The Captive Comet
Haggar tells us (and Zarkon) of the beginning of the universe. There were certain oddities, such as the Omega Comet. It looks like a comet, but acts like a blackhole. Apparently in the dim past, Voltron hid it somewhere. But now, Haggar's found it in Sector G-29--isn't that where Homer Simpson works? Lotor has Mogor bring Princess Romelle, and a ship is sent to pursue the comet. The ship--a weird-lookin' white ring-shaped thing--is crushed to the surface of the comet. The ring allows Haggar to take control of the comet using Haggar's favorite substance, nuclear radiation.
Kids, don't learn your physics from Voltron.
Lotor introduces Romelle to the cometl Haggar somehow causes an explosion that send the comet on a course towards Arus. Romelle vows to stop Lotor. Lotor gloats.
In castle control, the team hears a message from Romelle warning them of the comet. Coran knows the story, and describes everything getting vacuumed off the face of the planet. Apparently Voltron had a secret attack plan to stop the comet the first time, but they lost the plan when Voltron was divided.
The team decides to go after arguing with super gloomy-gus "We'll just have to prepare for the end" Coran. They launch the lions and form Voltron.
Inside Haggar's lab, a voiceover of Zarkon tells Lotor that Romelle has warned Voltron of the Omega Comet. Lotor and Haggar laugh.
Voltron approaches the comet. They decide to go in closer, and get pulled in. Some guage starts counting up. Keith complains that the graviton neutralizers aren't working. Then he sees wreckage of a ship on the comet surface. Lance suggests blasting the comet and sending it off course. They open up with everything, but the comet won't budge.
Watching Voltron's fireworks, Haggar and Lotor babble about Voltron's "secret attack plan." Romelle jumps at the chance to transmits some nonsense about a power crystal setting. The team complies (Romelle wouldn't lie, after all) and gets pulled to the planet surface.
Romelle sees that Voltron has been betrayed. Lotor reveals that it was all just a ploy to get Voltron trapped. She starts crying as Voltron is pinned to the comet surface. Lotor taunts her some more. Keith has Voltron reset to normal power settings, and they try to relaunch. That doesn't work/ Voitron is now pinned on his back near the wrecked spacecraft. Allura (who is using a different animation model in this episode--she looks like Maetel from Galaxy Express 999) suggests using booster power. That doesn't work either.
Romelle continues sniveling as Haggar describes the horrible things the comet is doing to the surface of Arus. And some really hot Arusians flee in fear as everything starts to go to hell. Coran has contacted Galaxy Garrison, and some minor functionary comes on to tell them that they can't spare any ships. Coran is insistent.
Lotor and Haggar trade some mildly disturbing dialogue, and then Haggar deploys some sort of Voltron-tenderizer with her crystal ball. Romelle tries to stop her, but Lotor stops her with a blade to the dress. Haggar releases the Iron Ripper, or the Metal Muncher, depending on how you like it called.
It starts grinding into blue and yellow lions--until suddenly a fleet of ships arrives and destroys it. It's Prince Bandor's fleet. Lotor is not impressed. Keith tells Bandor to use his fleet's firepower to blow the comet off course. Bandor protests, but the team insists. The entire fleet fires. The barrages makes the Voltron yell a lot, and then, um, the radiation rings from Haggar's ship float away and the Omega Comet moves away from Arus.
Apparently, the Voltron Force is traveling over to the other side. In other words, they're dead. Bandor, Coran, and Lotor all say some stuff. Lotor also keeps switching animation models. Then Optimus Prime gives us some narration as we watch Lotor's fleet divide into two halves, and we get a final look at Voltron on the Omega Comet.
The Hypergravity Planetoid Trap
We get our usual narrator to explain to us the spatial oddities of the Great Dark Nebula (in other words, Daibazaal with less gravel). The hypergravity planetoid Space Wolf suddenly forms with a diameter of 1 kilometer and gravity several times that of Earth's. So it's dense.
Honerva has a plan. Sincline sends Gobra to get Amue. Again, we see that weird-looking ship. It's weird-looking partly because it's got a white and blue color scheme and just doesn't look like an other Galra design.
The rings respond to Honerva's voice commands, somehow/ But they still use MASSIVE EXPLOSIONS to move the Space Wolf around. The bad things that happen to Alteans when Honerva explains Space Wolf's powers to Amue are much more gruesome. And, Amue again manages to send an emergency message to castle control. And Kogane already knows about Space Wolf. Huh. Maybe there's a Great Dark Nebula cosmological research society magazine he has a subscriptions for.
We get Formation V as the launch the lions and form Golion.
Sincline likes this plan because they don't even need to fight Golion to destroy him.
Golion's mouth is animated to match Kogane's vocalizations sometimes.
They use laser magnum, machinegun pod, foot missiles, fire tornado, and grand fire--pretty much all of the standard lion head weapons. This time Sincline's bluff is to have Golion close in and hit the rings. They prepare for the four lion attack (rather than some weird power setting nonsense as in Voltron. And then . . . they get sucked in because the launch lever sticks?!?! Huh.
The damage done to Altea is shown more extensively. But not much. They got away with a lot of people getting sucked into space in Voltron. Maybe 'cuz it's just so weird.
The guy Raible talks to on the viewer is the mayor (of all of Altea?!) instead of some minor functionary.
Prince Alor appears with the Heracles Space Armada. They have a new weapon, the Laser Cannon.
As he orders the Galra fleet to engage the Heracles Armada, he stands on Amue's foot. He sends part of his fleet after Alor, and the other to Altea. To finish them off.
Showing posts with label No Beastman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label No Beastman. Show all posts
Monday, August 1, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The Sleeping Princess/The Prince Imperial's Dark Love
The Voltron version of this episode is better than filler, but not among my favorites. The Golion version, however, has some pretty interesting psychological developments for Sincline.
