes Lance, Pidge and Hunk.  *yawn.*

Allura hears the attack, but Keith insists they keep moving.

Haggar brags about their solar ice.  And Lance's uniform is miscolored red.  The fighters now have reinforcements and continue strafing things at random.  Merla orders them to shoot down the rest of the statues.

Arusian refugees are gathered in the castle.  Keith tells Allura that they can't reach the others.  Coran says this is the worst attack since Alfor's defeat.  Really?  It's just a bunch of ships flying around shooting statues.  What about the time all the surface water on the planet was evaporated?  Remember that?  That was pretty bad.

Merla and Haggar mount their attack on the castle, and Coran declares it a fight to the finish.  Keith and Allura launch in their lions, using stock footage from their very first launchenings.

The robeast attacks the castle.  The castle defenses are destroyed.  Black and blue lions attack the robeast, but their weapons are useless and it catches them in a net.  Merla and Haggar gloat.  The pink Doom robots walk around and shoot things.  The skull tanks launch missiles at deserted buildings.

Coran and the mice cry because he can't find the other Voltron force members.  Oh, one of the mice knows where they are.  The mice lead Coran through a secret passage to where the three guys are frozen.  Aaand the robeast freezes Coran and the mice.  And then Keith, Allura, and everyone in the castle.  Keith and Allura find a way to counteract the ice.  And they exchange positrons or something.  And then they fire missiles at each other.  Which somehow frees them from the net.  They use a sonic noise attack that makes the robeast explode.  Huh.  No Voltron or blazing sword.  Then everyone defrosts and they get back into their lions. 

They form Voltron.  vVoltron destroys the skull tanks and the Doom fighters after standing still and getting shot for a few seconds.  Then they use the lion torches to burn . . . down . . . the Arusian buildings the Doom robots are shooting at them from?  Oookay.

Merla blames Haggar and they flee. 

Voltron rebuilds the castle.  Pidge wonders if they'll have their own statues.  Then some kids build their own statues and float.  Allura is in the tomb talking to ALfor, who is complimenting their bravery.  And apparently Alfor approves of Keith.  Um, so is their whole thing officially a  . . . thing, now?

Gods, this episode was painful.

To Soothe the Savage Robeast

To Soothe the Savage Robeast

Optimus Prime starts us off with a realtor's spiel of Arus.  And we pan into a house with a woman playing a harp and thinking about her lost . . . husband?  Boyfriend?  His name is Ro, in any event.  She flashes back to Doom slavers capturing Arusians as slaves.  She and Ro try to escape the robots on a boat, but Ro is captured. 

On Doom, robot overseers are commanding slaves to do things with stones.  Ro is carrrying a wicker bast full of jewels, which he drops in exhaustion.  In Castle Doom, Lotor marries Merla, with Zarkon officiating.  Hurgh, is this disturbing.  And Merla does some mind control stuff.  Doom robots and Merla's fish speakers cheer.  Merla is already plotting to take Zarkon's throne--after she conquers Arus, naturally.

Haggar is moving through the slave quarters, looking for Ro from Arus.  She finds him.  And has Merla's scheme in mind.

Taryn is out collecting honey from her bee hives when Ro appears.  They collapse in the grass in joy.  Then Merla and a barely-disguised Haggar appear, and Ro introduces them as his "new friends."  AND THEY RUN A FOUNDATION FOR NEEDY SPACE CADETS!  Merla gives Taryn a pitcher of DEATH to deliver to Keith because Merla is in love with him and completely shy.  And EVIL.  So Taryn and Ro deilver it to Allura, and Taryn gives her the completely suspicious cover story, and Allura is a little suspicious and jealous.  She calls Keith for his birthday party.

Keith doesn't hear her call because he's MILES AWAY picking flowers on the cliffside.

Ugh.  Taryn's voice actress' delivery is straight out of Leave it to Beaver--that annoying coached dialect from 50s and 60s television.  She plays her harp for Ro and he has a flashback to his time as a slave and is overcome with guilt and explains that bad stuff is going to happen.  So they decide to warn the castle. 

Haggar ambushes them on the way to the castle with a . . . magical tree root that breaks the wheel.

Allura is still brooding over Keith's secret admirer while they all sit around the food-laden table and wait for Keith.  Nanny pours out of the pitcher of death, and Lance convinces him to wait for Keith.