The Sleeping Princess
Lotor is having a nightmare. And, apparently, he sleeps in his uniform. In the dream, in the Voltron version of the dream, anyway, he's dreaming specifically about Allura. That's a little different from Golion, as we'll see. He rushes through a forest to Allura, dodging spears, until, um, ogre guards who are totally not Zarkon appear and take her awy.
Princess Corell of Deimos arrives on Doom in a Rooster frigate. She is to be married to Lotor to unite the two planets. And her language sounds suspiciously like . . . Michael Bell doing baby talk into a pitch-shifter. Lotor begs for one more chance to capture Allura. Whoah, wha?! At the end of last episode, Zarkon was all set to send Lotor to the glue factory. Well, I guess marrying him off to Corell is the same thing. Apparently, Corell wants Lotor to wed the one he loves. Then he kisses her.
In Haggar's workship, Lotor claims that the only reason Allura won't just marry him is because she's afraid of Zarkon. We then see . . . a dream of Allura's? In which Zarkon squishes her head. After trying to get him to leave Arus alone. Huh. Then Haggar bewitches a dagger. WEP was very careful to explain that the dagger wouldn't kill anyone. Just make them go to sleep.
Everyone's picking flowers on Arus. Allura is riding in a royal boat rowed by the Voltron force and coran. One of the mice is hanging out on Allura's shoulder. The rest of the team (and mouse) jump into the lake to gather flowers to present ot the princess. Then the mouse sees the blue cat with a dagger, in time to, um, get Pidge to turn around in time to see it stab Allura. A few seconds after the cat basically scratches her, she passes out. Nanny proves she's already in the denial stage of grieving by claiming it was too much sun.
At night on Arus (and that's a pretty cool shot of the castle lit up at night) Allura stops breathing in her hospital bed. And Keith demonstrates how secure he is in his masculinity by doing a Luke Skywalker-style howl. And. The team sits outside the castle and immediately figures out that this is all a scheme by Lotor and Haggar. And they're all going to pretend to be sad.
Yeah, this isn't to keep little american kids from being upset by potential death.
The fake funeral is held in the same cathedral that figured in the episode with Allura's Aunt. Her aunt appears, too. Then the team has flashbacks about Allura, how she invited them to become the Voltron force, and then joined the team herself. And some weird stuff that doesn't quite correspond to what's actually going on onscreen. And the Keith's voice breaks while Pidge hyperventilates.
And the priest/minister/vicar is downright scary looking. So . . . Arus is a weird mix of Catholic and Russian Orthodox?
Lotor and Haggar plot to snatch the princess. She's loaded into her casket, and the team carries her to the carriage. Coran admits that he suspects a plot as well. So don't cry kids. She's not dead!
Haggar uses her wand to blast a tree down in front of the carriage. The driver is thrown, but Pidge tears off after the carriage and Indiana Joneses his way onto it. The rest of the team is coming along behind, and then Lotor does a 6 Million Dollar Man jump into the driver's seat. Haggar diverts the rest of the team, who run back to the castle and launch in their lions.
Pidge is going all WWE on Lotor until Lotor knocks him off with the riding crop. Pidge hangs on to the carriage, but Lotor is weirdly concerned for his safety and warns him to let go before he's crushed by the wheels. Lotor finally pulls over and draws his sword, but Haggar warns him that the lions are coming. Pidge gets back up and stalls for the lions. Haggar hits him with some sort of beam from her staff, but it just stuns him. She picks him up and he freaks out. The others have gotten out of their lions and hold their sidearms on Lotor--until Haggar uses Pidge as a hostage. But Pidge pulls the pin on a grenade and threatens Lotor and Haggar. Lance picks up his gun, and Haggar tells Lotor to put her down--in hopes for a darker tomorrow. Then Pidge makes a suicide rush with the grenade. Lotor jumps, knocking the grenade into the carriage, and awakening the princess. Lotor is all set to fight, but the team holds him off. Keith shoots the blade right out of his sword. Haggar conjurs a lot of wind, hoding them all back while the two villains retreat to space coffins and escape.
On the castle balcony, Allura actually kisses Pidge, and then Nanny intervenes. On Doom, Lotor refuses Corell, Corall, whatever her name is. He throws down a glass of wine and sees Allura's shifting reflection in the puddle.
The Prince Imperial's Dark Love
So here the dream sequence makes more sense. Maybe villains with a clear psychological disturbance were too much for WEP?
Sincline is dreaming of his mother. Who looks a lot like Fala. But clearly is NOT Fala. Same thing with spears trying to hold him off, and then Daibazaal appears and grabs her by the throat. Then Sincline's mother becomes Fala. And Sincline doesn't KNOW why she became Fala.
See? Far more interesting than the random dream in Voltron.
The princess of Galleria (a mall?!) appears. Her name is Sahlia. She's an imperial blood relative. And she can talk. Sincline comes right out and says that Fala reminds him of his mother. Daibazaal is clearly distressed, and says his mother died in childbirth. He urge Honerva to do something. She arranges to tell Sincline about his mother in exchange for marrying Sahlia. Then he kisses her.
Honerva admits that Fala looked just like his mother. Sincline says he has nightmars of a demon taking his mother away.
In a flashback, Sincline's mother is begging for leniency for some Altean slaves. In response, he apparently kills her with his bare hands.
Of course, Honerva doesn't tell him any of this. Sincline declares he is going to get Fala before he marries Sahlia. Honerva agrees to help him. She conjures an enchanted blade. Walt Disney whirls in his grave.
Honerva gives Jaga the blade. Apparently, anyone who gives the princess a bouquet of flowers gets a kiss, according to an old custom. That's why the guys -- and Platt -- fall all over themselves collecting flowers. Then Jaga slashes Fala. Kogane tries valiantly to fend him off. With a bunch of flowers. And Fala passes out.
Cue Hys-trionics.