Keith for some reason stops at a house, and Lotor steps out.  Lotor warns Keith of Merla's plot.  I like this development with Lotor that's been going on in the past couple episodes.  Even though it goes completely against his first season characterization.

Hunks toasts Keith while the mice scare each other.

Haggar watches this on her crystal ball, and sees Taryn and Ro with their wheel fixed.  Merla sends robots on robot horses after them.  The horses are closing in and Ro prepares to throw FLAMING EXPLOSIVE BARRELS THAT THEY JUST HAPPENED TO HAVE IN THE BACK OF THE CART.  Keith sees the chase and rides to the rescue.  The robots shoot the wheel off, then Keith arrives and drives them off.

Coran is STILL TOASTING and they're about to taste DEATH IN A PITCHER when the mice spill it on some flowers and the flowers disintegrate.  Hunk throws his glass on the fire and the flames turn blue.  They run outside and find Taryn and Ro and their horse.  And Keith.  Once again the day is saved.  And Keith and Allura have a completely platonic romantic moment.  And Zarkon's fighters strafe them.  And Taryn is going to be okay in a hospital bed.  And they ride their ziplines to the lions. 

The lions, um, run around while they get strafed by the fighters.  Then black lion detaches its wings AND ITS HEAD and destroys some fighters.  Haggar tells her crystal ball to destroy them all.  Things get cloudy and lightning-y, and another shitty robeast appears.  They form Voltron. 

They fight in a completely incomprehensible montage of scenes, but then they form blazing sword and are saved by stock footage.  Oh, and this robeast . . . runs on lava?  Wha--?

Lotor confronts Merla on a bridge over a canyon on Arus.  This is another kind of interesting development in an episode that is overall stupid.  Merla casts her marriage bracelet into the canyon.  then optimus Pirime tells us the moral of the story.

A Ghost of a Chance

A Ghost of a Chance

Optimus Prime brings us in to Planet Doom with a little Space Poetry.  Cossack is wondering where Merla comes from, and Haggar says she can control minds.  Zarkon mocks both of them, and then gets his mind controlled by Merla.  He puts her in charge of conquering Arus.  Zarkon, Lotor, Cossack, and Haggar all enter Merla's Space Cutter to see her quark-filled cosmotron.  Which runs on charmed quarks.  She puts Cossack in the gizmo and it's basically an agony booth.  Except it's also a Outer Limits "teleport you to PAIN" machine.

In Haggar's lab, Cossack complains to Haggar.  Haggar muses on her mental powers, and the fact that Merla's been reading Allura's mind.

On Arus, people are doing things.  Optimus Prime tells us about rumors.  Apparently the Arusians have been hearing about the ghost of Alfor returning at the valley of Zohar.  They all go to the remote location to look at the monuments.  And apparently Alfor and Zarkon had a duel here.  And then Merla designed as Nanny's character model tells them that he's coming back.  I mean, seriously, isn't it obvious?  She leads them into the rainbow caves where they find Alfor's golden shield. 

The Voltron force discusses the rumors.  Allura hopes it's true.  And the Voltron force are her best friends.  Then the townspeople rush to the castle to tell her about the golden shield of Alfor in the rainbow caves in the Valley of Zohar.  *pant*  Then Pidge rushes to tell Keith that Allura's gone there alone.

Allura runs past the monument and Merla watches, and then takes off her disguise.

Allura finds the gold shield and a statue of her father, and then a meteor (?!?) hits the ground and Keith knocks her to the ground.  The rest of the team tells them of the meteor and find phony gold fragments from the busted shield.  And then the meteor blocks the cave entrance.  The team tries to push it open.  They open it far enough for Allura to fit through, but a rockfall blocks Pidge from following her.  She leaves to get help. 

The meteor takes flight and then explodes to reveal Merla's star cutter.  She gloats.  It's like a terminal disease.  On her way to the castle, Allure sees the star cutter fire on the castle.  Coran orders the castle defenses to return fire, but the star cutter deals severe damage to the castle and robots enter the castle.  Merla rides up next to Allura in a skull tank and captures her.  Allura mocks her lipstick.  Then Lotor arrives.

Lotor, Cossack, and Hagger invite themselves in, and Merla tells Allura that Lotor wears shoulder pads under his uniform.  Merla takes Allura to the Comsotron.

Coran is stunned by robots invading castle control.  The team is still struggling to move the boulder, but Pidge finds a Pidge-sized tunnel and escapes.  Merla has Allura in the cosmotron and turns it on.