Sunset actually turns to night, and we get that cool shot of the illuminated castle. Helena appears in the scene where Fala stops breathing. Then Kogane gets all grief-stricken. And that whole night sequence where the team figures out it's a Lotorian plot? Edited in from scenes taken from "A Pretty Spy." We go right to the cathedral and the mourners. And there's some generic organ music throughout the funeral service.
Y'know, for it's time, Golion actually has very few clip shows. This episode has a sequence that lasts a couple of minutes. That's pretty tame, considering how crunched most animation schedules were. I mean, they basically had to create one episode a week for a year. Sometimes they'd fall behind and "catch-up" episodes were used to give them a little breathing room. There is no beastman in this episode, and really only one new character model (Sahlia), so maybe this episode was faster to produce.
Apparently, there is an unseen 21 gun salute going on somewhere as they load the casket into the hearse carriage. You can hear it in the soundtrack. There's just no indication of it in the animation.
The team gradually begins to think Fala might not be dead only after Sincline and Honerva appear.
When Sincline knocks Suzuishi off the carriage, he taunts him. Far more fitting than telling him to be careful of the wheels! Suzuishi must figure out that Fala's not dead when Honerva says the time of her revival is soon -- right in front of him. And -- it's funny that Honerva decides to use Suzuishi as a hostage when Sincline's already got Fala. Hm. Maybe she's a less satisfactory hostage because they have no intention of giving her up.
Hm. I guess Suzuishi doesn't know Fala is alive. He's all set to die and see the princess again in heaven. Then the explosion awakens her.
Honerva and Sincline arrived in space coffins. Are those the Galra covert insertion platform? Every time they go to Altea in space coffins, no one knows they're there. It's only when Sincline brings his flagship or the batplane that they pick him up on radar. Or dradis. Or whatever.
When Fala salutes her people from the balcony, the organ is playing its funeral music again.
When watching this episode with me, my girlfriend said "Sahlia's outfit would make a nice bellydance costume. I like the snake tiara thing, too!" It's nice when you're significant other is just as nerdy as you are.
The Sleeping Princess
Lotor is having a nightmare. And, apparently, he sleeps in his uniform. In the dream, in the Voltron version of the dream, anyway, he's dreaming specifically about Allura. That's a little different from Golion, as we'll see. He rushes through a forest to Allura, dodging spears, until, um, ogre guards who are totally not Zarkon appear and take her awy.
Princess Corell of Deimos arrives on Doom in a Rooster frigate. She is to be married to Lotor to unite the two planets. And her language sounds suspiciously like . . . Michael Bell doing baby talk into a pitch-shifter. Lotor begs for one more chance to capture Allura. Whoah, wha?! At the end of last episode, Zarkon was all set to send Lotor to the glue factory. Well, I guess marrying him off to Corell is the same thing. Apparently, Corell wants Lotor to wed the one he loves. Then he kisses her.
In Haggar's workship, Lotor claims that the only reason Allura won't just marry him is because she's afraid of Zarkon. We then see . . . a dream of Allura's? In which Zarkon squishes her head. After trying to get him to leave Arus alone. Huh. Then Haggar bewitches a dagger. WEP was very careful to explain that the dagger wouldn't kill anyone. Just make them go to sleep.
Everyone's picking flowers on Arus. Allura is riding in a royal boat rowed by the Voltron force and coran. One of the mice is hanging out on Allura's shoulder. The rest of the team (and mouse) jump into the lake to gather flowers to present ot the princess. Then the mouse sees the blue cat with a dagger, in time to, um, get Pidge to turn around in time to see it stab Allura. A few seconds after the cat basically scratches her, she passes out. Nanny proves she's already in the denial stage of grieving by claiming it was too much sun.
At night on Arus (and that's a pretty cool shot of the castle lit up at night) Allura stops breathing in her hospital bed. And Keith demonstrates how secure he is in his masculinity by doing a Luke Skywalker-style howl. And. The team sits outside the castle and immediately figures out that this is all a scheme by Lotor and Haggar. And they're all going to pretend to be sad.
Yeah, this isn't to keep little american kids from being upset by potential death.
The fake funeral is held in the same cathedral that figured in the episode with Allura's Aunt. Her aunt appears, too. Then the team has flashbacks about Allura, how she invited them to become the Voltron force, and then joined the team herself. And some weird stuff that doesn't quite correspond to what's actually going on onscreen. And the Keith's voice breaks while Pidge hyperventilates.
And the priest/minister/vicar is downright scary looking. So . . . Arus is a weird mix of Catholic and Russian Orthodox?
Lotor and Haggar plot to snatch the princess. She's loaded into her casket, and the team carries her to the carriage. Coran admits that he suspects a plot as well. So don't cry kids. She's not dead!
Haggar uses her wand to blast a tree down in front of the carriage. The driver is thrown, but Pidge tears off after the carriage and Indiana Joneses his way onto it. The rest of the team is coming along behind, and then Lotor does a 6 Million Dollar Man jump into the driver's seat. Haggar diverts the rest of the team, who run back to the castle and launch in their lions.
Pidge is going all WWE on Lotor until Lotor knocks him off with the riding crop. Pidge hangs on to the carriage, but Lotor is weirdly concerned for his safety and warns him to let go before he's crushed by the wheels. Lotor finally pulls over and draws his sword, but Haggar warns him that the lions are coming. Pidge gets back up and stalls for the lions. Haggar hits him with some sort of beam from her staff, but it just stuns him. She picks him up and he freaks out. The others have gotten out of their lions and hold their sidearms on Lotor--until Haggar uses Pidge as a hostage. But Pidge pulls the pin on a grenade and threatens Lotor and Haggar. Lance picks up his gun, and Haggar tells Lotor to put her down--in hopes for a darker tomorrow. Then Pidge makes a suicide rush with the grenade. Lotor jumps, knocking the grenade into the carriage, and awakening the princess. Lotor is all set to fight, but the team holds him off. Keith shoots the blade right out of his sword. Haggar conjurs a lot of wind, hoding them all back while the two villains retreat to space coffins and escape.