Allura is agonized by the cosmotron.  Lotor is disturbed.  He finally draws his sword and threatens Merla, forcing her to release Allura.  The mice have snuck into the star cutter.  Lotor comforts Allura and Merla tries to mind-control him, but he's too besotted by Allura.  Merla sends her Fish Speakers somewhere, Lotor leaves the room, and the mice steal Merla's cloak while one awakens her and they escape.  Cossack and Haggar watch her leave and laugh.  They mock Merla.

Following Pidge's passage, they find a painting of King Alfor leading the Lion Knights against Zarkon.  His ghost appears and he teleports the team to their lions.

Allura jumps into the lake to swim to her lion.  Alfor appears and teleports her into blue lion.  The lions launch.  Merla watches the lions launch as Cossack, Lotor, and Haggar watch.

The team converges on the star cutter and forms Voltron.  They fire stingray missiles and the insignia crest at the star cutter.  Merla orders her dwarfling Fish Speakers to launch the robeast.  Cossack asks Hagga how Merla got it if she'd hidden the keys.  Then, the red and yellow chicken-gator robeast arrives and fires darts out of its beak at Voltron, then grabs him and starts electrocuting Voltron.  Allura identifies an arc-field generator, and they arc it back at him with the insignia crest.  Then they form the blazing sword while the robeast gets spikey.  Despite its spikes, it gets blowed up.  Lotor flees in his first season command ship.

The team, with Coran, admires the painting of Alfor defeating Zarkon.  Then we get a PSA about rumors.

Either I'm mellow today, or this episode isn't as bad as some of the other second season ones have been.  I like the Alfor-mythology they hint at here (and with Stryde in the last episode), and as silly and "standard American Cartoon" bumbling Haggar, Cossack, and Lotor have gotten, I kind of like their rivalry with Merla.  Oh, well.  Tomorrow's episode will probably piss me off like the others.

Enter Merla, Queen of Darkness

Enter Merla, Queen of Darkness

For some reason, in the time between seeing this as a sprout and indulging in it in my adultolescence, I thought this was the first new episode.

Optimus Prime tells us that Zarkon is amassing a new army with new allies: Merla and Stryde the Tiger Fighter.  Haggar asks him about it, but he's vague.

Meanwhile, on Arus, the team is reusing the Judo footage from the forest fire episode.  And hilarity ensues.  And a lot of mentions of the space academy.  And a decent loophole to mention the Astro-Knights, and the Tiger Fighters.  Guess who'll we be meeting in the next scene, kiddies?

A Tiger ship encroaches on Doom airspace and Cossack arms the snake lasers while Zarkon looks on, amused.  The tiger fighter fights it's way through the defenses, humiliating Cossack.  His tiger's mecha design is pretty cool for this being a second season episode.  At least Anatole Leonard won't be wondering where his mecha went.  Unfortunately, the color choices for Stryde's uniform isn't so good . . .  Zarkon and Stryde trade words, and Zarks convinces him that Arus now threatens his honor.  Stryde's father had fought alongside King Alfor in the last generation.

Lotor mocks Zarkon's new plan.  Zarkon gives him the "be on your best behavior for our guests" talk.

A fleet of ships land on planet Doom, and Cossack wonders who they all are.  And then Merla arrives and controls everyone with her telepathy.  And Lotor likes how people bow.  And there's a confrontation between Lotor and Merla.  Her henchmen look like rejected Lunattacks from the later Thundercats episodes.  Merla also is upset that Stryde will get all the glory for vanquishing the Voltron force.  She's puts the wammy on him and convinces him to let her go help, along with the new ultra-robeast.

Castle Control alerts the team to the arrival of Stryde.  Allura recognizes him, and challenges them.  Keith accepts.  They break black lion out of the lion statue again (?!) and Keith launches.

They meet among some asteroids.  Keith tries one last time to get out of the hostilities, but Stryde starts the fight.  They trade shots.  Pidge and Hunk are all set to interfere, but Keith turns the tables on Stryde with his harpoon.  The two mecha animals charge each other.

Merla is watching and decides to get rid of both of them. 

Black lion crashes into the tiger fighter and they both crash on the asteroid.  The lions and Merla follow.  Keith and Stryde have emerged from their mecha and face each other with swords.  Stryde has Keith at swordpoint, and then his code of honor wins out and he stops the fighting.  They're about to part ways when Merla appears.  Her lady elven shock troops surround them.  Fortunately, the lions intervene just in time.  Stryde and Keith run to their mecha.  Merla takes off in her star cutter and releases the robeast.