On the castle balcony, Allura actually kisses Pidge, and then Nanny intervenes. On Doom, Lotor refuses Corell, Corall, whatever her name is. He throws down a glass of wine and sees Allura's shifting reflection in the puddle.
The Prince Imperial's Dark Love
So here the dream sequence makes more sense. Maybe villains with a clear psychological disturbance were too much for WEP?
Sincline is dreaming of his mother. Who looks a lot like Fala. But clearly is NOT Fala. Same thing with spears trying to hold him off, and then Daibazaal appears and grabs her by the throat. Then Sincline's mother becomes Fala. And Sincline doesn't KNOW why she became Fala.
See? Far more interesting than the random dream in Voltron.
The princess of Galleria (a mall?!) appears. Her name is Sahlia. She's an imperial blood relative. And she can talk. Sincline comes right out and says that Fala reminds him of his mother. Daibazaal is clearly distressed, and says his mother died in childbirth. He urge Honerva to do something. She arranges to tell Sincline about his mother in exchange for marrying Sahlia. Then he kisses her.
Honerva admits that Fala looked just like his mother. Sincline says he has nightmars of a demon taking his mother away.
In a flashback, Sincline's mother is begging for leniency for some Altean slaves. In response, he apparently kills her with his bare hands.
Of course, Honerva doesn't tell him any of this. Sincline declares he is going to get Fala before he marries Sahlia. Honerva agrees to help him. She conjures an enchanted blade. Walt Disney whirls in his grave.
Honerva gives Jaga the blade. Apparently, anyone who gives the princess a bouquet of flowers gets a kiss, according to an old custom. That's why the guys -- and Platt -- fall all over themselves collecting flowers. Then Jaga slashes Fala. Kogane tries valiantly to fend him off. With a bunch of flowers. And Fala passes out.
Cue Hys-trionics.
Sunset actually turns to night, and we get that cool shot of the illuminated castle. Helena appears in the scene where Fala stops breathing. Then Kogane gets all grief-stricken. And that whole night sequence where the team figures out it's a Lotorian plot? Edited in from scenes taken from "A Pretty Spy." We go right to the cathedral and the mourners. And there's some generic organ music throughout the funeral service.
Y'know, for it's time, Golion actually has very few clip shows. This episode has a sequence that lasts a couple of minutes. That's pretty tame, considering how crunched most animation schedules were. I mean, they basically had to create one episode a week for a year. Sometimes they'd fall behind and "catch-up" episodes were used to give them a little breathing room. There is no beastman in this episode, and really only one new character model (Sahlia), so maybe this episode was faster to produce.
Apparently, there is an unseen 21 gun salute going on somewhere as they load the casket into the hearse carriage. You can hear it in the soundtrack. There's just no indication of it in the animation.
The team gradually begins to think Fala might not be dead only after Sincline and Honerva appear.
When Sincline knocks Suzuishi off the carriage, he taunts him. Far more fitting than telling him to be careful of the wheels! Suzuishi must figure out that Fala's not dead when Honerva says the time of her revival is soon -- right in front of him. And -- it's funny that Honerva decides to use Suzuishi as a hostage when Sincline's already got Fala. Hm. Maybe she's a less satisfactory hostage because they have no intention of giving her up.
Hm. I guess Suzuishi doesn't know Fala is alive. He's all set to die and see the princess again in heaven. Then the explosion awakens her.
Honerva and Sincline arrived in space coffins. Are those the Galra covert insertion platform? Every time they go to Altea in space coffins, no one knows they're there. It's only when Sincline brings his flagship or the batplane that they pick him up on radar. Or dradis. Or whatever.
When Fala salutes her people from the balcony, the organ is playing its funeral music again.
When watching this episode with me, my girlfriend said "Sahlia's outfit would make a nice bellydance costume. I like the snake tiara thing, too!" It's nice when you're significant other is just as nerdy as you are.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Treasure of Planet Tyrus/The Demon's Birthday
Here's another of my favorite episodes. This one makes up for the evil space mice. It's got a unique plot, we see more of the Doom/Galra Empire, and our heroes actually plot against the baddies for once.
Treasure of Planet Tyrus
A meteor shower and Planet Tyrus--explained to us that it's a refreshing vacation destination for evil types. And some more H.R. Gigir architecture. The blue cat gets a "lava bath" and Lotor gets a massage. Then Zarkon calls in and scolds Lotor, who's supposed to be guarding the treasure ship on the way to planet Doom. He also tells Lotor that there's a gold statue of Lotor on board. Lotor swears to protect the ship.
How ironic, 'cuz we immediately cut to the ship crashing into asteroids and belching flames.
At castle control, Coran looks like he's playing DJ, but he's actually listening to a distress signal from a ship near planet Tyrus. Apparently Zarkon stole stuff from Arus last week. They launch to try to recover it. Since only a treasure ship would be heading to planet Tyrus. The lions streak past meteors until Pidge picks up a signal in the North Quadrant.
They find the ship derelict. They enter through a hole in the hull and begin exploring. Keith and Lance do a bit of a SWAT team entry. (This one reminds me of "My Brother the Robeast" in some ways, which we all know is another favorite). The team SWAT's their way right into the room with the gold Lotor statue. They restrain Hunk from shooting at the statue.
Cheddar appears, and actually serves a purpose in this episode--I don't categorically hate the space mice (the way I hate Nanny no matter what she does)--in some episodes they're actually pretty cool. Like this one. Cheddar leads the way to a massive treasure chest and some "unconscious" guards. Pidge finds a massive key to the gold chest. Hunk opens the chest, revealing a treasure haul that looks a lot like the treasure from Ghost Castle. Allura realizes that they needed all of the treasure for special medicine for Arus from planet Syban.
Cheddar runs to a portal and gets their attention as a Rooster Frigate appears. Wow. Space mice are better than radar.