The lions and tiger are leaving the asteroid field when they're ambushed by the robeast mutant turtle.  Stryde holds the robeast off, but the team forms Voltron.  They form the blazing sword pretty much right away.  Wow, that was fast.  The robeast explodes and Merla leaves in disgrace.  And she threatens her dwarf. 

Allura bandages Stryde, and Keith acts all designated flyer.  Keith tries to convince him to join the Galaxy Garrision, but Stryde is all not so fast.

One of my friends and I were both surprised to realize that Stryde wasn't introduced until now.  Apparently, he seemed so badass when we were 8 that he had to have come from the good season of Voltron.  Oh well.

Who's Flying the Blue Lion and the Return of Sven

Who's Flying Blue Lion and the Return of Sven

Ships crowd their way over the horizon.  Optimus Prime tells us they're the unstoppable spider, shark and pterodactyl ships from the rogue galaxy, in league with Zarkon, invading the planets of the Galaxy Alliance.  Space Marshall Graham calls for a inter-galactic conference.  Ships land at the Galaxy Garrison headquarters, along with the lions.  They discuss the futility of resistance.  And then they show up and attack earth right in the middle of the conference.  Largo, king of the rogue galaxy, calls the Galaxy Garrison and threatens the alliance by crashing a ceramic apple.  Most of the Alliance members are in favor of surrender.  Keith and Coran try to rally them to resist. 

They launch two new stingray fighters--that look a lot like the old stingray fighters.  And they get trashed by Lotor's ships underwater.  He fires magnabeams and covers garrison island in a forcefield.  Then a whole lot of disjointed animation represents the attack--some from the Drule raid on GG, some from other second season episodes, and some random stuff.

The Voltron force rushes to their lions.  Outside, Garrison troops are mounting a desperate holding action against the robots.  The Voltron force are cut off by robots.  Then more alliance troops appear and hold off the robots long enough for them to get to the lions.  They launch and smash a few robots.

Lotor's flagship is hovering over the flaming island.  He, Cossack, Haggar, and a detachment of robots take some shuttle thing into the Garrison conference room.  Cossack begs Lotor to let him do the threatening.  Sven sneaks off to the parking garage and disables the robots guarding the ships.  Two more robots have him at gunpoint, but black lion rescues him. 

Cossack warns Lotor of the lions' rampage.  Then, Lotor presents the leaders of the Alliance planets, including Graham and Coran as hostages.  Lotor bargains the hostages for Allura.  And starts whipping Coran.  He tells Allura to keep resisting--then passes out.  The team debates, and they decide to surrender.  Those are some neat elevators they've got coming out of the lions' ears.  Allura leaves her lion and Lotor salivates all over himself. 

Allura begs Lotor not to hurt Coran, though Cossack wants to shoot him.  He and Cossack take the shuttle over to black lion and demand Keith to get out.  Keith springboards onto the head of the lion after seeing Sven.  Sven--at the head of a contingent of Garrison troops, shoots down most of the robots.  Pidge, Hunk, and Lance get in their lions.  We see blue lion's doors close, but Allura is still on the ground.

Pidge and Lance have to make it real obvious for the kids in the audience that Sven is in blue lion.  With the original team together, they destroy robot fighters thanks to three minutes of footage cut from some really early episodes of the first season. 

Allura is back in Castle Control, in her Disney princess dress, and tells them they got away from Lotor and Lotor and Cossack are fleeing.  But Hags is still there, and she summons--a doofy-looking preying mantis robeast.  They form Voltron.

The robeast approaches some civilians(?) on the ground.  Voltron fires the lion torches, then machinegun pods, and the eyebeams, Then Sven suggests they grab him.  So they clothesline him into a building, form the blazing sword, and close in with more stock footage.  Then it grabs Voltron by the head with its mandibles and Haggar casts some sort of Electrocution spell.  Then Pidge grabs a power lion and turns the tables on the robeast and Voltron deals its mortal blow.  Then Haggar flees in the space coffin. 

The space leaders of the rest of the Galaxy planest are inspired by this victory, and we see the old destroyers from Dairugger fighting the spider ships.  Then Voltron joins in and destroys some MORE robot fighters in old footage.  Largo, the rogue leader, gets scared and leaves.  Then Voltron poses in front of Earth.