The Frigate harpoons the treasure ship (which is massive). As the Doomites are boarding, red lion "atomizes" and melts its way into the statue. A contigent of Lotor's Doom troops enters the chamber with the giant statue. Keith, in the uniform of a palace guard, stumbles out and convinces the captain that they will continue to guard the treasure. (The guard captain is one of the Prussian-looking red uniformed ones).
The Rooster Frigate has magically morphed into Lotor's flagship. Oh well. They hall the treasure ship back to Tyrus. The ruler of Tyrus (I missed his name) pours Koolaid for Lotor, Haggar, and himself. The guard captain appears and tells him the treasure is ready. The Voltron force appears all in guard uniforms and stumble when opening the chest, arousing Lotor's suspicions. Lotor yells at the guard captain and draws his sword, then threatens to unmask the guards. Keith does a backflip onto the chest and rips off the uniform. The rest of the team follow suit, weilding the guards' swords. Lotor sends a swarm of other royal guardsmen acter them, and we get a bunch of animation errors and the guards change from royal guardsmen, the blue-skinned soldiers, and the gray troops.
Lance falls down a trap door into a chamber full of troglodyte zombies, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura are held at gunpoint, and Lotor corners Keith with his sword. A new huard captain arrives and tells Lotor the celebration is ready. In the dungeon, Cheddar chews an escape route for Lance, who evades the zombies.
The team is tied to stakes while Lotor watches fireworks and tries to ply Allura with the red lava juice of Tyrus. She manages to get a knife to start cutting her bonds. The ruler of Tyrus (Ah, his name is Count Zaida) tows a gigantice cake. Cheddar burrows out of the cake (Lance had told him to plant one of Pidge's grenade somewhere.). Gray soldiers wearing helmets appear with torches to set the team on fire, but Count Zaida says they should torture them by eating cake in front of them. Lotor walks over to the cake but it explodes. Lance burns ouf of the statue in red lion. The rest of the team has been freed by Cheddar. Haggar lays down some covering fire for Lotor with the guns of the flagship. The ship lifts off.
The team get back to the rest of their lions and form Voltron. They smash into the ship and cripple it before forming the blazing sword. Voltron hacks his way into the ship. As it goes up in flames, Lotor and Haggar flee in an escape ship, leaving Count Zaida. The ship crashes into the Giger palace and explodes. Voltron watches the palace burn.
We return to Allura kissing Lance. Again. And Coran says they got enough valuables back to pay for the medicine.
The Demon's Birthday
The planet is called Walbrane. That's right--Walbrane. Interestingly, it looks a lot like Galra from orbit. Maybe Daibazaal initiates a program of Galra-forming as they conquer planets. I haven't been mentioning what happens before the title card very often, but in this episode, I like the fact that they set up Sincline and Honerva on Walbrane before the title card. Oh, and Honerva is bathing Jaga in blood. My parent's cat would probably enjoy that, too.
The ruler of Walbrane is King Walbrane. It's probably some royal convention that saves time-pressed and lazy staff writers. It's revealed that this is Sincline's 106th birthday. Which leads to a weird chronological problem later on.
The Golion team are wary that the SOS from the treasure ship may be a trap, but they decide the best way of dealing with it is to go spring the trap, just in case. I like this ship design. And its sheer size. Platte is pretty awesome in this episode. And, when red lion melts into the statue, we get the first view of the lions' inner workings--some sort of energy lines going into a central crystal thing. The design is a little different in this episode, but we'll see a lot more of it in the next show.
In some shots, the sky of planet Walbrane looks like it has some fancy aurora borealis stuff going on. The Walbranians actually come out to celebrate Sincline's birthday. Since they're all dressed like King Walbrane, they're probably the royalty who've benefited from a relationship with Galra. There's probably some oppressed civilians hidden away somewhere . . .
Sincline totally kills the Red Army commander for not suspecting the royal guardsmen are actually the Golion pilots. In fact, the ensuing battle is pretty gruesome, with the team hacking up guardsmen pretty enthusiastically.
Oh, hey, Kurogane meets up with some guys who certainly look like oppressed masses to me. Red Army soldiers apparently find four of the lions hidden in the treasure ship. And they are totally using pickup trucks to unload the treasure ship.
And, this time around, when Platte blows up the cake, we don't have to sit through dumb dialogue about angel food and devil's food cake. And, we probably shouldn't worry too much about how Kurogane got back in red lion with it buried inside the statue. Fittingly, they form Golion to the red lion theme.
Sincline leaves King Walbrane to get crushed by debris as the flaship crashes into the Giger palace. Take that, king stupidname!!
Treasure of Planet Tyrus
A meteor shower and Planet Tyrus--explained to us that it's a refreshing vacation destination for evil types. And some more H.R. Gigir architecture. The blue cat gets a "lava bath" and Lotor gets a massage. Then Zarkon calls in and scolds Lotor, who's supposed to be guarding the treasure ship on the way to planet Doom. He also tells Lotor that there's a gold statue of Lotor on board. Lotor swears to protect the ship.
How ironic, 'cuz we immediately cut to the ship crashing into asteroids and belching flames.
At castle control, Coran looks like he's playing DJ, but he's actually listening to a distress signal from a ship near planet Tyrus. Apparently Zarkon stole stuff from Arus last week. They launch to try to recover it. Since only a treasure ship would be heading to planet Tyrus. The lions streak past meteors until Pidge picks up a signal in the North Quadrant.
They find the ship derelict. They enter through a hole in the hull and begin exploring. Keith and Lance do a bit of a SWAT team entry. (This one reminds me of "My Brother the Robeast" in some ways, which we all know is another favorite). The team SWAT's their way right into the room with the gold Lotor statue. They restrain Hunk from shooting at the statue.
Cheddar appears, and actually serves a purpose in this episode--I don't categorically hate the space mice (the way I hate Nanny no matter what she does)--in some episodes they're actually pretty cool. Like this one. Cheddar leads the way to a massive treasure chest and some "unconscious" guards. Pidge finds a massive key to the gold chest. Hunk opens the chest, revealing a treasure haul that looks a lot like the treasure from Ghost Castle. Allura realizes that they needed all of the treasure for special medicine for Arus from planet Syban.
Cheddar runs to a portal and gets their attention as a Rooster Frigate appears. Wow. Space mice are better than radar.
The Frigate harpoons the treasure ship (which is massive). As the Doomites are boarding, red lion "atomizes" and melts its way into the statue. A contigent of Lotor's Doom troops enters the chamber with the giant statue. Keith, in the uniform of a palace guard, stumbles out and convinces the captain that they will continue to guard the treasure. (The guard captain is one of the Prussian-looking red uniformed ones).
The Rooster Frigate has magically morphed into Lotor's flagship. Oh well. They hall the treasure ship back to Tyrus. The ruler of Tyrus (I missed his name) pours Koolaid for Lotor, Haggar, and himself. The guard captain appears and tells him the treasure is ready. The Voltron force appears all in guard uniforms and stumble when opening the chest, arousing Lotor's suspicions. Lotor yells at the guard captain and draws his sword, then threatens to unmask the guards. Keith does a backflip onto the chest and rips off the uniform. The rest of the team follow suit, weilding the guards' swords. Lotor sends a swarm of other royal guardsmen acter them, and we get a bunch of animation errors and the guards change from royal guardsmen, the blue-skinned soldiers, and the gray troops.
Lance falls down a trap door into a chamber full of troglodyte zombies, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura are held at gunpoint, and Lotor corners Keith with his sword. A new huard captain arrives and tells Lotor the celebration is ready. In the dungeon, Cheddar chews an escape route for Lance, who evades the zombies.
The team is tied to stakes while Lotor watches fireworks and tries to ply Allura with the red lava juice of Tyrus. She manages to get a knife to start cutting her bonds. The ruler of Tyrus (Ah, his name is Count Zaida) tows a gigantice cake. Cheddar burrows out of the cake (Lance had told him to plant one of Pidge's grenade somewhere.). Gray soldiers wearing helmets appear with torches to set the team on fire, but Count Zaida says they should torture them by eating cake in front of them. Lotor walks over to the cake but it explodes. Lance burns ouf of the statue in red lion. The rest of the team has been freed by Cheddar. Haggar lays down some covering fire for Lotor with the guns of the flagship. The ship lifts off.
The team get back to the rest of their lions and form Voltron. They smash into the ship and cripple it before forming the blazing sword. Voltron hacks his way into the ship. As it goes up in flames, Lotor and Haggar flee in an escape ship, leaving Count Zaida. The ship crashes into the Giger palace and explodes. Voltron watches the palace burn.
We return to Allura kissing Lance. Again. And Coran says they got enough valuables back to pay for the medicine.
The Demon's Birthday
The planet is called Walbrane. That's right--Walbrane. Interestingly, it looks a lot like Galra from orbit. Maybe Daibazaal initiates a program of Galra-forming as they conquer planets. I haven't been mentioning what happens before the title card very often, but in this episode, I like the fact that they set up Sincline and Honerva on Walbrane before the title card. Oh, and Honerva is bathing Jaga in blood. My parent's cat would probably enjoy that, too.
The ruler of Walbrane is King Walbrane. It's probably some royal convention that saves time-pressed and lazy staff writers. It's revealed that this is Sincline's 106th birthday. Which leads to a weird chronological problem later on.
The Golion team are wary that the SOS from the treasure ship may be a trap, but they decide the best way of dealing with it is to go spring the trap, just in case. I like this ship design. And its sheer size. Platte is pretty awesome in this episode. And, when red lion melts into the statue, we get the first view of the lions' inner workings--some sort of energy lines going into a central crystal thing. The design is a little different in this episode, but we'll see a lot more of it in the next show.
In some shots, the sky of planet Walbrane looks like it has some fancy aurora borealis stuff going on. The Walbranians actually come out to celebrate Sincline's birthday. Since they're all dressed like King Walbrane, they're probably the royalty who've benefited from a relationship with Galra. There's probably some oppressed civilians hidden away somewhere . . .
Sincline totally kills the Red Army commander for not suspecting the royal guardsmen are actually the Golion pilots. In fact, the ensuing battle is pretty gruesome, with the team hacking up guardsmen pretty enthusiastically.
Oh, hey, Kurogane meets up with some guys who certainly look like oppressed masses to me. Red Army soldiers apparently find four of the lions hidden in the treasure ship. And they are totally using pickup trucks to unload the treasure ship.
And, this time around, when Platte blows up the cake, we don't have to sit through dumb dialogue about angel food and devil's food cake. And, we probably shouldn't worry too much about how Kurogane got back in red lion with it buried inside the statue. Fittingly, they form Golion to the red lion theme.
Sincline leaves King Walbrane to get crushed by debris as the flaship crashes into the Giger palace. Take that, king stupidname!!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Give Me Your Princess/Overcome the Phantom of Shirogane
Give Me Your Princess
Mighty subtle titling there, WEP. We open on a view of Castle Doom, and lodged in front of the castle is Lotor's battle fortress. He addresses his troops, both the gray, ridge-headed soldiers we've come to expect, and we see his personal army for the first time. They all look more like him than the other Doomites. and wear different (classier) uniforms.
On Arus, Allura sneaks into the black lion. 'Cuz some day she may have to lead, and, y'know, they wouldn't let her if she asked. This very same strategy got me in all kinds of trouble. Lotor's fortress approaches Arus. The team launches after some hasseling between the princess and the rest of the team. Lotor's fortress splits into three cylinder-sections and one, um, mushroom of DOOM. All four components launch waves of standard fighters. The rest of the team joins the princess, Keith in the blue lion (even though the launch sequence shows him going into black lion).
Allura puts up a valiant effort to lead, first ramming a fighter head-on, then trying to use the black bazooka, but the lion's controls lock up. Keith says "We need Voltron!" The team starts the formation, but Lotor, in the Batplane, shoots down the black lion. He orders his forces to capture the blue lion, and presumably the Princess. Keith orders the others to cover Allura while he charges Lotor. Lotor's plane can apparently launch missiles from the same fixture as the beam weapon (animation error?) The team pulls Allura back and Keith drives off Lotor.
Lotor returns to his fortress and consoles himself with his cotery of bellydancers. My girlfriend (who performs professionally as a bellydancer, but doesn't dance to the Golion music like our other friend) once asked me if I was dating her so I could be more like Lotor. I said that theory would have had merit had I done any of the pursuing that started our relationship. Still. Lotor's got some style. Long hair, swords, hordes of minions, hangs out with bellydancers . . . I could totally get along with him. Hanging out with the Voltron force would be so weird, on the other hand.
Anyway. Back in castle control, the team gets all dramatic over Allura running off in black lion. Keith says "Sven never would have done this" and sends her into an emo spiral. That is, a downward one. Later, while Keith is monitoring Lotor's fortress, he wonders if he was too hard on her.
That night, Lotor is trying to see through the windowless castle (do they have shudders?) He shoots down some trees to clear his view, but he still can't see the princess. Zarkon calls and checks on him. He assures his father and Haggar that Arus will soon be in their hands.
Allura agonizes over current events, either dreaming or hallucinating about failing fatally. The space mice try to cheer her up with pratfalls, but that's not enough to keep Allura from doing something rash. This isn't helped by her overhearing the team wishing Sven were back. She opens a shield to look at Lotor's fortress, then imagines her people perishing in flames. Suddenly she's in blue lion.
The team runs to castle control, looking for her. Coran assures them he didn't send them away, and for once Nanny tells them to go do their jobs! Then get in the lions and dive into the lake.
Lotor is sitting in his throne room (sans bellydancers) when the blue lion arrives, tearing through the outer wall of the mushroom segment. Fortunately, his fortress has lion-capturing pincers that grab and tase the blue lion until Allura falls out. Lotor tries to kiss her before she regains consciousness, but agrees to serve him (ahem) if he spares Arus.
The team then approaches in the lions, but Lotor brandishes his sword (which is now a pink lightsabre thing). The team dismounts and approachs Lotor on foot, surrendering. Keith is about to hand Lotor the keys when Coran launches smoke missiles. Keith takes a sword blow, but fires a few covering shots to clear the path for the princess back to her lion. The rest of the team launches, and Lotor relaunches and recombines his fortress, bragging about his "laser ray" the whole time.
Keith, injured (again) urges them to form Voltron, but the laser ray knocks black lion off course. Allura disables the fortress momentarily, and they form Voltron--some of the footage is from the Golion opening sequence. Lotor's fortress is in flames. He runs to his batplane just as Voltron blazingly swords the fortress.
The team returns to castle control, with Allura supporting the injured Keith. Allura is ready to drop out of the team, but Keith assures her that someday, she will pilot black lion. The rest of the team chime in with their support. She's so happy she cries.
Oh, yeah. There's no robeast in this episode. One of the few. And--Lotor's subordinates all have vocodered voices, probably to make them seem more robotic even though they look more like living humanoids than the ogther Doom soldiers.
Overcome the Phantom of Shirogane
Again with Sincline addressing his troops. I do like the blue uniforms and Prussian-style helmets worn by Sincline's red army. Also, I didn't mention this during Voltron, but there are two animation models used for Sincline. One has a more round, youthful-looking face. The other has more facial details and craggier nose. Another friend of mine likes to refer to episodes with the craggier model as Lotor's "bad face days." This is one of them (yes, lots of my friends still watch Voltron. Weirdos attract other weirdos).
When Fala pirates the black lion, we get unique views of the lion shuttle.
Sincline refers to the three cylinder sections of his fortress as the control towers. When the Galra fighters attack, we see a few shots of manned castle turrets followed by explosions of unmanned turrets--these weren't cut in Voltron.
The lions use magma missiles (red), gatling missiles (yellow), and black bazooka (black, but failed). Kurogane comes to Fala's rescue with the missile launcher on red lion's back, which he calls the Jet Arrow. And blue lion's water attack is called the Water Rod. Do you ever wonder if maybe the mechanical designers included this gimmick on the off-chance toy designers wanted an excuse for the toys to function as squirt guns?
When the weapons retract into the castle, Coran says "Good. Self-defense operation complete. We can hold our own for now." So the fact that the castle (which often has lit windows at night) is windowsless when Sincline tries his peeping is part of its defensive posture.
When he's hanging out with the bellydancers, he decapitates one who spills wine on his leg. Oh, and all of his dancers are blondes. One thing I disagree with him on, but, whatever (the blondes, not the decapitation).
Hys calls the team "barbarians from Earth." Huh.
Kogane's internal dialogue is that he wants her to surpass Shirogane and become truly strong.
Sincline's standard troops wear the blue uniforms, but he has (a) lieutenant(s) in a red variant of the uniform.
Fala's internal monologue during her dream seems to impy that there's more to flying the lions than, y'know, just flying, that there's some spiritual or "inner strength" aspect to it.
That really annoying missile sound effect from the belt missiles of the first beastman is used for the smoke missiles here, and it's timed much better.
The fortress is called "Blockgod." Very interesting. It's also pretty manuverable for being a giant, cylinderical . . . thing.
When Golion combines, the song is the blue lion theme.
Mighty subtle titling there, WEP. We open on a view of Castle Doom, and lodged in front of the castle is Lotor's battle fortress. He addresses his troops, both the gray, ridge-headed soldiers we've come to expect, and we see his personal army for the first time. They all look more like him than the other Doomites. and wear different (classier) uniforms.
On Arus, Allura sneaks into the black lion. 'Cuz some day she may have to lead, and, y'know, they wouldn't let her if she asked. This very same strategy got me in all kinds of trouble. Lotor's fortress approaches Arus. The team launches after some hasseling between the princess and the rest of the team. Lotor's fortress splits into three cylinder-sections and one, um, mushroom of DOOM. All four components launch waves of standard fighters. The rest of the team joins the princess, Keith in the blue lion (even though the launch sequence shows him going into black lion).
Allura puts up a valiant effort to lead, first ramming a fighter head-on, then trying to use the black bazooka, but the lion's controls lock up. Keith says "We need Voltron!" The team starts the formation, but Lotor, in the Batplane, shoots down the black lion. He orders his forces to capture the blue lion, and presumably the Princess. Keith orders the others to cover Allura while he charges Lotor. Lotor's plane can apparently launch missiles from the same fixture as the beam weapon (animation error?) The team pulls Allura back and Keith drives off Lotor.
Lotor returns to his fortress and consoles himself with his cotery of bellydancers. My girlfriend (who performs professionally as a bellydancer, but doesn't dance to the Golion music like our other friend) once asked me if I was dating her so I could be more like Lotor. I said that theory would have had merit had I done any of the pursuing that started our relationship. Still. Lotor's got some style. Long hair, swords, hordes of minions, hangs out with bellydancers . . . I could totally get along with him. Hanging out with the Voltron force would be so weird, on the other hand.
Anyway. Back in castle control, the team gets all dramatic over Allura running off in black lion. Keith says "Sven never would have done this" and sends her into an emo spiral. That is, a downward one. Later, while Keith is monitoring Lotor's fortress, he wonders if he was too hard on her.
That night, Lotor is trying to see through the windowless castle (do they have shudders?) He shoots down some trees to clear his view, but he still can't see the princess. Zarkon calls and checks on him. He assures his father and Haggar that Arus will soon be in their hands.
Allura agonizes over current events, either dreaming or hallucinating about failing fatally. The space mice try to cheer her up with pratfalls, but that's not enough to keep Allura from doing something rash. This isn't helped by her overhearing the team wishing Sven were back. She opens a shield to look at Lotor's fortress, then imagines her people perishing in flames. Suddenly she's in blue lion.
The team runs to castle control, looking for her. Coran assures them he didn't send them away, and for once Nanny tells them to go do their jobs! Then get in the lions and dive into the lake.
Lotor is sitting in his throne room (sans bellydancers) when the blue lion arrives, tearing through the outer wall of the mushroom segment. Fortunately, his fortress has lion-capturing pincers that grab and tase the blue lion until Allura falls out. Lotor tries to kiss her before she regains consciousness, but agrees to serve him (ahem) if he spares Arus.
The team then approaches in the lions, but Lotor brandishes his sword (which is now a pink lightsabre thing). The team dismounts and approachs Lotor on foot, surrendering. Keith is about to hand Lotor the keys when Coran launches smoke missiles. Keith takes a sword blow, but fires a few covering shots to clear the path for the princess back to her lion. The rest of the team launches, and Lotor relaunches and recombines his fortress, bragging about his "laser ray" the whole time.
Keith, injured (again) urges them to form Voltron, but the laser ray knocks black lion off course. Allura disables the fortress momentarily, and they form Voltron--some of the footage is from the Golion opening sequence. Lotor's fortress is in flames. He runs to his batplane just as Voltron blazingly swords the fortress.
The team returns to castle control, with Allura supporting the injured Keith. Allura is ready to drop out of the team, but Keith assures her that someday, she will pilot black lion. The rest of the team chime in with their support. She's so happy she cries.
Oh, yeah. There's no robeast in this episode. One of the few. And--Lotor's subordinates all have vocodered voices, probably to make them seem more robotic even though they look more like living humanoids than the ogther Doom soldiers.
Overcome the Phantom of Shirogane
Again with Sincline addressing his troops. I do like the blue uniforms and Prussian-style helmets worn by Sincline's red army. Also, I didn't mention this during Voltron, but there are two animation models used for Sincline. One has a more round, youthful-looking face. The other has more facial details and craggier nose. Another friend of mine likes to refer to episodes with the craggier model as Lotor's "bad face days." This is one of them (yes, lots of my friends still watch Voltron. Weirdos attract other weirdos).
When Fala pirates the black lion, we get unique views of the lion shuttle.
Sincline refers to the three cylinder sections of his fortress as the control towers. When the Galra fighters attack, we see a few shots of manned castle turrets followed by explosions of unmanned turrets--these weren't cut in Voltron.
The lions use magma missiles (red), gatling missiles (yellow), and black bazooka (black, but failed). Kurogane comes to Fala's rescue with the missile launcher on red lion's back, which he calls the Jet Arrow. And blue lion's water attack is called the Water Rod. Do you ever wonder if maybe the mechanical designers included this gimmick on the off-chance toy designers wanted an excuse for the toys to function as squirt guns?
When the weapons retract into the castle, Coran says "Good. Self-defense operation complete. We can hold our own for now." So the fact that the castle (which often has lit windows at night) is windowsless when Sincline tries his peeping is part of its defensive posture.
When he's hanging out with the bellydancers, he decapitates one who spills wine on his leg. Oh, and all of his dancers are blondes. One thing I disagree with him on, but, whatever (the blondes, not the decapitation).
Hys calls the team "barbarians from Earth." Huh.
Kogane's internal dialogue is that he wants her to surpass Shirogane and become truly strong.
Sincline's standard troops wear the blue uniforms, but he has (a) lieutenant(s) in a red variant of the uniform.
Fala's internal monologue during her dream seems to impy that there's more to flying the lions than, y'know, just flying, that there's some spiritual or "inner strength" aspect to it.
That really annoying missile sound effect from the belt missiles of the first beastman is used for the smoke missiles here, and it's timed much better.
The fortress is called "Blockgod." Very interesting. It's also pretty manuverable for being a giant, cylinderical . . . thing.
When Golion combines, the song is the blue lion theme.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
